The History of the Popes: From the Foundation of the See of Rome, to the Present Time, 3rd Ed. Vol. 1

by Archibald Bower

Cyril writes to
Celestine, and sends
him the Homilies of
Nestorius, with
his own Comments upon
them.

St. Cyril, being informed that Nestorius had written to Celestine, summoned a Council at Alexandria; and, by their Advice, writ the famous Letter to Celestine, which has reached our Times. In that Letter he acquaints him with the State of Affairs in the East, and the Disturbances raised there by Nestorius, as if himself had been no-ways concerned in them; tells him that it is absolutely necessary, that all the Bishops of the Church should unite as one Man against that Prelate; that the Bishops in the East are well disposed to join in the common Cause; and that they only waited to know from him, whether they were to communicate with Nestorius, or openly renounce his Communion. At the same time Cyril sent to Rome the Homilies of Nestorius, the Letters which he had written to him, his Answers, and with them a Writing containing the Sentiments of the Fathers concerning the Mystery of the Incarnation. For the Gospel, the Testimony of Christ, was already laid aside, and the Testimony of Men taken, in most Disputes, for the Rule and Standard of the Christian Belief. |The Popish Writers have no Occasion to boast of the Recourse had by Cyril to Celestine.| The Roman Catholics have no Reason to boast, as they do, of the Recourse had by St. Cyril on this Occasion to the Pope. For Posidonius, one of Cyril’s Deacons, who was dispatched with the above-mentioned Papers to Rome, was directed, in his private Instructions, not to deliver them, but to bring them back to Alexandria, if he found that Nestorius had not applied to Celestine[^[1614]]; so that if Nestorius had not recurred to the Pope, Cyril never would. Posidonius found, upon Inquiry, that Nestorius had written to Celestine; and therefore delivered to him, pursuant to his Instructions, all the Papers with which he was charged. Cyril writ in Latin, and even caused the Homilies of Nestorius to be translated into that Language, with his own Comments upon them; whereas Nestorius had sent them in the original Greek, and writ his Letters in the same Tongue; which had obliged Celestine to send them into Gaul, to be translated there by the famous Cassian, who was a Native of Thrace, and lived then at Marseilles, there being none, it seems, in Rome or Italy, sufficiently qualified for that Task. Cyril having thus got the Start of his Antagonist, though he writ the last, Celestine was, by his Writings, prejudiced to such a Degree against Nestorius, before he had heard what he had to offer in his Defence, that all he did or could offer afterwards availed him nothing. Celestine indeed perused all his Papers as soon as they were translated and sent back from Gaul, but perused them with the strong Prejudices which he had imbibed from the Writings of Cyril; so that he discovered in each Homily, nay, in every Line, Heresies, Impieties, and Blasphemies, not to be uttered or heard.

Nestorius condemned
by a Council held at
Rome.

A Council was therefore assembled at Rome, to condemn, rather than to examine, the new Doctrine. At this Council assisted most of the Western Bishops[^[1615]]; Celestine presided; the Homilies were read, and with them the Letters both of Cyril and Nestorius. Celestine made a long Speech, to prove not only by the Passages which Cyril had suggested to him out of the Fathers, but by others from St. Hilarius, from Pope Damasus, and from a Hymn which St. Ambrose had caused to be yearly sung by his People on Christmas-Day, that the Virgin Mary was truly the Mother of God[^[1616]]. When he had done, Nestorius was declared the Author of a new and very dangerous Heresy, Cyril was highly extolled for opposing it, his Doctrine was applauded by all as strictly orthodox, and Sentence of Deposition pronounced against such Ecclesiastics as should refuse to sign it.

Celestine acquaints
Nestorius with
the Judgment of the
Western Bishops.

Before the Council broke up, Celestine writ to Nestorius, acquainting him with the judgment of the Western Bishops upon this Dispute; and at the same time warning him, that if, in the Term of Ten Days after the Receipt of that Letter, he did not publicly condemn the Doctrine which he had hitherto taught, and teach the Doctrine which he had hitherto condemned, he should be deposed without any further Delay, and cut off from the Communion of the Church[^[1617]]. This Letter is dated the 11th of August of this Year 430. He writ several other Letters, all bearing the same Date, viz. one to Cyril; one to the Clergy, Monks, and People of Constantinople; one to each of the Bishops of the chief Sees; and one to the Church of Antioch. All these Letters were to the same Effect, viz. to acquaint those, to whom they were addressed, with the Sentence pronounced by the Council of Rome against Nestorius, and encourage them to be assisting in the Execution of it. |Celestine appoints Cyril his Vicegerent.| His Letter to Cyril deserves particular Notice: for he there appoints him to act in the present Affair, that is, in excommunicating and deposing Nestorius, as his Vicegerent, in the Name, and with the Authority, of his See[^[1618]]. It must be observed here, that the Bishops of Rome, neither alone, nor jointly with the whole Body of the Western Bishops, had, or even claimed at this time, the Power of deposing the Bishop of Constantinople, or indeed any other Bishop in the East, without the Consent and Concurrence of the Eastern Bishops. This Cyril well knew; and therefore, lest Celestine should, on that Consideration, decline giving Judgment against Nestorius, he made him believe, that the Eastern Bishops were all disposed to join against the pretended Heresiarch; that they waited only his Determination, and were ready to concur, to a Man, in executing the Judgment which he should give. This was making Celestine believe, that the Eastern Bishops had chosen him for their Judge in the present Dispute, and agreed to acquiesce in his Decision. It was upon this Presumption that Celestine pronounced the above-mentioned Sentence against Nestorius, and appointed Cyril to act in his room, with the Authority which he falsely supposed to have been granted him on this Occasion. |He is imposed upon by Cyril.| I say, falsely; for what Cyril writ to him was absolutely false, viz. that all the Bishops in the East were ready to join him against Nestorius, and concur in executing the Sentence which he should pronounce. Several Bishops had declared for Nestorius, and not one, that we know of, against him, at the time Cyril writ, besides Cyril himself, and the other Egyptian Bishops, who were intirely governed by him; nay, the Sentence pronounced at Rome was Matter of great Surprize to all, but more especially to John of Antioch, and Juvenal of Jerusalem, who could not help censuring, with some Sharpness, the Western Bishops, as acting rashly in an Affair that required the most mature Deliberation. But Cyril was chiefly to blame, who, to engage the Western Bishops on his Side, and by their means compass the Ruin of his Antagonist, had represented the State of Affairs very differently from what it really was.

It was doubtless a very extraordinary Thing for a Bishop of Alexandria to accept the Commission of Vicegerent or Deputy to the Bishop of Rome; and Celestine would hardly have thought of offering him such a Commission, if he had not been sensible that, from the Heat of his Passion upon this Occasion, he would be willing to act in any Capacity, that would impower him to hurt his Antagonist. So ably did the Popes, from the earliest times, avail themselves of every Circumstance that could give them the Means to promote and extend their Jurisdiction!

Cyril sends
Celestine’s Letter
to Nestorius;

The above-mentioned Letters from Celestine were all sent to Cyril, who was to convey them to those they were addressed to; which he did accordingly, accompanying them with Letters of his own, all calculated to inflame his Collegues and the rest of the Clergy, as well as the Laity, against Nestorius, as an Enemy to the Mother of God and the Catholic Church. As for the Letter to Nestorius himself, he dispatched Four Bishops with it to Constantinople, who chose to deliver it to him while he was assisting at Divine Service, in the great Church, with his Clergy, and many Persons of Distinction belonging to the Court. His View in this was to render their Legation the more solemn, and thereby alarm the Populace, who hitherto had taken no Part in the Quarrel. |and requires him to retract his pretended Errors, on pain of being deposed.| With Celestine’s Letter they delivered to him one from Cyril, peremptorily requiring him to retract his Errors, to confirm his Retractation with a solemn Oath, and publicly to anathematize Twelve Propositions contained in the Letter. and extracted out of his Works. Cyril let him know, that if he did not comply with his Demand, before the time prefixed by Celestine was expired, he would take care to have the Sentence of the Western Bishops executed with the utmost Rigour and Severity. Nestorius received the Letters, and desired the Legates to meet him the next Day at his own House; but when they came, he did not admit them; nor did he return any Answer either to Celestine or Cyril. |Nestorius inclined to yield for the sake of Peace.| However, in a Sermon which he preached Six Days after, that is, on Saturday the 13th of December, he declared, that, to maintain the Peace and Tranquillity of the Church, to put an End to the present Dispute, which might be attended with greater Evils than his Enemies seemed to be aware of, he was ready to grant the Title of Mother of God to the Virgin Mary, provided nothing else was thereby meant; but that the Man born of her was united to the Divinity[^[1619]]. This Sermon, and another which he preached the next Day, the 14th of December, on the same Subject, he sent to John Bishop of Antioch, one of the most eminent Prelates both for Piety and Learning at that time in the Church. John perused them with great Attention, and finding nothing in them that was not, in his Opinion, intirely agreeable to the Catholic Doctrine, he concluded the present Dispute to be happily ended. But Cyril was not yet satisfied; he peremptorily required Nestorius to anathematize the Twelve Propositions which I have mentioned above; and to anathematize them was, in the Opinion of the Bishop of Antioch, and of almost all the Bishops of his Patriarchate, anathematizing the Doctrine of the Church, and approving that of the Apollinarists, which had been condemned by the Church. |The Doctrine of Cyril judged impious by the Orientals.| For Cyril, in combating the Distinction maintained by Nestorius between the Two Natures in Christ, seemed to have run headlong into the opposite Doctrine confounding the Two Natures; insomuch that John of Antioch thought himself not only obliged to warn his Collegues in the East, by a circular Letter, against such impious Doctrines, but to cause them to be confuted in Writing, by Two of the most learned Prelates of his Patriarchate[^[1620]]. They were answered by Cyril, incapable of yielding, or ever giving up a Cause, which he had once undertaken to defend. Thus a new Quarrel broke out between Cyril and the Bishops of the Patriarchate of Antioch, of which it is foreign to my Purpose to give here an Account.

An Oecumenical Council
summoned by the Emperor
to meet at Ephesus.