As to the Title of Mother of God, to which Nestorius had a more than ordinary Aversion, he seems to have rejected it on a particular Account; for the same Reason that induced Clement XI. to suppress the Title of Grandmother of God, which, in his time, began to be commonly given to St. Anne; viz. because it was offensive to pious Ears; piarum aurium offensiva. If the Virgin Mary was the Mother, St. Anne was, as properly speaking, the Grandmother of God. Why then should the Mother be robbed of so glorious a Title, while the Daughter is suffered to enjoy it? Why should Nestorius be deemed a Heretic for denying it to the Daughter, rather than Clement for denying it to the Mother? The one was as offensive to the Ears of Nestorius, as the other could possibly be to the Ears of Clement. However, the former did not consult his Ears alone, but his Reason too, as has been shewn above; whereas the latter must have consulted his Ears only, there being no Shadow of Reason, why the one Title should be allowed, and not the other.
The Fate of Nestorius.
As for Nestorius, he received an Order from the Emperor, while the Council was still sitting, commanding him to quit Ephesus, and retire to the Monastery of St. Euprepius in the Suburbs of Antioch, where he had led a monastic Life before he was raised to the See of Constantinople. |He is ordered to re-
turn to his Monastery.| This Order he received with great Joy, having often declared, that he wished for nothing so much as to spend his Life in Solitude and Retirement, far from the Troubles that threatened the Church[[1633]]. In the Letter, which he writ to Antiochus the Præfectus Prætorio, by whom the Emperor’s Order was communicated to him, he told him, that to be thus deposed, for standing up in Defence of the Orthodox Faith, was a greater Honour than he had ever presumed to aspire to, or hoped to attain. The only Favour he begged of Antiochus was, that he would employ his whole Interest at Court, in order to obtain public Letters of the Emperor, that might be read in all the Churches, condemning the Doctrine of Cyril[[1634]]. |Is banished intoAr-
abia, at the Request
of Celestine, and
the Bishops of his
Party.| The following Year 432. Celestine writ a very pressing Letter to Theodosius, dated the 15th of March, conjuring him, as he tendered the Purity of the Faith, to confine Nestorius to some uninhabited Place, where it might not be in his Power to infect others with his pestilential Doctrine; which was begging the Emperor to drive him out, like a wild Beast, from human Society, to perish in a Desart. He writ, at the same time, a circular Letter to the Bishops in those Parts, exhorting them to second him with all their Power and Interest at Court[[1635]]. Theodosius, hearkening only to the Impulses of his own Good-nature, withstood all the Solicitations of Nestorius’s Enemies, for Four Years. But, in the End, being made to believe, that by shewing Mercy to such an obstinate Heretic, he rendered himself unworthy of Mercy; and that to treat him with Severity was the most effectual Means of drawing down the Blessings of Heaven upon himself, and the Empire; his Good-nature yielded, and he issued an Order, addressed to Isidore, then the Præfectus Prætorio, injoining him to cause Nestorius to be conveyed to Petra in Arabia, to end his Days there, by way of Atonement for the Mischief he had done. With him were banished, to the same Place, Count Irenæus, his great Friend and Protector, and Photius, a Presbyter of Constantinople, who had written in his Defence against Cyril[[1636]]. |His Books forbidden,
and ordered to be
burnt.| The same Year the Emperor issued an Edict, dated the 30th of July, commanding the Disciples of Nestorius to be called Simonians[[N74]]; his Books to be everywhere sought for, and publicly burnt; and all Persons, in whose Possession they were, to deliver them up to the Magistrates. By the same Edict the Nestorians were forbidden to hold any Assemblies in the Cities, Villages, or in the Fields, and the Places were confiscated, where such Assemblies should be held, as well as the Estates of those who should frequent them[[1637]]. This Edict was published both in Greek and in Latin, that it might be understood by the Subjects of both Empires.
[N74]. The Emperor ordered them to be so called, merely to render them odious; for there was not the least Affinity between the Heresy of Simon the Magician, and the Doctrine that was ascribed to Nestorius. In this Theodosius followed the Example of his Predecessor Constantine, who to disgrace the Arians, and prejudice the Populace against them, ordered them to be called Porphyrians. For when a Man was once declared a Heretic, all Means of rendering him infamous were deemed just and lawful. But neither Edict ever took place.
Is frequently removed
from one Place to
another.
The Enemies of Nestorius were not yet satisfied; they thought his Confinement to Petra too mild a Punishment; and therefore, before he had been long there, they prevailed upon the Emperor to remove him from Petra to Oasis, in the Desarts between Egypt and Libya, a Place to which the greatest Criminals were usually confined in those Days[[1638]]. He was still in Oasis, when Socrates wrote, that is, in 439[[1639]]. but the Town being soon after surprised by the Barbarians, named Blemmyes, he was carried by them into Captivity, but set again at Liberty, and even informed by them, that the Town would, in a short time, be attacked anew by another Clan of Barbarians. Upon this Information he withdrew to the City of Panopolis, and immediately acquainted the Governor of Thebais with the Motives that had induced him to quit the Place, which he had been confined to by the Imperial Edict, intreating his Highness (Celsitudinem tuam) to notify them to the Emperor, and suffer him to continue there till his Pleasure was known. But the Governor happened to be a zealous Catholic, or rather a true Courtier; and therefore, without waiting for the Emperor’s Order, he sent a Band of Soldiers to convey, or rather to drag him to Elephantine, on the most distant Borders of his Government. This the Governor seems to have done on purpose to destroy him, and thereby ingratiate himself both with the Church, and the Court. For the Soldiers he employed on this Occasion, were not Romans, but Barbarians; and when they were got above half-way to Elephantine, they were injoined, by a Counter-order from him, to bring their Prisoner back to Panopolis with all possible Expedition. |Treated with great
Barbarity.| As he was hurried on by the merciless Barbarians, notwithstanding his old Age, the Weakness attending it, and the Hurts he received from a Fall, he arrived at Panopolis, quite spent, and so worn out with the Fatigues of that painful Journey, that no one thought he could outlive it many Days. But the Governor was impatient to hear the News of his Death; and therefore, before he could recruit his Strength, quite exhausted by this Journey, he obliged him to undertake another, ordering him to repair, without Delay, to a certain Place within the Territory of Panopolis. As he outlived this Journey too, the Governor, bent on having the Merit and Glory of destroying the pretended Heresiarch, ordered him immediately to undertake a Fourth; and this put an End to all his Troubles. |His Death.| For Nature sinking under the Fatigues he was forced to undergo, without Intermission or Respite, his Strength quite failed him, and he died[[1640]][[N75]].
[N75]. An anonymous Writer, quoted by Evagrius[[1]], relates, that before Nestorius died, his Tongue was devoured by Vermin, which he interprets as a Punishment justly inflicted on him for the Blasphemies he supposes him to have uttered. This Account Evagrius seems not to have credited; but Theodorus the Reader, Theophanes, and Theodoret, have taken it upon the Word of the anonymous Writer, by whom it was probably invented to render the Name of the pretended Heresiarch odious to Posterity.