A synod was held in the
neighbourhood
of Chalcedon,
on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus.
on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
The most celebrated of these was the aboli-
tion of the chrysargyron (May 498), a tax on all kinds of stock and
plant in trade, instituted by Constantine, which pressed heavily on
the poorest classes. Instead of this he imposed a land-tax called
chrysoteleia, which he applied to the support of the army, abolishing
the right of requisition. He also attempted by several enactments to
ensure that the soldiers received their full pay. But his chief financial
reform was the abolition, by the advice of the Syrian Marinus, of the
system under which the curiales were responsible for the taxes of the
municipalities, and the institution of tax-collectors called vindices. The
burdens of the curiales were not however wholly removed, for they existed
in some form under Justinian. These measures were no doubt primarily
intended to increase the revenue, and at the end of his reign under the
administration of Marinus complaints were made of heavy extortion ;
but the immediate financial success of the policy is proved by the fact
that at the time of his death the treasury was full. His humanity was
shewn by the abolition of fights between men and beasts (Aug. 499);
but this did not extend to the practice of exposing criminals to beasts,
which existed as late as the time of Maurice.
But, although Anastasius is almost universally praised for mildness
and good administration, his Monophysite opinions were distasteful to
the population of the capital, and the peace was constantly disturbed by
serious riots. In 493 his refusal to release some stone-throwers of the
Green faction who had been arrested by the city-praefect produced an
outbreak, during which a stone was thrown at the Emperor, part of the
circus buildings burnt, and the statues of Anastasius and Ariadne
dragged through the streets. Many of the rioters were arrested and
punished, and the thrower of the stone, a Moor, was killed by the
cxcubitores ; but the Emperor was compelled to appoint a new praefect
in the person of Plato. An occasion for rioting was also provided by
the ancient pagan festival of the Brytae, which was celebrated by
dancing performances every May. Such a riot occurred in the prae-
fecture of Constantine (501), when the Greens attacked the Blues in the
theatre and many were killed, among them an illegitimate son of
Anastasius. After this an order was issued that the celebration of the
Brytae should cease throughout the Empire (502). In 512 the Mono-
physite addition to the Trisagion, made at the instigation of Marinus,
caused the most dangerous outbreak of the reign (6 Nov. ). The rioters
killed the Monophysite monks, threw down the Emperor's statues, and
## p. 485 (#515) ############################################
510–513]
Rebellion of Vitalianus
485
proclaimed emperor the unwilling Areobindus, whose wife Juliana repre-
sented the Theodosian house. When Celer and Patricius were sent to
appease them, they drove them away with stones, burnt the houses of
Marinus and Pompeius, and plundered Marinus' property. On the
third day Anastasius shewed himself in the circus without his crown and
begged them to refrain from massacre, whereupon they demanded that
Marinus and Plato should be thrown to the beasts; but the Emperor
by promising concessions persuaded them to disperse. The banishment
of Ariadne's kinsman, Diogenes, and the ex-praefect Appion (510) may,
as they were recalled by Justin, have been caused by religious troubles.
In Alexandria and Antioch also riots were frequent.
In 513 the religious differences culminated in an armed rising. The
military administration of Hypatius (not the Emperor's nephew)' had
caused discontent in the Thracian army, especially among the Bulgarian
foederati. These foederati were commanded by Vitalianus (son of the
Patriciolus who held a command in the Persian war); who had a grievance
on account of the expulsion of the patriarch Flavianus of Antioch (512),
with whom he was on terms of close friendship. Making use of the
discontent in the army, he murdered two of the general's staff, bribed the
duke of Moesia, and, having seized Carinus, one of the chief confidants
of Hypatius, forced him to place the town of Odessus in his hands. By
means of the money there found he collected a large force of soldiers
and rustics, and, with the cry of justice for the banished patriarchs and
abolition of the addition to the Trisagion, marched on Constantinople,
whither Hypatius had fled. Anastasius, having no army at hand, could
only provide for the defence, while he set up crosses on the gates and
announced the remission of one-fourth of the animal-tax in Asia and
Bithynia. Patricius the magister militum, to whom Vitalianus in large
measure owed his promotion, was sent to confer with him; and next
day some of Vitalianus' chief officers entered the city; who on receiving
a promise that just grievances should be remedied and the Pope asked
to send representatives to settle the religious differences took the oath of
allegiance, returned to Vitalianus, and compelled him to withdraw. Cyril,
a man of some capacity, was now appointed to succeed Hypatius, and,
having entered Odessus, from which Vitalianus had retired, was believed
to be planning an attack on him. Hearing of this, Vitalianus made his
way into the town by night, surprised Cyril while asleep in his house,
and killed him. He was thereupon declared a public enemy by decree
of the Senate, and a large force collected and sent against him under
Hypatius, the Emperor's nephew, though the office of magister militum of
Thrace was given to the barbarian Alathar. Hypatius fought for some
time with varying success, and gained at least one victory (autumn 513).
1 By introducing Anastasius' nephew later as tòv åder 0. 8oûv Tòv éavtoll Jo. Ant.
shews that another man is meant here.
2 Known at Antioch before 18 Nov. (Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. Brit. Mus. 333).
CH. XVI.
## p. 486 (#516) ############################################
486
Death of Anastasius
[513–518
Finally he encamped at Acris on the coast, where, being attacked by the
enemy and routed, he was captured in the sea, into which he had fled.
Alathar was also captured, and was ransomed by Vitalianus himself from
the Bulgarians, whom he permitted to sell the prisoners. Vitalianus
occupied all the fortresses in Scythia and Moesia, among them Sozopolis,
in which he captured some envoys sent with a ransom for Hypatius.
It was now expected that he would be proclaimed emperor ; and further
rioting occurred at Constantinople, in which the praefect of the watch
was killed. Meanwhile he advanced on the capital by land and sea;
but on receiving 5000 lbs. of gold, the Thracian command, and a promise
of satisfaction upon the religious question, he again retired and released
Hypatius, though he refused to disband his army (514). It was clear
that neither party was likely to observe the peace; and in 515 Vitalianus,
having probably promises of support from inside the city, where another
riot had occurred, again appeared before Constantinople, but was defeated
by land and sea and retired to Anchialus, though still remaining at the
head of his barbarian force. Hypatius was sent to the East as magister
militum, and in July 517 went on an embassy to Persia'.
On 9 July 518 Anastasius died suddenly, Ariadne having died three
years before.
1 Wright, op. cit. 536.
.
## p. 487 (#517) ############################################
487
CHAPTER XVII.
RELIGIOUS DISUNION IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.
The importance of the religious controversies of the fifth century
must strike the most casual reader of history : but when we approach
the subject closely, we find it a tangled skein. Questions of dogmatic
theology and of ecclesiastical authority are intermingled with the conflict
of national ideals and the lower strife of personal rivalries. Only later
are the lines of separation seen to indicate ancient ethnic differences.
Nor does this century, more than any other century, form for our
purpose one connected and distinct whole. The antagonistic forces had
been gathering to a head during the preceding period and they had to
fight the battle out in the days that came after. Nevertheless, it is
possible, within limits, to distinguish the more important of the
elements making for ecclesiastical disunion, and also to mark the
chief acts of the drama that fall within the limits assigned.
First, then, we have to do with the opposition of two rival schools of
thought, those of Alexandria and of Antioch, the homes of allegorical
and of literal interpretation respectively. Next we have the emphatic
assertion of authority; and rejection of external interference, by the
great sees, which before the end of our period have obtained the title
and status of patriarchates. So far, we seem to be concerned with forces
already known in the Arian controversy. But in both respects there is
a difference. The dogmatic difference between Alexandria and Antioch
was, in the fifth century, quite unlike that of Athanasius and Arius in
the fourth, though the theologian may discern hidden affinities in the
parties severally concerned. The disputants on both sides in the con-
troversies we are to consider were equally ready to accept the creed of
Nicaea, and indeed to accuse their opponents of want of loyalty to that
symbol. And with regard to spheres of authority, a new complication
had arisen. At Nicaea (325), the rights of the great sees of Rome,
Alexandria and Antioch had been maintained. Byzantium counted for
nothing. In fact, authorities differ on the question who was bishop
at that time, and whether he attended the Council in person or by
deputy. But at the Second Council (that of Constantinople in 381)
CH. XVII.
## p. 488 (#518) ############################################
488
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
besides a strict injunction against the intervention of bishops in places
beyond their jurisdiction, there was an assertion of the prerogative of
the bishop of Constantinople next after the bishop of Rome; “because
Constantinople is New Rome. ” The last clause asserted an important
principle, that might easily lead to Caesaro-papacy. For the other great
sees were supposed to hold their high position in virtue of apostolic
tradition, not of coincidence with secular dominion. Constantinople
might-and did—discover that it, too, had an apostle for its patron-
namely St Andrew. But St Andrew's claims were vague, and the
imperial authority and court influence were pressing. The decision was
but doubtfully accepted in the East, and the distinction, if allowed at
all, was taken as purely honorary. In Rome it was never received at
all. We cannot wonder that the bishops of Alexandria, in their far-
reaching aims and policy, were unwilling to allow such power or
prestige to the upstart see of the “queenly city," and that sometimes
the bishops of Old Rome might support their actions.
It is not, of course, to be supposed that all the ecclesiastical dissensions
of the period can be comprised in the quarrels between the great sees,
although, for our present purpose, that series of conflicts seems the best
to choose as our guiding line. Though the Arian heresy lived vigorously
all through the century, it had become for the most part a religion of
barbarians. It was not so much a source of disunion within the Empire
as a serious—perhaps insuperable-obstacle to a good understanding
between the Roman and the Teuton. The Arianism of the Ostrogoths
was at least one of the most prominent weaknesses of their kingdom
in Italy. But the Empire, generally speaking, was Nicene. The only
regions which had not adopted or were not soon to adopt the definitions
of the First General Council, lay in the far East, beyond the limits of
undisputed imperial sway. When these are brought into the general
current of church history, they take one side or another in the
prevalent controversies, with very conspicuous results. Again, the
Pelagian controversy on free will and original sin will not here concern
us in proportion to its theological and philosophical interest. Though
its roots lay deep, and ever and anon put forth new shoots, it did not
result in a definite schism.
Taking then the main lines of controversy as already indicated, we
may distinguish four phases or periods within the fifth century. In the
first we have an attack on a bishop of Constantinople, a representative
of the Antiochene school, by an archbishop of Alexandria. Rome
sympathises with Constantinople, but Alexandria triumphs for a time,
in great part by court influence. (Chrysostom controversy. )
In the second, Alexandria again advances against Constantinople, the
bishop of which is again Antiochene. Rome, in this phase of the conflict,
sides with Alexandria, which prevails. Court influence is divided, but
gradually comes over to the Alexandrian side. (Nestorian controversy. )
## p. 489 (#519) ############################################
Periods of Controversy. Chrysostom
489
In the third, Alexandria is again aggressive, and prevails over
Constantinople by violence. Rome fails at first to obtain a hearing,
but helps to get the doctrinal points settled in another Council.
(Eutychian or Monophysite controversy. )
In the fourth, the controversy is caused by an abortive attempt,
started by an emperor, but manipulated by the bishops of Constan-
tinople and of Alexandria working together, to reunite some at least
of the parties alienated by the decision of the last conflict. Rome
disapproves strongly, and the result is a serious blow to imperial
authority in the West. (Henoticon controversy. )
1. The chief persons, then, in the first controversy, are Theophilus
of Alexandria and Chrysostom of Constantinople. The doctrinal question
is not to the front, and the interest is in great part personal. This is
in fact the only one of the controversies in which one side at least-
here the one on defence—has an imposing leader. But perhaps it is the
one in which it is least possible to find any reasons beyond motives of
official ambition or of personal antipathy.
The beginner of the attack, Theophilus, who held the Alexandrian
see from 385 to 412, has earned a bad name in history for violence and
duplicity. He was probably not more unscrupulous than many leading
men among his contemporaries, and excelled most of them in scientific
and literary tastes. But he has incurred the odium which attaches to
every religious persecutor who has not the mitigating plea of personal
fanaticism. Another excuse might be alleged in extenuation of his
unjust actions : the excessively difficult position in which he was placed.
The peculiar character of the government of Egypt—its close and
direct connexion with the imperial authority—and the absence, except
in the city itself, of any civic and municipal institutions, always rendered
a good understanding between bishop and praefect one of the great
desiderata. The history of the see and of its most eminent occupants
had given it a prestige which was not easily kept intact without
encroachments on the secular power.
Alexandria had from the
beginning been a city of mixed populations and cults, and at this time
the factions were more numerous and the occasions of disturbance as
serious as in the days of Athanasius. Arianism may have been quelled,
but paganism was still vigorous, and had adherents both in the academies
of the grammarians and philosophers and also among the most ignorant
of the lower classes, who even anticipated disaster when the measuring
gauge was moved from the temple of Serapis to a church. The Jewish
element was large, and the broad toleration of Alexander, the Ptolemies,
and the pagan Emperors was hardly to be expected in the stormy days
which had followed the conversion of Constantine. But more difficult
to deal with than praefects, town mobs, philosophers or Jews, though
a more powerful weapon to use if tactfully secured, was the vast number
of monks that dwelt in the “desert” and other regions within the
>
CH, XVII.
## p. 490 (#520) ############################################
490
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
( 392–394
Alexandrian see. These did not constitute one body, and were very
dissimilar among themselves. The rule of those who had a rule will
be set forth in the following chapter. Here we have to notice the
difficulties which the soaring speculations of some, the crass ignorance
of others, and the detachment of all from worldly convention and
ordinary constituted authority, placed in the way of any attempt to
bring them within the general system of civil and ecclesiastical order.
Theophilus was himself a man of learning and culture, eclectic in
tastes, diplomatic in schemes. He had used his mathematical knowledge
to make an elaborate table of the Easter Cycle. He favoured, in later
days, the candidature of a philosophic pagan (Synesius of Cyrene) for
the bishopric of Ptolemais. He could read and enjoy the works of
writers whose teaching he was publicly anathematising. He appreciated
the force of monastic piety, and endeavoured, by vigorous and even
violent means, to impose episcopal consecration on some leading ascetics
.
He shewed his powers as a pacificator in helping to compose dissension
in the church of Antioch (392) and in that of Bostra (394). He obtained
from the civil authority powers to demolish the great temple of Serapis,
which was done successfully, though not without creating much bitter-
ness of feeling. The great campaign of his life, however, began with an
attack on the followers of Origen at the very beginning of the fifth century.
There seems some paradox in the circumstance that the strife between
the Alexandrian and the Antiochene should have begun (as far as our
present purpose is concerned) by an attack made by an Alexandrian
patriarch on the principles of the most eminent of all Alexandrian
theologians. Theophilus was, both before and after the controversy,
an appreciative student of Origen. He had already aroused a tumultu-
ous opposition from some Egyptian monks who were practically
anthropomorphites by insisting on the doctrine laid down by Origen
as to the incorporeality of the Divine nature, that God is invisible by
reason of His nature, and incomprehensible by reason of the limits of
human intelligence. The line he now took up may have been due to the
influence of Jerome, at that time organising an anti-Origenistic crusade
in Palestine; or else, in his opposition to the philosophic paganism of
Alexandria, he may have become nervous of any concessions as to æons
and gnosis and final restitution; or again, as seems most probable, he
saw a powerful ally in his ambition for his see in the grossest and least
enlightened theology of his day—that of the unhappy monk who wept
that “ they had taken away his God”—when in the earlier stage of the
controversy the doctrines of the anthropomorphites were condemned by
the man who was now their champion.
Having determined to combat Origenism, Theophilus called a synod
to Alexandria, which decreed against it. He followed up the ecclesiastical
censure by securing from the praefect the support of the secular arm.
An attack was made by night on the settlement of those monks, in the
-
## p. 491 (#521) ############################################
397-401]
Chrysostom and Theophilus
491
а
district of Nitria, who were supposed to be imbued with Origenistic
doctrine. The leaders of them were the four " tall brethren," monks of
considerable repute, formerly treated by Theophilus with great respect.
Hounded out by soldiers and by the rival “ Anthropomorphite ” monks,
the Tall Brothers fled for their lives, and after many vicissitudes arrived
in Constantinople and appealed to the protection of the bishop, John
Chrysostom.
In position and in character Chrysostom bears a marked contrast to
his opponent Theophilus. Both, it is true, were men of learning and
culture; both were exposed to the caprices of a pleasure-loving and
much-divided populace. But Chrysostom had one disadvantage more:
he was under the immediate eye of a Court. It was by court influence,
unsought on his part, that he had been elevated, and the same influence
could easily be turned against him. The Emperor Arcadius was of
sluggish temperament, but his wife, Eudoxia, a Frankish lady, was
violent in her likes and dislikes, sensitive, ambitious, and inspired by a
showy and aggressive piety. John had held the see since 397. In early
days he had studied under the pagan Libanius at Antioch, and later he
had been trained in the theological school of that city. He was an
intimate friend of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the most eminent leader of
Antiochene thought, whose principles in the next stage of the controversy
came to the front. Himself a practical teacher rather than a theological
systematiser, he had devoted his power and eloquence, both in Antioch
and Constantinople, to the restraint of violence and the denunciation of
vice and frivolity. He had in earlier days followed for some years the
monastic life, and was always ascetic in self-discipline, and tactless
towards those under his authority. He had been brought into public
prominence, during the anxious time in 387 at Antioch, after the riot.
On his appointment at Constantinople, he shewed great firmness in
resisting the demands made upon him by the minister Eutropius, and
subsequently in negotiations with the Gothic general Gaïnas. He
preached much, and his sermons were intensely popular, for the people
of Byzantium, however mixed, were sufficiently Greek to enjoy good
speaking But John seems to have done more than excite a transient
enthusiasm. A good many Constantinopolitans, particularly some well-
born women, devoted their lives to the works he commended to them.
By his clergy, as might be expected, he was both well beloved and well
hated.
Just at the time when Theophilus was beginning his attacks on the
Origenistic monks, Chrysostom was starting on an expedition which was
the beginning of all his troubles. Complaints had been brought to him
.
of the bad conduct of the bishop of Ephesus. He sent to make
inquiries, and though the accused bishop had in the meantime died,
Chrysostom was requested by the clergy and people of Ephesus to
come and settle their affairs. Accordingly the first three months of the
OH. XVII.
## p. 492 (#522) ############################################
492
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[401
year 401 were spent by him in a visitation of Asia, in the removal of
many clergy, and the putting down of much corruption. No doubt he
considered that he was acting within his rights, according to the canon
of Constantinople and the precedent set by the previous bishop.
But he had given a handle to the rival see of Alexandria. Worse
than this, his absence had led to difficulties at home, where Severianus,
a wandering bishop whom he had left as locum tenens, and Serapion,
Chrysostom's archdeacon and friend, had quarrelled beyond hope of
reconciliation. On his return, Chrysostom judged Severianus to be in
fault, and thereby affronted the Empress, who had taken delight in
Severianus' sermons. With so much of combustible elements about, the
arrivals from Egypt were likely to cause a general conflagration.
Chrysostom received the Tall Brethren courteously, and admitted
them to some of the church services, though he hesitated to receive them
into full communion till the charge of heresy hanging over them had
been removed. He seems to have wished to avoid any provocative
measures. But the Brothers, anxious to remove the slur, or perhaps
stirred up by some sinister interest, appealed to the Empress, as she
rode down the streets in her chariot. The result was that Theophilus
himself was summoned to Constantinople to stand a charge of calumny
and persecution, with darker accusations in the background. He came,
but, though nominally accused, he actually took the rôle of accuser.
Before Theophilus himself arrived in Constantinople, he shewed the
measure of respect in which he held that see by inducing his friend
Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, to go thither on the
business of Origen. Epiphanius had a reputation for piety and real,
but seems to have traded on that reputation and on his advanced years
in going beyond all bounds of courtesy and even of legality. He came
with a large following of bishops and clergy, began his mission by the
ordination of a deacon—an act of defiance to Chrysostom's authority-
refused the hospitality offered by the bishop, and endeavoured, by collo-
quies with the clergy and harangues to the people, to obtain the
condemnation of Origen which Chrysostom refused to pronounce. He
returned baffled, but soon after Theophilus himself appeared at Con-
stantinople, and speedily gathered a party among those who had from
any reason a grudge against Chrysostom. Strange to say, the Origenistic
question retired into the background. Some of the bishops and clergy
at Constantinople were greatly attached to the writings of Origen, with
which, as we have seen, Theophilus had a secret intellectual sympathy.
The charge of Origenism was brought against some of John's adherents,
the charges preferred against himself were either trivial or very im-
probable. If any of them were founded on fact, the utmost we can
safely gather from them is that John may have erred occasionally by
severity in discipline, and that his ascetic habits and delicate digestion
had proved incompatible with generous hospitality.
## p. 493 (#523) ############################################
401]
Second Banishment of Chrysostom
493
It is hardly necessary to say that Theophilus was acting without a
shadow of right. He had thirty-six bishops with him and many more
were coming from Asia at the Emperor's bidding. Chrysostom had
forty who kept by his side. The strange phenomenon of a dual synod
will be met again in the next conflict. Theophilus had the support of
the Court, but he did not venture to pass judgment within the precincts
of the capital.
A synod was held in the neighbourhood of Chalcedon,
on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. Theophilus was present and
presided, unless the presidency was held by the old rival see of Heraclea.
John refused four times to appear, and judgment was passed against
him. As to the Tall Brethren, two had died and the other two
made no opposition. A tumultuous scene followed in Constantinople,
but John, rather than become a cause of bloodshed, withdrew under
protest.
But he did not go far from the city, and in three days he was
summoned back. Constantinople suffered at this time from a shock of
earthquake, which seems to have alarmed the Empress, and the dislike
of Egyptian interference stimulated the desire of the people of Constanti-
nople to recover their bishop. Arcadius sent a messenger to summon
John home. John at first prudently declined to come without the
resolution of a synod, but his scruples were overcome, and he was
reinstated in triumph.
But his return of good fortune was not of long duration. What the
Court had lightly given, it might lightly withdraw. The new cause of
offence was a remonstrance made by Chrysostom, who objected to the
noise and revellings consequent on the erection of a statue of the
Empress close to the church where he officiated. Eudoxia's blood
was up. Report said that the bishop had compared her to Herodias.
He had possibly compared his duty to that of John the Baptist, and his
hearers had pressed the analogy further. He had previously made a
quite pertinent comparison of her court clergy to the priests of Baal,
who "did eat at Jezebel's table," and the inference had seemed to be
that the Empress was a Jezebel. A synod was hastily convoked.
Theophilus did not appear this time, but John's opponents were
now sufficient. He was accused of violating a canon of the Council of
Antioch (341) in having returned without waiting for a synodical
decree. Insult was here added to injury. The canon had been passed
by an Arian council, the violation of it had been due to imperial
pressure. But there was no way of escape. Amid scenes of confusion
and bloodshed, John was conveyed to Cucusus, on the Armenian frontier,
and afterwards to Pityus, in Pontus.
His steadfastness under persecution, the letters by which he sought
to strengthen the hands of his friends and disciples, and the efforts of
his adherents, besides producing a great moral effect, seemed likely to
bring about a reversal of the sentence. Pope Innocent I wrote a letter of
CH. XVII.
## p. 494 (#524) ############################################
494
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
(
407-428
sympathy to Chrysostom and one of strong remonstrance to Theophilus,
to whom a formal deputation was sent. To the clergy and people of
Constantinople he wrote a vigorous protest against the legality of what
had been done, and asserted the need of a Council of East and West.
But for such a council he could only wait the opportunity in faith and
patience. He did all he could by laying the matter before the Emperor
Honorius at Ravenna. A deputation of clergy was sent from Emperor and
Pope to Constantinople. On the way, however, the messengers had their
despatches stolen from them, and they only returned from their bootless
errand after many dangers and insults. Meantime the fire was allowed
to burn itself out. The sufferings of Chrysostom were ended by his
death in exile in September 407. There were still adherents of his
in Constantinople, who refused to recognise his successor, as did also
many bishops in the West. The breach was healed when Atticus,
second bishop after Chrysostom, restored the name of his great pre-
decessor to the diptychs (or tablets, on which the names of lawful
bishops were inscribed).
It can hardly be said that this part of the controversy was ecclesiastical
in the strict sense of the word. It made no new departure in church
doctrine and discipline. But it revealed the more or less hidden forces
by which succeeding conflicts were to be decided.
II. In the second period the Alexandrian leader was Cyril, nephew
of Theophilus, who had succeeded him as bishop in 412. The Byzantine
bishop was Nestorius, who succeeded Sisinnius in 428. Both of these
prelates were more distinctly theological controversialists than were the
chiefs in the last encounter. But theology apart, they succeeded to all
the difficulties in Church and State that had beset their predecessors,
and neither of them was gifted with forbearance and tact. Cyril's
episcopate began with violent conflicts between Christians and Jews, in
which the ecclesiastical power came into collision with the civil.
The
story is well known how the bishop canonised a turbulent monk who
had met his end in the anti-Jewish brawls, how the praefect Orestes
opposed him in this and other high-handed acts, and fell a victim to
the Alexandrian mob. The murder of Hypatia in 415 is not, perhaps,
to be laid directly to Cyril's charge ; but it illustrates the attitude of
anti-pagan fanaticism towards the noblest representatives of Hellenic
culture. Perhaps we may see here the effects of the policy of Theophilus
when he stirred up the more ignorant of the monks to chase away or to
destroy those more capable of philosophic views.
The monks were indeed becoming a more and more uncontrollable
element in the situation. Cyril allied himself with a very powerful
person, the archimandrite Senuti, who plays a large part in the history
of Egyptian monasticism and also in the Monophysite schism. At
present he was orthodox, or rather his views were those that had not yet
been differentiated from orthodoxy, and his zeal was shewn chiefly in
## p. 495 (#525) ############################################
428]
Nestorius and the Imperial Family
495
organising raids on “idols,” temples and pagan priests, and in attacks,
less reprehensible perhaps, but no more respectful of private property,
on the goods of wealthy landowners who defrauded and oppressed the
poor.
Nestorius came from Isauria. His education had been in Antioch,
and the doctrines with which his name is associated are those of the
great Antiochene school carried to their logical and practical conclusions.
But this association has a pathetic and almost a grotesque interest.
Much labour has of recent years been devoted to the task of ascertaining
what Nestorius actually preached and wrote, and the result may be to
acquit him of many of the extravagances imputed to him by his
opponents. To put the case rather crudely: experts have contended
that Nestorius was not a Nestorian. He seems to have been a harsh
and unpleasant man, though capable of acquiring friends, intolerant
of doctrinal eccentricities other than his own. He made it his mission
to prevent men from assigning the attributes of humanity to the Deity,
and boldly took the consequences of his position. Like Chrysostom,
he suffered from the proximity and active ecclesiastical interest of the
imperial family. When Nestorius became bishop of Constantinople
in 428, the Emperor Theodosius II was in the twenty-seventh year
of his age and the twentieth of his reign. Though his character
and abilities offer in some respects a favourable comparison with
those of his father, he suffered, partly through his education, from
a too narrowly theological outlook on his empire and its duties.
fourteen years a leading part in all matters, especially ecclesiastical, had
been taken by his elder sister Pulcheria, who had superintended his
education and seems to have maintained a jealous regard for her own
influence. This influence was at times more or less thwarted by her
sister-in-law Eudocia, the clever Athenian lady, whom she had herself
induced Theodosius to take in marriage. Nestorius had somehow
incurred the enmity of Pulcheria. The cause is too deeply buried in
the dirt of court scandal to be disinterred. Eudocia, though she is
often in opposition to her sister-in-law, does not seem to have had any
leanings to the party of Nestorius, and in the end, as we shall see, she
took a much stronger line against it than did Pulcheria. But both
ladies, in addition to personal feelings, had decided theological leanings,
and to these the Alexandrians were able to appeal.
The theological principles of Cyril were those of the Alexandrian
school. To him it seemed that the doctrine of the Incarnation of the
Logos is impugned by any hesitation to assign the attributes of
humanity to the divine Christ. It was this theological principle which
was the cause, or at least the pretext, of his first attack on Nestorius.
The distinctions between the Alexandrian and Antiochene schools
have their roots far back in the history of theological ideas. One
of the main differences lies in the preference by the Alexandrians for
CH. XVII.
## p. 496 (#526) ############################################
496
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
>
allegorical modes of interpreting Scripture, while the Antiochenes pre-
ferred-in the first instance, at least—a more literal method. This is
not unnatural, so far as Alexandria is concerned. That city had seen
the first attempt at amalgamation of Jewish and Hellenic conceptions,
by the solvent force of figure and symbolism, while underneath there
worked the mind of primeval Egypt. The speculations of Philo and
his successors, both Christian and Pagan, carried on the tradition into
orthodox theology. The Christology of Alexandria had produced the
ouoouotos, and now it regarded that term as needing further develop-
ment—as pointing to an entire union (évwors) of divine and human in
the nature of Christ, beyond any conjunction (ouvápela) which seemed
to admit a possible duality. On the other side, the Antiochene school
is well represented by Theodore of Mopsuestia, the friend of Chrysostom,
and the teacher, whether directly or indirectly, of Nestorius.
He was
a learned man and a great commentator, who insisted on the need of
historical and literary studies in elucidating Holy Scripture.
His
eminence in this respect is to be seen in the fact that we often find him
cited in quite recent commentaries. In his Christology, he held that the
union of the divine and human in the person of Jesus was moral rather
than physical or dynamical (κατ' ευδοκίαν rather than κατ' ουσίαν or
kat' évépyelav). He was, however, very careful to avoid the deduction
that the relation of divine and human was similar in kind though
different in degree, in Christ and in His followers. The actions and
qualities ascribed to Christ as man, and particularly His birth, sufferings
and death, were not to be attributed to the Deity without some
qualifying phrase.
This question might have seemed to be one of purely academic
interest, if it had not obtained an excellent catchword which appealed to
the popular mind: the title of EOTókos (Mother of God) as applied to
the Virgin Mary, vehemently asserted by the Alexandrians, rejected,
or accepted with many qualifications, by the Antiochenes. The fierce-
ness of the battle over this word suggests analogies and associations
which are easily exaggerated. In some sermons preached on behalf of
the Alexandrian view there are remarks which seem to foreshadow the
Virgin cult in medieval and modern times. And the great glory of
Cyril, as we find in superscriptions of his works, was that of being the
chief advocate of the OEOTÓKOS. Again, and this is a more important
point, and one that will meet us again, both the word and the conception
could be interpreted in harmony with one of the strongest elements
in revived paganism. The worship of a maternal deity, such as seems
to have prevailed widely in the earliest civilisation of Mediterranean
lands, had again come to the fore in the last conflict of Paganism with
Christianity. The mysteries of Isis and of Cybele were widespread.
Julian wrote a mystic treatise in honour of the Mother of the Gods ;
and as he blames the Christians for applying the term “Mother of God”
## p. 497 (#527) ############################################
428]
Character of Nestorianism
497
to the Virgin Mary, he seems here to be following his ordinary policy of
strengthening Hellenism on its devotional side by bringing in such
elements from Christianity as might be found compatible with it. The
reverse process, by which Christianity among both the educated and
the uneducated was assimilating pagan ideas, was of course going on
at the same time, consciously in some quarters, unconsciously in others.
But it would be a mistake to look on the Nestorian controversy as
chiefly, or even as greatly, connected with the honour of the Virgin.
Nestorius himself, in one of his sayings, probably uttered in a testy
mood, protested “anyhow, don't make the Virgin a Goddess"; but this
is, I believe, almost the only utterance of the kind during the
controversy.
Generally speaking, on its speculative side, the controversy was
Christological. The Nicene Fathers had finally pronounced on the
relation of the Father to the Divine Logos, but within the limits of
orthodoxy there was room for a difference as to the relation of the
Logos to the human Christ. Some-on the Antiochene side-dreaded
lest the idea of the humanity should be entirely merged in that of the
Logos. Others (leaning towards Alexandria) would avoid any contami-
nation of the Logos by the associations of humanity. Meantime the
unphilosophical minds that took part in the dispute imagined in a
vague way that it was possible for human beings to commit the crime of
literally confusing the nature of the Deity or of cutting Christ in pieces.
The position of Nestorius himself and of those who followed him
most closely is summarised in a saying of his that was often quoted and
oftener misquoted: “I cannot speak of God as being two or three
months old. ” He regarded it as impiety to attribute to a Person of the
Trinity the acts and accidents of human, still more of infant, life. The
Alexandrians, on the other hand, considered this view as virtually
implying the existence of two Christs, a divine and a human. Naturally
a
the opponents made no efforts to understand one another's position, and
if they had their efforts could hardly have been successful. During this
unhappy century, the mind of man had gone hopelessly astray as to its
limitations. Intellectual courage had survived intellectual contact with
facts, but that courage was often directed against chimaeras.
The Pope of Rome at this juncture was Celestine I (422-432). He
seems to have been a conscientious and active ruler, a strict disciplinarian,
yet averse to extreme rigour in dealing with delinquents. As we have
already said, in this conflict Rome is not on the side of Constantinople
and Antioch, but on that of Alexandria. Among the many reasons
that may be assigned for the change, two considerations are prominent :
first, that the relations between the sees of Rome and of Constantinople
had been somewhat strained through rival claims to ecclesiastical
supremacy in the regions of Illyria ; and secondly, that Celestine was
a devoted admirer of Augustine and anxious to put down the Pelagian
32
C. D. H. voL I. CH. XVII.
## p. 498 (#528) ############################################
498
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[ 429
heresy. Nestorius, we may safely say, was not himself a Pelagian. In
some, at least, of his extant discourses he strongly opposes that teaching.
But it is clear that the most eminent Antiochene theologians were not
so pronounced as was Augustine in their doctrine of original sin and of
predestination. Theodore of Mopsuestia was accused of the same
tendency, though he avoided the heretical deductions from his principles,
and Nestorius himself once wrote a sympathetic letter (though the
obscurity of the text makes it doubtful as evidence) to Coelestius the
notable follower of Pelagius. Again, a few years before our present date
(at the Council of Carthage, 426) a monk named Leporius of Marseilles
,
who has been called a “Nestorian before Nestorius," was condemned as
a Pelagian.
The Antiochene see was more definitely than it had previously been
on the side of Constantinople. It was now occupied by a certain John,
who plays an ambiguous part, but seems to have been favourable to
Nestorius. But the most eminent person on this side was Theodoret,
bishop of Cyrus, in the province of Euphratensis, a learned theologian,
a good fighter, and a man of generous impulses, though he did not keep
by his friend Nestorius to the bitter end. In these Eastern bishops we
see a growing jealousy of the overweening power of Alexandria. The
Church of Edessa, which had, generally speaking, lived a life apart, was
drawn into the controversy. The bishop Rabbulas, though not inclined
to urge the adoption of the disputed terms, took the anti-Nestorian side.
His successor however, Ibas (435), upheld the Nestorian position, and
retained for centuries the reverence of the Nestorian Christians of the
East.
To take up briefly the main events of the controversy: It was most
probably during the Christmas festival of the year 428, or else early in 429,
that Proclus, bishop of Cyzicus, but resident at Constantinople, preached
a sermon in which he used and expounded the term EOTÓKOS. Nestorius
replied to this discourse by another, in which he warned the people to
distinguish between the Divine Word and the temple in which the Deity
dwelt, and to avoid saying without qualifications, that God was born of
Mary. Nestorius seems to have been more guarded in his language than
some of his clergy, especially a priest called Anastasius, who condemned
the word OEOTókos altogether and even denounced as heretics those who
used it. It is extremely difficult to determine how widely the Antiochene
or Nestorian view prevailed, and whether it had yet reached Egypt, and
on this question depends the conviction or acquittal of Cyril in regard
to the charge of aggressive violence generally brought against him.
In the Easter of 429 he issued an encyclical to the Egyptian monks,
warning them against the dangers ahead. Men were teaching doctrines,
he said, which would bring Christ down to the level of ordinary
humanity.
Soon after, he wrote a long letter to the Emperor, “image of God on
## p. 499 (#529) ############################################
429]
Cyril, Celestine, Nestorius
499
was
earth,” against heresies in general and the new one-with which,
however, he does not couple the name of Nestorius—in particular.
He followed this up by two very long treatises to “the most pious
princesses” (Pulcheria and her sisters), in which he cites many Fathers
to justify the term fotókos, and makes out that the new heretics
would assert two Christs. The appeal to these ladies does not seem to
have pleased Theodosius, who resented Cyril's use of the discord in
the imperial family. Cyril, when once he had begun, spared no pains
to succeed. He had agents in Constantinople and adherents whom,
at much trouble and expense, he had attached to his cause. Especially
he had the support of a large following among the monks. We have
his letters written both to Nestorius himself and to Celestine, bishop of
Rome. In all of them he takes the ground of one having authority, of
one also who, in spite of personal affection for Nestorius as a man, is
bound to consider the supreme interests of the Truth. Nestorius in
return eulogises Christian TTLEÍKela, a grace in which he does not himself
seem to have excelled, but maintains an independent bearing. He
somewhat superfluously accuses Cyril of ignorance of the Nicene creed,
and reassures him as to the satisfactory state of the Church in
Constantinople. Nestorius meantime in correspondence with
Celestine on another matter. Certain bishops from the West, accused
of heresy, had come to Constantinople, How was he to deal with them?
He had to write a second time before a rather curt answer came; that
of course they were heretics and so was Nestorius himself : they are
known from other sources to have been Pelagians. Cyril had by this
time sent to Rome a Latin translation of the communications that had
passed between him and Nestorius with regard to the whole Christo-
logical question. A synod was consequently held at Rome which
approved of Cyril's action and position, and the Pope wrote to the clergy
of Constantinople, as well as to Cyril and to Nestorius himself. Ten
days were given to Nestorius to make a satisfactory explanation, after
which he and those holding with him were to be held excommunicated.
Letters announcing this decision were sent to the bishops of Antioch,
Jerusalem, Thessalonica and Philippi. To Cyril the Pope delegated
the power to take necessary action against Nestorius and his followers.
In a synod held at Alexandria, a series of propositions condemnatory
of the doctrine taught by Nestorius and insisting on that of the
physical union ” (@vwois Duo uń) were drawn up. In consequence of
these actions, Nestorius, urged by John of Antioch, Theodoret of Cyrus
and others, made certain explanations so as to tolerate the figurative use
of the word Beotókos? . But he stood his ground as to the main
principles, and issued, with the support of his adherents, a list of
counter-anathemas to those of Cyril.
1 I. e. in accordance with the union of the two natures in Christ, even during
mortal life.
CH. XVII.
32-2
## p. 500 (#530) ############################################
500
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[ 431
It may seem strange that local councils and leading bishops or
patriarchs should have gone so far without insisting on a General
Council. One person evidently took this view—the Emperor Theodosius
himself. The builder of the Theodosian Wall and the promulgator of
the Theodosian Code can hardly have been the mere weakling that some
historians would paint him. He seems to have been a man of some
energy and love of fair play, though he had not the strength to carry
out a policy to the end. Now, however, jointly with his cousin
Valentinian, he issued a writ summoning Eastern and Western bishops
to a Council to be held the following Whitsuntide (431) at Ephesus.
He did not attempt to go himself, but he sent as his emissary the
count Candidianus, to keep order, by military force if necessary, and
especially to prevent monks and laymen from intruding. Pope
Celestine sent two deputies, instructed to act along with Cyril
. Cyril
himself went largely accompanied. Among his monastic followers was
the wild ascetic Senuti of Panopolis, already mentioned, though the
stories of Senuti's conduct at the Council are not easily brought into
accordance with the facts we have. Nestorius and his Constantinopolitan
friends went there, but kept at a prudent distance from “the Egyptian. "
John of Antioch and forty Asiatic 'bishops came likewise, but at slow
pace. Their delay, whether accidental or designed, determined the
character and events of the Council. The weak point about the Council
of Ephesus was that the presiding judge and the principal prosecutor
were one and the same person, in an assembly which, though supposed to
be primarily legislative, had also to exercise judicial functions. From
the very first, Nestorius had no chance, and he declined to recognise
the authority of the Council till all its members were assembled. Cyril
was in no mind to allow this plea, and perhaps, in refusing to wait
for the Eastern bishops, he overreached himself, and brought sub-
sequent trouble on his own head. Celestine's delegates had not arrived,
but there was no reason to wait for them, as it was known that they had
been instructed to follow the Alexandrian lead. John of Antioch and
the other Eastern bishops were, of course, an essential part of the
Council, but a message of excuse which John had sent was tacitly
construed into acquiescence with what might be done before his arrival.
Accordingly, in spite of remonstrances from Nestorius, from a good
many Eastern bishops who had already arrived, and from the imperial
Commissioners, the Council was opened sixteen days after the appointed
time, without the Antiochenes or those who were in favour of any
kind
of compromise with Nestorius. Messengers were sent to Nestorius, who
refused to attend. It was the work of one day, the first session of the
Council, to condemn him and deprive him of his see. This was done on
the testimony of his letters, his reported speeches, and his rejection of
the messengers from the Council. One hundred and ninety-eight bishops
signed these decrees. The populace of Ephesus received the result with
## p. 501 (#531) ############################################
431]
End of the Council of Ephesus
501
wild enthusiasm, and gave the champions of the Theotokes an ovation
on their way to their lodgings. Perhaps it is not mere fanciful analogy
to recall the two-hours' shouting of an earlier city mob: “Great Artemis
of the Ephesians. "
Five days afterwards, John of Antioch arrived. He had with him
comparatively few bishops, and when he was joined by the Nestorians,
the number of his party only amounted to forty-three. There seems a
touch of irony in the assertion which he made afterwards that the
reason of his scanty numbers was to be found in his strict injunctions to
follow out the Emperor's directions. Similarly, when he justifies the
delay by the necessity that the bishops should officiate in their churches
on the First Sunday after Easter, we may seem to have a covert hit at
Cyril's large numbers who found no difficulty in absenting themselves
from their flocks.
From the first, John took his stand against the acts of Cyril. He
rejected the communications of the Council and joined forces with
Nestorius. The imperial officials afforded him protection and support.
In the “Conciliabulum,” as his assembly was contemptuously called,
Cyril and Memnon of Ephesus were in their turn deprived and excom-
municated.
tion of the chrysargyron (May 498), a tax on all kinds of stock and
plant in trade, instituted by Constantine, which pressed heavily on
the poorest classes. Instead of this he imposed a land-tax called
chrysoteleia, which he applied to the support of the army, abolishing
the right of requisition. He also attempted by several enactments to
ensure that the soldiers received their full pay. But his chief financial
reform was the abolition, by the advice of the Syrian Marinus, of the
system under which the curiales were responsible for the taxes of the
municipalities, and the institution of tax-collectors called vindices. The
burdens of the curiales were not however wholly removed, for they existed
in some form under Justinian. These measures were no doubt primarily
intended to increase the revenue, and at the end of his reign under the
administration of Marinus complaints were made of heavy extortion ;
but the immediate financial success of the policy is proved by the fact
that at the time of his death the treasury was full. His humanity was
shewn by the abolition of fights between men and beasts (Aug. 499);
but this did not extend to the practice of exposing criminals to beasts,
which existed as late as the time of Maurice.
But, although Anastasius is almost universally praised for mildness
and good administration, his Monophysite opinions were distasteful to
the population of the capital, and the peace was constantly disturbed by
serious riots. In 493 his refusal to release some stone-throwers of the
Green faction who had been arrested by the city-praefect produced an
outbreak, during which a stone was thrown at the Emperor, part of the
circus buildings burnt, and the statues of Anastasius and Ariadne
dragged through the streets. Many of the rioters were arrested and
punished, and the thrower of the stone, a Moor, was killed by the
cxcubitores ; but the Emperor was compelled to appoint a new praefect
in the person of Plato. An occasion for rioting was also provided by
the ancient pagan festival of the Brytae, which was celebrated by
dancing performances every May. Such a riot occurred in the prae-
fecture of Constantine (501), when the Greens attacked the Blues in the
theatre and many were killed, among them an illegitimate son of
Anastasius. After this an order was issued that the celebration of the
Brytae should cease throughout the Empire (502). In 512 the Mono-
physite addition to the Trisagion, made at the instigation of Marinus,
caused the most dangerous outbreak of the reign (6 Nov. ). The rioters
killed the Monophysite monks, threw down the Emperor's statues, and
## p. 485 (#515) ############################################
510–513]
Rebellion of Vitalianus
485
proclaimed emperor the unwilling Areobindus, whose wife Juliana repre-
sented the Theodosian house. When Celer and Patricius were sent to
appease them, they drove them away with stones, burnt the houses of
Marinus and Pompeius, and plundered Marinus' property. On the
third day Anastasius shewed himself in the circus without his crown and
begged them to refrain from massacre, whereupon they demanded that
Marinus and Plato should be thrown to the beasts; but the Emperor
by promising concessions persuaded them to disperse. The banishment
of Ariadne's kinsman, Diogenes, and the ex-praefect Appion (510) may,
as they were recalled by Justin, have been caused by religious troubles.
In Alexandria and Antioch also riots were frequent.
In 513 the religious differences culminated in an armed rising. The
military administration of Hypatius (not the Emperor's nephew)' had
caused discontent in the Thracian army, especially among the Bulgarian
foederati. These foederati were commanded by Vitalianus (son of the
Patriciolus who held a command in the Persian war); who had a grievance
on account of the expulsion of the patriarch Flavianus of Antioch (512),
with whom he was on terms of close friendship. Making use of the
discontent in the army, he murdered two of the general's staff, bribed the
duke of Moesia, and, having seized Carinus, one of the chief confidants
of Hypatius, forced him to place the town of Odessus in his hands. By
means of the money there found he collected a large force of soldiers
and rustics, and, with the cry of justice for the banished patriarchs and
abolition of the addition to the Trisagion, marched on Constantinople,
whither Hypatius had fled. Anastasius, having no army at hand, could
only provide for the defence, while he set up crosses on the gates and
announced the remission of one-fourth of the animal-tax in Asia and
Bithynia. Patricius the magister militum, to whom Vitalianus in large
measure owed his promotion, was sent to confer with him; and next
day some of Vitalianus' chief officers entered the city; who on receiving
a promise that just grievances should be remedied and the Pope asked
to send representatives to settle the religious differences took the oath of
allegiance, returned to Vitalianus, and compelled him to withdraw. Cyril,
a man of some capacity, was now appointed to succeed Hypatius, and,
having entered Odessus, from which Vitalianus had retired, was believed
to be planning an attack on him. Hearing of this, Vitalianus made his
way into the town by night, surprised Cyril while asleep in his house,
and killed him. He was thereupon declared a public enemy by decree
of the Senate, and a large force collected and sent against him under
Hypatius, the Emperor's nephew, though the office of magister militum of
Thrace was given to the barbarian Alathar. Hypatius fought for some
time with varying success, and gained at least one victory (autumn 513).
1 By introducing Anastasius' nephew later as tòv åder 0. 8oûv Tòv éavtoll Jo. Ant.
shews that another man is meant here.
2 Known at Antioch before 18 Nov. (Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. Brit. Mus. 333).
CH. XVI.
## p. 486 (#516) ############################################
486
Death of Anastasius
[513–518
Finally he encamped at Acris on the coast, where, being attacked by the
enemy and routed, he was captured in the sea, into which he had fled.
Alathar was also captured, and was ransomed by Vitalianus himself from
the Bulgarians, whom he permitted to sell the prisoners. Vitalianus
occupied all the fortresses in Scythia and Moesia, among them Sozopolis,
in which he captured some envoys sent with a ransom for Hypatius.
It was now expected that he would be proclaimed emperor ; and further
rioting occurred at Constantinople, in which the praefect of the watch
was killed. Meanwhile he advanced on the capital by land and sea;
but on receiving 5000 lbs. of gold, the Thracian command, and a promise
of satisfaction upon the religious question, he again retired and released
Hypatius, though he refused to disband his army (514). It was clear
that neither party was likely to observe the peace; and in 515 Vitalianus,
having probably promises of support from inside the city, where another
riot had occurred, again appeared before Constantinople, but was defeated
by land and sea and retired to Anchialus, though still remaining at the
head of his barbarian force. Hypatius was sent to the East as magister
militum, and in July 517 went on an embassy to Persia'.
On 9 July 518 Anastasius died suddenly, Ariadne having died three
years before.
1 Wright, op. cit. 536.
.
## p. 487 (#517) ############################################
487
CHAPTER XVII.
RELIGIOUS DISUNION IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.
The importance of the religious controversies of the fifth century
must strike the most casual reader of history : but when we approach
the subject closely, we find it a tangled skein. Questions of dogmatic
theology and of ecclesiastical authority are intermingled with the conflict
of national ideals and the lower strife of personal rivalries. Only later
are the lines of separation seen to indicate ancient ethnic differences.
Nor does this century, more than any other century, form for our
purpose one connected and distinct whole. The antagonistic forces had
been gathering to a head during the preceding period and they had to
fight the battle out in the days that came after. Nevertheless, it is
possible, within limits, to distinguish the more important of the
elements making for ecclesiastical disunion, and also to mark the
chief acts of the drama that fall within the limits assigned.
First, then, we have to do with the opposition of two rival schools of
thought, those of Alexandria and of Antioch, the homes of allegorical
and of literal interpretation respectively. Next we have the emphatic
assertion of authority; and rejection of external interference, by the
great sees, which before the end of our period have obtained the title
and status of patriarchates. So far, we seem to be concerned with forces
already known in the Arian controversy. But in both respects there is
a difference. The dogmatic difference between Alexandria and Antioch
was, in the fifth century, quite unlike that of Athanasius and Arius in
the fourth, though the theologian may discern hidden affinities in the
parties severally concerned. The disputants on both sides in the con-
troversies we are to consider were equally ready to accept the creed of
Nicaea, and indeed to accuse their opponents of want of loyalty to that
symbol. And with regard to spheres of authority, a new complication
had arisen. At Nicaea (325), the rights of the great sees of Rome,
Alexandria and Antioch had been maintained. Byzantium counted for
nothing. In fact, authorities differ on the question who was bishop
at that time, and whether he attended the Council in person or by
deputy. But at the Second Council (that of Constantinople in 381)
CH. XVII.
## p. 488 (#518) ############################################
488
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
besides a strict injunction against the intervention of bishops in places
beyond their jurisdiction, there was an assertion of the prerogative of
the bishop of Constantinople next after the bishop of Rome; “because
Constantinople is New Rome. ” The last clause asserted an important
principle, that might easily lead to Caesaro-papacy. For the other great
sees were supposed to hold their high position in virtue of apostolic
tradition, not of coincidence with secular dominion. Constantinople
might-and did—discover that it, too, had an apostle for its patron-
namely St Andrew. But St Andrew's claims were vague, and the
imperial authority and court influence were pressing. The decision was
but doubtfully accepted in the East, and the distinction, if allowed at
all, was taken as purely honorary. In Rome it was never received at
all. We cannot wonder that the bishops of Alexandria, in their far-
reaching aims and policy, were unwilling to allow such power or
prestige to the upstart see of the “queenly city," and that sometimes
the bishops of Old Rome might support their actions.
It is not, of course, to be supposed that all the ecclesiastical dissensions
of the period can be comprised in the quarrels between the great sees,
although, for our present purpose, that series of conflicts seems the best
to choose as our guiding line. Though the Arian heresy lived vigorously
all through the century, it had become for the most part a religion of
barbarians. It was not so much a source of disunion within the Empire
as a serious—perhaps insuperable-obstacle to a good understanding
between the Roman and the Teuton. The Arianism of the Ostrogoths
was at least one of the most prominent weaknesses of their kingdom
in Italy. But the Empire, generally speaking, was Nicene. The only
regions which had not adopted or were not soon to adopt the definitions
of the First General Council, lay in the far East, beyond the limits of
undisputed imperial sway. When these are brought into the general
current of church history, they take one side or another in the
prevalent controversies, with very conspicuous results. Again, the
Pelagian controversy on free will and original sin will not here concern
us in proportion to its theological and philosophical interest. Though
its roots lay deep, and ever and anon put forth new shoots, it did not
result in a definite schism.
Taking then the main lines of controversy as already indicated, we
may distinguish four phases or periods within the fifth century. In the
first we have an attack on a bishop of Constantinople, a representative
of the Antiochene school, by an archbishop of Alexandria. Rome
sympathises with Constantinople, but Alexandria triumphs for a time,
in great part by court influence. (Chrysostom controversy. )
In the second, Alexandria again advances against Constantinople, the
bishop of which is again Antiochene. Rome, in this phase of the conflict,
sides with Alexandria, which prevails. Court influence is divided, but
gradually comes over to the Alexandrian side. (Nestorian controversy. )
## p. 489 (#519) ############################################
Periods of Controversy. Chrysostom
489
In the third, Alexandria is again aggressive, and prevails over
Constantinople by violence. Rome fails at first to obtain a hearing,
but helps to get the doctrinal points settled in another Council.
(Eutychian or Monophysite controversy. )
In the fourth, the controversy is caused by an abortive attempt,
started by an emperor, but manipulated by the bishops of Constan-
tinople and of Alexandria working together, to reunite some at least
of the parties alienated by the decision of the last conflict. Rome
disapproves strongly, and the result is a serious blow to imperial
authority in the West. (Henoticon controversy. )
1. The chief persons, then, in the first controversy, are Theophilus
of Alexandria and Chrysostom of Constantinople. The doctrinal question
is not to the front, and the interest is in great part personal. This is
in fact the only one of the controversies in which one side at least-
here the one on defence—has an imposing leader. But perhaps it is the
one in which it is least possible to find any reasons beyond motives of
official ambition or of personal antipathy.
The beginner of the attack, Theophilus, who held the Alexandrian
see from 385 to 412, has earned a bad name in history for violence and
duplicity. He was probably not more unscrupulous than many leading
men among his contemporaries, and excelled most of them in scientific
and literary tastes. But he has incurred the odium which attaches to
every religious persecutor who has not the mitigating plea of personal
fanaticism. Another excuse might be alleged in extenuation of his
unjust actions : the excessively difficult position in which he was placed.
The peculiar character of the government of Egypt—its close and
direct connexion with the imperial authority—and the absence, except
in the city itself, of any civic and municipal institutions, always rendered
a good understanding between bishop and praefect one of the great
desiderata. The history of the see and of its most eminent occupants
had given it a prestige which was not easily kept intact without
encroachments on the secular power.
Alexandria had from the
beginning been a city of mixed populations and cults, and at this time
the factions were more numerous and the occasions of disturbance as
serious as in the days of Athanasius. Arianism may have been quelled,
but paganism was still vigorous, and had adherents both in the academies
of the grammarians and philosophers and also among the most ignorant
of the lower classes, who even anticipated disaster when the measuring
gauge was moved from the temple of Serapis to a church. The Jewish
element was large, and the broad toleration of Alexander, the Ptolemies,
and the pagan Emperors was hardly to be expected in the stormy days
which had followed the conversion of Constantine. But more difficult
to deal with than praefects, town mobs, philosophers or Jews, though
a more powerful weapon to use if tactfully secured, was the vast number
of monks that dwelt in the “desert” and other regions within the
>
CH, XVII.
## p. 490 (#520) ############################################
490
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
( 392–394
Alexandrian see. These did not constitute one body, and were very
dissimilar among themselves. The rule of those who had a rule will
be set forth in the following chapter. Here we have to notice the
difficulties which the soaring speculations of some, the crass ignorance
of others, and the detachment of all from worldly convention and
ordinary constituted authority, placed in the way of any attempt to
bring them within the general system of civil and ecclesiastical order.
Theophilus was himself a man of learning and culture, eclectic in
tastes, diplomatic in schemes. He had used his mathematical knowledge
to make an elaborate table of the Easter Cycle. He favoured, in later
days, the candidature of a philosophic pagan (Synesius of Cyrene) for
the bishopric of Ptolemais. He could read and enjoy the works of
writers whose teaching he was publicly anathematising. He appreciated
the force of monastic piety, and endeavoured, by vigorous and even
violent means, to impose episcopal consecration on some leading ascetics
.
He shewed his powers as a pacificator in helping to compose dissension
in the church of Antioch (392) and in that of Bostra (394). He obtained
from the civil authority powers to demolish the great temple of Serapis,
which was done successfully, though not without creating much bitter-
ness of feeling. The great campaign of his life, however, began with an
attack on the followers of Origen at the very beginning of the fifth century.
There seems some paradox in the circumstance that the strife between
the Alexandrian and the Antiochene should have begun (as far as our
present purpose is concerned) by an attack made by an Alexandrian
patriarch on the principles of the most eminent of all Alexandrian
theologians. Theophilus was, both before and after the controversy,
an appreciative student of Origen. He had already aroused a tumultu-
ous opposition from some Egyptian monks who were practically
anthropomorphites by insisting on the doctrine laid down by Origen
as to the incorporeality of the Divine nature, that God is invisible by
reason of His nature, and incomprehensible by reason of the limits of
human intelligence. The line he now took up may have been due to the
influence of Jerome, at that time organising an anti-Origenistic crusade
in Palestine; or else, in his opposition to the philosophic paganism of
Alexandria, he may have become nervous of any concessions as to æons
and gnosis and final restitution; or again, as seems most probable, he
saw a powerful ally in his ambition for his see in the grossest and least
enlightened theology of his day—that of the unhappy monk who wept
that “ they had taken away his God”—when in the earlier stage of the
controversy the doctrines of the anthropomorphites were condemned by
the man who was now their champion.
Having determined to combat Origenism, Theophilus called a synod
to Alexandria, which decreed against it. He followed up the ecclesiastical
censure by securing from the praefect the support of the secular arm.
An attack was made by night on the settlement of those monks, in the
-
## p. 491 (#521) ############################################
397-401]
Chrysostom and Theophilus
491
а
district of Nitria, who were supposed to be imbued with Origenistic
doctrine. The leaders of them were the four " tall brethren," monks of
considerable repute, formerly treated by Theophilus with great respect.
Hounded out by soldiers and by the rival “ Anthropomorphite ” monks,
the Tall Brothers fled for their lives, and after many vicissitudes arrived
in Constantinople and appealed to the protection of the bishop, John
Chrysostom.
In position and in character Chrysostom bears a marked contrast to
his opponent Theophilus. Both, it is true, were men of learning and
culture; both were exposed to the caprices of a pleasure-loving and
much-divided populace. But Chrysostom had one disadvantage more:
he was under the immediate eye of a Court. It was by court influence,
unsought on his part, that he had been elevated, and the same influence
could easily be turned against him. The Emperor Arcadius was of
sluggish temperament, but his wife, Eudoxia, a Frankish lady, was
violent in her likes and dislikes, sensitive, ambitious, and inspired by a
showy and aggressive piety. John had held the see since 397. In early
days he had studied under the pagan Libanius at Antioch, and later he
had been trained in the theological school of that city. He was an
intimate friend of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the most eminent leader of
Antiochene thought, whose principles in the next stage of the controversy
came to the front. Himself a practical teacher rather than a theological
systematiser, he had devoted his power and eloquence, both in Antioch
and Constantinople, to the restraint of violence and the denunciation of
vice and frivolity. He had in earlier days followed for some years the
monastic life, and was always ascetic in self-discipline, and tactless
towards those under his authority. He had been brought into public
prominence, during the anxious time in 387 at Antioch, after the riot.
On his appointment at Constantinople, he shewed great firmness in
resisting the demands made upon him by the minister Eutropius, and
subsequently in negotiations with the Gothic general Gaïnas. He
preached much, and his sermons were intensely popular, for the people
of Byzantium, however mixed, were sufficiently Greek to enjoy good
speaking But John seems to have done more than excite a transient
enthusiasm. A good many Constantinopolitans, particularly some well-
born women, devoted their lives to the works he commended to them.
By his clergy, as might be expected, he was both well beloved and well
hated.
Just at the time when Theophilus was beginning his attacks on the
Origenistic monks, Chrysostom was starting on an expedition which was
the beginning of all his troubles. Complaints had been brought to him
.
of the bad conduct of the bishop of Ephesus. He sent to make
inquiries, and though the accused bishop had in the meantime died,
Chrysostom was requested by the clergy and people of Ephesus to
come and settle their affairs. Accordingly the first three months of the
OH. XVII.
## p. 492 (#522) ############################################
492
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[401
year 401 were spent by him in a visitation of Asia, in the removal of
many clergy, and the putting down of much corruption. No doubt he
considered that he was acting within his rights, according to the canon
of Constantinople and the precedent set by the previous bishop.
But he had given a handle to the rival see of Alexandria. Worse
than this, his absence had led to difficulties at home, where Severianus,
a wandering bishop whom he had left as locum tenens, and Serapion,
Chrysostom's archdeacon and friend, had quarrelled beyond hope of
reconciliation. On his return, Chrysostom judged Severianus to be in
fault, and thereby affronted the Empress, who had taken delight in
Severianus' sermons. With so much of combustible elements about, the
arrivals from Egypt were likely to cause a general conflagration.
Chrysostom received the Tall Brethren courteously, and admitted
them to some of the church services, though he hesitated to receive them
into full communion till the charge of heresy hanging over them had
been removed. He seems to have wished to avoid any provocative
measures. But the Brothers, anxious to remove the slur, or perhaps
stirred up by some sinister interest, appealed to the Empress, as she
rode down the streets in her chariot. The result was that Theophilus
himself was summoned to Constantinople to stand a charge of calumny
and persecution, with darker accusations in the background. He came,
but, though nominally accused, he actually took the rôle of accuser.
Before Theophilus himself arrived in Constantinople, he shewed the
measure of respect in which he held that see by inducing his friend
Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, to go thither on the
business of Origen. Epiphanius had a reputation for piety and real,
but seems to have traded on that reputation and on his advanced years
in going beyond all bounds of courtesy and even of legality. He came
with a large following of bishops and clergy, began his mission by the
ordination of a deacon—an act of defiance to Chrysostom's authority-
refused the hospitality offered by the bishop, and endeavoured, by collo-
quies with the clergy and harangues to the people, to obtain the
condemnation of Origen which Chrysostom refused to pronounce. He
returned baffled, but soon after Theophilus himself appeared at Con-
stantinople, and speedily gathered a party among those who had from
any reason a grudge against Chrysostom. Strange to say, the Origenistic
question retired into the background. Some of the bishops and clergy
at Constantinople were greatly attached to the writings of Origen, with
which, as we have seen, Theophilus had a secret intellectual sympathy.
The charge of Origenism was brought against some of John's adherents,
the charges preferred against himself were either trivial or very im-
probable. If any of them were founded on fact, the utmost we can
safely gather from them is that John may have erred occasionally by
severity in discipline, and that his ascetic habits and delicate digestion
had proved incompatible with generous hospitality.
## p. 493 (#523) ############################################
401]
Second Banishment of Chrysostom
493
It is hardly necessary to say that Theophilus was acting without a
shadow of right. He had thirty-six bishops with him and many more
were coming from Asia at the Emperor's bidding. Chrysostom had
forty who kept by his side. The strange phenomenon of a dual synod
will be met again in the next conflict. Theophilus had the support of
the Court, but he did not venture to pass judgment within the precincts
of the capital.
A synod was held in the neighbourhood of Chalcedon,
on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. Theophilus was present and
presided, unless the presidency was held by the old rival see of Heraclea.
John refused four times to appear, and judgment was passed against
him. As to the Tall Brethren, two had died and the other two
made no opposition. A tumultuous scene followed in Constantinople,
but John, rather than become a cause of bloodshed, withdrew under
protest.
But he did not go far from the city, and in three days he was
summoned back. Constantinople suffered at this time from a shock of
earthquake, which seems to have alarmed the Empress, and the dislike
of Egyptian interference stimulated the desire of the people of Constanti-
nople to recover their bishop. Arcadius sent a messenger to summon
John home. John at first prudently declined to come without the
resolution of a synod, but his scruples were overcome, and he was
reinstated in triumph.
But his return of good fortune was not of long duration. What the
Court had lightly given, it might lightly withdraw. The new cause of
offence was a remonstrance made by Chrysostom, who objected to the
noise and revellings consequent on the erection of a statue of the
Empress close to the church where he officiated. Eudoxia's blood
was up. Report said that the bishop had compared her to Herodias.
He had possibly compared his duty to that of John the Baptist, and his
hearers had pressed the analogy further. He had previously made a
quite pertinent comparison of her court clergy to the priests of Baal,
who "did eat at Jezebel's table," and the inference had seemed to be
that the Empress was a Jezebel. A synod was hastily convoked.
Theophilus did not appear this time, but John's opponents were
now sufficient. He was accused of violating a canon of the Council of
Antioch (341) in having returned without waiting for a synodical
decree. Insult was here added to injury. The canon had been passed
by an Arian council, the violation of it had been due to imperial
pressure. But there was no way of escape. Amid scenes of confusion
and bloodshed, John was conveyed to Cucusus, on the Armenian frontier,
and afterwards to Pityus, in Pontus.
His steadfastness under persecution, the letters by which he sought
to strengthen the hands of his friends and disciples, and the efforts of
his adherents, besides producing a great moral effect, seemed likely to
bring about a reversal of the sentence. Pope Innocent I wrote a letter of
CH. XVII.
## p. 494 (#524) ############################################
494
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
(
407-428
sympathy to Chrysostom and one of strong remonstrance to Theophilus,
to whom a formal deputation was sent. To the clergy and people of
Constantinople he wrote a vigorous protest against the legality of what
had been done, and asserted the need of a Council of East and West.
But for such a council he could only wait the opportunity in faith and
patience. He did all he could by laying the matter before the Emperor
Honorius at Ravenna. A deputation of clergy was sent from Emperor and
Pope to Constantinople. On the way, however, the messengers had their
despatches stolen from them, and they only returned from their bootless
errand after many dangers and insults. Meantime the fire was allowed
to burn itself out. The sufferings of Chrysostom were ended by his
death in exile in September 407. There were still adherents of his
in Constantinople, who refused to recognise his successor, as did also
many bishops in the West. The breach was healed when Atticus,
second bishop after Chrysostom, restored the name of his great pre-
decessor to the diptychs (or tablets, on which the names of lawful
bishops were inscribed).
It can hardly be said that this part of the controversy was ecclesiastical
in the strict sense of the word. It made no new departure in church
doctrine and discipline. But it revealed the more or less hidden forces
by which succeeding conflicts were to be decided.
II. In the second period the Alexandrian leader was Cyril, nephew
of Theophilus, who had succeeded him as bishop in 412. The Byzantine
bishop was Nestorius, who succeeded Sisinnius in 428. Both of these
prelates were more distinctly theological controversialists than were the
chiefs in the last encounter. But theology apart, they succeeded to all
the difficulties in Church and State that had beset their predecessors,
and neither of them was gifted with forbearance and tact. Cyril's
episcopate began with violent conflicts between Christians and Jews, in
which the ecclesiastical power came into collision with the civil.
The
story is well known how the bishop canonised a turbulent monk who
had met his end in the anti-Jewish brawls, how the praefect Orestes
opposed him in this and other high-handed acts, and fell a victim to
the Alexandrian mob. The murder of Hypatia in 415 is not, perhaps,
to be laid directly to Cyril's charge ; but it illustrates the attitude of
anti-pagan fanaticism towards the noblest representatives of Hellenic
culture. Perhaps we may see here the effects of the policy of Theophilus
when he stirred up the more ignorant of the monks to chase away or to
destroy those more capable of philosophic views.
The monks were indeed becoming a more and more uncontrollable
element in the situation. Cyril allied himself with a very powerful
person, the archimandrite Senuti, who plays a large part in the history
of Egyptian monasticism and also in the Monophysite schism. At
present he was orthodox, or rather his views were those that had not yet
been differentiated from orthodoxy, and his zeal was shewn chiefly in
## p. 495 (#525) ############################################
428]
Nestorius and the Imperial Family
495
organising raids on “idols,” temples and pagan priests, and in attacks,
less reprehensible perhaps, but no more respectful of private property,
on the goods of wealthy landowners who defrauded and oppressed the
poor.
Nestorius came from Isauria. His education had been in Antioch,
and the doctrines with which his name is associated are those of the
great Antiochene school carried to their logical and practical conclusions.
But this association has a pathetic and almost a grotesque interest.
Much labour has of recent years been devoted to the task of ascertaining
what Nestorius actually preached and wrote, and the result may be to
acquit him of many of the extravagances imputed to him by his
opponents. To put the case rather crudely: experts have contended
that Nestorius was not a Nestorian. He seems to have been a harsh
and unpleasant man, though capable of acquiring friends, intolerant
of doctrinal eccentricities other than his own. He made it his mission
to prevent men from assigning the attributes of humanity to the Deity,
and boldly took the consequences of his position. Like Chrysostom,
he suffered from the proximity and active ecclesiastical interest of the
imperial family. When Nestorius became bishop of Constantinople
in 428, the Emperor Theodosius II was in the twenty-seventh year
of his age and the twentieth of his reign. Though his character
and abilities offer in some respects a favourable comparison with
those of his father, he suffered, partly through his education, from
a too narrowly theological outlook on his empire and its duties.
fourteen years a leading part in all matters, especially ecclesiastical, had
been taken by his elder sister Pulcheria, who had superintended his
education and seems to have maintained a jealous regard for her own
influence. This influence was at times more or less thwarted by her
sister-in-law Eudocia, the clever Athenian lady, whom she had herself
induced Theodosius to take in marriage. Nestorius had somehow
incurred the enmity of Pulcheria. The cause is too deeply buried in
the dirt of court scandal to be disinterred. Eudocia, though she is
often in opposition to her sister-in-law, does not seem to have had any
leanings to the party of Nestorius, and in the end, as we shall see, she
took a much stronger line against it than did Pulcheria. But both
ladies, in addition to personal feelings, had decided theological leanings,
and to these the Alexandrians were able to appeal.
The theological principles of Cyril were those of the Alexandrian
school. To him it seemed that the doctrine of the Incarnation of the
Logos is impugned by any hesitation to assign the attributes of
humanity to the divine Christ. It was this theological principle which
was the cause, or at least the pretext, of his first attack on Nestorius.
The distinctions between the Alexandrian and Antiochene schools
have their roots far back in the history of theological ideas. One
of the main differences lies in the preference by the Alexandrians for
CH. XVII.
## p. 496 (#526) ############################################
496
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
>
allegorical modes of interpreting Scripture, while the Antiochenes pre-
ferred-in the first instance, at least—a more literal method. This is
not unnatural, so far as Alexandria is concerned. That city had seen
the first attempt at amalgamation of Jewish and Hellenic conceptions,
by the solvent force of figure and symbolism, while underneath there
worked the mind of primeval Egypt. The speculations of Philo and
his successors, both Christian and Pagan, carried on the tradition into
orthodox theology. The Christology of Alexandria had produced the
ouoouotos, and now it regarded that term as needing further develop-
ment—as pointing to an entire union (évwors) of divine and human in
the nature of Christ, beyond any conjunction (ouvápela) which seemed
to admit a possible duality. On the other side, the Antiochene school
is well represented by Theodore of Mopsuestia, the friend of Chrysostom,
and the teacher, whether directly or indirectly, of Nestorius.
He was
a learned man and a great commentator, who insisted on the need of
historical and literary studies in elucidating Holy Scripture.
His
eminence in this respect is to be seen in the fact that we often find him
cited in quite recent commentaries. In his Christology, he held that the
union of the divine and human in the person of Jesus was moral rather
than physical or dynamical (κατ' ευδοκίαν rather than κατ' ουσίαν or
kat' évépyelav). He was, however, very careful to avoid the deduction
that the relation of divine and human was similar in kind though
different in degree, in Christ and in His followers. The actions and
qualities ascribed to Christ as man, and particularly His birth, sufferings
and death, were not to be attributed to the Deity without some
qualifying phrase.
This question might have seemed to be one of purely academic
interest, if it had not obtained an excellent catchword which appealed to
the popular mind: the title of EOTókos (Mother of God) as applied to
the Virgin Mary, vehemently asserted by the Alexandrians, rejected,
or accepted with many qualifications, by the Antiochenes. The fierce-
ness of the battle over this word suggests analogies and associations
which are easily exaggerated. In some sermons preached on behalf of
the Alexandrian view there are remarks which seem to foreshadow the
Virgin cult in medieval and modern times. And the great glory of
Cyril, as we find in superscriptions of his works, was that of being the
chief advocate of the OEOTÓKOS. Again, and this is a more important
point, and one that will meet us again, both the word and the conception
could be interpreted in harmony with one of the strongest elements
in revived paganism. The worship of a maternal deity, such as seems
to have prevailed widely in the earliest civilisation of Mediterranean
lands, had again come to the fore in the last conflict of Paganism with
Christianity. The mysteries of Isis and of Cybele were widespread.
Julian wrote a mystic treatise in honour of the Mother of the Gods ;
and as he blames the Christians for applying the term “Mother of God”
## p. 497 (#527) ############################################
428]
Character of Nestorianism
497
to the Virgin Mary, he seems here to be following his ordinary policy of
strengthening Hellenism on its devotional side by bringing in such
elements from Christianity as might be found compatible with it. The
reverse process, by which Christianity among both the educated and
the uneducated was assimilating pagan ideas, was of course going on
at the same time, consciously in some quarters, unconsciously in others.
But it would be a mistake to look on the Nestorian controversy as
chiefly, or even as greatly, connected with the honour of the Virgin.
Nestorius himself, in one of his sayings, probably uttered in a testy
mood, protested “anyhow, don't make the Virgin a Goddess"; but this
is, I believe, almost the only utterance of the kind during the
controversy.
Generally speaking, on its speculative side, the controversy was
Christological. The Nicene Fathers had finally pronounced on the
relation of the Father to the Divine Logos, but within the limits of
orthodoxy there was room for a difference as to the relation of the
Logos to the human Christ. Some-on the Antiochene side-dreaded
lest the idea of the humanity should be entirely merged in that of the
Logos. Others (leaning towards Alexandria) would avoid any contami-
nation of the Logos by the associations of humanity. Meantime the
unphilosophical minds that took part in the dispute imagined in a
vague way that it was possible for human beings to commit the crime of
literally confusing the nature of the Deity or of cutting Christ in pieces.
The position of Nestorius himself and of those who followed him
most closely is summarised in a saying of his that was often quoted and
oftener misquoted: “I cannot speak of God as being two or three
months old. ” He regarded it as impiety to attribute to a Person of the
Trinity the acts and accidents of human, still more of infant, life. The
Alexandrians, on the other hand, considered this view as virtually
implying the existence of two Christs, a divine and a human. Naturally
a
the opponents made no efforts to understand one another's position, and
if they had their efforts could hardly have been successful. During this
unhappy century, the mind of man had gone hopelessly astray as to its
limitations. Intellectual courage had survived intellectual contact with
facts, but that courage was often directed against chimaeras.
The Pope of Rome at this juncture was Celestine I (422-432). He
seems to have been a conscientious and active ruler, a strict disciplinarian,
yet averse to extreme rigour in dealing with delinquents. As we have
already said, in this conflict Rome is not on the side of Constantinople
and Antioch, but on that of Alexandria. Among the many reasons
that may be assigned for the change, two considerations are prominent :
first, that the relations between the sees of Rome and of Constantinople
had been somewhat strained through rival claims to ecclesiastical
supremacy in the regions of Illyria ; and secondly, that Celestine was
a devoted admirer of Augustine and anxious to put down the Pelagian
32
C. D. H. voL I. CH. XVII.
## p. 498 (#528) ############################################
498
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[ 429
heresy. Nestorius, we may safely say, was not himself a Pelagian. In
some, at least, of his extant discourses he strongly opposes that teaching.
But it is clear that the most eminent Antiochene theologians were not
so pronounced as was Augustine in their doctrine of original sin and of
predestination. Theodore of Mopsuestia was accused of the same
tendency, though he avoided the heretical deductions from his principles,
and Nestorius himself once wrote a sympathetic letter (though the
obscurity of the text makes it doubtful as evidence) to Coelestius the
notable follower of Pelagius. Again, a few years before our present date
(at the Council of Carthage, 426) a monk named Leporius of Marseilles
,
who has been called a “Nestorian before Nestorius," was condemned as
a Pelagian.
The Antiochene see was more definitely than it had previously been
on the side of Constantinople. It was now occupied by a certain John,
who plays an ambiguous part, but seems to have been favourable to
Nestorius. But the most eminent person on this side was Theodoret,
bishop of Cyrus, in the province of Euphratensis, a learned theologian,
a good fighter, and a man of generous impulses, though he did not keep
by his friend Nestorius to the bitter end. In these Eastern bishops we
see a growing jealousy of the overweening power of Alexandria. The
Church of Edessa, which had, generally speaking, lived a life apart, was
drawn into the controversy. The bishop Rabbulas, though not inclined
to urge the adoption of the disputed terms, took the anti-Nestorian side.
His successor however, Ibas (435), upheld the Nestorian position, and
retained for centuries the reverence of the Nestorian Christians of the
East.
To take up briefly the main events of the controversy: It was most
probably during the Christmas festival of the year 428, or else early in 429,
that Proclus, bishop of Cyzicus, but resident at Constantinople, preached
a sermon in which he used and expounded the term EOTÓKOS. Nestorius
replied to this discourse by another, in which he warned the people to
distinguish between the Divine Word and the temple in which the Deity
dwelt, and to avoid saying without qualifications, that God was born of
Mary. Nestorius seems to have been more guarded in his language than
some of his clergy, especially a priest called Anastasius, who condemned
the word OEOTókos altogether and even denounced as heretics those who
used it. It is extremely difficult to determine how widely the Antiochene
or Nestorian view prevailed, and whether it had yet reached Egypt, and
on this question depends the conviction or acquittal of Cyril in regard
to the charge of aggressive violence generally brought against him.
In the Easter of 429 he issued an encyclical to the Egyptian monks,
warning them against the dangers ahead. Men were teaching doctrines,
he said, which would bring Christ down to the level of ordinary
humanity.
Soon after, he wrote a long letter to the Emperor, “image of God on
## p. 499 (#529) ############################################
429]
Cyril, Celestine, Nestorius
499
was
earth,” against heresies in general and the new one-with which,
however, he does not couple the name of Nestorius—in particular.
He followed this up by two very long treatises to “the most pious
princesses” (Pulcheria and her sisters), in which he cites many Fathers
to justify the term fotókos, and makes out that the new heretics
would assert two Christs. The appeal to these ladies does not seem to
have pleased Theodosius, who resented Cyril's use of the discord in
the imperial family. Cyril, when once he had begun, spared no pains
to succeed. He had agents in Constantinople and adherents whom,
at much trouble and expense, he had attached to his cause. Especially
he had the support of a large following among the monks. We have
his letters written both to Nestorius himself and to Celestine, bishop of
Rome. In all of them he takes the ground of one having authority, of
one also who, in spite of personal affection for Nestorius as a man, is
bound to consider the supreme interests of the Truth. Nestorius in
return eulogises Christian TTLEÍKela, a grace in which he does not himself
seem to have excelled, but maintains an independent bearing. He
somewhat superfluously accuses Cyril of ignorance of the Nicene creed,
and reassures him as to the satisfactory state of the Church in
Constantinople. Nestorius meantime in correspondence with
Celestine on another matter. Certain bishops from the West, accused
of heresy, had come to Constantinople, How was he to deal with them?
He had to write a second time before a rather curt answer came; that
of course they were heretics and so was Nestorius himself : they are
known from other sources to have been Pelagians. Cyril had by this
time sent to Rome a Latin translation of the communications that had
passed between him and Nestorius with regard to the whole Christo-
logical question. A synod was consequently held at Rome which
approved of Cyril's action and position, and the Pope wrote to the clergy
of Constantinople, as well as to Cyril and to Nestorius himself. Ten
days were given to Nestorius to make a satisfactory explanation, after
which he and those holding with him were to be held excommunicated.
Letters announcing this decision were sent to the bishops of Antioch,
Jerusalem, Thessalonica and Philippi. To Cyril the Pope delegated
the power to take necessary action against Nestorius and his followers.
In a synod held at Alexandria, a series of propositions condemnatory
of the doctrine taught by Nestorius and insisting on that of the
physical union ” (@vwois Duo uń) were drawn up. In consequence of
these actions, Nestorius, urged by John of Antioch, Theodoret of Cyrus
and others, made certain explanations so as to tolerate the figurative use
of the word Beotókos? . But he stood his ground as to the main
principles, and issued, with the support of his adherents, a list of
counter-anathemas to those of Cyril.
1 I. e. in accordance with the union of the two natures in Christ, even during
mortal life.
CH. XVII.
32-2
## p. 500 (#530) ############################################
500
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[ 431
It may seem strange that local councils and leading bishops or
patriarchs should have gone so far without insisting on a General
Council. One person evidently took this view—the Emperor Theodosius
himself. The builder of the Theodosian Wall and the promulgator of
the Theodosian Code can hardly have been the mere weakling that some
historians would paint him. He seems to have been a man of some
energy and love of fair play, though he had not the strength to carry
out a policy to the end. Now, however, jointly with his cousin
Valentinian, he issued a writ summoning Eastern and Western bishops
to a Council to be held the following Whitsuntide (431) at Ephesus.
He did not attempt to go himself, but he sent as his emissary the
count Candidianus, to keep order, by military force if necessary, and
especially to prevent monks and laymen from intruding. Pope
Celestine sent two deputies, instructed to act along with Cyril
. Cyril
himself went largely accompanied. Among his monastic followers was
the wild ascetic Senuti of Panopolis, already mentioned, though the
stories of Senuti's conduct at the Council are not easily brought into
accordance with the facts we have. Nestorius and his Constantinopolitan
friends went there, but kept at a prudent distance from “the Egyptian. "
John of Antioch and forty Asiatic 'bishops came likewise, but at slow
pace. Their delay, whether accidental or designed, determined the
character and events of the Council. The weak point about the Council
of Ephesus was that the presiding judge and the principal prosecutor
were one and the same person, in an assembly which, though supposed to
be primarily legislative, had also to exercise judicial functions. From
the very first, Nestorius had no chance, and he declined to recognise
the authority of the Council till all its members were assembled. Cyril
was in no mind to allow this plea, and perhaps, in refusing to wait
for the Eastern bishops, he overreached himself, and brought sub-
sequent trouble on his own head. Celestine's delegates had not arrived,
but there was no reason to wait for them, as it was known that they had
been instructed to follow the Alexandrian lead. John of Antioch and
the other Eastern bishops were, of course, an essential part of the
Council, but a message of excuse which John had sent was tacitly
construed into acquiescence with what might be done before his arrival.
Accordingly, in spite of remonstrances from Nestorius, from a good
many Eastern bishops who had already arrived, and from the imperial
Commissioners, the Council was opened sixteen days after the appointed
time, without the Antiochenes or those who were in favour of any
kind
of compromise with Nestorius. Messengers were sent to Nestorius, who
refused to attend. It was the work of one day, the first session of the
Council, to condemn him and deprive him of his see. This was done on
the testimony of his letters, his reported speeches, and his rejection of
the messengers from the Council. One hundred and ninety-eight bishops
signed these decrees. The populace of Ephesus received the result with
## p. 501 (#531) ############################################
431]
End of the Council of Ephesus
501
wild enthusiasm, and gave the champions of the Theotokes an ovation
on their way to their lodgings. Perhaps it is not mere fanciful analogy
to recall the two-hours' shouting of an earlier city mob: “Great Artemis
of the Ephesians. "
Five days afterwards, John of Antioch arrived. He had with him
comparatively few bishops, and when he was joined by the Nestorians,
the number of his party only amounted to forty-three. There seems a
touch of irony in the assertion which he made afterwards that the
reason of his scanty numbers was to be found in his strict injunctions to
follow out the Emperor's directions. Similarly, when he justifies the
delay by the necessity that the bishops should officiate in their churches
on the First Sunday after Easter, we may seem to have a covert hit at
Cyril's large numbers who found no difficulty in absenting themselves
from their flocks.
From the first, John took his stand against the acts of Cyril. He
rejected the communications of the Council and joined forces with
Nestorius. The imperial officials afforded him protection and support.
In the “Conciliabulum,” as his assembly was contemptuously called,
Cyril and Memnon of Ephesus were in their turn deprived and excom-
municated.
