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NESTORIUS (d. c. 451)
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See also:NESTORIUS (d. c. 451) , Syrian ecclesiastic, See also:patriarch of See also:Constantinople from 428 to 431, was a native of Germanicia at the See also:foot of See also:Mount See also:Taurus, in See also:Syria. The See also:year of his See also:birth is unknown. He received his See also:education at See also:Antioch, probably under See also:Theodore of Mopsuestia. As See also: From Antioch Nestorius had brought along with him to Constantinople a co-presbyter named See also:Anastasius, who enjoyed his confidence and is called by See also:Theophanes his " See also:syncellus." This Anastasius, in a See also:pulpit oration which the patriarch himself is said to have prepared for him, caused See also:great See also:scandal to the partisans of the Marian cultus then beginning by saying, " Let no one See also:call Mary the mother of God, for Mary was a human being; and that God should be See also:born of a human being is impossible." The opposition, which was led by one See also:Eusebius, a'" scholasticus " or pleader who afterwards became bishop of Dorylaeum, See also:chose to construe this utterance as a denial of the divinity of See also:Christ, and so violent did the dispute upon it become that Nestorius judged it necessary to silence the See also:remonstrants by force. The situation went from See also:bad to worse, and the dispute not only See also:grew in intensity but reached the See also:outer See also:world. Matters were soon ripe for See also:foreign intervention, and the notorious See also:Cyril (q.v.) of See also:Alexandria, in whom the antagonism between the Alexandrian and Antiochene See also:schools of See also:theology,' as well as the See also:jealousy between the patriarchate of St See also:Mark and that of Constantinople, found a determined and unscrupulous exponent, did not fail to make use of the opportunity. He stirred up his own clergy, he wrote to encourage the dissidents at Constantinople, he addressed himself to the See also:sister and wife of the emperor (Theodosius himself being known to be still favour-able to Nestorius), and he beggared the clergy of his own diocese to find bribes for the officials of the See also:court .2 He also sent to See also:Rome a careful selection of Nestorius's sayings and sermons. Nestorius himself, on the other See also:hand, having occasion to write to See also:Pope See also:Celestine I. about the Pelagians (whom he was not inclined to regard as heretical), gave from his own point of view an See also:account of the disputes which had recently arisen within his patriarchate.' While ordinarily Rome might have been expected to hold the See also:balance between -the contrasted schools of thought, as See also:Leo was able later to do, it is not surprising that this implied See also:appeal proved unsuccessful, for Celestine naturally resented any questioning of the See also:Roman decision concerning the Pelagians and was jealous of the growing See also:power of the upstart see of the Nova See also:Roma of the See also:East. He was not slow to use the opportunity of gaining what was at once an See also:official See also:triumph and a See also:personal See also:satisfaction. In a See also:synod which met in 430, he decided in favour of the epithet ' At Alexandria the mystic and allegorical tendency prevailed, at Antioch the See also:practical and See also:historical, and these tendencies showed themselves in different methods of study, exegesis and presentation of See also:doctrine. 2 Letters of the See also:archdeacon See also:Epiphanius to the patriarch See also:Maximianus (See also:Migne, Patr. Gr. lxxxiv. 826). ' The See also:letter is given in F. Loofs, Nestoriana 166-168, partly translated in J. F. See also:Bethune-See also:Baker, Nestorius and his Teaching, p. 16 seq.
See also:Gem-See also:Oxus, and bade Nestorius retract his erroneous teaching, on See also:pain of instant See also:excommunication, at the same See also:time entrusting the See also:execution of this decision to the patriarch of Alexandria. On See also:hearing from Rome, Cyril at once held a synod and See also:drew up a doctrinal See also:formula for Nestorius to sign, and also twelve anathemas covering the various points of the Nestorian dogmatic. Nestorius, instead of yielding to the combined pressure of his two great rivals, merely replied by a See also:counter excommunication.
In this situation of affairs the demand for a See also:general See also:council became irresistible, and accordingly Theodosius and Valentinian III. issued letters summoning the metropolitans of the catholic church to meet at See also:Ephesus at Whitsuntide 431, each bringing with him some able suffragans. Nestorius, with sixteen bishops and a large following of armed men, was among the first to arrive; soon afterwards came Cyril with fifty bishops. See also:Juvenal of See also:Jerusalem and See also:Flavian of Thessalonica were some days See also:late. It was then announced that See also: Notwithstanding these circumstances, Cyril and the one See also:hundred and fifty-nine bishops who were with him proceeded to read the imperial letter of See also:convocation, and afterwards the letters which had passed between Nestorius and his adversary. Almost immediately the entire See also:assembly with one See also:voice cried out See also:anathema on the impious Nestorius and his impious doctrines, and after various extracts from the writings of church fathers had been read the See also:decree of his exclusion from the episcopate and from all priestly communion was solemnly read and signed by all See also:present, whose See also:numbers had by this time swelled to one hundred and ninety-eight. The accused and his friends never had a hearing. As Nestorius himself said, " the Council was Cyril "; it simply registered the Alexandrian patriarch's views. When the decision was known the populace, who had been eagerly waiting from See also:early See also:morning till See also:night to hear the result, accompanied the members with torches and censers to their lodgings, and there was a general See also:illumination of the See also:city. A few days afterwards (June 26th or 27th) John of Antioch arrived, and efforts were made by both parties to gain his See also:ear; whether inclined or not to the cause of his former co-presbyter, he was naturally excited by the precipitancy with which Cyril had acted, and at a conciliabulum of See also:forty-three bishops held in his lodgings shortly after his arrival he was induced by Candidian, the friend of Nestorius, to depose the bishops of Alexandria and Ephesus on the spot. The efforts, however, to give effect to this See also:act on the following See also:Sunday were frustrated by the zeal of the Ephesian See also:mob. Meanwhile a letter was received from the emperor declaring invalid the session at which Nestorius had been deposed unheard; numerous sessions and counter-sessions were after-wards held, the conflicting parties at the same time exerting them-selves to the utmost to secure an effective superiority at court. In the end Theodosius decided to confirm the depositions which had been pronounced on both sides, and Cyril and See also:Memnon as well as Nestorius were by his orders laid under See also:arrest. Representatives from each See also:side were now summoned before him to See also:Chalcedon, and at last, yielding to the sense of the evident See also:majority, he gave a decision in favour of the " orthodox," and the council of Ephesus was dissolved. Maximian, one of the Constantinopolitan clergy, a native of Rome, was promoted to the vacant see, and Nestorius was henceforward represented in the city of his former patriarchate only by one small See also:congregation, which also a See also:short time afterwards became See also:extinct. The commotion which had been thus raised did not so easily subside in the more eastern See also:section of the church; the Antiochenes continued to maintain for a considerable time an attitude of antagonism towards Cyril and his creed, and were not pacified until an understanding was reached in 433 on the basis of a new formula involving some material concessions by him. The See also:union even then met with resistance from a number of bishops, who, rather than accede to it, submitted to deposition and See also:expulsion from their See also:sees; and it was not until these had all died out that, as the result of stringent imperial edicts, Nestorianism may be said to have become extinct throughout the Roman See also:empire. Their school at See also:Edessa was closed by See also:Zeno in 489. As for Nestorius himself, immediately after his deposition he withdrew into private See also:life in his old monastery of Euprepius, Antioch, until 435, when the emperor ordered his banishment to See also:Petra in See also:Arabia. A second decree, it would seem, sent him to See also:Oasis, probably the city of the Great Oasis, in Upper See also:Egypt, where he was still living in 439, at the time when Socrates wrote his Church See also:History. He was taken prisoner by the Blemmyes, a See also:nomad tribe that gave much trouble to the empire in See also:Africa, and when they set him See also:free in the Thebaid near Panopolis (See also:Akhmim) c. 45o, they exposed him to further persecution from Schenute the great See also:hero of the See also:Egyptian monks. There is some See also:evidence that he was summoned to the Council of Chalcedon,l though he could not attend it, and the concluding portion of his See also:book known as The See also:Bazaar of Heraclides not only gives a full account of the " Robber Synod " of Ephesus 449, but knows that Theodosius is dead (See also:July 45o) and seems aware of the proceedings of Chalcedon and the See also:flight of Dioscurus the unscrupulous successor of Cyril at Alexandria. Nestorius was already old and ailing and must have died very soon after. The Nestorian See also:Heresy.—What is technically and conventionally meant in dogmatic theology by " the Nestorian heresy " must now be noticed. As Eutychianism is the doctrine that the God-See also:man has only one nature, so Nestorianism is the doctrine that He has two See also:complete persons. So far as Nestorius himself is concerned, however, it is certain that he never formulated any such doctrine;2 nor does any recorded utterance of his, however casual, come so near the heresy called by his name as Cyril's deliberately framed third anathema (that regarding the " See also:physical union " of the two hypostases or natures) approaches Eutychianism. It must be remembered that Nestorius was as orthodox at all events as See also:Athanasius on the subject of the incarnation, and sincerely, even fanatically, held every See also:article of the Nicene creed. See also:Hefele himself, one of the most learned and acute of Cyril's partisans, is compelled to admit that Nestorius accurately held the duality of the two natures and the integrity of each, was equally explicitly opposed to Arianism and Apollinarianism, and was perfectly correct in his assertion that the Godhead can neither be born nor suffer; all that he can allege against him is that " the fear of the communicalio idiomatum pursued him like a spectre." But in reality the question raised by Nestorius was not one as to the communicrftio idiomatum, but simply as to the proprieties of See also:language. " I cannot speak of God," he said, " as being two or three months old," a remark which was See also:twisted to his disadvantage. He did not refuse to speak of Mary as being the mother of Christ or as being the mother of See also:Emmanuel, but he thought it improper to speak of her as the mother of God, and Leo in the Letter to Flavian which was endorsed at Chalcedon uses the See also:term " Mother of the See also:Lord " which was exactly what Nestorius wished. And there is at least this to be said for him that even the most zealous See also:desire to frustrate the Arian had never made it a See also:part of orthodoxy to speak of See also:David as Oso7r&r ip or of See also: F. Bethune-Baker, Nestorius and his Teaching, ch. vi. Christ lived on earth the life of man, and without questioning the equally genuine Divine See also:element laid stress on this genuine human consciousness. There is no See also:reason to suppose that Nestorius in-tended to introduce any innovations in doctrine, and in any estimate of him his strong religious See also:interest and his fervent See also:pastoral spirit must have due See also:weight. He was a great extempore preacher and exposed to the peril of the unconsidered " telling " phrase. That a man of such conspicuous ability, who impressed himself at the outset on the See also:people of Constantinople as an uncompromising opponent of heresy should within a few short years be an excommunicated fugitive, sacrificed to See also:save the See also:face of Cyril and the Alexandrians, is indeed, as See also:Duchesne says, a tragedy. No successor of See also:Chrysostom was likely to receive much See also:good-will from the See also:nephew and successor of See also:Theophilus of Alexandria. It is only within recent years that an See also:attempt has been made to See also:judge Nestorius from some other evidence than that afforded by the accusations of Cyril and the inferences See also:drawn therefrom. This other evidence consists partly of letters from Nestorius, preserved among the See also:works of those to whom they were written, some sermons collected in a Latin See also:translation by See also:Marius See also:Mercator, an See also:African See also:merchant who was doing business in Constantinople at the time of the dispute, and other material gathered from See also:Syriac See also:manuscripts. Since the helpful collection of Nestoriana published by Dr F. Loofs in 1905 there has also come to our knowledge the most valuable evidence of all, Nestorius's own account of the whole difficulty, viz. The Bazaar 3 of Heraclides of See also:Damascus. This See also:pseudonym served to protect the book against the See also:fate that overtook the writings of heretics, and in a Syriac version it was preserved in the See also:Euphrates valley where the followers of Nestorius settled. Ebed Jesu in the 14th century mentions it together with Letters and Homilies, as well as the Tragedy, or a Letters to See also:Cosmas, the Theopaschites (of which some fragments are still extant) and the See also:Liturgy, which is still used by the Nestorian Church. The See also:discovery of The Bazaar, which is the Apologia of Nestorius, was made public by Dr H. Goussen (though members of the See also:Archbishop of See also:Canterbury's See also:Mission to the See also:Assyrian Christians had previously been acquainted with the book). The See also:text has been edited by P. Paul Bedjan (See also:Leipzig, 1910) and a See also:French translation has been made by M. 1'See also:abbe F. Nau. A representative selection of extracts has been given to See also:English readers in J. F. Bethune-Baker's Nestorius and his Teaching (See also:Cambridge, 1908), See also:chapter ii. of which describes the MS. and its accounts. Much of the See also:argument is thrown into the See also:form of a See also:dialogue between (t) Nestorius and an imaginary opponent Superianus, (2) Nestorius and Cyril. The book reveals a strong See also:personality and See also:helps us to know the man and his teaching, even though we have to gather his own views largely from his See also:criticism of his antagonists. He is throughout more concerned for the wrong done to the faith at Ephesus than to himself, saying that if he held the views attributed to him by Cyril he would be the first to condemn himself without See also:mercy. All through the years of conflict he had " but one end in view, that no one should call the Word of God a creature, or the Manhood which was assumed incomplete." In his letters to Celestine he had laid stress on the point that the teaching he attacked was derogatory to the Godhead and so he called its champions Arians. " If the Godhead of the Son had its origin in the womb of the Virgin it was not Godhead as the See also:Father's, and He who was born could not be homoousios with God, and that was what the Arians denied Him to be." It is thus increasingly difficult to believe that Nestorius was a " Nestorian." Pere J. See also:Mahe has shown (Revue d'Inst. See also:eccles. July, 1906) that in spite of notable See also:differences of terminology and form the chronologies of Antioch and Alexandria were in essence the same. Personal rather than doctrinal reasons had by far the larger part in determining the fate of Nestorius, who was sacrificed to the agreement between the two great schools. This view is confirmed by the evidence of the Synodicon Orientale (the collection of the canons of Nestorian See also:Councils and Synods), which shows that the Great Syriac Church built up by the adherents of Nestorius and ever memorable for its zeal in carrying the Gospel into Central See also:Asia, See also:China and See also:India cannot, from its inception, be rightly described as other than orthodox. The "attenuated " (i.e. un-" Nestorian ") form which some historians have noted in the early centuries of See also:Persian Nestorianism was really there from the beginning. The Nestorian Church, following its See also:leader, formally recognizes the Letter of Leo to Flavian and the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. " When I came," said Nestorius (Baz. Herac.), " upon that exposition and read it, I gave thanks to God that the Church of Rome was rightly and blamelessly making See also:confession, even though they happened to be against me personally." His aim, he tells us, had been to maintain the distinct continuance of the two natures of Christ when See also:united through the Incarnation into one Person. " In the Person the natures use their properties mutually. . The manhood is the person of the Godhead and the Godhead is the person of the manhood." The ultimate union of these two natures appears to See also:lie in the will—" For there was one and the same will and mind in the union of the natures, so that both should will or not will exactly the same things. The natures have, moreover, a 3 Syriac, tegurta, lit. " merchandise. " The See also:Greek word may have been 1µirbptov. Nothing is certainly known of any such Heraclides. mutual will, since the person of this is the person of that, and the person of that the person of this." The manner in which this union is realized is thus stated by Nestorius: " The Word also passed through Blessed Mary inasmuch as He did not receive a beginning by birth from her, as is the case with the See also:body which was born of her. For this reason I said that God the Word passed and not was born, because He did not receive a beginning from her. But the two natures being united are one Christ. And He who was born of the Father as to the Divinity, and from the See also:Holy Virgin as to the humanity is and is styled one; for of the two natures there was a union." It may truly be said that the ideas for which Nestorius and the Antiochene school strove " won the See also:day as regards the doctrinal See also:definitions of the church. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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