Page:Early Christianity in Arabia.djvu/124

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112
EARLY CHRISTIANITY

his flesh from her." The patrician Florentius demanded, "Dost thou acknowledge, that after his incarnation he consists of two natures?" "I acknowledge," replied Eutyches, "that he consisted of two natures before their union, but after that I allow but one." Eutyches, in defence of his opinions, urged the authority of the writings of Athanasius and Cyril, but before the meeting was dissolved, Flavian, in the name of the whole assembly, declared that he was convicted by his own confessions of the errors of Valentinus and Apollinaris, and that he was no longer to be considered a member of the church of Christ.[1]

Eutyches, however, was not disposed to yield quietly to the decrees of the meeting by which he had been condemned. Chrysaphius, the favourite minister of the emperor, was his godson and his friend; his cause was advocated by Dioscorus, the patriarch of Alexandria, and at the instigation of the former, Theodosius was induced to call a general council, to whose judgment he agreed to submit. Accordingly, on the 8th of August in the year 449, one hundred and thirty bishops, with a numerous train of monks, assembled at Ephesus. Three deputies, one of whom was Julius, bishop of Puteoli, were sent from Rome by Leo, who had already declared his hostility to the Monophysite doctrines. But the party of Eutyches was strongest in the weapons of the spirit and of the flesh. Dioscorus brought with him a numerous

  1. Concil. tom. iv.