and incarnate."[1] So Cyril is in agreement with the later decisions of Chalcedon; he did not, as after his death the Monophysites pretended, belong to them.
The efforts of Aristolaus were crowned with success. John of Antioch sent to Cyril an orthodox declaration of his faith. He acknowledges the title θεοτόκος, with a correct explanation of it.[2] Further, he "recognized the deposition of Nestorius and anathematized his bad and pernicious novelties."[3] This is all that could be expected. Cyril was satisfied. John writes again a pleasant letter, beginning: "Behold, again we are friends."[4] Cyril answered him in a famous letter announcing complete reconciliation, beginning, "Let the heavens rejoice,"[5] and in April 433 announced to the faithful of Alexandria that peace was now restored with Antioch.[6] That is the happy end of this quarrel.
But not everyone was satisfied. In Syria three parties remained. First, the great majority, with the Pope, the Emperor, the faithful in the West and at Constantinople, were delighted that there was now peace. They accepted the Council of Ephesus and the word θεοτόκος. Nestorius had disappeared; they rejoiced at the agreement between the two great Patriarchs—an agreement blessed by a still greater Patriarch far away, where the sun set over the Imperial City and the throne of Peter; they argued reasonably that professions of faith that satisfied Cyril, John and Sixtus could satisfy a plain Christian man too. These are the great bulk of Christians, Catholic and Orthodox, till, alas! long centuries later, Cerularius casts his shadow between them and Peter of Antioch vainly tries to prevent the great schism.[7] Then there were extremists on either side. In Syria there were some who held, with what was already a formidable party in Egypt, that Cyril ought not to be reconciled with John. They saw in Cyril's explanations a concession to the cause of Nestorius. They had declaimed so vigorously against the theory of two persons in Christ that they had come to suspect any distinction in him at all.
