NESTORIUS AND THE NESTORIANS.
THE Nestorian Church is a sect which calls itself Chaldæan Christianity. In its doctrines it follows Nestorius, who was patriarch of Constantinople (428-431) where for three years he exercised an unusual power but succumbed in the conflict with his rival Cyril of Alexandria mainly through the enmity of Pulcheria, the influential sister of Emperor Theodosius II.
Nestorius, a disciple of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, had been ordained a presbyter at Antioch and in his theology he followed the austere traditions of the Antiochian school. When called to Constantinople as patriarch he came with the intention of establishing the "pure doctrine." In his installation sermon before the emperor, he said: "Give me a country cleansed of heretics and I will return heaven to you in its place. Help me to overcome heretics and I will help you to conquer the Persians."
Nestorius combined with his zeal for the truth the awkwardness of the monk who was not fitted to cope with the complicated conditions at the capital, the power of the emperor as head of the Church, the intrigue of the Byzantine court and the influence of the masses. He had offended Pulcheria, who under the title Augusta, shared with her brother the Emperor, the honors of imperial power. While Theodosius favored Nestorius, she, the Augusta, sided with his enemy, the wily Bishop of Alexandria.
In those days dogmatic subtleties and theological terms became issues of great controversies and Nestorius took special exception to the name "Mother of God" which was commonly attributed to Mary. The term was an old pagan expression and is a literal translation of the Egyptian Neter Mut by which pagan devotees addressed the goddess Isis.
A presbyter of Nestorius, Anastasius of Antioch, who had accompanied his master to Constantinople, once preached a sermon
