in which he declared, "Call ye not Mary, mother of God, for she was but human, and God cannot be born of a human being.[1]
These words gave great offense, for the term "Mother of God" was very dear to the Egyptian Church and had been adopted by the other congregations. But Nestorius supported his presbyter and thereby was implicated in a struggle with the worshipers of Mary. He was accused of splitting up the personality of Christ into two separate beings, Christ born of God in eternity, and the human Jesus, son of Mary.
Cyril succeeded in having Nestorius condemned at the council of Ephesus in 431 before all the members had assembled, among them his friend, Johannes, the Bishop of Antioch, who arrived too late to undo the mischief that had been done. The emperor protested and declared the council as illegal. But Cyril had gained a powerful ally in the person of the Archimandrite Dalmatius, a hermit who had stayed in his cell for forty years and was reverenced by the masses of the people as a saint. He stirred the populace and intimidated the Emperor. After several vain attempts to reconcile the two parties, the Emperor yielded to the insistent protestations of the numerous supporters of Cyril and had Nestorius deposed.
The expelled patriarch lived for four years in the monastery of Euprepius near Antioch, where he still exercised considerable influence on the Syrian Church so as to rouse the suspicion of his enemies. Accordingly he was removed into more out of the way places. One edict ordered him to be sent to Petra in Arabia, but according to Socrates, the Church historian, he was deported to one of the Egyptian oases. When this was raided by a Blemnyan desert tribe he fell into the hands of the barbarians, who however treated their venerable prisoner with consideration and even respect. Later on we find him in Panopolis. In his last years he was dragged about from place to place in the confines of Egypt like a common criminal under the supervision of Egyptian guards. He wrote the story of his life under the title "Tragedy" which was known and utilized by Irenæus who admired him greatly for his noble character, his patience and Christian piety. An extract of this same book of Nestorius exists in a manuscript preserved in the Abbey at Monte Cassino, published in the Synodikon by Lupus.[2]
Nestorius had been crushed and he died in the power of his enemies who embittered the end of his life, but the problem he had raised continued to upset the Church for a long time. He had many
- ↑ Socrates, Hist. Ec., VII, chap. 32.
- ↑ A reprint of the manuscript is also found in Mansi Concil. T. V.
