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Nestorius

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Nestorius, in Greek, Νεστόριος (c. 386–c. 451) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. He received his clerical training as a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch and gained a reputation for his sermons that led to his enthronement by Theodosius II as Archbishop following the death of Sisinnius I in 428.

Nestorius is considered the originator of the Christological position known as Nestorianism, which was eventually declared heretical; it emerged when he began preaching against the title Theotokos (in Greek, Θεοτόκος) or Mother of God, God-Bearer, an appellation for Mary, the mother of Jesus. He quickly met with antagonism from the bishop, Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Alongside the Christological debate, other factors were to come into play in the controversy that would ensue, including a political struggle between the supporters of the See of Alexandria and the See of Antioch, the influence of the Emperor over the See of Constantinople, and the patriarchal primacy of the Pope.

The theological debate centered on the use of the title "Mother of God" (Theotokos/Θεοτόκος) for the Virgin Mary, which Nestorius did not recognize, preferring in his sermons, "Mother of Christ" (Christotokos/Χριστοτόκος/) on the grounds that the former title compromised Jesus' humanity. Cyril countered that it was Nestorius who was actually denying the reality of the Incarnation, by making Jesus Christ into two different persons, one human and one divine, in one body. See Nestorianism.

The Emperor Theodosius II (401–450) was eventually induced to convoke a general church council, sited at Ephesus, itself a special seat for the veneration of Mary, where the theotokos formula was popular. The Emperor gave his support to the Archbishop of Constantinople, while Pope Celestine I was in agreement with Cyril. Cyril took charge of the Council of Ephesus in 431, opening debate before the long-overdue contingent from Antioch could arrive.

The council deposed Nestorius and declared him a heretic. In Nestorius' own words,

When the followers of Cyril saw the vehemence of the emperor… they roused up a disturbance and discord among the people with an outcry, as though the emperor were opposed to God; they rose up against the nobles and the chiefs who acquiesced not in what had been done by them and they were running hither and thither. And… they took with them those who had been separated and removed from the monasteries by reason of their lives and their strange manners and had for this reason been expelled, and all who were of heretical sects and were possessed with fanaticism and with hatred against me. And one passion was in them all, Jews and pagans and all the sects, and they were busying themselves that they should accept without examination the things which were done without examination against me; and at the same time all of them, even those that had participated with me at table and in prayer and in thought, were agreed… against me and vowing vows one with another against me… In nothing were they divided.


In the following months, 17 bishops who supported Nestorius' doctrine were removed from their sees, and his principal supporter, John I of Antioch, succumbed to imperial pressure and abandoned Nestorius in March 433. On August 3, 435, Theodosius II, who had supported Nestorius' appointment, bowed to the influence of his sister Pulcheria in issuing an imperial edict that exiled Nestorius to a monastery in the Great Oasis of Hibis (al-Khargah), in Egypt, securely within the diocese of Cyril. In East and West, Nestorius' writings were burnt wherever they could be found. They survive mainly in Syriac.

The incident caused a split within the church, and led to the creation of separate Nestorian churches that would flourish throughout the Middle East and central Asia.

After 1,500 years of stigmatization as a heretic, a book written by Nestorius was discovered in 1895, known as the Bazaar of Heracleides, written towards the end of his life, in which he explicitly denies the heresy for which he was condemned, instead affirming of Christ "the same one is twofold" — an expression that some consider similar to the formulation of the Council of Chalcedon. Nestorius's earlier surviving writings, however, including his letter written in response to Cyril's charges against him, contain material that seems to support charges that he held that Christ had two persons. Thus, whether Nestorius was actually a Nestorian is still a matter of debate.

Nestorius is deeply venerated in the Assyrian Church of the East as a saint, the Syriac for 'Saint Nestorius' being Mar Nestorios.

References

* St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy ISBN 0-88141-259-7 by John Anthony McGuckin — includes a history of the Council of Ephesus and an analysis of Nestorius' Christology.

External links

* From Orthodoxwiki.org * Dialogue between the Syrian and Assyrian Churches from the Coptic Church * The Coptic Church's View Concerning Nestorius * From the Catholic Encyclopedia * English translation of the Bazaar of Heracleides. * Writing of Nestorius * "The lynching of Nestorius" by Stephen M. Ulrich, concentrates on the political pressures around the Council of Ephesus and analyzes the rediscovered Bazaar of Nestorius. * The Person and Teachings of Nestorius of Constantinople by Mar Bawai Soro, a very complete and biased Nestorian presentation from the point of view of the Church of East.
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This biography says:

...On August 3, 435, Theodosius II, who had supported Nestorius' appointment, bowed to the influence of his sister Pulcheria in issuing an imperial edict that exiled Nestorius to a monastery in the Great Oasis of Hibis (al-Khargah), in Egypt, securely within the diocese of Cyril...

That biography says:

...She did not oppose Arianism, the form of Christianity practised by the Germanic tribes. Theodosius originally supported Archbishop Nestorius, but Pulcheria, with the help of Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria, convinced him to return to Orthodoxy...

This biography says:

...The Emperor Theodosius II (401–450) was eventually induced to convoke a general church council, sited at Ephesus, itself a special seat for the veneration of Mary, where the theotokos formula was popular. The Emperor gave his support to the Archbishop of Constantinople, while Pope Celestine I was in agreement with Cyril. Cyril took charge of the Council of Ephesus in 431, opening debate before the long-overdue contingent from Antioch could arrive...

This biography says:

...451) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. He received his clerical training as a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch and gained a reputation for his sermons that led to his enthronement by Theodosius II as Archbishop following the death of Sisinnius I in 428...

That biography says:

...ii.2), with some literary license, and adds that in his lifetime Theodore was never arraigned by any of the orthodox. But in a letter to Nestorius (ibid. x.2) John begs him to retract, urging the example of Theodore, who, when in a sermon at Antioch he had said something which gave great and manifest offence, for the sake of peace and to avoid scandal, after a few days as publicly corrected himself...

This biography says:

...He received his clerical training as a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch and gained a reputation for his sermons that led to his enthronement by Theodosius II as Archbishop following the death of Sisinnius I in 428....

That biography says:

...His third book, On the Incarnation of the Lord, was a defence of orthodox doctrine against the views of Nestorius, and was written at the request of the Archdeacon of Rome, later Pope Leo the Great....

This biography says:

...Nestorius is considered the originator of the Christological position known as Nestorianism, which was eventually declared heretical; it emerged when he began preaching against the title Theotokos (in Greek, Θεοτόκος) or Mother of God, God-Bearer, an appellation for Mary, the mother of Jesus. He quickly met with antagonism from the bishop, Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Alongside the Christological debate, other factors were to come into play in the controversy that would ensue, including a political struggle between the supporters of the See of Alexandria and the See of Antioch, the influence of the Emperor over the See of Constantinople, and the patriarchal primacy of the Pope...

That biography says:

...Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries. He was a central figure in the First Council of Ephesus in 431 which led to the deposition of Nestorius as Archbishop of Constantinople. Cyril is among the patristic fathers, and the Doctors of the Church, and his reputation within the Christian world has resulted in his titles "Pillar of Faith" and "Seal of all the Fathers"...

That biography says:

...But the perplexing question occurs: Wherefore, in God's providence, were persons, eminent for their attainments and their piety, such as Photinus, Apollinaris, and Nestorius, permitted to fall into heresy? To which the answer is, For the Church's trial. And Vincentius proceeds to show, in the case of each of these, how great a trial to the Church his fall was...

That biography says:

...Neither did he have any share, as was wrongly ascribed to him, in the Council of Ephesus of 431, though, in consequence of disputes which arose in Armenia between the followers of Nestorius and the disciples of Acacius of Melitene and Rabbula, Isaac and his church did appeal to Constantinople and through Saint Proclus obtained the desired explanations...

That biography says:

...Theod. 33 ad Pulch. 35), he publicly condemned the teachings not only of Eutyches, but also of Nestorius, subscribing to the letters of Cyril against Nestorius and of Pope Leo I against Eutyches (Leo, Epp...

That biography says:

Because of his popularity in Upper Egypt and his zeal for Orthodoxy, Shenouda was chosen by Saint Cyril the Great to accompany him in representing the Church of Alexandria at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. There he provided the moral support that Saint Cyril needed to defeat the heresy of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople. The eventual exile of the latter to Akhmim, Shenouda's backyard, was a testimony to the impression that Shenouda had made upon the attendees of this council.

That biography says:

In his struggle against Nestorius, St. Cyril explained the union between the two natures of Christ (His Divinity and His Humanity) as "inward and real without any division, change, or confusion." He rejected the Antiochene theory of "indwelling", or "conjunction", or "close participation" as insufficient to reveal the real unification...

That biography says:

Theodoret stands out prominently in the christological controversies aroused by Cyril of Alexandria. Theodoret shared in the petition of John I of Antioch to Nestorius to approve of the term theotokos ("mother of God"), and upon the request of John wrote against Cyril's anathemas...

That biography says:

...By 431, as a deacon, he occupied a sufficiently important position for Cyril of Alexandria to apply to him in order that Rome's influence should be thrown against the claims of Juvenal of Jerusalem to patriarchal jurisdiction over Palestine -- unless this letter is addressed rather to Pope Celestine I. About the same time John Cassian dedicated to him the treatise against Nestorius written at his request. But nothing shows more plainly the confidence felt in him than his being chosen by the emperor to settle the dispute between Aëtius and Albinus, the two highest officials in Gaul...

That biography says:

...In response to Photinus, Aquinas stated that Jesus was truly divine and not simply a human being. Against Nestorius, who suggested that God merely inhabited the body of Christ, Aquinas argued that the fullness of God was an integral part of Christ's existence...

That biography says:

...Juvenal wanted to make Jerusalem into a primary see (a "Patriarchal see") by demotion of the metropolitan see of Caesarea and the primary see of Antioch. In 431, he sided with Saint Cyril against Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus. He argued that the bishop of Antioch should have taken his doctrine from the "apostolic see of Jerusalem." Cyril refused to help Juvenal promote his claims...

That biography says:

...Mary is referred to by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy and all Eastern Catholic Churches as Theotokos, a title recognized at the Third Ecumenical Council (held at Ephesus to address the teachings of Nestorius, in 431). Theotokos (and its Latin equivalents, "Deipara" and "Dei genetrix") literally means "Godbearer"...

That biography says:

...Acacius advised the Byzantine emperor Zeno to issue the Henotikon edict in 482, in which Nestorius and Eutyches were condemned, the twelve chapters of Cyril of Alexandria accepted, and the Chalcedon Definition ignored...

That biography says:

...He demanded of Macedonius a declaration of his faith in writing; Macedonius addressed a memorandum to the emperor insisting that he knew no other faith than that of the Fathers of Nicaea and Constantinople, and that he anathematized Nestorius and Eutyches and those who admitted two Sons or two Christs, or who divided the two natures. Xenaïas, seeing the failure of his first attempt, found two individuals who accused Macedonius of an abominable crime, avowing themselves his accomplices...

That biography says:

...Though evidently written under great exasperation, it shows Ibas as a man of independent judgment, and free from partisanship. In the letter, Nestorius is severely censured for refusing the title Theotokos to the Virgin Mary, and Ibas accuses Cyril of Apollinarianism, and denounces the heresy of his 12 chapters, charging him with maintaining the perfect identity of the manhood and Godhead in Christ, and denying the Catholic doctrine of the union of two Natures in One Person (Philippe Labbe, iv...

That biography says:

...* Five memre on dominical feasts — Christmas, Epiphany, Passion, Easter, Ascension — these show Narsai's christological opposition to Cyril of Alexandria in a few places — * Six memre on Old Testament topics — Enoch and Elijah, Flood, Blessings of Noah, Tower of Babel, Tabernacle, Brazen Serpent — * Five memre on Parables of Jesus — Ten Virgins, Prodigal Son, Rich man and Lazarus, Workers in the Vineyard, Wheat and Tares — * Memra on the Three Doctors (Diodore of Tarsus, Nestorius and Theodore of Mopsuestia) —

That biography says:

Rabbula (or Rabbulas) was a bishop of Edessa (411 - August, 435), noteworthy for his opposition to the views of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as well as those of Nestorius. However, his successor Ibas, who was in charge of the school of Edessa, reversed the official stance of that bishopric...
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