dral. The troops, under the command of Candidian, advanced to the assault; the outguards were routed and put to the sword, but the place was impregnable: the besiegers retired; their retreat was pursued by a vigorous sally; they lost their horses, and many of the soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubs and stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was defiled with rage and clamour, with sedition and blood; the rival synods darted anathemas and excommunications from their spiritual engines; and the court of Theodosius was perplexed by the adverse and contradictory narratives of the Syrian and Egyptian factions. During a busy period of three months, the emperor tried every method, except the most effectual means of indifference and contempt, to reconcile this theological quarrel. He attempted to remove or intimidate the leaders by a common sentence of acquittal or condemnation; he invested his representatives at Ephesus with ample power and military force; he summoned from either party eight chosen deputies to a free and candid conference in the neighbourhood of the capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. But the orientals refused to yield, and the Catholics, proud of their numbers and of their Latin allies, rejected all terms of union or toleration. The patience of the meek Theodosius was provoked, and he dissolved in anger this episcopal tumult which at the distance of thirteen centuries assumes the venerable aspect of the third oecumenical council." "God is my witness (said the pious prince), that I am not the author of this confusion. His providence will discern and punish the guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your private virtues repair the mischief and scandal of your meeting." They returned to their provinces; but the same passions which had distracted the synod of a See the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus, in the original Greek, and a Latin version almost contemporary, (Concil. tom. 3. p. 991-1339. with the Synodicon adversus Tragædiam Irenæi, tom. 4. p. 235-497.) the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates; (lib. 7. c. 34.) and Evagrius, (lib. 1. c. 3-5.) the Breviary of Liberatus, (in Con cil. tom. 6. p. 419–459. c. 5, 6.) and the Memoires Eccles. of Tillemont. (tom. 14. p. 377-487.). Victory of 431-435. Ephesus were diffused over the eastern world. After three obstinate and equal campaigns, John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain and embrace but their seeming reunion must be imputed rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual lassitude rather than to the Christian charity of the patriarchs. The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the royal ear a baleful prejudice against the character and conduct of his Egyptian rival. An epistle of menace and invective," which accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed the simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of Theodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in the imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined, by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the orientals; who assembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal licence, he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and independence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court and city, successfully laboured to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favour of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternately swayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace; superstition and avarice were their ruling passions; and the orthodox chiefs were assiduous in their endeavours to alarm the former, and to gratify the latter. Constantinople and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches, had de b Ταραχην (says the emperor in pointed language) το γε επι σαυτῷ, και χωρισμού ταις εκκλησιαίς εμβεβληκας ως θρασυτερας όρμης πρεπούσης μαλλον η ακριβειας παντος μαλλον η ἱερέως .... .... . . . . και ποικιλίας μάλλον τουτων ἡμιν αρκουσης ήπερ απλοτητος e Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honourably named by Cyril as a friend, a voted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of their monastic life, they had never mingled with the world, or trode the profane ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the danger of the church, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head of a long order of monks and hermits, who carried burning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to the mother of God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people was edified and inflamed by this extrarordinary spectacle, and the trembling monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, who boldly pronounced, that none could hope for salvation, unless they embraced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor of Athanasius. At the same time every avenue of the throne was assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, the courtiers of both sexes were bribed according to the measure of their power and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries of Constantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the patriarch was unable to silence the just murmur of his clergy, that a debt of 60,000l. had already been contracted to support the expense of this scandalous corruption. Pulcheria, who relieved her brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy: and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the synod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of success if he could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in the favour of Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. His brother, the abbot Dalmatius, is likewise employed to bind the emperor and all his chamberlains terribili conjuratione. Synodicon, c. 203. in Concil. tom. 4. p. 467. d Clerici qui hic sunt contristantur, quod ecclesia Alexandrina nudata sit hujus causa turbelæ ; et debet præter illa quæ hinc transmissa sint auri libras mille quingintas. Et nunc ei scriptum est ut præstet; sed de tua ecclesia præsta avaritiæ quorum nosti, &c. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to his creature the new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccountably preserved in an old Latin version. (Synodicon, c. 203. Concil. tom. 4. p. 465-468.) The mask is almost dropped, and the saints speak the honest language of interest and confederacy. Exile of Nestorius, not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promise of protecting the innocence of the oriental bishops; and Cyril softened his anathemas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge against the unfortunate Nestorius. e 1 The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of A. D. 435. the synod, was oppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by his eastern friends. A sentiment of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication; his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted; he was conducted with honour from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch; and, after a short pause, his successors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged as the lawful bishops of Constantinople. But in the silence of his cell, the degraded patriarch could no longer resume the innocence and security of a private monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with the present, and the future hé had reason to dread: the oriental bishops successively disengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and each day decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as the confessor of the faith. After a residence at Antioch of four years, the hand of Theodosius subscribed an edict," which ranked him with Simon the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, condemned his writings to the flames, and e The tedious negotiations that succeeded the synod of Ephesus are diffusely related in the original Acts, (Concil. tom. 3. p. 1339—1771. ad fin. vol. and the Synodicon, in tom. 4.) Socrates, (lib. 7. c. 28. 35. 40, 41.) Evagrius, (lib. 1. c. 6-8. 12.) Liberatus, (c. 7-10.) Tillemont, Mem. Eccles, tom. 14. p. 487-676.) The most patient reader will thank me for compressing so much nonsense and falsehood in a few lines. 1 Αυτου τε αυδεηθέντος, επετράπη κατα το οικείον επαναπλεύσαι μοναστηριον. Evagrius, lib. 1. c. 7. The original letters in the Synodicon (c. 15. 24-26.) justify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apud Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental. tom. 3. p. 299-302. See the imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus. (Concil. tom. 3. p. 1730-1735.) The odious name of Simonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this τερατωδους διδασκαλίας, was designed ὡς αν ονείδεσι προβληθεντες αιωνιον ὑπόμενοιεν τιμωρίαν, των ἁμαρτημάτων, και μητε ζωντας τιμωρίας, μητε θανοντας ατιμίας έκτος Tapxe. Yet these were Christians! who differed only in names and in shadows. banished his person first to Petra in Arabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert." Secluded from the church and from the world, the exile was still pursued by the rage of bigotry and war. A wandering tribe of the Blemmyes or Nubians invaded his solitary prison; in their retreat they dismissed a crowd of useless captives; but no sooner had Nestorius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox city to the milder servitude of the savages. His flight was punished as a new crime: the soul of the patriarch inspired the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt; the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril; and, as far as the confines of Æthiopia, the heretic was alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the hardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind was still independent and erect; the president of Thebais was awed by his pastoral letters; he survived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the synod of Chalcedon would perhaps have restored him to the honours, or at least to the communion of the church. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcome summons; and his disease might afford some colour to the scandalous report, that his tongue, the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by the worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names of Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Ak The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians (Pandect. lib. 48. tit. 22. leg. 7.) to those happy spots which are discriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan sauds. Three of these under the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat-1. The temple of Jupiter Ammon, 2. The middle Oasis, three days' journey to the west of Lycopolis. 3. The southern, where Nestorius was banished, in the first climate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See a learned note of Michaelis. (ad Descript. Egypt. Abulfedæ, p. 21-34.) i The invitation of Nestorius to the synod of Chalcedon, is related by Zacharins, bishop of Melitene, (Evagrius, lib. 2. c. 2. Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. 2. p. 55.) and the famous Xenaias or Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. 2. p. 40, &c.) denied by Evagrius and Asseman, and stoutly maintained by La Croze. (Thesaur. Epistol. tom 3. p. 181, &c.) The fact is not improbable; yet it was the interest of the Monophysites to spread the invidious report; and Eutychius (tom. 2. p. 12.) alliems, that Nestorius died after an exile of seven years, and consequently ten years before the synod of Chalcedon. |