presence of the contending parties. This would agree with what he narrated as early as December 430 in his answer to the above-mentioned letter of John of Antioch[1]. And even in his first letter to Pope Celestine, after having expressed his strong aversion to the term θεοτόκος, he nevertheless wrote: The term may be tolerated[2]. Hence we can give credit to the statement of Nestorius, that from the beginning he did not regard as intolerable the term θεοτόκος if rightly understood. His position was this: he feared the term would originate false ideas[3], and for this reason and because he believed the term unknown to the orthodox Fathers of the past, he had nothing in its favour and undoubtedly opposed it on frequent occasions; but even in a sermon of the spring of 429, which was known to Cyril before writing his epistola dogmatica, he declared: If you will use the term θεοτόκος with simple faith, it is not my custom to grudge it you[4]. Afterwards in a sermon, which cannot be dated, but was certainly delivered before the spring of 430, he was able to say: I have already repeatedly declared that if any one of you or any one else be simple and has a preference for the term θεοτόκος, then I have
- ↑ Nestoriana, p. 185, 10 f.: volentibus concessi, ut pie genitricen vel particen dei virginem nominarent.
- ↑ l.c. p. 167, 24: ferri tamen potest hoc vocabulum.
- ↑ Sermo 10, Nestoriana, p. 273, 4 f.: τὴν τῆς λέξεως προφορὰν ἀσφαλίζομαι, τὸν ἐν τῇ λέξει κρυπτόμενον κίνδυνον ὑφορώμενος.
- ↑ l.c. p. 272, 13 f.: εἰ μετὰ πίστεως ἁπλῆς τὸ "θεοτόκος" προέφερες, οὐκ ἄν σοι τῆς λέξεως ἐφθόνησα.
