or not. But it is certain that Cyril, who before writing his epistola dogmatica had knowledge of a sermon of Nestorius in which he allowed the use of the term θεοτόκος[1], could have come to an agreement with him as easily as with the Antiochians afterwards in 433[2], if he had not had, on account of the charges brought against himself, an interest in discrediting him. More than the heretic Nestorius, the "Saint" but really very unsaintly Cyril is to be held responsible for the Nestorian controversy. And it is not improbable that his agents in Constantinople were among those and behind those who aroused the first opposition against the teaching of Nestorius.
Nestorius was not quite guiltless, as he had been incautious in his polemics against the θεοτόκος. But it seems not to have been his fault that he made an enemy of Cyril. He, Cyril, the Saint, had the chief part in bringing it about that Nestorius lost the common confidence of his parish.
2
And Cyril did more. At about the same time that he wrote his epistola dogmatica he prepared for war against Nestorius. He composed his five books
- ↑ sermo 10, Nestoriana, pp. 265–277, which contains the passage quoted above, p. 31, note 4, is mentioned in Cyril's letter to his agents (Nestoriana, p. 264, 7) and this letter is contemporary with the epistola dogmatica (comp. above, p. 37, note 6).
- ↑ Comp. below, p. 53 f.
