Note: This article is part two of a series. It is suggested that you read part one first.
By Robert Petrovich
In such wise as the corruptible body is one thing and further the immortal soul is another thing, yet one man is constituted of them both, so from the mortal and the immortal, from the corruptible and from the incorruptible, and from what is subject to beginning and from the nature which has no beginning, that is, of God the Word, I confess one prosôpon of the Son.
– from a homily of Nestorius called “Concerning the Faith”
First Acts
The fate of Nestorius is sealed long before the Council of Ephesus opens. Emperor Theodosius II nominates Nestorius, the pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia, a teacher for whom the emperor’s grandfather had the greatest respect, for the position of Bishop of Constantinople. The nomination is part of a deliberate plan to weaken the political influence of his older sister, Pulcheria, who had gained effective control over imperial affairs and all the powerful parties of Constantinople while acting as his guardian for years until he came of age. The debut of Nestorius – an unknown outsider whose temperament does not permit him to undertake things gradually – is a storm of zeal to inaugurate a new age of reform and doctrinal purity within Byzantium. From the outset, his naivete and lack of political experience set him at odds with the populace and with some of the most prominent and influential individuals in Constantinople.
Immediately he takes steps to suppress the assemblies of Arians, Novatianists, and Quartodecimans, and the followers of Macedonius. Of the groups considered heretical in the West, he will favor only the Pelagians; several Pelagian bishops receive refuge with him at the capital as they had received refuge at Mopsuestia with his mentor Theodore years before. Nestorius next takes action against the immorality of Constantinople’s theatrical entertainers; this irritates the nobility, as does his attempt to disconnect monks in the empire’s archiepiscopal see from the day-to-day affairs of the capital and from close relationships to members of the nobility. The new regulations of Nestorius humiliate the monks of Constantinople, outrage the aristocracy, and belittle the emperor’s sister, who is the monks’ strongest supporter. Within a few months, all these powerful groups become his adversaries.
Next, as the spiritual father and pastor of the most influential city in the world, Nestorius devotes his strength and resources to articulate and vindicate those points of doctrine that he considers to be most in danger of misunderstanding. One of these is the notion, commonplace in fifth-century Constantinople, that Mary gave birth to God when she gave birth to her son Jesus, a notion that Nestorius fears may engender a false doctrine of the relationship between the human and the divine. In November 428, six months into his term as Bishop of Constantinople, a presbyter whom Nestorius has brought with him from Antioch preaches against the popular use of the epithet Theotokos (Èåïôüêïò, “God-bearer”) with reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. A crisis develops. Nestorius silences the protesters by force, and on Christmas Day he begins a course of sermons in the chaplain’s defense. Faithfully following Theodore of Mopsuestia’s christology to a logical conclusion, Nestorius declares that the Divine Nature cannot be born any more than it can die, that the human nature of Jesus was born of Mary while the Divine Nature was not. Further, he risks explaining the mystery of the Incarnation as a prosopic union in terminology easily misunderstood. Then to appease and at the same time correct his vast congregation, Nestorius gives them permission to call Mary Christokos, “Christ-bearer,” saying that while it is theologically correct to say “Christ was born of a woman” it is not orthodox to say “God was born of a woman.” The faithful of the city, who often call Mary Theotokos in songs and prayers, are surprised that the newly appointed bishop of their city should stand up in the cathedral and order them to stop it. Alexandrian spies, no doubt, are both shocked and delighted.
That Spring on the Feast of the Annunciation—the celebration of the incarnation of Jesus in the womb of Mary—Proclus, the unsuccessful rival of Nestorius for the position of Bishop of Constantinople a year before, preaches in the cathedral at Constantinople before the patriarch Nestorius at the latter’s invitation. Proclus so firmly asserts the propriety of the epithet Theotokos in his sermon that Nestorius is constrained to rise from his patriarchal throne during the service and reply. A few weeks later, during Eastertide, Nestorius addresses Proclus in three sermons and then writes his arguments into a circular Easter letter, which makes it official: The Patriarch of Constantinople considers reference to Mary as Theotokos to be a heresy. Alexandrian agents in the capital begin to set up anonymous placards near the churches throughout the city juxtaposing phrases from Nestorius with sayings of the old Antiochene heretic Paul of Samosata. The placards draw attention, and people in Constantinople begin to gossip about Nestorius’s flawed orthodoxy.
Matters are ripe for foreign intervention, and the antagonism and jealousy of the Alexandrian school toward the Antiochene school find determined and unscrupulous expression in Cyril, the new Bishop of Alexandria, who is as eager to get rid of Nestorius as his predecessor had been to get rid of the Antiochene patriarch and reformer John Chrysostom, who in 403 was deposed and led to die in exile, as Nestorius will be.
In June, after Pentecost, Cyril sets into motion the series of events that will lead to the downfall of Nestorius: He stirs up his own clergy, encourages dissidents at Constantinople, begins a vigorous correspondence with bishops around the Roman Empire and, by beggaring the clergy of his own diocese to bribe the officials of the imperial court, manages to address himself to both the sister and the wife of the Emperor Theodosius. The emperor’s sister and the rest of the aristocracy, the monks, and the populace of the capital are collectively driven by abhorrence of their bishop and personalize it in the zeal of Cyril to challenge Nestorius.
The next year, around Easter, Cyril sends a letter to Celestine, the Bishop of Rome, and encloses a careful selection of the writings of Nestorius. Cyril appeals to Celestine to hold in his city a council to settle the controversy. Celestine, who appreciates being asked to take precedence over the Bishop of Constantinople, is delighted. At about this same time Nestorius is approached by the Pelagian exiles, who have been designated as heretics in Rome but whom he has received favorably; Nestorius takes the occasion to write to the Bishop of Rome concerning them and to give his own account of the dispute. Celestine naturally resents any questioning of his Roman decision concerning the Pelagians; that summer at a church council in Rome, Celestine makes the determination that correct Christology requires the use of the term Theotokos. Celestine condemns Nestorius and instructs Cyril to carry out the sentence. With Celestine’s letter in hand, Cyril pressures the emperor, who reluctantly agrees to convoke a council on the assumption that Nestorius and the Antiochene tradition will be vindicated thereat. The council is to be convened at Ephesus on Pentecost.
Cyril sends out a synodical letter, his third against Nestorius, with twelve anathemas, or denunciations, attached. In December, Nestorius receives Cyril’s letter and Celestine’s sentence of excommunication (which cannot immediately be put into force owing to the imperial letter calling the council). Nestorius preaches two new sermons and sends them with counter-anathemas to Cyril; then, with the aid of Cyril’s list of anathemas, he wins over John, the Bishop of Antioch, who enlists the Bishops of Samosata and Cyprus on the side of Nestorius.