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| Nestorius of Antioch promoted to the See of Constantinople. His Persecution of the Heretics.
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Chapter
XXIX.—Nestorius of Antioch promoted to the See of
Constantinople. His Persecution of the Heretics.
After the death of Sisinnius,
on account of the spirit of ambitious rivalry displayed by the
ecclesiastics of Constantinople, the emperors resolved that none of
that church should fill the vacant bishopric, notwithstanding the fact
that many eagerly desired to have Philip ordained, and no less a number
were in favor of the election of Proclus. They therefore sent for a
stranger993
| 993ἐπήλυδα, perhaps in a
contemptuous sense = ‘an imported fellow.’
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from Antioch, whose name was Nestorius,994
| 994Founder of Nestorianism (Nestorian church and
heresy). For details on Nestorianism, see Assemani, Bibliotheca
Oriental. tom. IV., said to be the most exhaustive work on the
subject, ancient and modern alike, being a volume of 950 pp. and
occupied with Nestorianism alone. ‘It collects information from
all quarters, especially from the Oriental writers, concerning the
history, ritual, organization, schools, and missions.’ (Stokes,
in Smith and Wace.) The peculiar characteristic of the Nestorian
Christology will appear in the sequel of Socrates’ account. Other
accessible sources of information on Nestorianism and Nestorius will be
found in the standard ecclesiastical histories. Cf. Neander, Hist.
of the Christ. Church, Vol. II. p. 446–524; Schaff, Hist.
of the Christ. Church, Vol. III. p. 714–734; Kurtz, Church
Hist. Vol. I. p. 334; also Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Rom.
Empire, chap. 47.
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a native of Germanicia,995
| 995A city in Cilicia, on the western border of
Syria.
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distinguished for his excellent voice and fluency of speech;
qualifications which they judged important for the instruction of the
people. After three months had elapsed therefore, Nestorius was brought
from Antioch, being greatly lauded by some for his temperance: but what
sort of a disposition he was of in other respects, those who possessed
any discernment were able to perceive from his first sermon. Being
ordained on the 10th of April, under the consulate of Felix and
Taurus,996
he immediately uttered those famous words, before all the people, in
addressing the emperor, ‘Give me, my prince, the earth purged of
heretics, and I will give you heaven as a recompense. Assist me in
destroying heretics, and I will assist you in vanquishing the
Persians.’997
| 997‘What the bishops and especially the prelates
of the greater churches said in their first sermon to the people was
very carefully observed among the early Christians. For from that
sermon a conjecture was made as to the faith, doctrine, and temper of
every bishop. Hence the people were wont to take particular notice, and
remember their sayings. A remark of this nature occurs above, Bk. II.
chap. 43, concerning the first sermon of Eudoxius, bishop of
Constantinople. And Theodoret and Epiphanius declare the same
concerning the first sermon of Melitius to the
people.’—Valesius.
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Now although these utterances were extremely gratifying to some of the
multitude, who cherished a senseless antipathy to the very name of
heretic; yet those, as I have said, who were skillful in predicating a
man’s character from his expressions, did not fail to detect his
levity of mind, and violent and vainglorious temperament, inasmuch as
he had burst forth into such vehemence without being able to contain
himself for even the shortest space of time; and to use the proverbial
phrase, ‘before he had tasted the water of the city,’
showed himself a furious persecutor. Accordingly on the fifth day after
his ordination, having determined to demolish a chapel in which the
Arians were accustomed to perform their devotions privately, he drove
these people to desperation; for when they saw the work of destruction
going forward in their chapel, they threw fire into it, and the fire
spreading on all sides reduced many of the adjacent buildings also to
ashes. A tumult accordingly arose on account of this throughout the
city, and the Arians burning to revenge themselves, made preparations
for that purpose: but God the Guardian of the city suffered not the
mischief to gather to a climax. From that time, however, they branded
Nestorius as an ‘incendiary,’ and it was not only the
heretics who did this, but those also of his own faith. For he could
not rest, but seeking every means of harassing those who embraced not
his own sentiments, he continually disturbed the public tranquillity.
He annoyed the Novatians also, being incited to jealousy because Paul
their bishop was everywhere respected for his piety; but the emperor by
his admonitions checked his fury. With what calamities he visited the
Quartodecimans throughout Asia, Lydia, and Caria, and what multitudes
perished in a popular tumult of which he was the cause at Miletus and
Sardis, I think proper to pass by in silence. What punishment he
suffered for all these enormities, and for that unbridled license of
speech in which he indulged himself, I shall mention somewhat later.998
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