Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES General Editors Gillian Clark Andrew Louth THE OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES series includes scholarly volumes on the thought and history of the early Christian centuries. Covering a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources, the books are of interest to theologians, ancient historians, and specialists in the classical and Jewish worlds. Titles in the series include: The Cult of Saint Thecla A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity Stephen T. Davis (2001) Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution Richard Paul Vaggione, O.H.C. (2001) Ambrose: De Officiis Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary Ivor J. Davidson (2002) St John Damascene Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology Andrew Louth (2002) Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians Introduction, Translation (with facing Latin text), and Notes Eric Plumer (2002) The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption Stephen J. Shoemaker (2002) The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica Hamilton Hess (2002) The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians Ronald E. Heine (2002) Grace and Christology in the Early Church Donald Fairbairn (2003) Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus Translation, Introduction, and Commentary Robert E. Sinkewicz (2003) Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith Union, Knowledge, and the Divine Presence Martin Laird (2004) The Suffering of the Impassible God The Dialectics of Patristic Thought Paul L. Gavrilyuk (2004) Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy The Making of a Saint and of a Heretic SUSAN WESSEL 3 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Susan Wessel 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data applied for ISBN 0–19–926046–0 13579108642 Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn To my parents and grandmother (1912–2003) This page intentionally left blank PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the pages that follow I tell the story of how one bishop rose to prominence and another was sent into exile. It is a story worth telling because the religious controversy that ensued was not resolved for the Chalcedonian Christians, i.e. the Greek East and the Latin West, for two hundred and fifty years. It was never resolved for the non-Chalcedonian Christians, who remain separate from the Chalcedonians unto the present day. The dispute started in ad 428 when Nestorius, the newly appointed bishop of Constantinople, began to deliver sermons that denigrated the Virgin Mary by refusing to call her by her exalted name the ‘Mother of God’. Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, responded to these sermons, publicly stating that the title ‘Mother of God’ was appropriate for the Virgin. As the controversy escalated, each side accused the other of subscribing to heretical views. My study considers how Cyril emerged from this controversy as a revered saint and Nestorius as a reviled heretic. Examining this controversy from a cultural and historical perspective, I consider a number of themes: the combination of secular and Christian rhetoric; the relationship between church and state; the cultural and historical processes by which Christian doctrine is formed; and the bishop as a savvy politi- cian. Portraying the late antique bishop as an ecclesiastical politician well versed in the techniques of secular and Christian rhetoric would not have troubled the men and women of the time. They believed that the truths of Christianity were fixed and immutable, and that nothing, not even the sort of political manœuvring unearthed here, could alter it. Using every strategic ploy available to them may have been more acceptable to those living in the fifth century than it seems to us now, because they perceived the political battles they freely engaged in as serving those truths. viii Preface This story unfolded in all its twists and turns over the course of many years. I am especially grateful to my dissertation adviser, Roger Bagnall, and to my second reader, Alexander Alexakis, for providing me with expert guidance and encourage- ment during those years. The other members of my dissertation committee, Susan Harvey, Alan Cameron, and Robert Somer- ville, also offered helpful guidance—Susan Harvey from its earliest stages as a seminar paper—and Alan Cameron provided useful suggestions for the chapters on rhetoric. I made the first revisions while I was a Mellon Post-Doctoral Teaching and Research Fellow in the Department of Classics at Cornell University (2000–1), and a Mary Seeger O’Boyle Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Program in Hellenic Studies, under the executive direction of Dimitri Gondicas, at Princeton University (2001–2). I owe a special debt of gratitude to Peter Brown, who offered encouragement and many valuable suggestions for revision, and to Fergus Millar, who made numerous helpful comments on and corrections to the manuscript. From Oxford University Press, Andrew Louth made many useful comments and suggestions for revision, as did the anony- mous reader, to whom I am grateful for his corrections. Allen Shin made a number of corrections and Alexander Alexakis corrected the proofs. I, of course, am responsible for all imperfections that remain. I made the final revisions in Newton, MA, and I am grateful to my parents, Roger and Maureen Wessel, and to my grand- mother, Susan Mulready, for supporting me during this time. To them I dedicate this book. S.W. Princeton, NJ 27 January 2004 Igitur ut eorum conciones etiam elegantes et sapidulas superemus, dicamus tÚ yeotÒkow. Nestorius (‘That I may overcome their elegant and sophistic public sermons, let me thus say “Theotokos”’) This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 i. the tapestry of cyril’s episcopacy from egypt to the imperial city 1. Confrontation in the Early Episcopacy 15 2. Political Alliance and the Onset of Controversy 74 3. The Reception of Nicaea 112 4. The Meeting of the Council 138 ii. the rhetoric of the nestorian debates Introduction 183 5. Rhetorical Style and Method in the Conciliar Homilies of Cyril 190 6. The Rhetorical and Interpretative Method of Nestorius 236 iii. cyril emerges as a saint in the byzantine church 7. From a Tentative Resolution to the Renewal of Controversy (ad 431–451) 255 Epilogue 296 Appendix: The Homilies that Cyril of Alexandria Delivered in Ephesus During the Summer of 431 303 Bibliography 320 Index 355 This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS AASS Acta Sanctorum Bollandiana (Brussels, 1643ff.) AB Analecta Bollandiana ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, 4 vols. in 27 parts, ed. E. Schwartz (Berlin, 1914–40); J. Straub (1971); R. Riedinger, Series Secunda (Berlin, 1984–92) AHC Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum BHG Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, 3rd edn., ed. F. Halkin, 3 vols., Subs Hag 8a (Brussels, 1957) CCSG Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca (Turnhout, 1976ff.) CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout, 1953ff.) CPG Clavis Patrum Graecorum, ed. M. Gerard (Turnhout, 1974–80) CPL Clavis Patrum Latinorum, 2nd edn., ed. E. Dekkers (Steenbrugge, 1961) CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Louvain, 1903ff.) CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna, 1866ff.) CTh Codex Theodosianus, 2 vols. in 3 parts, ed. T. Mommsen, P. M. Meyer (Berlin, 1905); Eng. tr., C. Pharr, The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions (New York, 1969) DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten [drei] Jahrhunderte GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies HE Historia Ecclesiastica JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History JRS Journal of Roman Studies JTS Journal of Theological Studies LCL Loeb Classical Library xiv Abbreviations Mansi J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplis- sima Collectio, 31 vols. (Florence and Venice, 1759– 98) ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. Kazhdan et al., 3 vols. (New York and Oxford, 1991) Opitz Athanasius, Athanasius Werke, ed. H. G. Opitz (Berlin, 1934– ) PG Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857–66) PL Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Latina,