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according to the unsearchable abyss of the judgments of God, Nestorius too, by the vote of those around the palace and the thrones, and of him who then held the scepters of the world, is entrusted with the presidency of the orthodox catholic Church in Constantinople, and no less of the whole world. Here then for me are the dramas, of which nearly the whole earth and sea are full. For when he took that greatest throne, having seized the leadership of the high priesthood as if it were some sort of tyranny, he was no longer able to contain within himself the birth-pangs of his impiety; but having gained an ignorant boldness from his authority, he brings into the open and sets before all the blasphemy he had long ago conceived against the Only-Begotten. And he openly chooses war against the apostolic dogmas, and those of the holy Fathers, from which time the Gospel of the faith of the orthodox leaders was proclaimed, 83.436 he attempts to cast out their teachings, disturbing the Church of the imperial city, and disturbing also the entire world; being in no way turned back by the cry of the divine Paul: "But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." But upon the lampstand of the divine bema of the high priests, he places not the lamp of truth, but the darkness of impiety. And his first undertaking of innovation becomes this: that one must not confess the holy Virgin, who bore the Word of God who took flesh from her, as Theotokos, but only as Christotokos; although the preachers of the orthodox faith of old and long ago, according to the apostolic tradition, taught to name and believe the mother of the Lord as Theotokos. Come then, let us now bring into the open his blasphemous artifice and observation, known to no one before. The appellation of Christ, he says, is significant of the two natures, both of the divinity of the Only-Begotten and of the humanity; but the term God, spoken absolutely, represents the simple and incorporeal essence of God the Word; while that of man indicates only the human nature. For this reason, he says, it is necessary to confess the Virgin as Christotokos, but not as Theotokos, lest we unawares say that God the Word received the beginning of His being from the holy Virgin, and thus be forced to confess, as a consequence, that the mother is older than the one born of her. But lest I seem to accuse the man of these things with empty revilings, I shall make him himself a witness of his own impiety by what he said. For having banished from his own mind the memory of the apostolic teachings and of every saint, he cried out many such things in the Church of the orthodox: "Mary did not bear God, O best one, but she bore a man, an instrument of Divinity." And again in other nonsensical statements: "A Greek is blameless for introducing a mother to the gods." For now let these few things from among his many statements be said by me, as my account hastens on to what follows. Whence, since the lawless are destroyed by an extraordinary death, he was cast out from the high priesthood by the divine vote of the saints gathered in Ephesus, and being condemned by imperial decree to dwell in the Oasis, he received from there the prelude of the future punishment of the impious, becoming a victim of his own madness, and fulfilling in himself that apostolic saying, that "Some men's sins are manifest, going before to judgment." But these things, as they have been examined by many others, it is necessary to pass over, and let us go on to the next parts of the history. XIII. - Concerning Eutyches. And last of all, the envious demon introduced the ill-named heresy of the Eutychians, through which he threw into confusion the Churches throughout the world; 83.437 and having found the wretched Eutyches an instrument receptive of his own wickedness, he made the heresy of Valentinus, which had withered long ago, to bloom again. For Arius only of the
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κατὰ τὴν ἀνιχνίαστον τῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ κριμάτων ἄβυσσον, καὶ Νεστόριος ψήφῳ τῶν περὶ τὰ βασίλεια καὶ τοὺς θρόνους, καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ τηνι καῦτα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ σκῆπτρα διέποντος, τῆς κατὰ Κωνσταντινούπολιν τῶν ὀρθοδόξων καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας τὴν προεδρίαν πιστεύεται, οὐδὲν δὲ ἧτ τον καὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁπάσης. Ἐνταῦθά μοι λοι πὸν καὶ τὰ δράματα, ὧν μικροῦ πλήρης πᾶσα γῆ τε καὶ θάλαττα. Ὡς γὰρ τὸν μέγιστον ἐκεῖνον κατ έλαβε θρόνον, καθάπερ τινὰ τυραννίδα τῆς ἀρχιερω σύνης τὴν προστασίαν ἁρπάσας, οὐκέτι κατέχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ὠδῖνα τῆς ἀσεβείας οἷός τε ἦν· ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς ἐξουσίας προσλαβὼν ἀμαθῆ παῤῥησίαν, εἰς μέ σον ἄγει, καὶ προτίθησιν ἅπασιν, ἣν πάλαι κατὰ τοῦ Μονογενοῦς συνέλαβε βλασφημίαν. Καὶ πόλεμον ἄντικρυς κατὰ τῶν ἀποστολικῶν αἱρεῖται δογμάτων, καὶ τῶν ἁγίων Πατέρων, ἀφ' οὗ κατηγγέλθη 83.436 τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον τῆς τῶν ὀρθοδόξων καθηγησαμένων πίστεως, ἐκβαλεῖν πειρᾶται τοὺς λόγους, ταράττων μὲν τῆς βασιλίδος πόλεως τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, ταράττων δὲ καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἅπασαν· οὐδὲν τοῦ θεσπεσίου Παύλου κεκραγότος ἐπιστρεφόμενος· "Ὁ δὲ ταράσσων ὑμᾶς βαστάσει τὸ κρῖμα, ὅστις ἂν ᾖ." Ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν τοῦ θείου τῶν ἀρχιερέων βήματος, οὐ τὸν λύχνον τῆς ἀληθείας, ἀλλὰ τὸν ζόφον τίθησι τῆς ἀσεβείας. Γίνεται δὲ αὐτῷ πρῶτον τῆς καινοτο μίας ἐγχείρημα, τὸ μὴ δεῖν τὴν ἁγίαν Παρθένον, τὴν τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον τεκοῦσαν ἐξ αὐτῆς σάρκα λαβόντα, Θεοτόκον ὁμολογεῖν, Χριστοτόκον δὲ μόνον· τῶν πάλαι καὶ πρόπαλαι τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως κηρύκων, κατὰ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν παράδοσιν, Θεοτό κον διδαξάντων ὀνομάζειν, καὶ πιστεύειν τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου μητέρα. Φέρε δὴ οὖν μοι λοιπὸν τὴν βλάσ φημον τεχνολογίαν καὶ παρατήρησιν, οὐδενὶ πρό τερον ἐγνωσμένην, εἰς τὸ μέσον ἀγάγωμεν. Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ προσηγορία, φησὶ, τῶν δύο φύσεών ἐστι ση μαντικὴ, τῆς τε θεότητος τοῦ Μονογενοῦς, καὶ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος· ἡ δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπολύτως λεγομένη φωνὴ, τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἀσώματον τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου παρίστησιν οὐσίαν· ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, μόνην τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ὑποδείκνυσι φύσιν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο Χρι στοτόκον, φησὶν, ἀλλ' οὐ Θεοτόκον τὴν Παρθένον ὁμολογεῖν ἀναγκαῖον, μήποτε λάθωμεν ἀρχὴν τοῦ εἶναι λέγοντες τὸν Θεὸν Λόγον ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας εἰληφότα Παρθένου, καὶ οὕτω προγενεστέραν τὴν μητέρα τοῦ γεννηθέντος ἐξ αὐτῆς, κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ὁμο λογεῖν βιασθῶμεν. Ἵνα δὲ μὴ δόξω λοιδορίαις κε ναῖς ταῦτα τοῦ ἀνδρὸς κατηγορεῖν, αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον οἷς εἶπε τῆς οἰκείας ἀσεβείας ποιήσομαι μάρτυρα. Τῶν γὰρ ἀποστολικῶν διδαγμάτων, καὶ παντὸς ἁγίου μνήμην τῆς ἑαυτοῦ διανοίας ὑπερορίσας, ἐν τῇ τῶν ὀρθοδόξων Ἐκκλησίᾳ πολλὰς τοιαύτας ἐξεβόησε φωνάς· Οὐκ ἔτεκεν, ὦ βέλτιστε, Μαρία Θεὸν, ἀλλ' ἔτεκεν ἄνθρωπον Θεότητος ὄργανον. Καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις δὲ πάλιν φληνάφοις· Ἀνέγκλητος Ἕλλην μητέρα θεοῖς ἐπεισάγων. Ταῦτα μὲν ὡς ἀπὸ πολλῶν ὀλίγα μοι τῶν ἐκείνου τέως εἰρήσθω, πρὸς τὰ ἑξῆς ἐπει γομένου τοῦ λόγου. Ὅθεν ἐπειδὴ θανάτῳ ἐξαι σίῳ ἀπολοῦνται παράνομοι, τῆς τε ἀρχιερωσύνης διὰ τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐφέσῳ συναθροισθέντων ἁγίων ὑπὸ τῆς θείας ἐξεβάλετο ψήφου, καὶ βασιλικῷ νεύματι τὴν Ὄασιν καταδικασθεὶς οἰκεῖν, τῆς μελλού σης τῶν ἀσεβῶν κολάσεως ἐντεῦθεν ἐδέξατο τὰ προοίμια, παρανάλωμα τῆς οἰκείας φρενοβλαβείας γενό μενος, καὶ ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ πληρώσας τὸ ἀποστολικὸν ἐκεῖνο λόγιον, ὅτι "Τινῶν ἀνθρώπων αἱ ἁμαρτίαι πρόδηλοί εἰσι προάγουσαι εἰς κρίσιν." Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν, ὡς καὶ ἄλλοις πολλοῖς ἐξητασμένα, παραδρα μεῖν ἀναγκαῖον, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ ἑξῆς ἴωμεν τῆς ἱστορίας. ΙΓʹ. - Περὶ Εὐτύχεος. Ἐσχάτην δὲ πάντων τὴν δυσώνυμον τῶν Εὐτυχια νῶν ὁ βάσκανος δαίμων εἰσήγαγεν αἵρεσιν, δι' ἧς τὰς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐκύκησεν Ἐκκλη 83.437 σίας· καὶ ὄργανον εὑρὼν τῆς οἰκείας δεκτικὸν πονηρίας τὸν δείλαιον Εὐτύχη, τὴν πρόπαλαι μαραν θεῖσαν αἵρεσιν Βαλεντίνου πάλιν ἀνθῆσαι πεποίηκεν. Ἄρειος μὲν γὰρ μόνον τοῦ