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But the parts of Christ are his divinity and his humanity, out of which and in which he subsists. And again, we were taught to believe, to say, and to proclaim one nature of God the Word incarnate in flesh, having a soul both intelligent and rational, according to Saint Cyril; by saying 'incarnate', we understand the substance of our nature as having been brought in. And again, the miracles and the passions are of the same and one Christ, and the two births are of the same one: the pre-eternal, incorporeal one from the Father, and the temporal one from a Mother and Virgin, which came to be bodily for our sake. For this reason, especially and truly, we confess her to be properly Theotokos, as she gave birth to God the Word, begotten of the Father before all ages, who in the last times was incarnate of her. But we completely refuse to say that Christ is one composite nature; not only for the reasons stated, but also because absolutely none of the approved Fathers has appeared to this day to have uttered this phrase; and because it is manifestly a product of Apollinaris the heretic and of his disciples; Severus, having accepted their error, fittingly adorns himself with their phrases. For Christ is not a natural monad by composition according to Apollinaris and Severus, inasmuch as he preserves the unconfused otherness of the natures from which he is, even after the union. Nor indeed is he a hypostatic dyad according to Nestorius, inasmuch as the things that came together do not subsist by themselves and completely distinct from one another; and inasmuch as the incarnate God the Word is one even after the incarnation, and he assumed flesh animated rationally and intelligently, which had not pre-existed according to its own principle of nature before being united to him; but he is one composite hypostasis according to the Fathers, in which the same one of the holy and all-praised Trinity is both wholly God with his humanity because of his divinity, and wholly man, and one among men, with his divinity because of his humanity.

A more physical conception of composite hypostasis; and a precise proof that those who confess Christ to be one composite hypostasis do not fall into the same absurdities as those who say he is one composite nature.

But if someone should think that, because every composite hypostasis possesses parts that are co-temporal with each other, the same absurdity is deduced also for those who say that Christ is one composite hypostasis, such a person, in my judgment, does not reason correctly. For not simply every composite hypostasis has parts that are co-temporal with each other in their generation; but rather the one that is evidently under a composite nature, and has such a species predicated of it; which, having the collection of properties around it interwoven with the common and universal predicated substance or nature, (528) is a nature, that is, with properties. If, therefore, the nature under which it exists and the predicated species is composite, it is altogether necessary that it itself be composite, and that it possess parts co-temporal with each other, on account of its predicated substance, or nature, existing in such a way, as being the same in species apart from its defining characteristics. For just as when defining what is simply called a hypostasis we say, A hypostasis is a certain substance with properties, or, a certain substance which embraces all the individual properties in its own particular; so when defining the hypostasis that is spoken of with a qualification, but not simply, we say, A composite hypostasis is a certain composite substance with properties; or a certain composite substance which embraces all the individual properties in its own particular. For those things commonly observed in the individuals under the same species primarily characterize that of the substance or nature in those under it

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Μέρη δέ Χριστοῦ ἡ θεότης αὐτοῦ καί ἡ ἀνθρωπότης ἐστίν, ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν αἷς ὑφέστηκε. Καί αὖθις μίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσιν σεσαρκωμένην σαρκί, νοεράν τε καί λογικήν ἐχούσῃ ψυχήν πιστεύειν, λέγειν τε καί κηρύττειν ἐδιδάχθημεν, κατά τόν ἅγιον Κύριλλον· διά τοῦ σεσαρκωμένην εἰπεῖν, τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φύσεως εἰσκεκομισμένην νοοῦντες τήν οὐσίαν. Καί πάλιν τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τά τε θαύματα καί τά πάθη, καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ τάς δύο γεννήσεις, τήν τε προαιώνιον ἀσωμάτως ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, καί τήν χρονικήν ἐκ Μητρός καί Παρθένου σωματικῶς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς γεγενημένην. ∆ιό μάλιστα καί κατά ἀλήθειαν κυρίως Θεοτόκον αὐτήν ὁμολογοῦμεν, ὡς τόν ἐκ Πατρός γεννηθέντα πρό πάντων τῶν αἰώνων Θεόν Λόγον, ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐξ αὐτῆς σαρκωθέντα γεννήσασαν. Μίαν δέ φύσιν σύνθετον τόν Χριστόν παντελῶς παραιτούμεθα λέγειν· οὐ μόνον διά τάς εἰρημένας αἰτίας, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μηδείς καθ᾿ ὅλου τῶν ἐγκρίτων Πατέρων πέφανται μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο ταύτην εἰρηκώς τήν φωνήν· καί ὡς προδήλως Ἀπολιναρίου τοῦ αἱρετικοῦ, καί τῶν αὐτοῦ φοιτητῶν ὑπάρχουσαν γέννημα· ὧν ἀποδεξάμενος Σευήρος τήν πλάνην, εἰκότως καί ταῖς φωναῖς καλλωπίζεται. Οὐ γάρ φυσική μονάς κατά σύνθεσίν ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός κατ᾿ Ἀπολινάριον καί Σευήρον, ἕως σωζομένην διαφυλλάττει τῶν ἐξ ὧν ἐστι φύσεων καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν ἀσύγχυτον τήν ἑτερότητα. Οὔτε μήν ὑποστατική δυάς κατά Νεστόριον, ἕως μή καθ᾿ ἑαυτά τά συνελθόντα καί ἀλλήλων διακεκριμένα παντελῶς ὑφεστήκασι· καί ἕως εἷς ἐστιν ὁ σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος καί μετά τήν σάρκωσιν, καί μή προϋποστᾶσαν τῷ οἰκείῳ λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως, τήν ἑνωθεῖσαν αὐτῷ λογικῶς τε καί νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα προσέλαβεν· ἀλλ᾿ ὑπόστασις μία σύνθετος κατά τούς Πατέρας, καθ᾿ ἥν ὅλος τε Θεός ἐστιν ὁ αὐτός καί εἷς τῆς ἁγίας καί πανευφήμου Τριάδος μετά τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος διά τήν θεότητα, καί ὅλος ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός, καί εἷς τῶν ἀνθρώπων μετά τῆς θεότητος διά τήν ἀνθρωπότητα.

Περί ὑποστάσεως συνθέτου φυσικωτέρα διάληψις· καί ἀπόδειξις ἀκριβής τοῦ μή τοῖς αὐτοῖς περιπίπτειν ἀτοπήμασι, τούς ὁμολογοῦντας μίαν σύνθετον ὑπόστασιν τόν Χριστόν, τοῖς μίαν αὐτόν λέγουσι σύνθετον φύσιν.

Εἰ δέ ὅτι καί πᾶσα σύνθετος ὑπόστασις ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κέκτηται τά μέρη, νομίζοι τις τήν αὐτήν ἀτοπίαν συνάγεσθαι, καί τοῖς λέγουσι μίαν τόν Χριστόν εἶναι σύνθετον ὑπόστασιν, οὐκ ὀρθῶς κατά τόν ἐμόν ὁ τοιοῦτος ὑπολαμβάνειν λόγον. Οὐ γάρ ἁπλῶς πᾶσα σύνθετος ὑπόστασις ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κατά τήν γένεσιν ἔχει τά μέρη· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ὑπό φύσιν σύνθετον δηλονότι τελοῦσα, καί εἶδος ἔχουσα τοιοῦτον αὐτῆς κατηγορούμενον· ἥτις τῷ κοινῷ καί καθ᾿ ὅλου τῆς κατηγορουμένης οὐσίας ἤτοι φύσεως, (528) τό ἄθροισμα τῶν περί αὐτήν ἰδιωμάτων συμπεπλεγμένον ἔχουσα, φύσις ἐστίν, ἤγουν μετά ἰδιωμάτων. Εἰ οὖν σύνθετος ἡ ὑφ᾿ ἥν τελεῖ φύσις ἐστί καί τό κατηγορούμενον εἶδος, καί αὐτήν σύνθετον εἶναι πάντως ἀνάγκη, καί ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κεκτῆσθαι τά μέρη, διά τήν κατηγορουμένην αὐτῆς οὐσίαν, ἤγουν φύσιν, οὕτως ὑπάρχουσαν, ὡς τήν αὐτήν οὖσαν τῷ εἴδει χωρίς τῶν ἀφοριστικῶν αὐτῆς γνωρισμάτων. Ὥσπερ γάρ τήν ἁπλῶς λεγομένην ὑπόστασιν ὁρίζοντές φαμεν, Ὑπόστασίς ἐστιν οὐσία τις μετά ἰδιωμάτων, ἤ, οὐσία τις τῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστα περιληπτική τῶν ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ ἀτόμῳ πάντων ἰδιωμάτων· οὕτω τήν προσδιωρισμένως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἁπλῶς λεγομένην ὁρίζοντες ὑπόστασιν, λέγομεν, Ὑπόστασς σύνθετός ἐστι, οὐσία τις σύνθετος μετά ἰδιωμάτων· ἤ οὐσία τις σύνθετος τῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστα περιληπτική τῶν ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ ἀτόμῳ πάντων ἰδιωμάτων. Τά γάρ κοινῶς ἐν τοῖς ὑπό τό αὐτό εἶδος ἀτόμοις θεωρούμενα, τό τῆς οὐσίας ἤτοι φύσεως χαρακτηρίζει προηγουμένως ἐν τοῖς ὑπ᾿ αὐτήν