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to have been deemed worthy of baptism in the Jordan among the first of the gift of the Holy Spirit, being baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And that the God Logos, having dwelt in him by good pleasure on account of his surpassing virtue, imparted to him divine dignity and worship later, after his perfection; having blasphemed with these and many other such things, he says that he knows two natures in Christ, individually circumscribed, joined to each other only by some relation. And this is a second error, that one nature and two individually circumscribed natures are confessed in Christ not according to the right reason.

The Opinion of Nestorius. But after these comes a certain man named Nestorius, who originated from Germanicia in Syria; he was ordained in Antioch by the river Orontes, and receives the throne of Constantinople. This man again, in the language of the two natures in Christ, made malicious use of it, similarly to Paul and Theodore, his own predecessors. For not in order to signify the truth of the divinity and (1489) humanity in Christ, and their unchangeability and permanence and unconfusion, does he express the number of two natures, but in order that he might deceitfully hint at two persons through this number two, wickedly taking the designation of natures instead of persons, truly and maliciously, by the bold appellation of natures introducing the forbidden concept of persons, so that with him Christ is one, and the God Logos is another, according to his ancestral error; for he was a son of the Cilician, and a descendant of the Samosatene. And for this reason he raised an implacable war against the revered Virgin, not being abashed before the God-bearer and pure Mary, as the Mother of the Master; but as a rebellious and shameless slave, denying his own Lord, and dishonoring his own Lady, begrudging her not so much the title of Theotokos, as that of God to the one born of her. This Nestorius, then, as the third, made it his own.

The Opinion of Eutyches. But of the opposing faction, that of Mani and Apollinarius, a third champion again

appears, Eutyches, who was the head of a monastery of those around Byzantium. For this man, not enduring to confess the flesh of the Lord to be consubstantial and of the same nature with us, denied that the two natures were preserved in Christ after their union and concrescence; and not only this, but he also fabricated certain monstrous and strange things, saying that the Lord's body was brought down from heaven, and that the God Logos passed through the Virgin as through a channel, having put this on from heaven, so that he might seem indeed to have been born of a woman, although he was not born at all. This doctrine is Manichaean, and much more phantastical than his. And so, with a perverse heart, he proclaimed Christ to be one nature. Therefore, of these two parties, that of Mani and Apollinarius and Eutyches, and that of Paul and Theodore and Nestorius, the ones having ignorantly said the Master Christ is one nature, and the others, from the opposite side, two natures, the Catholic Church, repudiating on either side the most wicked alterations and impious deviations, walks the middle way between both, proceeding on the royal road, not inclining to what seems to be on the right, nor to what is manifestly on the left. According to

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ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ βαπτίσματος ἀξιωθῆναι ἐν πρώτοις τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος δωρεᾶς, εἰς ὄνομα Πατέρος καί Υἱοῦ καί ἁγίου Πνεύματος βαπτισθέντα. Τόν δέ Θεόν Λόγον διά τήν ὑπερβάλλουσαν αὐτοῦ ἀρετήν κατ᾿ εὐδοκίαν ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικήσαντα, μεταδοῦναι αὐτῷ τῆς θεϊκῆς ἀξίας καί προσκυνήσεως εἰς ὕστερον μετά τήν τελείωσιν· ταῦτά τε καί ἕτερα πολλά δυσφημήσας τοιαῦτα, δύο φύσεις ἰδιοπεριορίστους φησίν εἰδέναι ἐπί Χριστοῦ, σχέσει τινί καί μόνον ἀλλήλαις οἰκειωμένας. ∆ευτέρα καί αὕτη πλάνη τοῦ μίαν φύσιν καί δύο φύσεις ἰδιοπεριορίστους, μή κατά τόν ὀρθόν λόγον ὁμολογεῖσθαι ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ.

∆όξα Νεστορίου. Μετά τούτους δέ γίνεταί τις Νεστόριος ὀνόματι, ὅς ὡρμᾶτο μέν ἀπό Γερμανικείας

τῆς ἐν Συρίᾳ· κληροῦται δέ ἐν Ἀντιοχίᾳ τῇ παρά Ὀρόντην ποταμόν, Κωνσταντινουπόλεως δέ τόν θρόνον λαμβάνει. Οὗτος πάλιν τῇ φωνῇ τῶν δύο φύσεων τῶν ἐν Χριστῷ, κακοφυῶς ἀποκέχρηται ὁμοίως Παύλῳ καί Θεοδώρῳ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ προγόνοις. Οὐ γάρ ἵνα τήν ἀληθότητα τῆς κατα Χριστόν θεότητός τε καί (1489) ἀνθρωπότητος, καί τήν τούτων ἀτρεψίαν καί ἐπιμονήν καί ἀσυγχυσίαν σημάνῃ, τόν ἀριθμόν τῶν δύο καταφράζει φύσεων, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα δύο πρόσωπα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ δύο ἀριθμοῦ δολερῶς ὑπαινίξηται, τήν τῶν φύσεων κλῆσιν ἀντί τῶν προσώπων λαμβάνων κακούργως, ὡς ἀληθῶς καί κακοήθως, πεπαῤῥησιασμένη προσωνυμίᾳ τῶν φύσεων τό ἀπηγορευμένον τῶν προσώπων εἰσάγων, ὥστε ἄλλον εἶναι παρ᾿ αὐτῷ τόν Χριστόν, καί ἄλλον τόν Θεόν Λόγον, κατά τήν πατρῴαν αὐτοῦ πλάνην· υἱός γάρ ἦν τοῦ Κίλικος, τοῦ δέ Σαμοσατέως ἀπόγονος. Καί διά τοῦτο πρός τήν σεμνήν Παρθένον ἄσπονδον ἤρατο πόλεμον, μή δυσωπηθείς τήν θεομητέρα καί ἁγνήν Μαρίαν, ὡς ∆εσπότου Μητέρα· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς δοῦλος τραχηλιαστής καί ἀναίσχυντος, ἀρνούμενος τόν ἑαυτοῦ Κύριον, καί ἀτιμάζων τήν ∆έσποιναν ἑαυτοῦ, βασκαίνων οὐ τοσοῦτον αὐτῇ τῆς, Θεοτόκος, προσηγορίας, ὅσον τῆς, Θεός, τῷ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεννηθέντι. Οὗτος μέν οὖν ὁ Νεστόριος τρίτος εἰς ἑαυτόν αὐτήν περιέστησεν.

∆όξα Εὐτυχοῦς. Τῆς δέ ἀντιθέτου μοίρας, τῆς κατά Μάνην καί Ἀπολινάριον, τρίτος πάλιν

προασπιστής ὁ Εὐτυχής ἀναφαίνεται, ὅς ἦν ἡγούμενος μοναστηρίου ἑνός τῶν περί τό Βυζάντιον. Οὗτος γάρ μή ἀνεχόμενος ὁμοούσιον ἡμῖν καί ὁμοφυῆ τήν σάρκα τοῦ Κυρίου ὁμολογεῖν, τάς δύο φύσεις ἀπηρνεῖτο σώζεσθαι λέγειν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ μετά τῆς τούτων ἑνώσεώς τε καί συμφυΐας· οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά καί τερατώδη τινά καί ἀλλόκοτα ἔπλαττεν, ἐξ οὐρανοῦ λέγων κατηνέχθαι τοῦ Κυρίου τό σῶμα, καί ὡς διά σωλῆνος τῆς Παρθένου παραδραμεῖν τόν Θεόν Λόγον, οὐρανόθεν τοῦτο ἐνδεδομένον, ἵνα δόξῃ δῆθεν γεγεννῆσθαι ἐκ γυναικός, καίπερ μήτε γεγεννημένον. Μανιχαῖος ὁ λόγος οὖτος, καί πεφαντασιασμένος πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐκείνου. Καί οὕτως οὖν μίαν φύσιν τόν Χριστόν διεστραμμένῃ καρδίᾳ ἐπρέσβευσε. Τῶν οὖν δύο μερῶν τούτων, τοῦ τε κατά Μάνην καί Ἀπολινάριον καί Εὐτυχέα, καί τοῦ κατά Παῦλον καί Θεόδωρον καί Νεστόριον, τῶν μέν μίαν φύσιν, τῶν δέ δύο φύσεις ἐξ ἐναντίας ἀλλήλων τόν ∆εσπότην Χριστόν ἀμαθῶς εἰρηκότων, τάς ἐφ᾿ ἑκάτερα κακίστας μετατροπάς καί δυσσεβεῖς παρεγκλίσεις ἀπαναινομένη ἡ καθολική Ἐκκλησία, μέσην ἀμφοτέρων βαδίζει, ὁδῷ βασιλικῇ πορευομένη, μή ἐγκλίνουσα εἰς τά δοκοῦντα δεξιά, μηδέ εἰς τό προφανῆ ἀριστερά. Κατά