Quod unus sit Christus OF SAINT CYRIL THAT CHRIST IS ONE
{A} For those who are truly sound of mind and have gathered life-giving knowledge into their mind, there would be absolutely no satiety of sacred teachings.
For it is written: That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
proceeding from the mouth of God. For the word from God is food for the mind and spiritual bread strengthening the heart of man, according to what is sung in the book of Psalms. {B} You speak well. {A} The wise men and orators of the Greeks, then, have admired fine language, and eloquence is among those things most diligently studied by them, and they boast in the mere elegance of words, and they preen themselves in pompous diction. And falsehood is the subject-matter for poets, worked out with rhythms and meters for what is charming and melodious, but there is very little concern for the truth, and they are sick with a lack of right and beneficial doctrine concerning, I say, the God who is by nature and truly is, or rather as the most holy Paul says: They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. {B} True. For God said of them through the voice of Isaiah: Know that their heart is ashes, and they are deceived. {A} But so much for their affairs. But those who have become inventors of unholy heresies, the profane and apostates, who widen their intemperate mouth against the divine glory and speak perverse things, might be detected as having slipped out of madness into no lesser writings of Hellenic folly, or perhaps even beyond them. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of truth, than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. For the true proverb has happened to them, The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. For they have divided among themselves the charges of blasphemy against Christ, and like some fierce and bitter wolves, they ravage the flocks for which Christ died, and they plunder what is his, multiplying for themselves things that are not their own, as it is written, and making their own yoke heavy and strong, concerning whom it might be said very fittingly: They went out from us, but they were not of us. {B} Certainly not. {A} But our discussion concerning such matters is judged in due season. For some foolishly bring down the only-begotten Word of God from his supreme excellence, and demote him from equality with God the Father, saying that he is not of one substance, nor being willing to crown him with a natural and unchangeable identity. And others, coming as it were along the same path as those just mentioned, and slipping down into the snare of death and the pit of Hades, distort the mystery of the Incarnate economy of the Only-Begotten, and practice a madness like a sister to the first group. For the first, as far as it is in their power, would practically drag down the Word begotten of God the Father, not yet incarnate, from the heights of divinity. But the others have determined to make war even on him when incarnate, practically rebuking, the insolent ones, his loving-kindness, contending perhaps that he had not decided rightly, because he endured flesh and the measures of emptying, that is, that he became man and was seen on earth and conversed with men, although God
Quod unus sit Christus ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΟΤΙ ΕΙΣ Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ
{Α} Μαθημάτων μὲν τῶν ἱερῶν κόρος ἂν γένοιτο παντελῶς οὐδεὶς τοῖς γε ἀληθῶς ἀρτίφροσι καὶ γνῶσιν εἰς νοῦν τὴν ζωοποιὸν συναγηγερκόσι.
Γέγραπται γάρ· Ὅτι οὐκ ἐπ' ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι
ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ. Τροφὴ γὰρ νοῦ ὁ λόγος ὁ παρὰ Θεοῦ καὶ ἄρτος πνευματικὸς στηρίζων ἀνθρώπου καρδίαν, κατὰ τὸ ἐν βίβλῳ Ψαλμῶν ὑμνούμενον. {Β} Εὖ λέγεις. {Α} Ἑλλήνων μὲν οὖν οἱ σοφοὶ καὶ λογάδες τεθαυμάκασι τὸ καλλιεπές, καὶ τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα κατεσπουδασμένων παρ' αὐτοῖς ἐστι τὸ εὐηγορεῖν, καὶ ψιλαῖς ῥημάτων ἐπαυχοῦσι κομψείαις, καὶ τὸ τῆς λέξεως ἐναβρύνονται κόμπῳ. Καὶ ὕλη μὲν ποιηταῖς τὸ ψεῦδος, ῥυθμοῖς καὶ μέτροις εἰς τὸ ἐπίχαρί τε καὶ ἐμμελὲς ἐκτετορευμένον, ὀλίγη δὲ παντελῶς τῆς ἀληθείας φροντίς, ἠρρωστήκασι δὲ καὶ σπάνιν ὀρθῆς καὶ ὀνησιφόρου δόξης, τῆς ἐπί γε, φημί, τῷ κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ἀληθῶς ὄντι Θεῷ, μᾶλλον δὲ καθά φησιν ὁ ἱερώτατος Παῦλος· Ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία. Φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοί, ἐμωράνθησαν, καὶ ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου Θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν. {Β} Ἀληθές. Ἔφη γοῦν περὶ αὐτῶν διὰ φωνῆς Ἠσαίου715 Θεός· Γνῶτε ὅτι σποδὸς ἡ καρδία αὐτῶν, καὶ πλανῶνται. {Α} Ἀλλ' ὧδε μὲν τὰ ἐκείνων. Οἵ γε μὴν τῶν ἀνοσίων αἱρέσεων εὑρεταὶ γεγονότες, οἱ βέβηλοί τε καὶ ἀποστάται, καὶ τῆς θείας δόξης τὸ ἀκρατὲς ἑαυτῶν κατευρύνοντες στόμα καὶ λαλοῦντες τὰ διεστραμμένα, καταφωραθεῖεν ἂν οὐκ ἐν μείοσι γραφαῖς τῆς Ἑλλήνων ἀβελτηρίας ἐξ ἀπονοίας ὠλισθηκότες ἢ τάχα που καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐπέκεινα. Κρεῖττον γὰρ ἦν αὐτοῖς μὴ ἐπεγνωκέναι τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀληθείας ἢ ἐπεγνωκόσιν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω ἀνακάμψαι ἀπὸ τῆς δοθείσης αὐτοῖς ἁγίας ἐντολῆς. Γέγονε γὰρ αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιμίας, Κύων ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἐξέραμα, καὶ ὗς λουσαμένη εἰς κύλισμα βορβόρου. ∆ιεμερίσαντο γὰρ τῆς κατὰ Χριστοῦ δυσφημίας τὰ ἐγκλήματα, καὶ οἷά τινες λύκοι δριμεῖς καὶ πικροί, διαλυμαίνονται τοῖς ποιμνίοις ὑπὲρ ὧν Χριστὸς ἀπέθανε, καὶ διαρπάζουσι τὰ αὐτοῦ, πληθύνοντες ἑαυτοῖς τὰ οὐκ ὄντα αὐτῶν, καθὰ γέγραπται, καὶ βαρύνοντες τὸν κλοιὸν αὐτῶν στιβαρῶς, περὶ ὧν ἂν λέγοιτο καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· Ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐξῆλθον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν. {Β} Οὐγαροῦν. {Α} Ἀλλ' εἰς καιρὸν ἡμῖν ὁ περί γε τῶν τοιούτων κρίνεται λόγος. Κατακομίζουσι μὲν γὰρ ἀσυνέτως τινὲς τὸν μονογενῆ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον τῆς ὑπερτάτης ὑπεροχῆς, καὶ ὑποβιβάζουσι τῆς ἰσότητος τῆς πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα καὶ Θεόν, οὐχ ὁμοούσιον εἶναι λέγοντες αὐτόν, οὔτε μὴν φυσικῇ καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτῳ ταυτότητι στεφανοῦν ἐθέλοντες. Ἕτεροι δὲ τοῖς ὠνομασμένοις τὴν αὐτὴν ὥσπερ ἐρχόμενοι τρίβον, καὶ εἰς παγίδα θανάτου καὶ εἰς πέταυρον ᾅδου κατολισθαίνοντες, τῆς μετὰ σαρκὸς οἰκονομίας τοῦ Μονογενοῦς παρευθύνουσι τὸ μυστήριον, καὶ ἀδελφὴν ὥσπερ τοῖς πρώτοις ἐπιτηδεύουσι τὴν ἀπόνοιαν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ οὔπω σεσαρκωμένον τὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς φύντα Λόγον τῶν τῆς θεότητος ὑψωμάτων μονονουχὶ κατασύροντες, τό γε ἧκον ἐπ' αὐτοῖς, ἁλοῖεν ἄν. Οἱ δὲ καὶ σεσαρκωμένῳ πολεμεῖν ἐγνώκασι, μονονουχὶ καὶ ἐπιτιμῶντες, οἱ θρασεῖς, τῇ φιλανθρώπῳ χάριτι, οὐκ ὀρθὰ βεβουλεῦσθαι τάχα που διατεινόμενοι, διὰ τὸ ἀνασχέσθαι σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν τῆς κενώσεως μέτρων, ἤγουν ὅτι γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὤφθη καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνεστράφη, καίτοι Θεὸς