it is, there is no form of uncleanness that is not perpetrated among them; rascality, adultery,
xix
theft, idolatry, poisoning, quarrelling, murder, are rife.” In a letter68 written after his return
to Cæsarea in Cappadocia he asks, “What means this opposing array of new Altars? Do we
announce another Jesus? Do we produce other Scriptures? Have any of ourselves dared to
say “Mother of Man” of the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God?
In the year a.d. 381 Theodosius summoned the Bishops of his division of the Empire
to meet in Council at Constantinople, in order to settle the disputes by which the Eastern
Church had been so long distracted, and to secure the triumph of the Nicene Faith over the
various forms of heresy which had arisen in the half-century which had elapsed since the
first General Council. Among the Bishops present were Cyril of Jerusalem, and his nephew
Gelasius, who on the death of Valens had regained possession of the See of Cæsarea from
the Arian intruder Euzoius. Cyril is described by Sozomen69 as one of three recognised
leaders of the orthodox party, and, according to Bishop Hefele70, as sharing the presidency
with the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch. This latter point, however, is not clearly ex-
pressed in the statement of Sozomen. Socrates writes that Cyril at this time recognised the
doctrine of ὁμοούσιον, having retracted his former opinion: and Sozomen says that he had
at this period renounced the tenets of the Macedonians which he previously held71. Touttée
rightly rejects these reproaches as unfounded: they are certainly opposed to all his teaching
in the Catechetical Lectures, where the doctrine of Christ’s unity of essence with the Father
is fully and frequently asserted, though the term ὁμοούσιος is not used, and the co-equal
Deity of the Holy Ghost is everywhere maintained.
We find no further mention of Cyril in the proceedings of the Council itself. As consist-
ing of Eastern Bishops only, its authority was not at first acknowledged, nor its acts approved
in the Western Church. The two Synods held later in the same year at Aquileia and at Milan,
sent formal protests to Theodosius, and urged him to summon a General Council at Alex-
andria or at Rome. But instead of complying with this request, the Emperor summoned
the Bishops of his Empire to a fresh Synod at Constantinople, and there in the summer of
382 very nearly the same Bishops were assembled who had been present at the Council of
the preceding year. Their Synodical letter addressed to the Bishops assembled at Rome is
preserved by Theodoret72 and in it we read as follows: “Of the Church in Jerusalem, the
Mother of all the Churches, we make known that Cyril the most reverend and most beloved
of God is Bishop; and that he was canonically ordained long ago by the Bishops of the
68 Greg. Nyss. Epist. xvii. in this Series.
69 H. E. vii. 7.
70 Councils, ii. 344.
71 Socrat. v. 8; Sozom. vii. 7.
72 H. E. v. 9.
18
Life of S. Cyril.