ἡ θεοτόκος— Deipara.  Gibbon (Chap. xlvii. 34) says, “It is not easy to fix the invention of this word, which La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16) ascribes to Eusebius of Cæsarea and the Arians.  The orthodox testimonies are produced by Cyril (of Alexandria) and Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. L. v. cap. 15, p. 254, &c.), but the veracity of the Saint is questionable, and the epithet of θεοτόκος so easily slides from the margin to the text of a Catholic ms.”  This passage is justly described as “Gibbon’s calumny” by Dr. Newman:  see his notes on the title θεοτόκος (Athan. c. Arian. Or. ii. cap. 12, n.; Or. iii. capp. 14, 29, 33).  The word is certainly used by Origen (Deut. xxii. 13, Lommatzch. Tom. x. p. 378):  “She that is already betrothed is called a wife, as also in the case of Joseph and the Theotokos.”  Cf. Archelaus (Disput. cum Mane, cap. xxxiv. “qui de Maria Dei Genetrice natus est”); Eusebius (de Vita Constantini, III. cap. 43:  “The pious Empress adorned with rare memorials the place of the travail of the Theotokos”).  For other examples see Suicer’s Thesaurus, θεοτόκος, Pearson, Creed, Art. iii. notes l, m, n, o, and Routh, Reliq. Sacr. ii. p. 332.