The First Letter of Cyril to Nestorius
To the most reverent and God-loving fellow minister Nestorius, Cyril sends greeting in the Lord.
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Respected men worthy of trust have come to Alexandria and reported that your Reverence is greatly vexed and leaving nothing undone to cause me grief. When I wished to learn the reason for your Reverence’s displeasure, they told me that certain persons from Alexandria are circulating the letter I wrote to the holy monks, and that this has become the occasion of your dislike and displeasure.
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I am amazed, then, that your Reverence has not rather considered this for yourself: the disturbance over the faith did not arise before I wrote that letter, but from certain things said — or not said — by your Reverence. Still, since papers and expositions of your teaching are circulating, we labor on, wishing to correct those who have been led astray. For some have come close to no longer being willing to confess that Christ is God, but say instead that he is an instrument and tool of divinity, and a God-bearing man — and what is there beyond such claims that they will not say?
This, then, was the reason for our being troubled over what your Reverence has said or not said — for I do not entirely trust the papers being circulated. But how is it possible to keep silent while the faith is being wronged and so many are being led astray? Shall we not stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and must we not answer for an untimely silence, though we have been appointed by him to say what is necessary?
- What then shall I do now — for I must take counsel with your Reverence — since the most reverent and God-loving bishop of the Romans, Celestine, and the God-loving bishops with him, have informed me about certain papers carried there, I know not how, asking whether or not they are indeed your Reverence’s? For they write as men greatly scandalized. And how shall we appease those coming from the East, from all the churches, who are murmuring over these papers? Or does your Reverence perhaps suppose that only a small disturbance has arisen in the churches from such discourses? We are all engaged in struggles and labors, trying to turn back to the truth those who have somehow been persuaded to think otherwise. Since, then, it is your Reverence who has brought this necessity of murmuring upon everyone, how can you justly find fault with us? And why do you cry out against me in vain, instead of correcting your own teaching, so as to put an end to a scandal troubling the whole world?
For even if a word has slipped out, running ahead of itself before the people, let it be corrected by careful attention — and consent to grant those who are scandalized a single word, calling the holy Virgin “Mother of God,” so that, having healed those who were grieved and holding a right opinion in the eyes of all, we may conduct the assemblies of the people in peace and oneness of mind. And let your Reverence have no doubt that, for the faith in Christ, we are ready to suffer all things — even to undergo imprisonment, and death itself.
- But I say in truth that even while Atticus, of blessed memory, was still living, I composed a book on the holy and consubstantial Trinity, in which there is also a discussion of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, in harmony with what I have now written — and we read it to bishops, clergy, and those of the people eager to listen, though I have as yet published it to no one. It is likely, then, that once that work is published, I will again be accused of having composed this treatise even before your Reverence’s ordination.