Gregory of Nyssa, who had been commissioned by a Council held at Antioch in 378 to visit the Churches in Arabia and Palestine, "because matters with them were in confusion, and needed an arbiter," gives a mournful account both of the distracted state of the Church, and of the prevailing corruption. "If the Divine grace were more abundant about Jerusalem than elsewhere, sin would not be so much the fashion among those who live there , but as it is, there is no form of uncleanness that is not perpetrated among them; rascality, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, quarrelling, murder, are rife." In a letter [68] 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 Sozomen [69] as one of three recognised leaders of the orthodox party, and, according to Bishop Hefele [70] , as sharing the presidency with the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch. This latter point, however, is not clearly expressed in the statement of Sozomen. Socrates writes that Cyril at this time recognised the doctrine of homoousion, having retracted his former opinion: and Sozomen says that he had at this period renounced the tenets of the Macedonians which he previously held [71] . 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 homoousios 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 consisting 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 Alexandria 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 Theodoret [72] 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 province, and that he has very often fought a good fight in various places against the Arians." Thus justice was done at last to one whose prudence, moderation, and love of peace, had exposed him in those days of bitter controversy to undeserved suspicion and relentless persecution. His justification by the Council is the last recorded incident in Cyril's life. We are told by Jerome that he held undisturbed possession of his See for eight years under Theodosius. The eighth year of Theodosius was a.d. 386, and in the Roman Martyrology, the 18th of March in that year is marked as "The birthday (Natalis,' i.e. of his heavenly life) of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, who after suffering many wrongs from the Arians for the sake of the Faith, and having been several times driven from his See, became at length renowned for the glory of sanctity, and rested in peace: an Ecumenical Council in a letter to Damasus gave a noble testimony to his untarnished faith."
[1] Bingham, The Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book II. c. 10, § 2.
[2] Cat. xii. 20. The wood had been cleared away about sixteen years before this Lecture was delivered.
[3] Cat. xiii. 32; xiv. 5.
[4] Cat. iv. 10; x. 19; xiii. 4. Gregor. Nyss. Baptism of Christ, p. 520, in this Series: "The wood of the Cross is of saving efficacy for all men, though it is, as I am informed, a piece of a poor tree, less valuable than most trees are."
[5] Cat. xiv. 9.
[6] Eusebius; Vita Const. iii. 29 ff.
[7] Cat. xii. 1, 33, 34. Compare iv. 24, note 8.
[8] Hefele, History of Councils, ii. 17; Sozom. H. E. ii. 25.
[9] Euseb. Vita Const. iv. 43.
[10] Robertson, Prolegomena to Athanasius, p. xxxix.
[11] Euseb. V. C. iv. 43.
[12] Apolog. contra Arian. § 57.
[13] Cf. Athan. Hist. Arian. § 25.
[14] Introductory note to Cyril's Letter to Constantius, § x.
[15] On the exact date of the Lectures, see below, ch. ix.
[16] See more below on the office of "Catechist," ch. ii. § 2.
[17] Cat. x. 14.
[18] Cat. i. 6.
[19] Socr. H. E. ii. 38; Soz. iv. 20. The Bishops of Palestine, except two or three, had received Athanasius most cordially a few years before (Athan. Hist. Arian. § 25).
[20] p. ii.
[21] Vol. I. p. xli. note.
[22] Dict. Chr. Biogr. "Cyrillus," p. 761: and for the Meletian Schism, see "Meletius," "Paulinus," "Vitalius."
[23] Hefele, ii. 344.
[24] Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. v. 9.
[25] Epist. ad Constantium--Monitum, § x.
[26] Dict. Chr. Biogr. p. 761.
[27] Gwatkin, p. 74.
[28] Epist. iv. p. 12.
[29] Sozom. H. E. iv. 25.
[30] Hist. Eccl. v. 23.
[31] History of the Christian Councils, Book I. Sec. ii. c.
[32] Hist. Eccl. ii. 40.
[33] Ib.
[34] Ib. ii. 26.
[35] H. E. iv. 25.
[36] There is much uncertainty and confusion in the names of the Bishops who succeeded Cyril on the three occasions of his being deposed. His successor in 357 is said by Jerome to have been a certain Eutychius, probably the same who was afterwards excommunicated at Seleucia (Dict. Chr. Biogr. Eutychius 13). The subject is discussed at length by Touttée (Diss. I. vii.).
[37] See the account of his remarkable career in the Dict. Chr. Biogr.
[38] Athan. De Synodis, c. xii.; Hefele, ii. 262.
[39] Socrates, H. E. ii. 40.
[40] Athan. contr. Arianos Apol. c. 36: Hefele, ii. p. 27, note.
[41] Robertson, Prolegomena ad Athanas. ii. § 8 (2) c.
[42] Soz. iv. 17.
[43] Socrat. ii. 39.
[44] H. E. ii. 26.
[45] Sozom. iv. 22.
[46] Theodoret, H. E. ii. 23.
[47] Sozom. iv. 23.
[48] Athan. de. Syn. § 30, where this Creed is given in full.
[49] S. Hilar. ii. Num. 708.
[50] Hefele, Councils, ii. 271.
[51] Dict. Chr. Biogr.
[52] De Synodis, § 41.
[53] The Arian Controversy, p. 135.
[54] Basil, Epist. 244. Compare Newman, Preface to Catechetical Lectures, p. iv.
[55] Socr. H. E. iii. 1.
[56] Sozom. H. E. v. c. 5. Compare Gibbon, Ch. xxiii.: "The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this affected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine divisions of the Church."
[57] Theodoret, H. E. iii. 10.
[58] Gibbon, c. xxiii.
[59] Hist. i. 37.
[60] See Gibbon's remarks on the testimony of Ammianus, "a contemporary and a Pagan," and on the explanation from natural causes suggested by Michaelis.
[61] Socr. iii. 25; Sozom. vi. 4.
[62] Epiphanius, Hær. 73, § 37.
[63] Hist. Eccl. V. 8; Dialog. i. iii.
[64] Hæres. lxxiii. § 37.
[65] Sozom. vi. 12. Cf. Tillemont, Mémoires, Tom. viii. p. 357: "As Cyril was, no doubt, then persecuted only on account of his firmness in the true Faith, the title of Confessor cannot be refused to him."
[66] Soz. vii. 1.
[67] Ib. 2.
[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.