RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cyprian
Cyril of Alexandria
been condemned to the galleys under Diocletian, to have escaped to Sapor, king of Persia, and to have been beheaded under Maximian. His day is Aug. 8. (2) An alleged pope, who is said in the Ursula legend (twelfth century) to have resigned the papal chair to follow that saint and her company of virgins (see Ursula, Saint), and suffered martyrdom with her at Cologne. A pope of the name is otherwise unknown, and the story is very possibly a development of that of the Roman deacon just mentioned.
2, Cyriacus: Patriarch of Constantinople 595- 606, succeeded John IV and, like him, assumed the title of " Ecumenical Patriarch "; a synod at Constantinople confirmed the title. But it was highly displeasing to Gregory I. of Rome, and he protested violently, writing letters to Cyriacus, to the other patriarchs of the East, and to the emperor Maurice, and denouncing the title as scandalous, criminal, perverse, worthless, even anti-Christian and diabolic (Jaff6, Regesta, 1470, 1474, 1476, 1477, 1683, 1905 [vol. i., Leipsic, 1885, pp. 176 sqq.]). When Phocas, a rude and coarse soldier, dethroned Maurice in 602, Cyriacus crowned him; but a disagreement soon arose and Gregory did his best to enlist Phocas on his side. Whether Phocas really issued an edict declaring Rome caput omnium ecclesiarum, as is asserted, is uncertain. At any rate, Cyriacus died (Oct. 7, 606) before it was issued.
3. Cyriacus: Metropolitan of Carthage, lived in the latter half of the eleventh century and was one of the last Christian bishops of northern Africa. He refused to perform uncanonical consecration, and for this reason some of his flock accused him before the Saracenic emir, who tortured him in a cruel manner. He addressed himself to Gregory VII. and received letters of consolation and exhortation from the pope. Later, in 1076, Gregory commended him to Servandus, a newly consecrated bishop of Hippo Regius. (O. ZoCKLERf-)
Bibliography: 1. (1) ASB, Aug., ii. 327-340; Analecta Bollandiana, ii. 247-258. (2) ASB, Oct., ix. 101 sqq.; F. W. Rettberg, KD, i. 112 sqq., 638; J. J. I. von Dolliiiger. Die Papstfabeln des Mittelalters, pp. 45 sqq., Munich, 1863; DCB, i. 756-758.
2. ASB, Oct., xii. 344-351; Nicephoras Callistus, Hist, eccl, xviii. 40-42; Theophanes, Chronographia, i. 446 sqq., in CSHB, xxvi., Bonn, 1839; letters of Gregory the Great, bk. vii. 4-7, 31, ix. 68, xiii. 40; Baronius, Annates, ad an. 596 aqq.; M. le Quien, Oriens Christianus, i. 67, Paris, 1740; R. Baxmann, Die Politik der PiXpste, i. 129 sqq., Elberfeld, 1868.
3. Gregory VII., Registrum, i. 22-23, iii. 19; P. Jaff6, Regesta, ad an. 1073, Sept. 15 (nos. 4793-94); and 1076, June (no. 4994).
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Archbishop of Alexandria; d. there June 27, 444. His early life is known only from notices in Socrates and a few elsewhere. He was a nephew of the archbishop Theophilus, whom he accompanied in 403 to Constantinople to attend the synod ^dQwercMOT (seeCHBYsosTOM, § 4).
When the uncle died, Oct. 15, 412, Life and Cyril succeeded him in his see. The Character, government was not pleased with this choice. It feared, not without reason, that the new bishop would show too much independence; and, indeed, on every occasion Cyril
proved that he was master in Alexandria. He closed the churches of the Novatians, expelled the Jews from the city in spite of the opposition of the prefect Orestes, and when soon afterward Nitrian monks insulted the prefect in the open street, he praised their leader as a martyr. He did not order the murder of Hypatia (q.v.), but his lector and the parabolani, who were guilty of it, were well aware that the female philosopher was an eyesore to the archbishop. His restless, violent conduct, which excited the masses, seems to have hurt him at the court. Theodosius II. as well as Pulcheria listened to him rather than to the prefect. For the rest of the archbishop's life, which is closely connected with the dogmatic controversies of the times, see Nestorius. From the very beginning Cyril opposed Nestorius. It was the climax in his life when the emperor confirmed the deposition of his opponent which he had decreed at the Synod in Ephesus in 431, whereas he retained his office, though the Syrian bishops had declared him also deposed. His administration shows the Alexandrian bishops at the height of their power and influence, from which they were thrown by the pretentious but short-sighted and incapable Dioscurus(seeEuTYCKiANiSM; MonophysiTEs). Among the Greeks Cyril is commemorated on June 9, among the Latins on Jan. 28. Leo XIII. promoted him in 1883 to the rank of doctor ecclesice.
In general Cyril's literary activity was in the dogmatic and exegetical field. In his homilies and epistles dogmatic subjects are often touched upon. As an apologist Cyril became famous by his refutation of the attack of the emperor Julian upon Christianity, in thirty books, of which only the first ten are extant entire, eleven to twenty in fragments. The dogmatico-polemical literary activity of the archbishop was very comprehensive.
At the head stand the writings on the
Literary doctrine of the Trinity composed be-
Activities. fore the Christological controversjr.
The controversy itself caused a large number of treatises against Nestorianism. Tlie results of the exegetical labor of the patriarch are contained in the seventeen books " On Worship in Spirit and in Truth," in the thirteen books of " Elegant Expositions " on the Pentateuch, as v/ell as in numerous commentaries on the Old and New Testaments. The typico-allegorical interpretation, characteristic of the Alexandrian school in opposition to the Antiochian school, is very prominent in Cyril's exegesis. The most important work in that direction is the comprehensive commentary on the Gospel of John.
As regards his teaching, Cyril not unjustly bears the title of " Seal of the Fathers," as the one who finally fixed the true doctrine of the Trinity. Great as is his glory in that direction, the question has often been raised whether his Christ ology does not contain traces of a relationship with ApoUinarianism, which he himself opposed from conviction (see Apollinaris of Laodicea). At any rate, his Christology approaches very near the limit which separates orthodoxy from Monophysitism. It rests on the suppositions of the older Alexandrians (Athanasius) and the Cappadocians by which they knew
Oyril of Alexandria Cyril Lucar