Nestorius

NESTORIUS : UNDERSTANDING INCARNATION
PROF. M. M. NINAN
him who united [the Word] and him who was united [the manhood] referring it to a common sonship,
that is, not giving to God that which is God’s, and to man that which is man’s; let him be anathema.
XI. If any one maintains that the flesh which is united with God the Word is by the power of its
own nature life-giving, whereas the Lord himself says, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing” (St. John vi. 61), let him be anathema. [He adds, “God is a Spirit” (St. John iv.
24). If, then, any one maintains that God the Logos has in a carnal manner, in his substance,
become flesh, and persists in this with reference to the Lord Christ; who himself after his
resurrection said to his disciples, “Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye
behold me having” (St. Luke xxiv. 39); let him be anathema.]
XII. If any one, in confessing the sufferings of the flesh, ascribes these also to the Word of God as
to the flesh in which he appeared, and thus does not distinguish the dignity of the natures; let him
be anathema.
On receiving the report and on the advise of Candidian, the Emperor ordered both Cyril and
Nestorius to be put in prison. Nestorius requested to be send back to his monastery which was
granted and Cyril was released. Cyril was eventually allowed to return after bribing various
courtiers.[John I., McEnerney (1998). St. Cyril of Alexandria Letters 51–110. Fathers of the Church Series. 77.
Catholic University of America Press.]
On September 11, the emperor received seven delegates from each side at Chalcedon, but no
agreement was reached. The emperor dissolved the council.
In the spring of AD 432, the emperor suggested a reconciliation of East and West. John of
Antioch and a few others worked out a scheme of reconciliation. In 433 John and Cyril signed
the Formula of Reunion, and it was ratified by the emperor.
The reconciliation was indeed a compromise on both sides.
It said that whoever wished to be part of the catholic and orthodox Imperial Church must, in their
thought and speech, avoid denying the humanity of the rational soul of Christ and at the same time
avoid dividing his two natures into two persons. Some bishops of the East acknowledge the
orthodoxy of Cyril but refuse to accept the deposition of Nestorius; others denounce both.
The following year, Proclus, the old adversary of Nestorius, was consecrated Bishop of
Constantinople, and the emperor ordered all bishops of the East to abandon their resistance to
John and Cyril. Many obeyed, but eighteen were deposed; they were banished to the mines of the
Egyptian Thebaid, as persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire had been doing since
Diocletian. In 438 Cyril was convinced that the reconciliation duped him out. The stage was set for
a continued fight.
Solution of Nestorius
In regions controlled by Persia they formed their own church. At the beginning, it was a strong body
which evangelized as far East as China. Nestorian churches appeared in Arabia, India, Tibet,
Malabar, Turkostan and Cyprus. Many exist to this day, especially in Iraq, although the level of
spirituality is often low. Some units reunited with the Roman Catholic church around the sixteenth
century. I come from the Malabar where the church was Nestorian until the coming of the
Portuguese who forcefully converted the Malankara Syrian Christians into Roman Catholic who
predominated until the coming of the British whereupon some of them broke away to form reformed
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