Nestorius

Nestorius, a native of Germanicia, was brought from Antioch for his reputation as a preacher and ordained bishop of Constantinople on 10 April 428 (Socrates, Church History 7.29). When one of his presbyters preached against calling Mary Theotokos, “God-bearer”, he took the same side in his own sermons (Socrates, Church History 7.32). In his reply to Cyril of Alexandria he argued that Scripture ascribes birth and suffering to Christ’s humanity and not to the godhead, that the name Christ covers both natures in one person, and that Mary is therefore more exactly called mother of Christ (Council of Ephesus (431) Nestorius, second letter to Cyril).

The council that met under Cyril at Ephesus in 431 deposed him, and he was banished to the Oasis, where Socrates says he was still living when he wrote (Socrates, Church History 7.34). Contemporaries judged him differently. Prosper, in the West, wrote that he preached Christ as a mere man (Prosper, Chronicle 1297 (AD 428)). Socrates, who had read his sermons, denied this and thought that he had simply taken fright at a word (Socrates, Church History 7.32). See the Council of Ephesus.