Five Tomes Against Nestorius
Cyril’s point-by-point reply to the sermons of Nestorius, written on the eve of the Council of Ephesus. In it he states that after the union the incarnate nature of the Word is to be thought of as one, the formula later held against Chalcedon.
Cyril, bishop of Alexandria from 412, wrote the five books about 430, quoting passages from the sermons of Nestorius and answering each. His concern throughout is that Christ is one subject, the Word made flesh, and not a man joined to the Word.
Near the start of the second book he writes that the incarnate nature of the Word is, after the union, conceived of as one, as a human being is one though made of soul and body. He used the same phrase, “one incarnate nature of God the Word”, in later letters. Both sides at Chalcedon claimed Cyril. The council received two of his letters as standards of faith; those who rejected the council held that its “in two natures” abandoned this phrase of his.
Cited in
- October AD 451, firm date