Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/252

234  III. that Rome should be considered to be the head of all the church, in exclusion of the claims of Constantinople to the oecumenical bishopric (Vita Bonifacii III. apud Labbe, Acta Concil. t. v. 1615). Cyriac died in 606, and was interred in the church of the Holy Apostles (Chronicon Paschale, p. 381). He appears to have been a man of remarkable piety and earnestness, able to win the esteem of all parties. He built a church dedicated to theΘεοτόκος in a street of Constantinople called Diaconissa (Theoph. Chron. 233, A.M. 6090; Niceph. Callis. H. E. xviii. 42). [P.O.]  Cyrillus (2), Κύριλλος, bp. of Jerusalem, was probably born in Jerusalem or its immediate neighbourhood, c. 315. His writings prove that his education was liberal, and embraced a large variety of subjects. Touttée has laboriously collected evidences (c. ii.) of his acquaintance with physics, dialectics, physiology, mythology, etc. That he was a diligent student of Holy Scripture is certain, from the intimate knowledge, at least of the text, shewn in his Catecheses. But he was only acquainted with the LXX. His knowledge of Hebrew was only second-hand, and often incorrect. He was ordained deacon probably by Macarius bp. of Jerusalem, c. 335 (Soz. H. E. iv. 20, where the text is doubtful), and priest by his successor Maximus, c. 345. Maximus, notwithstanding Cyril's youth, entrusted him with the responsible duty of instructing catechumens, and preparing them for baptism. He also allowed him the exceptional privilege, sometimes granted by bishops to presbyters of eminent ability (e.g. to Chrysostom by Flavian of Antioch, and to Augustine by Valerius of Hippo), of preaching to the people in full church on the Lord's Day. In his office of catechist, c. 347, Cyril delivered the catechetical lectures by which his name is chiefly known (Hieron. de Vir. Illust. § 12). These lectures were preached without book on the evenings of the weeks of Lent, in the basilica of the Holy Cross, or Martyrium, erected on Calvary by St. Helena. His references to the locality are numerous and interesting (e.g. iv. 10‒14, x. 19, xiii. 4, 22, 39, xviii. 33). The five mystagogical lectures were addressed during Easter-week at noon to those baptized on Easter-eve in the Anastasis, or church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The episcopate of Maximus terminated at the close of 350 or the beginning of 351, and Cyril was chosen to fill the episcopal chair of Jerusalem. A cloud of doubt and difficulty hangs over his elevation to the episcopate. Jerome can hardly have been mistaken as to the main fact, though theological prejudice and personal dislike may have warped his judgment and caused him to represent the case in the least favourable light. On some leading questions Cyril and Jerome were decidedly opposed. In the great controversy of the day Cyril belonged to the Asiatic party, Jerome to that of Rome. In the Meletian schism at Antioch also they took opposite sides: Cyril supporting Meletius, Jerome being a warm adherent of Paulinus. Jerome asserts (Chronicon ad ann. 349) that on the death of Maximus the Arians invaded the church of Jerusalem and promised to appoint Cyril to the vacant throne if he would repudiate his ordination by Maximus; that Cyril consented to the humiliating terms, served some time in the church as a deacon, and was then rewarded with the episcopate by Acacius, the semi-Arian bp. of Caesarea, and according to the seventh Nicene canon metropolitan of Palestine; that Cyril then dishonourably persecuted Heraclius, whom Maximus, on his deathbed, had nominated his successor, and degraded him to the presbyterate. This account is supported by Rufinus (H. E. i. 23, "Sacerdotio, confusa jam ordinatione, suscepto"). Socrates and Sozomen, though they say nothing of Cyril's repudiation of his orders, are almost equally unfavourable to his orthodoxy, identifying him with the semi-Arian party of Acacius and Patrophilus. They also introduce a new element of confusion by the statement that the see of Jerusalem was vacant not by death, but by Maximus's deposition and expulsion by the semi-Arians (Socr. ii. 38; Soz. iv. 20; Theophan. Chronograph. p. 34). This may safely be rejected. In refutation of Jerome's account, Cyril's advocates triumphantly point to the synodical letter to pope Damasus of the bishops assembled at Constantinople, the year after the second oecumenical synod, A.D. 382, which speaks of Cyril in terms of high eulogy, as a champion of the orthodox faith against Arian heresy, and affirms his canonical election to the see of Jerusalem (Theod. H. E. v. 9). But this does not touch the point at issue. Acacius was the metropolitan of Cyril's province. He and his fellow-bishops were, notwithstanding their heretical bias, the legitimate authorities for conferring the episcopate. Cyril's election and consecration was therefore strictly canonical. Besides, the silence of the members of the synod as to facts occurring 30 years before does not disprove them. Whatever might have been Cyril's earlier heretical failings, he was on the orthodox side then (cf. Socr. v. 8, and Soz. vii. 7). His adhesion was valuable, and it would have been as impolitic as it was needless to revive an almost forgotten scandal. Yet Cyril's own writings quite forbid us to follow Jerome's authority in classing him with the Arians, or charging him with heretical tenets. Circumstances might render his orthodoxy equivocal. His early patron, Maximus, was somewhat of a waverer. His friends and associates were semi-Arians, and he was chosen to the episcopate by them, with the hope of his supporting their cause. But no error of doctrine is to be discovered in his writings, though he avoids the test word "homoousion" in his catecheses. He is well characterized by the Duc de Broglie (l’Eglise et l’Empire, iii. 402) as "formant l’extrémité de l’aile droite du Semiarianisme touchant à l’orthodoxie, ou de l’aile gauche de l’orthodoxie touchant au Semiarianisme," and may be regarded, certainly in the later part of his life, as one of those of whom Athanasius speaks (de Synod. 41) as "brothers who mean what we mean, and only differ about the word." The first year of Cyril's episcopate was rendered memorable by the appearance, May 7, 351, of a remarkable parhelion, or other atmospheric phenomenon, over Jerusalem, which was regarded as a miraculous manifestation of the symbol of 