Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/253

Rh redemption intended to establish the faith and confute gainsayers, and produced great excitement in the city. The churches were thronged with worshippers, and many Jews and Gentiles were converted to the faith. So important did the phenomenon appear to Cyril that he wrote to the emperor Constantius describing it. This letter has been preserved. Its authenticity has been called in question by Rivet, but the internal evidence from the similarity of style is strong, and it is accepted by Blondel. The occurrence of the word "homoousion" at the close of the letter is, however, suspicious, and leads us to question whether the prayer for the emperor in which it stands is not a later addition (Soz. iv. 5; Philostorg. iii. 26; Chron. Alex. p. 678; Theophan. p. 35 ). If Acacius had reckoned on Cyril as a faithful adherent and ready instrument in carrying out his plans, the fallacy of his expectations was very soon shewn. Scarcely had Cyril established himself in his see when a distressing controversy, which became the source of much evil to the church, arose as to the claim to priority of their respective sees (Theod. ii. 25; Soz. iv. 25). Cyril grounded his claim on the apostolical rank of his see, Acacius on the decision of the council of Nice (Can. vii.), which placed the bp. of Aelia—i.e. Jerusalem—under the bp. of Caesarea as metropolitan. This contest for pre-eminence was speedily embittered by mutual accusations of heterodoxy (Soz. iv. 15). For two years Acacius continued vainly summoning Cyril to his tribunal, and at last cut the controversy short by deposing him from his see (Soz. u.s., 357 or 358) at a small packed synod of his own adherents. The ostensible grounds were very trivial: contumacy in refusing to appear, and the charge—afterwards brought against Ambrose by the Arians—of having sold some of the church ornaments during a prevailing scarcity to supply the wants of the poor (Socr. ii. 40; Soz. iv. 25; Theod. ii. 26; Epiphan. Haeres. lxxiii. §§ 23‒27), and also of having held communion with Eustathius and Elpidius after their deposition by the synod of Melitina, in Lesser Armenia (Soz. u.s.; Basil. Ep. 253 [74]). Cyril was forced to yield. He left his see, not, however, without an appeal to a larger council, the justice of which was allowed by Constantius. This is noted by Socrates (ii. 40) as the first instance of an appeal against the decision of an ecclesiastical synod. On leaving Jerusalem Cyril first retired to Antioch and thence to Tarsus, where he was hospitably received by the bp. Silvanus, one of the best of the semi-Arians, who availed himself of Cyril's powers as a preacher. We find him also here in communion and friendship with other leading members of the same party, Eustathius of Sebaste, Basil of Ancyra, and George of Laodicea (Soz. iv. 25; Philost. iv. 12). The enmity of Acacius pursued his rival. Silvanus was warned against holding communion with one who had been deposed for contumacy and other crimes. But Cyril had gained great popularity at Tarsus by his sermons, the people would not hear of his leaving them, and Silvanus declined to attend to the admonition (Theod. u.s.). Nearly two years after his deposition, Sept. 359, Cyril laid his appeal before the council of Seleucia, at which he took his place among the semi-Arians. Acacius vehemently protested against his admission to the council. "If Cyril did not leave the synod, he must." Some of the bishops, in the cause of peace, begged Cyril to yield, at least temporarily, till his appeal had been heard. Cyril refused, and Acacius quitted the council, but soon returned, and took a leading part in the subsequent stormy debates. The semi-Arians who were opposed to Acacius were in the ascendant. Acacius was himself deposed, and Cyril restored (Theod. ii. 26; Socr. ii. 40; Soz. iv. 22; Philost. iv. 12). Acacius and his friends at once started for the capital, where they easily persuaded the weak Constantius to summon a fresh council. Fresh accusations were added to those formerly adduced. The charge of sacrilegiously disposing of the church goods was revived, and the emperor's indignation was excited by hearing that a baptismal robe of gold brocade, presented by his father Constantine to Macarius, which had been sold, had unfortunately found its way into the wardrobe of a theatre, and been recognized on the stage. Acacius's arts prevailed, and Cyril was a second time banished (Socr. ii. 42; Soz. iv. 25; Theod. ii. 27).

On the accession of Julian, 361, Cyril was reinstated, together with all the exiled bishops (Socr. iv. 1; Soz. u.s.; Theod. iii. 4; Amm. Marcell. xxii. 5). At Jerusalem Cyril calmly watched the attempts of Julian to rebuild the Temple, and foretold that it must fail (Socr. iii. 20; Rufinus, i. 37).

During the reign of the orthodox Jovian Cyril's episcopate was undisturbed, and the accession of Valens and Valentinian found him in quiet possession of his see, 364. In 366 Acacius died, and Cyril immediately claimed the nomination to the see of Caesarea, and appointed Philomenus. Philomenus was deposed by the Eutychian faction, and another Cyril substituted. He, in return, was deposed by Cyril of Jerusalem, who consecrated his sister's son Gelasius in his room, A.D. 367 (Epiphan. Haer. lxxiii. 37). In 367 Cyril was a third time deposed and exiled, with all the prelates recalled by Julian, by the edict of the Arian Valens (Socr. ii. 45; Soz. iv. 30; Epiph. Haer. lxvi. 20). His banishment lasted till Valens died and Theodosius succeeded, Jan. 15, 379, when he reoccupied his see, which he retained quietly for the 8 remaining years of his life (Hieron. Vir. Ill. c. 112; Socr. v. 3; Soz. vii. 2). On his return he found Jerusalem rent with schisms, infested with almost every form of heresy, and polluted by the most flagrant crimes. To combat these evils he appealed to the council held at Antioch, 379, which dispatched Gregory Nyssen to his aid. But the disease was too deeply seated to admit of an easy or speedy remedy. Gregory departed hopeless of a cure, and in his Warning against Pilgrimages drew a dark picture of the depravation of morals in the Holy City (de Euntibus Hieros. p. 656). In 381 Cyril was present at the second oecumenical council held at Constantinople, when he took rank with the chief metropolitans, the bps. of Alexandria and Antioch. He there declared his full adhesion to the Nicene faith, 