Page:Nestorius and his place in the history of Christian doctrine.djvu/42

30 see, if we discuss the second point which in the abovequoted narration of the Treatise of Heraclides seems to be worthy of consideration.

Nestorius, as I mentioned, says here he had declared that both terms, as well as, rightly understood, were not heretical, but that he recommended as more safe the term. This account of Nestorius seems to be untrustworthy; for his well-known first sermon on the, preserved in long fragments , seems wholly to exclude the term ; and it is likewise well known that Nestorius was continually reproached for interdicting or at least refusing to give to Mary the title. Even his afterwards unfaithful friend, John of Antioch, asked him in a letter of the autumn of 430 to give up his opposition against this designation of Mary. Is Nestorius, therefore, telling a falsehood when he narrates that he had declared the, when rightly understood, to be non-heretical? Here the place of meeting between Nestorius and the quarrelling parties becomes important. For, while I do not believe that Nestorius even in his first sermon on the, in spite of his criticism, declared the term to be nevertheless tolerable, yet it is not quite improbable that he did so previously in the