Page:Nestorius and his place in the history of Christian doctrine.djvu/55

Rh Nestorius before Cyril's action. For the seven books of Johannes Cassianus contra Nestorium, the writing of which was instigated by Rome, show no influence of the material sent by Cyril, as they deal only with three of the earliest Constantinopolitan sermons of Nestorius, evidently sent by Nestorius himself together with his first letter to pope Celestine. But the work of Cassianus itself is a riddle. Is it not monstrous to build up a strongly antinestorian work on this small basis of three sermons? This piece of monstrous daring cannot be explained unless it be that Rome was prejudiced against Nestorius. Is the reception of the Pelagians in Constantinople a sufficient ground for this prejudice? Hardly. For as regards these Pelagians Nestorius demanded advice of the Roman bishop in his very first letter. He would doubtless have sent them away if the pope had asked this. But Celestine of Rome had left unanswered at least three letters of Nestorius. The reason he afterwards gave, viz. that the letters of Nestorius had first to be translated into Latin, deserves to be met by us with an incredulous shake of the head. Was the real reason perhaps plottings of Cyril? Cyril declares in May 430, in a letter to the pope, that he had not written before to any of his fellow-bishops about Nestorius. As regarding the