Page:Nestorius and his place in the history of Christian doctrine.djvu/64

52 to that which we find in a letter of Acacius of Beroea, written as early as 431. But in this letter it is the eunuch Scholasticus, not count John, who is bribed, and other differences, too, are to be observed. We see, therefore, that Nestorius is repeating party-gossip. Nevertheless there may be a foundation of truth in this gossip, for Nestorius and the Antiochians complain again and again—and, as we shall see, not without grounds—of the briberies of Cyril. In another place in his Treatise of Heraclides Nestorius tells us, that the Augusta Pulcheria supported Cyril, because he, Nestorius, offended her by not paying her, on account of doubts about her virtue, the ceremonial honours which she as a virgin demanded ; and in this narration the disfavour, which Nestorius had experienced at the hands of Pulcheria, cannot be an invention of the writer. Then it is interesting to note that Cyril in the beginnings of the controversy tried, as we saw, to win Pulcheria to his cause, and afterwards, as we shall see , sought her favour even by means of presents. But the endeavours of Cyril to gain favour with Pulcheria are only one example of his intrigues. More generally speaking it can be said: it was essentially Cyril's work, that the council of Ephesus, demanded by Nestorius