Claiming the Mantle of Cyril: Cyril of Alexandria and the Road to Chalcedon

Everyone knows the series of events that comprised the Nestorian

Controversy, but who knows, leaving aside divine agency, how and why

events unfolded as they did? In this book an answer is proposed in terms

of normal human behavior. There are occasional noble acts, and banal

activities, but also, as here, one finds a tangled web of plots,

counter-plots, and downright lies that even sainted bishops might employ

to defend what they held dear. Texts left by the participants, when

closely examined, provide rich evidence of this. For instance there is

the show trial of Eutyches; papal ultimata; fake capitulations;

intentional late arrival; a universal council that never happened, etc.

What drove events forward most of all was the defensive strategy

Antiochene controversialists developed and refined. They could, they

realized, use select texts of Cyril’s to co-opt Cyril’s authority. They

could, that is, claim the mantle of Cyril.