Christological controversies in the early church

The disputes over Christ's natures: Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches. Part of Heresy.

Acta Archelai (Latin) 68Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus closes by tracing Manes's teaching through Basilides to Scythianus; the work ends with Hegemonius's signature and a short appended catalogue of heresies down to the Apollinarians, Novatians, Montenses, and Luciferians.
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 1Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The first anathema condemns calling Christ's body uncreated, since the risen Christ showed the marks of the nails and the lance and let his body be touched.
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 2Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The second anathema condemns calling Christ's flesh of the same essence as the Godhead, since the eternal God took the form of a servant in time.
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 4Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The fourth anathema condemns saying Christ was born of a man's seed, since the Gospel says he was conceived of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary.
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 5Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The fifth anathema condemns dividing the Son before the ages from the Son in the last times, since Christ said, “Before Abraham came to be, I am.”
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 6Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The sixth anathema condemns separating the one who suffered from the one who did not, since the impassible Word suffered in his own flesh.
Letter 129Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Meletius why he named Apollinarius as near to Sabellianism, reports a delay in the emperor's action against him, and suggests what the letter to the Western bishops should say.
Letter 131Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Olympius that the writings used to accuse him are not his, that some are Apollinarius's, and that he neither teaches three gods nor communicates with Apollinarius.
Letter 263Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks the Western bishops to denounce publicly to the Eastern Churches three men who are disturbing them while claiming orthodoxy: Eustathius of Sebaste, Apollinarius, and Paulinus of Antioch, whose teachings and careers he describes.
Letters 265, 266Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to exiled Egyptian bishops denouncing the innovations of Apollinarius and warning them not to admit the followers of Marcellus without an anathema of his heresy; a second letter, to Peter of Alexandria, explains his silence about recent disorders, accepts Peter's approach to the Marcellians, and defends Meletius and Eusebius against the charge of Arianism.
Letter 175Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory writes to Cledonius, who looked after the Church of Nazianzus, protesting that the Apollinarians are stealing his flock and falsely claiming that he shares their views.
Letter 177Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory challenges the Apollinarians' claim to have been received by the Western synod, and sets out the faith: one and the same Christ, God before the ages and at the end also man, with anathemas against those who deny Mary is Theotokos.
Letter 179Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory's anathemas continue: against two Sons, against a Christ indwelt only by grace, against refusing worship to the Crucified, and against adoptionism; Christ is one, of two natures.
Letter 185Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory answers the objection that two perfect things cannot coexist: the human mind, perfect in its own order, is subordinate to God, as a torch is absorbed in a bonfire.
Letter 195Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory tells Cledonius to hold communion only with those who confess the Spirit as God and one Son, not two, and explains how the Apollinarians use orthodox words with a different sense.
Letter 199Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory explains why Damasus condemned Vitalius's confession, and ridicules the Apollinarian slogan “not a God-bearing man but a flesh-bearing God”, as if the faith were only thirty years old.
Letter 201Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory turns the Apollinarians' charge back on them: they themselves divide Christ's human and divine acts, yet accuse him of dividing the union; he insists he longs for peace.
Letter 219Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory, ill and at the hot springs, asks the governor Olympius to punish the Apollinarians, who have set up a bishop of their own at Nazianzus in defiance of the imperial laws.
Letter 331Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory complains to Nectarius that Arians, Macedonians and Eunomians trouble the Church, but worst of all the Apollinarians, whose pamphlet teaches that Christ's flesh existed in heaven before the ages.
Letter 333Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory reports that Apollinarius denies Christ a human mind and makes the Godhead itself mortal, and urges Nectarius to persuade the emperor to withdraw the Apollinarians' right of assembly.
Oration 22.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes the new dispute over Christ, in which some divide him into two sons and others deny that he assumed a human mind, and condemns quarrels over rival bishops’ thrones.
Letter 93.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The bishops of Palestine assure Theophilus that their province is almost free of heresy, apart from a few Apollinarians.
Letter 93.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The Palestinian bishops anathematize those who teach the Son's inferiority, all who contradict the Nicene faith, and Apollinaris's teaching that Christ assumed an incomplete humanity.
Letter 98.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus refutes the Apollinarian claim that Christ's soul was 'the mind of the flesh', distinguishing the soul from its faculties.
Letter 98.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that Apollinaris's orthodox writings do not excuse his error about Christ's soul, and that Christ took a complete human soul.
Ancoratus 77.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Denying Christ a mind helps no one.
Ancoratus 77.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some wrongly say Christ lacked a human mind.
Ancoratus 77.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They treat the mind as a separate hypostasis, equal to the spirit.
Ancoratus 119.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Word did not merely indwell a man.
Ancoratus 119.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · One Lord Jesus Christ, not two.
Anathema 7Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on those who say the Word took the place of a human rational soul in Christ (the Apollinarian view).
Letter 140.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The unchangeable Word took flesh through a rational soul, against the Apollinarians; 'flesh' means a whole man, and God and man are one person in Christ.
Letter 219.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine and other African bishops tell the bishops of Gaul that they have received and corrected the monk Leporius, who had denied that God was made man and so introduced a fourth person into the Trinity.
Letter 219.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The African bishops explain that Leporius, fearing change in God, had separated the Son of Man from the Son of God, but now confesses Christ as one, God and man, with both natures unchanged, and has signed a retraction.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.26.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Against the Apollinarians, the psalm shows that Christ had a human soul as well as a body.
On the Christian Struggle 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects the teaching that Christ had a human soul and body but no human mind.
On the Christian Struggle 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects the teaching that the Word took only a body, without a human soul.
Confessions 7.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine then saw Christ only as a supremely wise man; Alypius had thought the catholics denied Christ a human soul.
Exposition of the Right Faith 15Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · Against those who teach the mixture of the natures and the change of Christ's body into Godhead: such a change would add to God, produce two divine substances, or be pointless.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is the Word, a human soul, and flesh; Augustine warns against the Apollinarians, who deny Christ a rational human soul, as he earlier warned against Sabellians, Arians, Photinians and Manichees.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 1.1Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Celestine rejoices at Cyril's letter, which supplies a remedy for the errors preached at Constantinople.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 1.4Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Nestorius, a lover of novelty, has poisoned his people with questions that Scripture says to avoid.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 2.3Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Cyril's report and Nestorius's own letters, now translated, show open blasphemy; Nestorius's books evade, but his letters declare his position.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 2.8Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Celestine prepares to cut off the wound: Nestorius's letters show that he has taken from the apostolic faith words that carry the hope of salvation.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 5.2Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Nestorius's writings and Cyril's report show that he preaches abominable things about the virgin birth and divides the human and divine natures in Christ.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 6.3Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Nestorius's teaching against the virgin birth is attested by the faithful, by his books, and by his signed letters.
Canon 2Anonymous · 431 · Bishops who joined or returned to the rival assembly after the deposition of Nestorius are deposed.
Canon 3Anonymous · 431 · Clergy deprived by Nestorius for orthodoxy are restored, and clergy who agree with the council are freed from obedience to rebel bishops.
Part 4Eutherius of Tyana · ca. 431-440 · The author argues that one nature in Christ would empty the promises to Abraham and David, since Christ must be both David's Lord and his son according to the flesh.
Letter to John of AntiochEutherius of Tyana · ca. 431-433 · Eutherius warns against communion with Cyril unless he retracts his Twelve Chapters, refutes the anathemas one by one, and reports the embassy of Paul of Emesa to Egypt.
Letter to Sixtus III (with Helladius of Tarsus)Eutherius of Tyana · ca. 431-433 · Eutherius and Helladius appeal to Pope Sixtus III against Cyril's Twelve Chapters, the condemnation of Nestorius at Ephesus, and John of Antioch's reconciliation with Cyril.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 71.2Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Theodotus answers one who denies that God suffered: the nature is impassible, but denying the suffering denies the economy of salvation.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 71.4Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Paul's 'Christ Jesus' names the one born of the virgin; one who divides Christ into slave and master makes the single name empty. The Son, equal with God by nature, could humble himself without loss.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.5Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The magi's gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh confess Christ as king, God, and one who would die; the union makes him one, so that dividing him even in thought dissolves the union.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.6Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Separating Christ's natures even in thought dissolves the union; Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; the manner of the union, like the Nile turned to blood, is known only to God.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.14Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Theodotus confesses one Christ, the same God and man, and warns that dividing him even in thought denies the economy of salvation.
Letter 1, chapter 3Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus reaffirms Celestine’s judgment against Nestorius and turns to the requests of Cyril.
Letter 1, chapter 4Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus agrees with Cyril that, Nestorius being deposed, his followers who return to the right faith are to be received.
Letter 1, chapter 5Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · John of Antioch will be received as catholic if he accepts the condemnations of the Council of Ephesus; Cyril, who forgives his injuries, will receive his crown.
Letter 2, chapter 3Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · John of Antioch and the other supporters of Nestorius are to be received if they reject what Ephesus rejected; if not, they condemn themselves with Nestorius.
Letter 3, chapter 1Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus rejoices that the church’s body is whole again after the reunion of Antioch with Alexandria, Nestorius alone being cut off.
Letter 3, chapter 4Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus says that John of Antioch never really followed Nestorius but only suspended judgment, and has now returned.
Letter 3, chapter 5Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus rejoices that the bishops of the East have returned like the lost sheep, while Nestorius, the barren branch, is condemned, and welcomes John of Antioch as a catholic.
Letter 4, chapter 2Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus says that Nestorius, now an exile, reaps thorns; he was warned and condemned late, and now all should rejoice.
Letter 4, chapter 4Sixtus III, bishop of Rome · 432–440 · Sixtus compares Nestorius to the fallen Lucifer of Isaiah 14, since he made Christ a mere man and denied the incarnation, and calls for an end to controversy.
Commonitory 11Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Nestorius, Photinus, and Apollinaris illustrate how gifted and admired teachers became a test for the church.
Commonitory 12Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Vincent summarizes the errors of Photinus on the Trinity, of Apollinaris on Christ's soul and flesh, and of Nestorius on two persons in Christ.
Commonitory 13Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Against these errors Vincent sets out the catholic faith: in God one substance and three persons, in Christ two substances and one person.
Commonitory 16Vincent of Lérins · 434 · Vincent recapitulates, anathematizing Photinus, Apollinaris and Nestorius and blessing the church's faith in the Trinity and the one person of Christ.
Confession to Theodosius IIFlavian of Constantinople · 448-449 · Flavian assures Theodosius II of his orthodoxy: Christ is one person and hypostasis in two natures after the incarnation, consubstantial with the Father and with his mother, and Nestorius is anathematized.
Letter 1 (= Leo, Ep. 22), chapter 3Flavian of Constantinople · 448-449 · Flavian reports that Eutyches, archimandrite at Constantinople, denied before the synod that Christ is of two natures after the incarnation and that his flesh is consubstantial with ours.
Letter 2 (= Leo, Ep. 26), chapter 1Flavian of Constantinople · 448-449 · Flavian tells Leo that Eutyches taught one nature in Christ after the union and denied that Christ's body is consubstantial with ours, against Cyril's letter approved at Ephesus.
Canon 30Anonymous · 451 · The Egyptian bishops are allowed to delay signing Leo's letter until a new archbishop of Alexandria is ordained, on surety that they stay in Constantinople.
Definition of faithAnonymous · 451 (25 Oct) · The Chalcedonian definition: one and the same Christ, perfect in divinity and in humanity, made known in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation, in one person.