40 - Eusebius of Dorylaeum, Protest

Summary

Eusebius of Dorylaeum was a fifth-century bishop and a prominent theologian. Trained in legal practice, he became a distinguished rhetorician in Constantinople. His significant erudition earned him esteem at the imperial court. While still a layperson, Eusebius became the first person to contest Nestorius, the newly installed archbishop of Constantinople, in order to defend the title Theotokos for the Virgin Mary. When Nestorius challenged the theological propriety of the title, Eusebius confronted him in church. Cyril of Alexandria recounted the incident as follows:

When [Nestorius] used novel and profane expressions in the midst of the church, a very talented and accomplished man, who was still among the laity and had moreover collected for himself an impressive education, was moved with fiery and God-loving zeal and said with a piercing cry, “The Word before the ages also endured a second birth, that which is according to the flesh and from a woman!” In response to this pandemonium broke out among the people. Most of those with intelligence honored the man with immoderate praise as pious, extremely intelligent, and in possession of orthodox doctrines, but others raged against him. Sizing up the situation, he immediately indicated his approval of those whom [Nestorius] had brought ruin upon for teaching what he himself did and sharpened his tongue against the one who was refusing to consent not merely to his teachings but even to the holy fathers who had legislated for us the pious definition of the faith, “which we have as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,” according to what has been written.¹ “I am delighted,” [Nestorius] said, “to see your zeal. But the refutation of the pollution uttered by this wretched man is self-evident. For if there are two births there must be two sons. But the church knows one Son, the Master Christ.”²

Years later, as bishop of Dorylaeum, Eusebius would also be among the first theologians to repudiate the miaphysite teachings of Eutyches when he indicted him at the Home Synod in Constantinople in 448.³