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Cyrus of Alexandria
Cyrus of Alexandria
A Melchite patriarch of that see in the seventh century, and one of
the authors of Monothelism; d. about 641. He had been since 620 Bishop
of Phasis in Colchis when the Emperor Heraclius, in the course of his
Persian campaign (626), consulted him about a plan for bringing the
Monophysites of Egypt back to the Church and to the support of the
empire. The plan, suggested by Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
consisted of confessing the faith of Chalcedon on the two natures of
Christ, while practically nullifying it by the admission of one
theandric will and operation,
. Cyrus hesitated at first, but
being assured by Sergius that this formula was opposed to neither the
Fathers nor Chalcedon and was destined to achieve great results, he
became a stanch supporter of it, and was, in return, raised by
Heraclius to the then vacant See of Alexandria (630). Once a patriarch,
he set himself vigorously to effect the desired union. In a synod held
at Alexandria he proposed what is known as the
or "Satisfactio", an agreement in
nine articles, the seventh of which is a bold assertion of the
Monothelite heresy. The Monophysites (Theodosians or Severians)
welcomed the agreement with, however, the remark that Chalcedon was
coming to them, not they to Chalcedon. The union thus effected was
adroitly exploited, with a view to win over Pope Honorius to
Monothelism; otherwise it proved ineffective, and soon fell into
discredit under the name of
, contemptuously called the "washy
union". Cyrus persevered none the less in his adhesion to the
compromise, and even accepted the Ecthesis, a new imperial formulary of
the same error (637). When Omar's general, Amru, threatened the
Prefecture of Egypt, Cyrus was made prefect and entrusted with the
conduct of the war. Certain humiliating stipulations, to which he
subscribed for the sake of peace, angered his imperial master. He was
recalled and harshly accused of connivance with the Saracens; however,
he was soon restored to his former authority, owing to the impending
siege of Alexandria, but could not avert the fall of the great city
(640) and died shortly after.
From Cyrus we have three letters to Sergius and the "Satisfactio",
all preserved in the acts of the Roman Synod of the Lateran and of the
Sixth Œcumenical Council (Mansi, X, 1004; XI, 560, 562, 964). The
first letter is an acceptation of the Ecthesis; in the second Cyrus
describes his perplexity between Pope Leo and Sergius; the conversion
of the Theodosians is narrated in the third. The seventh article of the
"Satisfactio" — the others are irrelevant — reads thus:
"The one and same Christ, the Son, performs the works proper to God and
to man by one theandric operation [
] according to St. Dionysius".
Cyrus' chief opponents, St. Sophronius, d. in 637 (Epistola synodica,
Mansi, XI, 480), and St. Maximus, d. in 662 (Epistola ad Nicandrum;
disputatio cum Pyrrho, P.G., XCI, 101, 345), reproached him for
falsifying the then much-respected text of Dionysius and substituting
for
(new). They showed, moreover, the
inanity of his claim to the support of the Fathers, and explained how
the Divine and human natures of Christ, sometimes styled one, because
they belong to the same person and work in perfect harmony, can no more
by physically identified than the natures from which they proceed.
Historians are not agreed as to how Cyrus came by this error. Some
think that he was, from the outset, a Monophysite at heart. Others,
with more reason, hold that he was led into error by Sergius and
Heraclius. Cyrus was condemned as a heretic in the Lateran Council of
649 (Denzinger, Enchiridion, 217, 219) and in 680 at the Third
Œcumenical Council of Constantinople (Denzinger, 238; Mansi, XI,
554). (See
Monothelites.)
Neale, History of the Holy Eastern Church (London, 1847), II; Hefele, Conciliengesch. (Freiburg, 1877), III; Petavius, Dogmata Catholica (Paris, 1866), V, i, 19; Burt, History of the Later Roman Empire (London, 1880); Mann, Lives of the Popes (London, 1902), Vol. I, Pt. I, 330; Schwane- Degert, Hist. des dogmes (Paris, 1903), II; Turmel, Hist. de la théol. positive (Paris, 1904).
J.F. Sollier
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