metropolitan church at Constantinople, he vindicated the
attributes of the Eternal, the Almighty God. "And can this God
have a mother?" he exclaimed. In other sermons and writings, he
set forth with more precision his ideas that the Virgin should be
considered not as the Mother of God, but as the mother of the
human portion of Christ, that portion being as essentially
distinct from the divine as is a temple from its contained deity.

PERSECUTION AND DEATH OF NESTOR. Instigated by the monks of
Alexandria, the monks of Constantinople took up arms in behalf of
"the Mother of God." The quarrel rose to such a pitch that the
emperor was constrained to summon a council to meet at Ephesus.
In the mean time Cyril had given a bribe of many pounds of gold
to the chief eunuch of the imperial court, and had thereby
obtained the influence of the emperor's sister. "The holy virgin
of the court of heaven thus found an ally of her own sex in the
holy virgin of the emperor's court." Cyril hastened to the
council, attended by a mob of men and women of the baser sort. He
at once assumed the presidency, and in the midst of a tumult had
the emperor's rescript read before the Syrian bishops could
arrive. A single day served to complete his triumph. All offers
of accommodation on the part of Nestor were refused, his
explanations were not read, he was condemned unheard. On the
arrival of the Syrian ecclesiastics, a meeting of protest was
held by them. A riot, with much bloodshed, ensued in the
cathedral of St. John. Nestor was abandoned by the court, and
eventually exiled to an Egyptian oasis. His persecutors tormented
him as long as he lived, by every means in their power, and at
his death gave out that "his blasphemous tongue had been devoured
by worms, and that from the heats of an Egyptian desert he had