altogether foreign from the purpose of this address to enter in any way
at large upon the character and history of those or the preceding
Councils, yet a few words seem necessary, to enable us to judge of the
nature and weight of the evidence borne by them on the question
immediately before us.

The source of all the disputes which then rent the Church of HIM who had
bequeathed peace as his last and best gift to his followers, was the
anxiety to define and explain the nature of the great Christian mystery,
the Incarnation of the Son of God; a point on which it were well for all
Christians to follow only so far as the Holy Scriptures lead them by the
hand. All parties appealed to the Nicene Council; though there seems to
have been, to say the least, much misunderstanding and unnecessary
violence and party spirit on all sides. The celebrated Eutyches of
Constantinople was charged with having espoused heterodox doctrine, by
maintaining that in Christ was only one nature, the incarnate Word. On
this charge he was accused before a Council held at Constantinople in
A.D. 448. His doctrine was considered to involve a denial of the human
nature of the Son of God. The Council condemned him of heresy, deposed,
and excommunicated him. From this proceeding Eutyches appealed to a
General Council. A council (the authority of which, however, {320} has
been solemnly, but with what adequate reason we need not stop to
examine, repudiated), was convened at Ephesus in the following year, by
the Emperor Theodosius. The proceedings of this assembly were
accompanied by lamentable unfairness and violence. Eutyches was
acquitted, and restored by this council[122]; and his accusers were
condemned and persecuted; Flavianus, Archbishop of Constantinople, who
had summoned the preceding council, being even scourged and exiled. In
his distress that patriarch sought the good offices of Leo, Bishop of
Rome, who espoused his cause, but who failed nevertheless of inducing