Claiming the Mantle of Cyril: Cyril of Alexandria and the Road to ChalcedonHardcover, 14 June 2021

Everyone knows the series of events that comprised the Nestorian Controversy, but who knows, leaving aside divine agency, how and why events unfolded as they did? In this book an answer is proposed in terms of normal human behavior. There are occasional noble acts, and banal activities, but also, as here, one finds a tangled web of plots, counter-plots, and downright lies that even sainted bishops might employ to defend what they held dear. Texts left by the participants, when closely examined, provide rich evidence of this. For instance there is the show trial of Eutyches; papal ultimata; fake capitulations; intentional late arrival; a universal council that never happened, etc. What drove events forward most of all was the defensive strategy Antiochene controversialists developed and refined. They could, they realized, use select texts of Cyril's to co-opt Cyril's authority. They could, that is, claim the mantle of Cyril.