Wednesday, October 26, 2022

The High Mariology in the Announcement Agreed Between Cyrus and the Theodosian Party (7th century)

  

Article of Faith II

If someone does not confess that one of the Holy Trinity, God the Word, before the ages was timelessly begotten of the Father, and descended from heaven, and was made incarnate by the Holy Spirit, and became human from our Lady, the holy, glorious Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary (της αγιας ενδοξου θεοτοκου και αειπαρθενου Μαριας), suffered in his own flesh, and died and was buried, and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, let him be anathema.

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Article of Faith IV

If someone does not confess that from the very moment of the union God the Word, in the womb of the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary (εν τη γαστρι της αγιας θεοτοκου και αειπαρθενου Μαριας), hypostatized with himself through the union of a flesh from the same holy Theotokos (της αγιας θεοτοκου) which is consubstantial with us, ensouled with a rational and intellectual soul, in a union that was both natural and hypostatic, and came forth from her being one, without confession and without division, let him be anathema.

 

Article V

If someone does not confess that our holy Lady, and ever-virgin Mary properly speaking and in truth is the Theotokos (την δεσποιναν ημων και αειπαρθενον Μαριαν κυριως και κατα αληθειαν θεοτοκον), in that she conceived and bore God the Word incarnate, let him be anathema.

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Article of Faith VII

If someone, in saying that our one Lord, Jesus Christ, is discerned in two natures, does not confess that the same is one of the holy Trinity, God the Word begotten eternally from the Father, that in the last times of the age (cf. Heb. 1:2) the same became incarnate, and was born of our Lady, the all-holy and undefiled and ever-virgin Mary (εκ της παναγιας και αχραντου δεσποινης ημων θεοτοκου και αειπαρθενου Μαριας), but knows him to be this one and another, and not as one the same, according to the most wise Cyril, the same being perfect in Godhead and perfect in humanity, and in that respect and in that alone discerned in two natures, the same one suffering and not suffering in two distinct respects, as the same Cyril, [now] among the saints, said, suffering in human fashion in the flesh as a human being, but remaining impassible as God amidst the sufferings of his own flesh, and that one and the same Christ and Son performed things befitting God and things human by one theandric activity, according to Dionysius [now] among the saints, distinguishing in contemplation alone the elements from which the union came about, and mentally considering these as remaining without change and without confusion after their natural and hypostatic union, and recognizing in these the one and the same Christ and Son without confusion and without separation, as he mentally considers the two to be brought together mutually without confusion, holding the contemplation of them as a matter of reality and not of lying illusion, but he does not separate them in any way, since the rending into two has already been undone because of the union which is ineffable and unconfused and inconceivable, saying according to holy Athanasius: ‘At the one time there is flesh, at one time there is the flesh of God the Word; and the one time there is flesh ensouled rational, at the one time there is the flesh of God the Word endowed with a rational soul;’ but takes such an expression as dividing into parts, let him be anathema. (“Copy of the Announcement which was agreed between Cyrus, then Pope of Alexandria, and those of the Theodosian Party,” in Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy: The Synodical Letters and Other Documents [trans. Pauline Allen; Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009], 169, 171, 173)