Claiming the Mantle of Cyril

Cyril of Alexandria and the Road to Chalcedon

By (author) P.T.R. Gray

Book cover: Claiming the Mantle of Cyril

Extent: 320 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Ancient Egypt, Religious Studies

Series: Late Antique History and Religion

Series volume number: 24

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(June 2021)

ISBN: 9789042942578

Price: $119.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(June 2021)

ISBN: 9789042942585

Price: $119.00

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.


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.

  • By (author) P.T.R. Gray

"Gray slows down the story and presents a detailed and lively narrative of every step along the way, beginning with the theotokos controversy of 428 involving Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria. Drawing upon a voluminous number of council reports, doctrinal statements, letters and responses to those letters, Gray connects the personalities, motives, controversies, and conniving on the long and winding road of twenty-three years." Kitchen, Robert A., Church History, July 28, 2023