CHAPTER IX

HERESY OF EUTYCHES

IN his time arose the stir about the impious Eutyches, when a partial synod was assembled at Constantinople, and a written charge was preferred by Eusebius, bishop of Dorylæum, who, while still practising as a rhetorician, was the first to expose the blasphemy of Nestorius. Since Eutyches, when summoned, did not appear, and afterwards, even on his appearance, was convicted on certain points; for he had said, “I allow that our Lord was produced from two natures before their union, but I confess only one nature after their union;” and he even maintained that our Lord’s body was not of the same substance with ourselves—on these grounds he is sentenced to deprivation: but on his presenting a petition to Theodosius, on the plea that the acts, as set forth, had been concocted in the hands of Flavian, the synod of the neighbouring region is assembled at Constantinople, and Flavian is tried by it and some of the magistrates; and when the truth of the acts had been confirmed, the second synod at Ephesus is summoned.