Winchester.
* 1.1Now followeth to answere to Gelasius, who abhorring both the hereses of Eutiches and Nestorius, in his treatise agaynst the Eutichians forgetteth not to compare with theyr errour in extremity in the one side, the extreame errour of the Nestorians on the other side, but yet principally entendeth the confusion of the Eutichians, with whome he was specially troubled. These two heresies, were not so grosse as the author of this [ 1] booke reporteth them, wherin I will write what Uigilius sayth.
(Inter Nestorij ergo quondam Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae non testoris, se dissipatoris, non pastoris, sed praedatoris, sacrilegum dogma & Eutichetis ne foriam & detestabilem sectam, ita serpentinae grassationis sese calliditas temperauit, vt vtrum{que} sine vtrius{que} periculo, pleri{que} vitare non possint, dum si quis Nestorij per fidiam damnat, Eutichetis puratur errori succumbere: rursum dum Eutichi∣anae haeresis impietatem destruit, Nestorij arguitur dogma erigere.) These be Uigilius wordes in his first booke, which be thus much in English. Betwene the abominable teaching of Nestorius, sometyme not ruler but waster, not pastor, but pray searcher, of the church of Constantinople, and the wicked and detestable sect of Eutiches, the craft of the deuils spoyling so facioned it selfe, that men could not auoyd any of the secrets without danger of the other: So as whiles any man condemneth the falsenes of Nesto∣rian, he may be thought fallen to the errour of the Eutichian, and whiles he destroyeth the wickednes of the Eutichian, and whiles be destroyeth the wickednes of the Eutichi∣ans heresie, he may be challenged to releeue the teaching of the Nestorian.This is the sentence of Uigilius, by which appeareth how these heresies were both subtill conueyed, without so playne contradiction, as this author eyther by ignorāce or of purpose fayneth, as though the Nestorian should say, that Christ was a perfect man, but not God, and the Eutichian cleane contrary, very God, but not man. For if the heresies had bene such, Uigilius had had no cause to speake of any such ambiguity, as he noteth yt a man should hardly speake agaynst the one, but he might be suspected to fauor the other. And yet I graunt that the Nestorians saying might imply Christ not to be God, bicause they would two distinct different natures, to make also two distinct persons, and so as it were two Christs, the one onely man, and the other onely God, so as by their teaching God was neither incarnate, nor as Gregory Nazianzene sayth, man deitate, for so he is termed to say.
The Eutichians as S. Augustine sayth reasoning agaynst the Nestorians, became heretiques themselues, and bicause we confesse truely by fayth but one Christ the sonne of God very God: The Eutichians say, although there were in the virgins wombe be∣fore [ 2] the adunation, two natures, yet after the adunation, in that mistery of Christes in∣carnation, there is but one nature, and that to be the nature of God, into which the na∣ture of man was after their fansye transfused and so confounded, wherupon by impli∣cation a man might gather the nature of humanity not to remayne in Christ after the adunation in the virgins wombe. Gelasius detesting both Eutiches and Nestorius in [ 3] his proces vttereth a catholike meaning against them both, but he directeth speciall argu∣ments of ye two natures in man, & ye two natures in ye Sacramēt, chiefly agaynst the Eu∣tichians, to proue yt nature of man to cōtinue in Christ after ye adunatiō, being no absur∣dity for two differēt natures to cōstitute one person: the same two natures remayning in theyr property, and yt natures to be (aliud,) & (aliud,) which signifieth differēt, and yet in that not to be (alius,) & (alius,) in person, which alius and alius in person, the Eu∣tichians [ 4] abhorred, and catholiquely, for so much agaynst the Nestorians, who by reason