(Conc. t. 4, p. 622.) The council of Chalcedon met in 451, and in
the seventh session, held on the 26th of October, Theodoret
presented his request that his writings and faith might be examined.
Those who were prepossessed against him would not allow any such
examination, but required that he should anathematize Nestorius,
which he at length did; and the council, with high commendations,
declared him orthodox, and worthy of his see. Marcian, by a law
published the following year, annulled the edict of Theodosius
against him and Flavian. He died at Cyrus, about the year 458. The
heresy of Nestorius he had clearly condemned from the beginning,
with John of Antioch, in their exhortatory letter to Nestorius,
(Conc. t. 3, p. 394). What mistakes and faults he fell into he
cancelled by his edifying repentance; and the great virtues which he
practised even under his disgrace, the extent of his learning, and
the sublimity and acuteness of his genius, have established his
reputation in all succeeding ages, and he is deservedly ranked among
the must illustrious fathers of the church. His excellent writings
are the most authentic monuments of his extraordinary learning and
piety. He modestly compares himself (Proleg. in Osee. t. 2, p. 700)
to the Jewish poor women, who in the building of the tabernacle,
having neither gold nor silver to give to God towards this work,
picked and gathered together the hair, thread, or cloths,
contributed by others, or spun, or sewed something, not to be found
quite empty-handed. St. Chrysostom was taken away from Antioch in
397, and Theodoret was only born about the year 393: but though he
had not the happiness of hearing his divine discourses, he took him
for his principal model, and especially in his comments on the
scriptures usually adhered to those of that incomparable doctor. His
works were printed at Paris, in 1642, in four volumes in folio, to
which F. Garnier, a learned Jesuit, in 1684, added a fifth under the
title of an Auctarium, containing certain letters and discourses of
this father, with several prolix historical dissertations on the
Nestorian heresy. The judicious F. Sirmond, far more equitable than
F. Garnier. admires Theodoret's brevity, joined with great
perspicuity, especially in his commentaries, and commends the
pleasing beauty and attic el