egance of his style. Photius praises his
fruitfulness of invention, the purity of his language, the choice of
his words, and the smoothness and neatness of his style, in which he
finds everywhere a decent and noble elevation, though he thinks his
metaphors sometimes too bold. This great critic calls his method of
short notes the most accomplished model for interpreting the holy
scriptures, and mentions, as an instance of his sincere humility,
that he never employs a single word, or produces a quotation for
ostentation, never falling into digressions foreign to his purpose;
we may almost say, that a superfluous word scarce ever escapes him.
(Phot. Cod. 203, p. 526. Cod. 31, 46, 56.)

His comments on St. Paul, and on most of the books of the old
Testament, are concise literal, and solid, but contain not that
inexhausted and excellent treasure of morality which we find in St.
Chrysostom, whose commentaries Theodoret had always before him: this
latter excels chiefly on the prophets. His church history, in five
books, from the close of that of Eusebius in 324 to 429, is a
valuable compilation. Photius justly prefers his style to that of
Eusebius, Evagrius, Socrates, and Sozomen, as more historical,
clear, and lofty, without any redundancy. (Cod. 31) His religious
history, or Philothea, (_i.e._ History of the Friends of God,)
contains the lives of thirty monks and anchorets of his time. He was
himself an eye-witness to several of the miracles which he relates
to have been wrought by the sign of the cross, holy water, and
blessed oil. Of some other miracles which he mentions, he tells us
that they were so authentic and notorious that no one who believes
those of Moses, Elias, and the Apostles, could deny them. The five
books, Of Heretical Fables, are a history of ancient heresies which
he wrote at the request of Sporacius, one of the imperial
commissaries at the council of Chalcedon, who was consul in 452. In
the fourth book, he inveighs most bitterly against Nestorius, whom
he had for some time unwarily favored. The letters of Theodoret
which are extant, amount to the number of 146. His book Against the
twelve Anthematisms of St. Cyril, he tacitly recalled by his
condemnation of Nestorius; also his Pentalogus on the same subject,
which is now lost, except some fragments preserved by Marius