The cult of Isis was widely
spread at the time of the first emperors, when it was fashionable all
over the Roman Empire; when later on it merged into that other great
religious movement, and fashion and conviction could be combined, its
triumph was assured."
Advancing Christianity had depopulated the national pantheon. There must
have been a great sense of loss, especially among the lower classes, and
it does not require much psychological insight to realise that it was
the lack of female deities which more especially roused a feeling of
anxiety and distress. The masses were yearning for a goddess, and it was
at Ephesus, the classical seat of the hundred-breasted Diana, that the
stolen divinity was restored to them. The theologians were divided into
three camps. While some of them regarded Mary merely as "the mother of
man" others acknowledged her as the "Mother of God," and Nestorius
suggested as a compromise the title "Mother of Christ." At the synod of
Alexandria, in the year of grace 430, and at the council of Ephesus in
431, Nestorius was found guilty of blasphemy and deprived of his
bishopric.
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