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 EPHESUS

494

EPHESUS

the head of the Faith and of the Apostles." The Metropolitan of Ancj-ra declared that God had shown the justice of the sj-nod's sentence by the coming of St. Celestine's letter and of the legates. The session closed with the reading of the pope's letter to the emperor.

On the following day, 11 July, the third session took place. The legates had read the Acts of the first session and now demanded only that the con- demnation of Xestorius should be formally read in their presence. When this had been done, the three legates severally pronounced a confirmation in the pope's name. The exordium of the speech of Philip is celebrated: "It is doubtful to none, nay it has been known to all ages, that holy and blessed Peter, the prince and head of the Apostles, the column of the Faith, the foundation of the Catholic Church, re- ceived from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of the hiunan race, the keys of the King- dom, and that to him was given the power of binding and loosing sins, who until this day and for ever lives and judges in his successors. His successor in order and his representative, our holy and most blessed Pope Celestine ..." It was with words such as these before their eyes that Greek Fathers and coun- cils spoke of the Council of Ephesus as celebrated " by Celestine and CjtU". A translation of these speeches was read, for Cyril then rose and said that the sjTiod had understood them clearly; and now the Acts of all three sessions must be presented to the legates for their signatiu-e. Arcadius replied that they were of course willing. The synod ordered that the Acts should be set before them, and they signed them. A letter was sent to the emperor, telling him how St. Celestine had held a synod at Rome and had sent his legates, representing himself and the whole of the West. The whole world has therefore agreed ; Theo- dosius should allow the bishops to go home, for many suffered from being at Ephesus. and their dioceses also must suffer. Only a few friends of Nestorius held out against the world's judgment. A new bishop must be appointed for Constantinople.

On 16 July a more solemn session was held, like the first, in the cathedral of the Theotokos. Cyril and Memnon presented a written protest against the con- ciliabulum of John of Antioch. He was cited to ap- pear, but would not even admit the envoys. Next day the fifth session was held ia the same chiu'ch. John had set up a placard in the city accusing the synod of the ApoUinarian heresy. He is again cited, and this is counted as the third canonical summons. He would pay no attention. In consequence the council suspended and excommunicated him, together with thirty-four bishops of his party, but refrained from deposing them. Some of John's party had already deserted him, and he had gained only a few. In the letters to the emperor and the pope which were then dispatched, the synod describeil itself as now consisting of two hundred and ten bishops. The long letter to Celestine gives a full account of the council, and mentions that the pope's decrees against the Pela- gians had been read and confirmed. At the end of the sixth session, which dealt only with the case of two Nestorianizing priests, was made the famous declara- tion that no one must produce or compose any other creed than (irapd, prater, "beyond" — "contrarj' to'".') the Nicene, and that anyone who should propose any such to pagans, Jews, or heretics, who wished to be converted, should be deposed if a l^ishop or cleric, or anathematized if a lajTnan. This decision became later a fruitful .source of objections to the decrees of later synods and to the addition of the fdioque to the so-called Constant inopolitan Creed; but that creed itself would be abolished by this decree if it is taken too literally. We know of several matters connected with Pamphylia and Thrace which were treated by the council, which are not found in the Acts. St. Leo tells

us that Cyril reported to the pope the intrigues by which Juvenal of Jerusalem tried at Ephesus to card's himself a patriarchate out of that of .A.ntioch, in which his see lay. He was to succeed in this twenty years later, at Chalcedon. In the seventh and last session on 31 July (it seems) the bishops of Cj-prus persuaded the council to approve their claim of having been an- ciently and rightly exempt from the jurisdiction of Antioch. Sis canons were also passed against the adherents and supporters of Nestorius.

The history of the intrigues by which both parties tried to get the emperor on their side need not be de- tailed here. The orthodox were triumphant at Ephe- sus by their numbers and by the agreement of the papal legates. The population of Ephesus was on their side. The people of Constantinople rejoiced at the deposition of their heretical bishop. But Count Candidian and his troops were on the side of Nestor- ius, whose friend. Count Iren^us, was also at Ephe- sus, working for him. The emperor had always championed Nestorius, but had been somewhat shaken by the reports of the council. Communication with Constantinople was impeded both by the friends of Nestorius there and by Candidian at Ephesus. A letter was taken to Constantinople at last in a hollow cane, by a messenger disguised as a beggar, in which the miserable condition of the bishops at Ephesus was described, scarce a day passing without a funeral, and entreaty was made that they might be allowed to send representatives to the emperor. The holy abbot, St. Dalmatius, to whom the letter was addressed, as well as to the emperor, clergj-, and people of Constanti- nople, left his monasterj' in obedience to a Divine voice and, at the head of the many thousand monks of the city, all chanting and carrying tapers, made his way through enthusiastic crowds to the palace. They passed back right through the city, after the abbot Dalmatius had interviewed the emperor, and the letter was read to the people in the church of St. Mocius. All shouted "Anathema to Nestorius!"

Eventually the pious and well-meaning emperor arrived at the extraordinary decision that he should ratify the depositions decreed by both councils. He therefore declared that Cj-ril, Memnon, and John were all deposed. Memnon and CjtLI were kept in close confinement. But in spite of all the exertions of the Antiochian party, the representatives of the envoys whom the council was eventually allowed to send, with the legate Philip, to the Court, persuaded the emperor to accept the great council as the true one. Nestorius anticipated his fate by requesting permis- sion to retire to his former monaster}-. The synod was dissolved about the beginning of October, and Cyril arrived amid much joy at Alexandria on 30 Octo- ber. St. Celestine was now dead, but his successor, St. Sixtus III, confirmed the council.

The Ads of the s>*nod, together with other documents con- nected with it, will be found in Greek and Latin in Mansi, IV. V; Hardguin, I, and the other CoWfc/iOTjs o/ Counct/s. Another old Latin translation in Mansi. V. 477; a collection of 225 documents in a Latin translation (M.ansi, V. 731) were pub- lished by Balcze under the name of Synodicon adversus Tragoe- diam Irena-i, because it embodies and replies to a collection called TraqcEdia made in his own defence by Count Irenirus, the friend of Nestorius, and afterwards Bishop of Tyre. On these documents see Quentin, /. D. Mansi el les grandes collections conciliaire.i (Paris, 1900). The fragmentary Coptic Acts were first published, with a French translation, by Bocriant. in Sfemoires publics par la Mission Archeot. fran^aise au Caire (Paris. 1892), VIII — see a short account by AMf:uNEAC in Comptes rcndus de V Acad, des Inscr. et belles-lellres (1S90), 212. and Church Quart. Rei:, Oct., 1891; they had been signalized earlier by Zoeqa, Catalogus Copt. MSS. Mus. Borg. VelUr. (l^lOt, and by Lenormant in Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr. (1S53\ XIX, 2. 301. .\ German translation with careful discus- sion, by Khaatz, Koptische Akten zum Eph. KonHl in Teite und Vnter.-i. (1904), new series. XI. 2: Kraatz holds one of the five documents which are not known in Greek or Latin to be spuri- ous; the rest of the fragment is so clearly intende<l to exalt the influence of Abbot Victor that it is of little value. But this judgment is perhaps too severe. — On the council. Tillemont. XIV; Hefele. History of the Councils, HI; a new French e<fS- tion by Leclercq (Paris, in progress). II; Leo Allatios. Vin- dicuE synodi Ephesirue e£ Samii Cyrxtli de proceseione Spirilua ex