The Third Œcumenical Council, A.D. 431
On 19 November 430, the Emperor Theodosius the Younger promulgated the sacra calling for an œcumenical council, to open on Pentecost Sunday, 7 June 431. It was not to be the cozy gathering of experts that Nestorius wanted. The emperor summoned all the metropolitan bishops, together with their principal suffragans. And the council was not to meet in Constantinople, under Nestorius’s presidency. Doubtless at the instigation of the Augusta Pulcheria, Theodosius chose Ephesus, the metropolis of the Province of Asia. St John the Evangelist had died in Ephesus, and his shrine was there. It was to him that Christ on the cross had confided the care of his mother, the Ever-Virgin Mary, and her memory was closely associated with his. The cathedral church of Ephesus was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the archbishop, St Memnon, and the people were deeply devoted to her veneration. A less congenial location from Nestorius’s point of view could not have been chosen. Pulcheria had her revenge for his insults.
The emperor appointed a high official, Count Candidian, to support the council and keep order in Ephesus with a detachment of troops, but he was not to take any part in its deliberations. When he went to Ephesus he was accompanied by Nestorius with his bishops. Nestorius also had with him a lay friend, Count Irenæus, with his personal bodyguard. They were the first to arrive in the city.
Nestorius was shocked to discover that Memnon regarded him as an accused person because of the decrees of the councils in Rome and Alexandria the previous year. Memnon closed the churches of the city to him and his party. Nestorius tried to make the best of it, holding meetings in his lodgings with bishops as they arrived, expounding his doctrines. This did not have the effect he intended. The other bishops were shocked by his views, which to them implied that he did not believe Jesus Christ to have been fully divine. One comment by Nestorius remained engraved on their memories ever after: ‘I refuse to believe that a two or three month old baby was God.’ (He may have had in mind Cyril’s comment in his Third Letter to Nestorius: ‘Even when he is seen as a baby in swaddling bands still at the breast of the virgin who bore him, even so as God he filled the whole creation …’ McGuckin, op. cit., p. 268)
A few days before Pentecost, St Cyril arrived with the Egyptian bishops. St Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, a firm supporter of Cyril, arrived a week later, on Friday, 12 June. Other delegates were slow to arrive, in particular John of Antioch and the bishops of the civil diocese of Oriens. The Roman delegation did not appear until 10 July.
The day fixed for the council to open had arrived and passed. The bishops present, more than two hundred, waited. They waited more than two weeks after Pentecost. Cyril himself was convinced that John was remaining absent purposely, and subsequent events seemed to confirm this.
Early on Sunday, 21 June, two bishops of John of Antioch’s party, Alexander of Apamea and Alexander of Hierapolis, arrived and gave Cyril a message that he interpreted as John’s direction to open the council. John later denied that this had been his intention; Cyril however commented that, if the two bishops could have arrived then, John himself could have arrived if he had wished to. Cyril suspected that John did not wish to be present when his old friend Nestorius was condemned.
With Nestorius under accusation, Cyril was senior hierarch. Having the support of Rome, Jerusalem and Ephesus, he assumed leadership. Later on Sunday, with the support of 155 bishops, he announced in the cathedral the immediate summoning of the the council, without waiting for the Antiochene bishops. Nestorius had 68 bishops (supporters and unaligned) with him. He refused to meet with Cyril and remained in his lodgings for the rest of the proceedings.
From this point on, events became increasingly confused, reflected in the confused state of its official transcript. Cyril sent Nestorius the first of three summonses to appear. Nestorius, who of course did not recognise Cyril’s authority, did not reply. After the second summons, Count Candidian and the bishops who were with Nestorius, supporters and unaligned, proceeded to the cathedral to protest the opening of the council but the majority refused to listen. During Sunday, about forty of the unaligned bishops joined the majority, leaving Nestorius with only sixteen supporters.
Despite Candidian’s attempt to forbid the opening, Cyril contrived it so that the count was obliged to read publicly his formal instructions, thus officially opening the council for its first session on Monday, 22 June.
Three times, according to the canons, they had summoned Nestorius to attend but he had ignored them. After the bishops recited the Nicene Creed, a notary read the Second Letter to Nestorius, which Cyril had sent to Nestorius in February 430. The bishops pronounced it orthodox. The notary next read the letter that Nestorius sent in reply. The bishops condemned it and anathematized Nestorius as a heretic. Cyril’s Third Letter to Nestorius, conveying his and Pope Celestine’s condemnations and his twelve anathemas, was now read. Next, passages from the Fathers contrasted with quotations from Nestorius were read.
Cyril then called on the bishops for their judgement, and the decree of the council against Nestorius was promulgated:
‘As, in addition to other things, the impious Nestorius has not obeyed our citation and did not receive the holy bishops who were sent by us to him, we were compelled to examine his ungodly doctrines. We discovered that he had held and published impious doctrines in his letters and treatises, as well as in discourses which he delivered in this city, and which have been testified to. Compelled thereto by the canons and by the letter of our most holy father and fellow-servant Cœlestine, the Roman bishop, we have come, with many tears, to this sorrowful sentence against him, namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has blasphemed, decrees by the holy Synod that Nestorius be excluded from the episcopal dignity, and from all priestly communion.’
(Henry R. Percival, ed., The seven ecumenical councils, 1994, p. 218)
Cyril wrote immediately to Alexandria:
‘The entire populace of the city remained from dawn until evening awaiting the judgment of the holy council. As they heard that the wretched man was deposed everyone with one voice began to praise the holy council and to glorify God because the enemy of the faith had fallen. But as we came out of the church, they preceded us with torches as far as the inn, for the evening was near; and there was much joy and lighting of lights in the city, so that even women carrying censers led the way for us.’
(Letter 24: to the church in Alexandria. St Cyril of Alexandria, Letters, trans. John I. McEnerney, 1987, I, p. 107)
On the morning of Tuesday, 23 June, Nestorius was given the decree of deposition. Candidian, however, blocked the attempt to post the decree publicly and guarded Nestorius’s lodgings with troops. Realising that Candidian was moving against him, Cyril quickly got messages off to Theodosius and the clergy of Constantinople as well as to Alexandria and Rome, reporting the event and warning that Candidian was attempting to suppress it. At the same time, Nestorius wrote to Theodosius, complaining of Cyril’s actions and asking the emperor to convene another synod in Constantinople in which a few select expert theologians would decide the issue.
Probably on Friday, 26 June, John of Antioch arrived with his bishops, about thirty altogether, including Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Andrew of Samosata. They were still angry at Cyril’s anathemas. They were met by Candidian and the two bishops John sent ahead, and were told what had happened. They lodged in a suburb of Ephesus, where they were joined by Nestorius and his remaining supporters. This brought John’s total of bishops to 42. The majority attempted to communicate with John but were rebuffed. The same evening, John held his own council, deposing Cyril and Memnon. The next day, the Ephesians blocked their churches against the Antiochenes, who now found that their only support was Candidian and his soldiers. Meanwhile, there had been demonstrations against Nestorius and in favour of Cyril in Constantinople.
On 29 June, Theodosius, upset at what was happening and unsure whether to believe Cyril or Nestorius, sent Palladius as examining magistrate to Ephesus to assess the situation, meanwhile ordering no bishop to leave. Palladius returned to Constantinople in early July, bringing a delegation of the majority bishops protesting against Candidian’s actions, but no clear answer to Theodosius’s questions. Theodosius now seemed ready to accept all three depositions, of Nestorius, Cyril and Memnon. Realising that Candidian was hopelessly compromised, Theodosius decided to send Count John, the High Treasurer, to take over in Ephesus, but the latter did not arrive until early August.
Meanwhile, on Friday, 10 July, the Roman legates, two bishops, Arcadius and Projectus, and Philip the priest, arrived in Ephesus. On the same day Cyril convened the second session of the council, in which earlier proceedings were reviewed for the benefit of the Roman clergy. At this point, Cyril was still unaware of Theodosius’s confirmation of his deposition. The following day, the Roman legates subscribed to the decisions of the council and sent letters to Theodosius and the clergy of Constantinople. On Thursday, 16 July, at the fourth session of the council, a reconciliation with John of Antioch was attempted but failed. The next day, John and 34 of his bishops were excommunicated and suspended, but not deposed. The council met twice more, the last time on Friday, 31 July, and passed several canons, including its most famous, Canon VII forbidding the confession of any creed other than the Nicene Creed.
Candidian meanwhile harassed the majority bishops, restricting their food supply and trying to cut off their communication with the outside world. There was considerable suffering in the city. Then at the beginning of August Count John arrived and took charge. He announced the depositions of Nestorius, Cyril and Memnon and ordered the other bishops to disperse. The three deposed bishops were put under house arrest. Cyril, realising that his anathemas were a problem not just for the Antiochenes but for some of his own supporters, employed the time of his arrest composing a defence of them. At this point, John of Antioch abandoned his support of Nestorius, but the majority bishops refused to abandon Cyril and Memnon, and also refused to go home. In a letter to the clergy of Constantinople, Cyril described the plight at this moment of Memnon, himself, and the majority bishops:
‘But we are all in great tribulation both because of the soldiers watching us and because we have them sleeping in front of our private bedchambers, especially my own. But the entire rest of the council is utterly weary and sick. And many have died. Finally the remnant are selling their possessions, for they do not have any funds.’
(Letter 27, para. 7, ibid., I, p. 114)
Meanwhile, both sides were lobbying the emperor but the majority party more successfully. Negotiations now moved to Constantinople. It was soon clear that the majority of bishops backed Cyril while the Antiochene minority gave only lukewarm support to Nestorius, or none at all. Theodosius decided that Nestorius was dispensable and on 3 September granted his request to resign his see and leave Ephesus, sending him back to his monastery in Antioch. Cyril and Memnon continued in house arrest in Ephesus.
Theodosius was determined that the council would reach a unanimous decision. He summoned representatives of the two parties to Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, to hold a colloquy, opening it in person on Friday, 11 September. The leaders on the two sides were Acacius of Melitene for the majority and Theodoret of Cyrrhus for the Antiochenes. After the session, Theodosius instructed both sides to draw up confessions of their faith. The Antiochene delegation did so, a confession that would play a role later, while the majority delegation refused indignantly: ‘We do not insult ourselves. For we have not been summoned as heretics. We came to restore the faith that has been rejected, which we have restored. It is not necessary that the emperor learn the faith now, since he knows it and was baptized in it.’ (Letter 27, para. 4, ibid., I, p. 113) Four further sessions were held in September and October without either side controverting the other, but both appearing willing to cease accusing the other of heresy.
However, public support for the minority was waning. The emperor chose Maximian to succeed Nestorius as bishop of Constantinople. When he was consecrated on Sunday, 25 October, the majority delegation at Chalcedon was invited to attend the service but not the Antiochenes. Shortly afterward Theodosius issued the decree dissolving the council and sending the bishops home. The decree tacitly lifted the depositions of Cyril and Memnon and restored them to their sees.
Cyril left Ephesus on Saturday, 31 October, returning to a triumphant welcome in Alexandria.