The Uproar

The city that had once rung to the cry of “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” now rang with the acclamations of Mary as the Mother of God.

On the Unity of Christ, St. Cyril of Alexandria

The first day of meaningful engagement at the Council of Ephesus saw Nestorius refuse to come when summoned. In this case, his works were read out to the assembled bishops, followed by the relevant letters from Cyril. The works of Nestorius were condemned, and the works of Cyril were accepted as statement of orthodox doctrine.

At the end of a long day, the crowds gathered around the Church of Mary to hear the outcome of the council. When they heard that Nestorius was anathematized, they understood this as a victory for the Mother of God – the title Nestorius said was in error.

To the common people the honor of the Virgin had been safeguarded, and the more thoughtful among them and the bishops realized that in this title of veneration for Mary, a fundamental truth about Christ had been preserved.

Several days later, the party of Syria finally arrived – this would include those favorable to Nestorius and his doctrine. They were enraged, having travelled so far to learn that the synod had already taken place and been concluded. Their leader, John of Antioch, called a counter-synod, although it’s quorum of 43 bishops was a small fraction of the 200 that just concluded the earlier assembly under Cyril.

The second synod declared Cyril and Memnon deposed, and all the other bishops were suspended until they came to join this second synod. No meeting in the middle was reached, so the first synod excommunicated all the bishops of the second synod. The city was in an uproar, and both sides appealed to the emperor – who disallowed any bishops from leaving Ephesus until the matter was resolved.

A delegate was sent by the emperor from Constantinople to Ephesus to investigate matters firsthand, but by the time he arrived several of the older bishops had died and food supplies had run low. Finally, the delegates from the Pope arrived, and they gave their support to the decisions of the first council.

The emperor, Theodosius, read the reports brough back by his delegate, and concluded that both parties were right! He upheld the decisions of both councils. Nestorius, Cyril, and Memnon were all to be deposed. After announcing his decision, he exiled the “culprits” and dismissed the bishops.

The imperial treasurer was sent to Ephesus to deliver this news. John of Antioch acquiesced to these decisions, but the two hundred that formed the first council did not. They would not abandon Cyril, not in the face of blatant political control. The treasurer retuned and reported to the emperor that his plan had backfired.

Now Ephesus was in an uproar, and Constantinople was in an uproar. A riot ensued, the cathedral was occupied, and both the common people and many aristocrats were clear: the emperor’s approach would not be tolerated.

Surprised by the amount of support Cyril commanded, Theodosius summoned leading members of both sides of the disputing parties to debate in his presence at the suburbs in Chalcedon. After hearing the case over several weeks, he turned more and more to favoring the Cyrilline position.

It probably didn’t hurt that Cyril sent presents to many of the aristocrats in the city who would be deciding his fate, although at the time this was a fairly common practice. However, what probably swayed the view of Theodosius was not this (what we would call) bribery, and likely not the doctrinal nuances. The fact was, almost all voices were for Cyril, except for a remnant of Syrians.

Cyril left Ephesus content. The Syrians also left, although Nestorius was replaced by a new archbishop. Yet, the Syrians would not lift their excommunication of Cyril or Memnon, and they spread the report that their synod was the true synod – the true Council of Ephesus. Cyril’s teaching, they said, was deemed false. Further, the Syrians would not accept the new archbishop.

Hence, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople were not in communion with the Syrian church, an unacceptable situation for the emperor. Beginning in 432, the imperial court began a process to achieve reconciliation, a rapprochement between John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria. By 433, a credal statement was exchanged, “the “Formula of Reunion.” Both sides claimed the other backed down, and, in any case, many on both sides didn’t accept the reconciliation.

Cyril saw that the teaching of John and the teaching of Nestorius were not the same, and while Cyril could reconcile with the former, he could not with the latter. Nestorius divided Christ in two.

In later years, Cyril would come to learn that the false report of Ephesus still carried weight in Syria, and the writings of Diodore and Theodore of Mopsuestia were still held up as the highest theological authorities. In other words, the condemnation of Nestorius meant nothing at all.

He would endeavor to show specifically why the writings of these two, Diodore and Theodore, were in error. When he asked for support from Constantinople, he was rebuffed – the emperor didn’t want this fight started again. Cyril agreed to make his writing less confrontational.

This attempt on the emperor’s part for appeasement and a superficial reconciliation failed. The issues were not resolved until over 120 years later at the Council of Constantinople in 553, when Justinian followed Cyril’s call for a definitive rejection of the work of Diodore and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Conclusion

Cyril would die in 444, just short of his seventieth year. Of all the remarkable people that held the episcopal throne in Alexandria, he is held in the highest esteem and one of the greatest theologians of that city.

Then, there is this. At his death, Theodoret of the Syrian Church would write:

At last, and with difficulty the villain has gone. The good and the gentle pass away all too soon; the bad prolong their life for years. … Let him take his new doctrines to the shades below, and preach to them all day and all night.

Epilogue

As noted, the Christological issue was not resolved until the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, one-hundred-twenty years after Ephesus. Recall, this is precisely why the non-Chalcedonian churches rejected Chalcedon, held in 451. Note: McGuckin did not write that the issue was resolved at Chalcedon in 451. That council resolved nothing of this dispute, and here even an Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian is making this plain.

In my previous work regarding the rejection of Chalcedon by the Armenian Church, it was clear that the rejection was because the “two natures” language of Chalcedon sounded too Nestorian to the Armenians. There must be some truth to that view, if it took another 100 years to deal with Nestorianism, Diodore, and Theodore.

Eventually, the “Nestorian,” or “Assyrian,” Church would leave imperial borders and take a foothold in Persia. As this was directly adjacent to Armenia, it is obvious why the Armenian Church was so sensitive to this issue.