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| Report of the (Bishops) of the East to the Emperor, giving information of their proceedings, and explaining the cause of the delay in the arrival of the Bishop of Antioch.
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CLII. Report
of the (Bishops) of the East to the Emperor, giving information of
their proceedings, and explaining the cause of the delay in the arrival
of the Bishop of Antioch.2255
| 2255 Cyril’s party met on June 22, 431,—numbering 198, in
the Church of the Virgin. John of Antioch with his fourteen supporters
did not arrive till the 27th. Unable to start from their diocese before
April 26, the octave of Easter, they did not assemble at Antioch till
May 10, and then were delayed by a famine. Immediately on their arrival
the “Conciliabulum” of the 43 anti-Cyrillians met with
indecent precipitancy. |
In obedience to the order of
your pious letter we have journeyed to the Ephesian metropolis. There
we have found the affairs of the Church in confusion, and disturbed by
internecine war. The cause of this is that Cyril of Alexandria and
Memnon of Ephesus have banded together and mustered a great mob of
rustics, and have forbidden both the celebration of the great feast of
Pentecost, and the evening and morning offices.2256
| 2256 Both parties, regarding their opponents as excommunicate, forbade
them to perform their sacred functions. |
They have shut the sacred
churches and martyrs’ shrines; they have assembled apart with the
victims of their deceit; they have wrought innumerable iniquities,
trampling under foot alike the canons of the holy Fathers, and your own
decrees. And the action has been taken in face of the order given both
in writing and by word of mouth by the most excellent count
Candidianus,2257
| 2257 “Comes domesticorum” commander of the guards, was representative of Theodosius II. and
Valentinian III. at Ephesus. Candidianus was at first disposed to demur
to the condemnation of Nestorius as disorderly and irregular, and to
side with the Orientals. | envoy of your Christ-loving
majesty, that the council must await the arrival of the very holy
bishops, coming from all quarters of the Empire, and then and not till
then formally assemble in obedience to your piety’s commands.
Moreover Cyril of Alexandria had written to me, the bishop of Antioch,
two days before the meeting of their synod, that the whole council was
awaiting my arrival. We have therefore deposed both the aforenamed,
Cyril and Memnon, and have excluded them from all the services of the
church. The rest, who have participated in their iniquity, we have
excommunicated, until they shall reject and anathematize the Chapters2258
issued by Cyril, which are full of the
Eunomian and Arian heresies, and shall, in obedience to your
piety’s command, assemble together with us, and shall in an
orderly manner and with all exactitude, together with ourselves,
examine into the questions at issue, and confirm the pious doctrine of
the holy Fathers.
As to the delay in my own
arrival be it known to your piety that, in consideration of the
distance of the way by land,—and this was our route,—I have
come very quickly, I have travelled forty stages without pausing to
rest on the way; so your Christian majesty may learn from the
inhabitants of the towns on the route. Besides this I was detained many
days in Antioch by the famine there; by the daily tumults of the
people; and by the unusual severity of the rainy season, which caused
the torrents to swell, and threatened danger to the town. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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