The Council of Ephesus of 431: Documents and Proceedings (Translated Texts for Historians LUP)

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Translated Texts for Historians
Volume 72
The Council
of Ephesus of 431
Documents and Proceedings
Translated by RICHARD PRICE
with an Introduction and Notes
by THOMAS GRAUMANN
U
Liverpool h
University
Press
First published 2020
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool, L69 7ZU
This paperback edition first published 2022
Copyright © 2020,2022 Richard Price and Thomas Graumann
The right of Richard Price and Thomas Graumann to be identified as the authors
of this book has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A British Library CIP Record is available.
ISBN 978-1-78962-147-1 cased
ISBN 978-1-78962-148-8 paperback
Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Abbreviations xi
General Introduction 1
I. The Sources 1
II. The ‘Nestorian Controversy’ and the First Council of
Ephesus: A Brief History 18
IIL The Theology 56
Documents and Proceedings
1. Before the Council 87
2. The Session of 22 June 217
3. After the Session of 22 June 293
4. The ‘Session’ of 22 July 431
5. From the End of July till Nestorius’ Retirement 487
6. From the Colloquia at Chalcedon to the Dissolution of
the Council 539
Epilogue 615
Appendices
I. Attendance at the Council 621
II. From the Coptic Acts of Ephesus 629
Glossary 643
Bibliography 651
1. Abbreviations 651
2. Ancient Sources 654
3. Modem Authors 657
vi THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431
Maps 667
Map 1: Dioceses and Provinces 668
Map 2: The Balkans 669
Map 3: Western Asia Minor 670
Map 4: Eastern Asia Minor 671
Map 5: Syria, Palestine, Cyprus 672
Map 6: Egypt 673
Indices 675
I. Persons in the Acts 675
1. Bishops 675
2. Lower Clergy and Monks 687
3. Laymen 688
IL Texts 689
1. Documents by Author 689
2. Documents in the Order in ACO 693
PREFACE
The Acts of the Council of Ephesus (431) have a character quite different
from that of the Acts of all the other early ecumenical councils. The council
escaped from imperial control at its very opening, when the bishops divided
into two parties who met separately and never together, each claiming to be
the ‘ecumenical council’ and neither recognized as such by the emperor. In
consequence, there were never any official Acts drawn up under the aegis
of the emperor for distribution to the great sees. A variety of unofficial
collections of material relating to the council made their appearance, some
immediately after the event but most in the sixth century, when the Three
Chapters controversy made it of renewed relevance.
Another unique feature of these Acts is that only a small part of them
consists of actual records of conciliar sessions. Quite apart from the fact
that these are far from complete, they jostle in the collections with a mass
of other material, relating more or less closely to the council itself, much
of it in fact either predating or postdating it, and consisting of theological
treatises, sermons, pamphlets, and above all letters. The importance of this
material is that it provides a window quite unique in its extent into what went
on around the conciliar sessions - the appeals to the emperor, the activation
of agents and allies in church or state, the circulation of propaganda, and
the manipulation of public opinion, especially in Constantinople, where the
outcome of the council was decided, rather than in Ephesus itself. There is
no episode in late Roman history where we are so well informed about how
politics were conducted, principally in the imperial capital, in relation to
issues which excited the loyalties or animosities of all classes and a large
section of the population.
The various collections were first analysed and published in their
full richness and complexity by Eduard Schwartz, in the five volumes of
what constitutes the ‘first tome’ of the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
(1922-30). One of these volumes (in eight fascicles) is in Greek, and four
in Latin. Apart from the papal letters, the original language was always
viii THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431
Greek, but a substantial part of the Latin texts are translations of documents
which do not survive in Greek.
Although many scholars have drawn on this material, no genuinely
scholarly account of the whole story of the Council of Ephesus has yet
appeared. Considering the extraordinary richness and interest of the
material, this is surprising, but it must be admitted that Schwartz’s edition
is far from easy to use: the documents are presented in the order in which
they appear in the various ancient collections, which bears little or no
relation to chronology.
THIS EDITION
The present edition makes no attempt to present the full scope of the material:
its intention is to present the story of the council from the documents that
paved the way for it, those relating to the months of its deliberations (in
two rival assemblies) from June 431, and down to its dissolution in October.
We include none of the theological treatises and only some of the many
sermons included in the various collections. Above all, we proceed no
further than the immediate aftermath of the council, omitting the mass of
material in the collections relating to the years that followed. But within
these significant limits our intention has been to present all the material of
significance for an historian of the course and politics of the council.
Many accounts of the council take the story further, down to the
‘union’ of the spring of 433, when communion was restored between
the rival sees of Alexandria and Antioch, and a theological formula, the
so-called ‘Formula of Reunion’, was accepted, not without misgivings, by
both parties. But this ‘union’ was less a peace than a truce, and the warring
between the two sides continued with only short periods of tranquillity
down to the Council of Chalcedon (451) and beyond. The actual sequence
of events during the council itself and its utterly indecisive termination is a
story that deserves to be told in its own right.
We order the material in what is basically a chronological sequence.
Although few of the documents can be precisely dated, the main stages of
the council and the evolving pattern in the confrontation between the two
sides and in the degree and character of imperial intervention enable an
at least approximate dating of the vast majority of the documents. At the
same time, links between documents created by authorship and purpose
need also to be taken into account. These links we make clear in the initial
PREFACE ix
list of documents at the beginning of each of the six main sections of the
translation, where each group of documents has its own heading.
AUTHORSHIP AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is a work of genuine collaboration, and the two authors have learnt
much from each other. But the basic division of labour was as follows. The
translation, and the two appendices (one on attendance at the council, and
one on the Coptic Acts) are by Richard Price. The General Introduction
and the introductions to each document or set of documents are by Thomas
Graumann.
Both of us have acknowledgements we would like to make. Richard
Price has Professor Michael Whitby to thank for checking through the
translation, and Dr Carol Downer for teaching him Coptic and reading
through the Coptic Acts of Ephesus with him. Thomas Graumann wishes
to mention the stimulus he received from teaching ‘councils’ at Cambridge,
from conversations with Drs Luise Frenkel and Mark Smith, and from the
research on the First Council of Ephesus that they undertook under his
supervision. We would also wish to mention Alexander Abecina, who
assisted us in the final editing stage.
A special tribute is due to Professor Sir Fergus Millar, whose A Greek
Roman Empire (2006) brought home the exceptional interest and importance
of these Acts even for secular Roman historians, for they arguably make
the Council of Ephesus and the attendant controversy the best-documented
episode in the whole of ancient history. He gave continuous encouragement
to our project for many years, and showed a philosophic patience with our
delays. It is a sorrow for us that he died before our book went to print and
that he never saw it.

ABBREVIATIONS
ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
BBKL Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon
CA Collectio Atheniensis (ACO 1.1.7, pp. 17-167)
CC Collectio Casinensis (ACO 1.3-4)
CP Collectio Palatina (ACO 1.5, pp. 1-215)
CPG Clavis Patrum Graecorum
CPL Clavis Patrum Latinorum
CQ Collectio Quesnelliana (ACO 1.5, pp. 321-340)
CU Collectio U (ACO 1.1,7, pp. 171-172)
CV Collectio Vaticana (ACO 1.1.1—6)
CVer Collectio Veronensis (ACO 1.2)
CW Collectio Winteriana (ACO 1.5, pp. 341-381)
DHGE Dictionnaire d’histoire et géographie ecclésiastiques
doc. document
DSp Dictionnaire de spiritualité
DTC Dictionnaire de théologie catholique
EAC Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity (eds Di Berardino
and Ogden)
EEC Encyclopedia of the Early Church
ep. epistula (‘letter’)
HE. Historia ecclesiastica
LSJ Liddell, Scott, and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon
LXX Septuagint
NDB Neue deutsche Biographie
NPNF Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
ODB Oxford Dictionary of Byzantrum
ODCC Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition
PCBE Prosopographie Chrétienne du Bas-Empire
PG Patrologia Graeca (ed. Migne)
PGL A Patristic Greek Lexicon (ed. Lampe)
PL Patrologia Latina (ed. Migne)
xii THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431
PLRE Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum
RE Real-Encyclopädie (ed. Pauly)
SC Sources Chrétiennes