EPHESUS, General Council of. Tlie third oecumenical council, convoked bj' the emperor Theo- dosius II, was held at Ephesus in 431, upon the contro- versy raised by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who objected to the application of tlie title of Hfo- TOKOQ to the Virgin Mary. For the circumstances which led to the convocation of this council, see the articles Nestorius, Nestorians, Pelagius. Celes- tine, the pope, not seeing tit to attend in person, sent three legates, Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, and Philip, a priest. Among the first who arrived at the council was Nestorius, with a numerous body of fol- lowers, and accompanied liy Ireneus, a nobleman, his friend and protector. Cj'ril of Alexandria also, and Juvenal of Jerusalem came, accompanied by about fif- ty of the Egj'ptian bishops; Memnon of Ephesus had brought together about forty of the bishops within his jurisdiction ; and altogether more than two hundred bishops were present. Candidianus, the commander of the forces in Ephesus, attended, by order of the em- peror, to keep peace and order; but liy his conduct he grcatlv favored the party of Nestorius. The day ap- pointed for the opening of the council was June 7th ; but John of Antioch, and the other bishops from Syria and the East not having arrived, it was delayed till the 22d of the same montli. At the first session of the council (June 22), before the Greek and Syrian bishops had arrived, Cyril and the bishops present condemned the doctrines of Nestorius, and deposed and excommu- nicated him. This sentence was signed by one hun- dred and ninety-eight bishops, according to Tillemont, and by more than two liundred according to Fleury; it was immediately made known to Nestorius, and published in the public places. At the same time, no- tice of it was sent to the clergy and people of Constan- tinople, with a recommendation to them to secure the property of the Church for the successor of the de- prived Nestorius. As soon, however, as Nestorius had rec3ived notice of this sentence, he protested against it, and all that had passed at the council, and forward- ed to the emperor an account of what had been done, setting forth that Cyril and Memnon, refusing to wait for John and the other bishops, had hurried matters on in a tumultuous and irregular way. On the 27th of June twenty-seven Syrian bishops arrived, chose John of Antioch for their president, and deposed C^^ril in their turn. In August, count John, who had been sent by Theodosius, arrived at Ephesus, and directed the bishops of both synods to meet him on the follow- ing day. Accordingly, John of Antioch and Nestorius attended with their party, and Cyril with the ortho- dox ; hut immediately a dispute arose between them, the latter contending that Nestorius should not be present, while the former wished to exclude Cj'ril. Upon this, the count, to quiet the dispute, gave both Cyril and Nestorius into custody, and then endeavor- ed, l)ut in vain, to reconcile the two parties. And thus matters seemed as far from a settlement as ever. The emperor at last permitted the fathers of the council to
send to him eight deputies, while the Orientals or Sjt- ians, on their part, sent as many. The place of meet- ing was Chalcedon, whither the emperor proceeded, and spent five days in listening to the arguments on both sides ; and here the Council of Ephesus may, in fact, be said to have terminated. Nothing is known of what passed at Chalcedon, but the event shows that Theodosius sided with the Catholics, since npon his return to Constantinople he ordered, by a letter, the Catholic deputies to come there, and to proceed to con- secrate a bishop in the place of Nestorius, whom he had already ordered to leave Ephesus, and to confine himself to his monaster}' near Antioch. Afterwards he directed that all the bishops at the council, includ- ing Cyril and Memnon, should return to their respect- ive dioceses. The judgment of this council was at once approved by the whole Western Church, and by far the greater part of the East, and was subsequently confirmed i)y the Oecumenical Council of Chalcedon, consisting of six hundred and thirt}' bishops. Even John of Antioch and the Eastern bishops very soon ac- knowledged it. But Nestorius protested to the last that he did not hold the heretical opinions anathema- tized by the council. See Nestorius.
Of the other councils of Ephesus, the following are all that need be mentioned : 1, in 245 (?), against the Patropassian Noetus ; 2, in 400, nnder Ghr^'sostom, where Heraclidus was consecrated bishop of Ephesus, and six simoniacal bishops deposed ; and the Rob- ber Council (see next article). — Landon, Manual of Councils, p. 235 ; Mansi, Cone, iv, 1212, 1320, et al. ; Gieseler, Ch. History, § 88 ; Neander, Church Hist, ii, 468 sq. ; Murd. Blosheim, Church Hist, i, 358 ; Palmer, On the Church, i, 385 sq. ; Cunningham, Historical The- ologi/, i, 328 sq. ; Hefele, Conciliencjeschichte, ii, 161 sq. ; Smith, Tables of Church History; Christian Examin- er, liv, 49.
EPHESUS, Robber Council of (rvvovoq Xijrrrpi- Ki], latrocinium Ephesinum'), the so-called second gen- eral council at Ephesus, A.D. 449. Eutj'ches (q. v.), whom Flavianus, bishop of Constantinople, had in the preceding year deposed on account of heretical opin- ions, appealed to a general council, at which the patri- archs of Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Thessalonica, and other heads of the Church should be present, and prevailed upon the emperor to convoke the council im- mediatel3^ Theodosius wrote to Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, desiring him to attend at Ephesus on the 1st of August, with ten metropolitan and as many Egyptian bishops, and no more, in order to inquire into a question of faith in dispute between Flavianus and Eutyches, and to remove from the Church the fa- vorers of Nestorius. In the same manner lie wrote to other bishops, always fixing the same number of me- tropolitans and bishops, and especially forbidding Theodoret to leave his diocese. He sent his own offi- cers, Elpidus and Eulogius, with authority to provide such troops as they might deem necessaiy, in order to carry into effect what might be required. The bish- ops who had sat in judgment upon Eutyches at the council held by Flavianus at Constantinople in 448 were present at the council, but were allowed to take no part in the deljates, and Dioscorus was allowed to take the lead in everything relating to the council. The council met ,\ugust 8, and about 130 bishops at- tended. Dioscorus and his party ruled throughout ; Eut3'ches was declared orthodox, and re-established in his priesthood and office of abbot ; and sentence of deposition was pronounced upon Flavianus. Flavia- nus appealed from this decision to the bishop of Rome, whose legate, Hilary', boldly opposed the sentence ; at the same time many of the bishops on their knees im- plored Dioscorus to reconsider the matter ; but he, de- termined to carry it through, cried out for the impe- rial officers, upon which the proconsul Proclus entered, followed by a band of soldiers, armed with swords and sticks, and carrying chains, who l)j' threats and blows