devoted tools. The bishop of the city in which the council was assembled was the friend of Cyril, and such was the extent of influence arrayed against Nestorius that he found it necessary to solicit from the imperial commissioner a guard to protect his person and the house in which he resided. A number of the Syrian bishops were prevented from reaching Ephesus in time for the opening of the council, and having waited six- teen days beyond the time appointed by the emperor, Cyril insisted on commencing proceedings, and accord- ingly on June 22, 431, he opened the synod with/200 bishops. The bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, was to have presided at the Council of Ephesus, but he died in the latter part of the year 430. Nestorius refused to attend till all the bishops had assembled, and having been formally invited three several times to appear and answer the various charges, oral and written, laid against him, his refusals to obey the summons of the synod were construed as an admission on his own part of his guilt, and it therefore proceeded to his condem- nation. The bishops unanimously cried, "Whosoever does not anathematize Nestorius, let himself be anath- ema ; the true faith anathematizes him ; the holy coun- cil anathematizes him. Whosoever holds fellowship with Nestorius, let him be anathema. We all anath- ematize the letter and the doctrines of Nestorius. We all anathematize Nestorius and his followers, and his ungodlv faith, and his ungodly doctrine. We all anath- ematize Nestorius," etc. (Mansi, iv, 1170 sq. ; Hefele, ii, 1G9). Then a multitude of Christological expressions of the earlier fathers and several jiassages from the writings of Nestorius were read, and at the close of the first session, which lasted till late in the night, the synod, in which, says Schaif, "an uncharitable, violent, and passionate spirit ruled the transactions," after many tears, as its members declared, constrained by the laws of the Church, and by the letter of the Roman bishop, Celestine, pronounced sentence in the following terms : " The Lord Jesus Christ, by Nestorius blasphemed, has ordained by this most holy synod that the Nestorius above named be excluded from the episcopal dignity, and from sacerdotal fellowship" (Mansi, iv, 1211 ; He- fele, ii, 172). This sentence was no sooner passed than, by orders of Cyril, it was publicly proclaimed by her- alds through the whole city. It was also formally an- nounced to the emperor. Meanwhile John, bishop of Antioch, Avith about thirty Syrian bishops, arrived at Ephesus a few days after the council headed by Cyril had met and deposed Nestorius, and, on learning what had been done, they declared the proceedings of that council null and void, proceeded to form a new coun- cil, or conciliabulum — yielding nothing to the heat- ed violence of the other — in the dwelling of the cele- brated Theodoret (q. v.), under the protection of the imperial counsellor and a bodj^-guard, and declared it- self to be the only regular one. The conciliabulum, in turn, now deposed Cyril and Memnon, bishop of Ephesus, and excommunicated the other members who had taken part in the proceedings of the Cyrillian councils until they should manifest penitence and condemn the anath- emas of Cyril (Mansi, iv, 1259 sq. ; Hefele, ii, 178 sq.). The sentence against the two bishops was made known throughout the city, and formally communicated to the emperor. In the midst of this conflict of councils the deputies of the Roman bishop appeared at Ephesus, and, according to their instructions, gave their formal sanction to all the proceedings of Cyril and his council. The emperor, however, on hearing the report of his commissioner, lost no time in despatching a letter to Ephesus by the hands of an imperial officer, conveying his royal pleasure that the disputed question should be carefully considered, not by any party in the assembly, but by the whole council in commoii, and until this was done no one of the bishops could be permitted to re- turn to his diocese or to visit the court. Cyril and his party, seeing the evident leaning of the emperor in fa- vor of NestoriiLs, resorted to various expedients for the
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