EXTRACTS FROM THE ACTS. SESSION I.,
(Continued).
(L. and C., Conc., Tom. III., Col. 503.)
AND
DECREE OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST NESTORIUS.
[No action is recorded in the Acts as having been taken. A verbal report was made by certain who had seen Nestorius during the past three days, that they were hopeless of any repentance on his part. On the motion of Flavian, bishop of Philippi, a number of passages from the Fathers were read; and after that some selections from the writings of Nestorius. A letter from Capreolus, Archbishop of Carthage, was next read, excusing his absence; after the reading of the letter, which makes no direct reference to Nestorius whatever, but prays the Synod to see to it that no novelties be tolerated, the Acts proceed. (Col. 534).]
Cyril, the bishop of the Church of Alexandria, said: As this letter of the most reverend and pious Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, which has been read, contains a most lucid expression of opinion, let it be inserted in the Acts. For it wishes that the ancient dogmas of the faith should be confirmed, and that novelties, absurdly conceived and impiously brought forth, should be reprobated and proscribed.
All the bishops at the same time cried out: These are the sentiments (<greek>fwnai</greek>) of all of us, these are the things we all say-the accomplishment of this is the desire of us all.
[Immediately follows the sentence of deposition and the subscriptions. It seems almost certain that something has dropped out here, most probably the whole discussion of Cyril's XII. Anathematisms.]
DECREE OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST NESTORIUS.
(Found in all the Concilia in Greek with Latin Versions.)
As, in addition to other things, the impious Nestorius has not obeyed our citation, and did not receive the holy bishops who were sent by us to him, we were compelled to examine his ungodly doctrines. We discovered that he had held and published impious doctrines in his letters and treatises, as well as in discourses which he delivered in this city, and which have been testified to. Compelled thereto by the canons and by the letter (<greek>anagkaiws</greek> <greek>kate?eikqentes</greek> <greek>apo</greek> <greek>te</greek> <greek>twn</greek> <greek>kanonw?</greek>, <greek>kai</greek> <greek>ek</greek> <greek>ths</greek> <greek>epistolhs</greek>, <greek>k</greek>. <greek>t</greek>. <greek>h</greek>.) of our most holy father and fellow-servant Coelestine, the Roman bishop, we have come, with many tears, to this sorrowful sentence against him, namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has blasphemed, decrees by the holy Synod that Nestorius be excluded from the episcopal dignity, and from all priestly communion.
NOTES.
The words for which I have given the original Greek, are not mentioned by Canon Bright in his Article on St. Cyril in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography; nor by Ffoulkes in his article on the Council of Ephesus in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. They do not appear in Canon Robertsons History of the Church.
And strangest of all, Dean Milman cites the Sentence in English in the text and in Greek in a note but in each case omits all mention of the letter of the Pope, marking however in the Greek that there is an omission. (Lat. Chr., Bk. II., Chap. III.)(1) I also note that the translation in the English edition of Hefele's History of the Councils (Vol. III., p. 51) is misleading and inaccurate, "Urged by the canons, and in accordance with the letter etc." The participle by itself might mean nothing more than "urged" (vide Liddell and Scott on this verb and also <greek>epeigw</greek>) but the adverb which precedes it, <greek>anagkaiws</greek>, certainly is sufficient to necessitate the coacti of the old Latin version which I have followed, translating "compelled thereto." It will also be noticed that while the prepositions used with regard to the "canons" and the "letter" are different, yet that their grammatical relation to the verb is identical is shewn by the <greek>te</greek>--<greek>kai</greek>, which proves the translation cited above to be utterly incorrect.
Hefele for the "canons" refers to canon number 74 of the Apostolic Canons; which orders an absent bishop to be summoned thrice before sentence be given against him.