Lecture 19: Theological Crisis and Council—Christology
• The emperor Theodosius II called a general council to be held in
Ephesus in 431. Cyril dominated the council, which affirmed the
title of Theotokos for Mary.
o The Antiocheans were not appeased, and mutual
excommunications flew between them and Cyril’s Alexandrian
allies.o A semblance of union was reached through compromise in 433
under severe imperial pressure.o Nestorianism was forbidden within the empire but, as we have
seen, found a home in populations outside the empire, for
example, in Persia.Monophysitism
• The Christological battles began again in 447, when the
archimandrite of Constantinople, Eutyches (c. 378–454), began
a teaching that would be called monophysite and prove more
contentious even than Nestorianism.• In reaction to the division between the divine and human nature in
Christ ascribed to Nestorius, Eutyches asserted that there was only
one (divine) nature in Christ, thus, monos physis.
o Condemned by a synod in Constantinople in 448, Eutyches
appealed to the emperor, who ordered a new council to be held
in Ephesus.o Pope Leo I (440–461) intervened with a dogmatic letter (the
“Tome of Leo”) in 449, which clarified the orthodox position in
terms of two natures (both human and divine) in one person—
with “person” being understood in the philosophical sense.o Nevertheless a “robber council” was held in 449 that
represented the victory of the Cyril party in its most radical
form and the banishment of members of the Antiochean school.