Acts and Documents of the Council of Ephesus (431)

The council’s proceedings survive in large collections of documents made by the parties to it, in Greek and in Latin translation. They contain the letters read out at the sessions, the minutes of the session at which Nestorius was deposed, the reports sent to the emperor, and the eight canons. Percival’s volume gives a selection: Cyril’s second letter to Nestorius, which the council approved as agreeing with the creed of Nicaea; his third letter with its twelve anathemas; the decree against Nestorius; extracts from the sessions attended by the Roman legates; and the canons. Cyril’s letter to John of Antioch of 433, which contains the statement of faith known as the Formula of Reunion, is printed there with the acts of Chalcedon, where it was read.

These are primary documents, and they are also the file of the winning side. The council whose acts these are was the assembly led by Cyril, which opened before the bishops of the diocese of the East had arrived. The rival assembly under John of Antioch, which deposed Cyril, is known mostly from what its opponents kept. For what Nestorius himself held, his second letter to Cyril is the best short statement; the council condemned it, and it is preserved because it was read into the record.