The Council That Was Two Councils

tl;dr: In 431 AD, bishops gathered in Ephesus to settle a debate about Mary. Instead, they held two rival councils that excommunicated each other. Eventually one side won, the other side lost, and everybody pretended this was how ecumenical councils were supposed to work.

The Setup

Nestorius became Archbishop of Constantinople in 428. He was austere, eloquent, and politically inept. Within months he’d banned popular entertainments, purged heretics, and managed to offend basically everyone who mattered.

Then he picked a fight about Mary.

The people of Constantinople called Mary “Theotokos” – God-bearer, Mother of God. This bothered Nestorius. He thought it sounded like Mary had given birth to the eternal Godhead itself, as if the infinite Creator originated from a human womb. So he preached that Mary should be called “Christotokos” instead – Mother of Christ, not Mother of God.

His reasoning: God the Word existed before all ages and wasn’t literally born from Mary. Only the human nature was. The divine Word dwelt in the man Jesus like in a temple. Two natures, distinct roles, don’t confuse them.

Cyril of Alexandria heard about this and lost his mind.

The Antagonists

Cyril of Alexandria: Brilliant theologian, forceful personality, nephew of the previous patriarch. He championed the term Theotokos because if Jesus Christ is truly God incarnate, then Mary is Mother of God – not source of divinity, but bearer of the person who is God. One Christ, one person, divine and human united.

Cyril was also historically connected to mob violence in Alexandria (including possibly the killing of philosopher Hypatia), so his methods were… aggressive. He considered Nestorius’s teaching a resurrection of earlier heresies – effectively splitting Christ into two persons acting in tandem.

Nestorius of Constantinople: Antiochene monk, new to power, couldn’t read a room. He argued he wasn’t dividing Christ – just protecting the distinction between divine and human natures. He’d say things like “I cannot call a two or three-month old baby God” and wonder why people thought he was a heretic.

His real problem: he spoke of “the Word” and “the man Jesus” as if they were separate actors. To opponents, this sounded like two persons loosely cooperating rather than one incarnate God.

What They Were Actually Fighting About

Both sides agreed Jesus is God and man. The dispute was how to talk about it.

Cyril insisted: one person (hypostasis) with two natures. You can say “God was born” or “God died” because the single person of Christ – who is God – experienced these things through his human nature. The unity is so real that all experiences belong to the one subject.

Nestorius worried this confused the natures. God can’t be born or die. Those predicates apply to the human nature only. He preferred language of “conjunction” or “connection” between the divine Word and the human Jesus.

The irony: both feared different heresies. Cyril feared Nestorius was splitting Christ into two sons. Nestorius feared Cyril was mixing the natures into one fused thing (like Apollinarius, who denied Christ had a human mind).

This was a fight about language conducting immense theological voltage.

The Council (First Attempt)

Emperor Theodosius II summoned bishops to Ephesus for Pentecost 431 to settle this. The choice of Ephesus – a city devoted to Mary, hosting sessions in the Church of St. Mary – was not subtle.

Nestorius arrived early with 16 bishops. Cyril showed up with 50 Egyptian bishops plus Memnon of Ephesus and his 52 bishops from Asia Minor. The papal legates were en route from Rome. John of Antioch and the Syrian bishops were also traveling but running late.

By mid-June, everyone was there except John’s group.

Cyril waited 16 days, then decided to start without them.

Count Candidian (the emperor’s representative) protested – “Wait for Antioch!” Cyril responded by having Candidian ejected from the proceedings. The bishops then formally summoned Nestorius three times. Each time he refused to attend, insisting they wait for John.

On June 22, 431, Cyril’s council proceeded without Nestorius.

They read the Nicene Creed. They read Cyril’s letter to Nestorius (unanimous approval). They read Nestorius’s reply (immediate condemnation). They shouted “Anathema to Nestorius!” in unison. They formally deposed him as Bishop of Constantinople and excommunicated him from the Church.

All 198 bishops signed the decree that evening.

The people of Ephesus, ardently pro-Theotokos, celebrated with torches and processions through the streets.

The Council (Second Attempt)

Three days later, John of Antioch finally arrived.

He found Nestorius already condemned, Cyril in charge, and no appetite for reconsidering anything.

John immediately convened his own council with 43 bishops. They declared Cyril’s proceedings illegitimate (held without full attendance), deposed Cyril and Memnon for heresy (accusing Cyril of Apollinarian tendencies), and excommunicated everyone who’d participated in the first council.

For several weeks, Ephesus hosted two rival councils excommunicating each other.

Each claimed to be the legitimate ecumenical gathering. Each sent delegations to the emperor. Each tried to exercise ecclesiastical authority (John’s faction attempted to install a new bishop in Ephesus; the local faithful physically barred them from the churches).

Imperial Confusion

Emperor Theodosius received conflicting reports and initially responded by placing Cyril, Memnon, AND Nestorius under arrest. He briefly considered annulling both councils.

Then the papal legates arrived in July and sided with Cyril’s council, confirming Nestorius’s deposition. Rome’s backing gave Cyril’s faction the stamp of legitimacy.

Meanwhile, Constantinople’s clergy and people – reading the situation – preemptively anathematized Nestorius to distance themselves. Theodosius’s sister Pulcheria, a devoted champion of Mary as Theotokos, lobbied her brother to approve Cyril’s verdict.

By late August 431, Theodosius made his ruling: Cyril’s council was the valid one. Nestorius was deposed by imperial edict and exiled to Egypt. Maximian was installed as the new Bishop of Constantinople.

John of Antioch, isolated and pressured, eventually backed down – though that took two more years.

The Aftermath

A church historian named Socrates recorded that Nestorius, seeing his position lost, finally relented: “Let Mary be called Theotokos, if you will, only let the fighting cease.”

Too late. His deposition stood.

John of Antioch and much of the Eastern Church refused to accept the council’s decisions initially, creating a schism that lasted until 433. That year, Cyril and John negotiated the Formula of Reunion – a compromise that affirmed Mary as Theotokos while using Antiochene-friendly language about two natures united without confusion.

The formula stated Christ is “perfect God and perfect man… born of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, according to the manhood.” One person, two natures, no division, no mixture.

This language would later be enshrined at Chalcedon in 451.

Not everyone was happy. Hardliners on both sides felt betrayed. Some of Cyril’s supporters accused him of compromising. Some of John’s allies felt he’d capitulated. These murmurings foreshadowed the next split: the Monophysite controversy, where extremists on the other side (insisting on “one nature after union”) would dominate another “Council of Ephesus” in 449 – the infamous “Robber Council” – before Chalcedon corrected course.

What Actually Happened

The Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius and affirmed that Mary can be called Mother of God because the person she bore is truly God incarnate. This is established fact, documented in canons and letters.

Whether the trial was fair remains debated.

Nestorius, in exile, wrote “The Bazaar of Heracleides” – a memoir where he claims he was railroaded by Cyril, who “was the accuser, and he was the judge.” He describes being summoned by armed men assembled by Memnon, a hostile city, a rigged process.

Modern scholarship tends to rehabilitate Nestorius slightly. He probably didn’t teach “two persons” explicitly – that was an inference by critics. His position was misconstrued, or at minimum, condemned before it could be properly clarified.

In 1994, the Vatican and the Assyrian Church of the East (which rejected Ephesus and honored Nestorius) signed a Joint Christological Declaration essentially agreeing the dispute was about terminology, not fundamental belief. Both expressions – “Mother of God” and “Mother of Christ our God” – were acknowledged as orthodox in intent.

Fifteen centuries to reach a compromise Cyril and Nestorius could’ve made in 430.

The Pattern

Ephesus teaches us that ecumenical councils were:

• Theological contests
• Political power struggles
• Jurisdictional turf wars
• Imperial pageantry
• Mob scenes

Alexandria wanted to check Constantinople’s rise. Rome wanted its theology upheld. Antioch wanted its school respected. The emperor wanted unity. The people wanted their devotions validated.

Everybody got some of what they wanted, except Nestorius.

The Church declared victory for orthodoxy – one Christ, two natures, Mary as Theotokos – and moved on to the next controversy.

Twenty years later, they’d be back in council arguing about whether to say “one nature” or “two natures” after the union, splitting again over how to interpret Cyril’s legacy.

But in 431, in Ephesus, in the Church of Mary, surrounded by bishops shouting anathemas and a city carrying torches in celebration, the question was settled:

Mary is Mother of God.

Not because she originated divinity, but because the child she bore was – is – God with us.

And if you disagreed, you could hold your own council four days later and depose everyone right back.