Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria by Volker L. Menze

Author:Volker L. Menze [Menze, Volker L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192699176
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2023-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

The Second Session of the Second Council of Ephesus on 22 August 449

On Monday, 22 August 449, 112 bishops and the archimandrite Barsauma reconvened in the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus. In stark contrast to the first session, the imperial commissioners Helpidius and Eulogius do not appear in the surviving minutes. To assume, however, that they were not present, would be wrong. Dioscorus explicitly mentions Eulogius and his support for the Council in Ephesus in a letter written after the council.202 The apparent disappearance of the imperial commissioners should be credited to the different nature of the minutes: whereas for the first session detailed, official acta survive, the minutes of the second session survive only in Syriac translation and are in all likelihood incomplete inasmuch as they lack transitions from one trial to the other, proper introductions of the plaintiffs et alia.203 For example, the case of the quarrelling bishops Athanasius and Sabinianus of Perrhe that, according to the record of the Council of Chalcedon, had been discussed at Ephesus and decided by Dioscorus, is completely missing.204 The single surviving Syriac manuscript with the minutes of the second session thus offers only an abbreviated version.

It is not even certain whether there were in fact only two sessions. As the minutes of the surviving ‘second’ session start with reports from the previous Saturday (20 August 449), when the council originally wanted to gather but did not because neither the papal legates nor Domnus of Antioch were present. Julius and Hilary, the Roman legates, were not to be found: the emissaries interviewed the Roman notary Dulcitius, who on Saturday claimed that Julius and Hilary were unavailable, and then on Sunday claimed that the pope had given a mandate only for the Eutyches’ affair. Domnus was found to be ill but assured the council that he would support all measures against those who followed the impiety of Nestorius.205 Overall, 104 bishops who had been present at the first session joined again on 22 August, while twenty-seventy such bishops remained absent. Meanwhile, however, nine additional bishops had arrived and joined the second session.206 Thalassius of Caesarea impatiently noted that the council had dragged on and that it should proceed. Although not explicitly recorded, he found general approval. As a result, the second session took place without the bishops (or representatives thereof) of Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome.207

Dioscorus’ protonotary read out Theodosius’ mandate from 27 June 449, addressed to the council. As the council had not yet convened by the end of June, the emperor was already at this time planning more than one session, without informing Dioscorus or any other bishop. This mandate was a full-scale attack on Ibas of Edessa: according to Theodosius, the bishop of Edessa was accused of impiety and blasphemy by so many parties that the council could not ignore it. It was the council’s task to rectify the situation and appoint a new bishop for the metropolis.208 Already before this mandate, in mid-June, Theodosius had invited twelve eastern archimandrites to participate as members of the council.

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