Cyril together with that of the pope was delivered to Nestorius by an Alexandrian legation[1]. Now there was an enmity not only between Nestorius and Cyril and his adherents, but also between him and the western division of the church.
Nestorius was not quite guiltless as regards this course of events. His behaviour towards the Pelagians had not been cautious, and the tone of his letters had perhaps displeased the pope. But it was tragic that there was a Cyril who was capable of turning the mistrust of Nestorius which previously existed in Rome into enmity.
3
In this case we find the turning point, as is usual, in the third act. The emperor, in spite of (or rather because of) the above-mentioned letters of Cyril, remained at first still inclined towards Nestorius[2]. For it was Nestorius and no other who succeeded in inducing the emperor to call a new ecumenical synod[3]. On the 19th of November 430 the emperor ordered that it should be gathered together in Ephesus on Whitsunday next, i.e. the 7th of June 431[4]. To Cyril it was notified
- ↑ Nestoriana, p. 297, 25.
- ↑ Comp. Theodosius, ad Cyrillum, Mansi, iv, 1109 ff.
- ↑ Comp. above, pp. 5 and 12, and Nestorius, ad Caelest. ep. 3 (Nestoriana, p. 182, 12)
- ↑ Mansi, iv, 1111 ff.; Easter-day fell in 431, according to the Alexandrian Easter cycle, on the 19th of April (comp. E. Schwartz, Christliche und jüdische Ostertafeln, Abhandlungen der Konigl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Neue Folge, viii, 6, 1905, p. 48).
