A.D. 449 - Robber-Synod of Ephesus
In November 448 Eutyches was summoned to a meeting of the Synod of Constantinople, refused to leave his monastery, and got up a (heretical) declaration of his faith, which was signed by a great number of his monks. After a great deal of discussion he at last came and was heard. He was found guilty of Apollinarism and Valentinianism, deposed and excommunicated. The chief offence on his part was that he taught that Christ is not " of the same nature as we are," which shows that his judges well understood the real issue from the first. So this synod at Constantinople in 448 added the parallel clause to what Nicaea had declared in 325. Then, against the Arians, the Church had declared our Lord to be consubstantial to the Father ; in this controversy she declared, against the Monophysites, that he is consubstantial to us men. In other words, our Saviour is truly God and truly man, which is the faith of the gospels. The synod in condemning Eutyches carefully explained that the faith of St. Cyril and of Ephesus was not to be questioned.
Eutyches was not prepared to submit to his condemnation. Instead he wrote letters justifying his ideas to the Pope; to St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna, a great theologian among the Latins; apparently also to Dioscor of Alexandria and his Egyptian friends. These at once took up his cause hotly. So did his friends at Court. The Emperor Theodosius II was entirely under the influence of Eutyches' patron Chrysaphios; as long as he lived Eutyches triumphed. The Emperor summoned a synod to revise the judgement of Flavian. It was to meet at Ephesus, like the council of 431. The Pope was, of course, invited. He could not come (Attila was just then at the gates of Rome) ; but he sent legates.
On August 8, 449, Dioscor opened the synod in the great Church of the Theot6kos at Ephesus, the same church in which the former council had been held. He had arrived with twenty bishops and a great crowd of parabolani, sturdy fellows armed with clubs, who understood nothing about nature and person, but were going to brain anyone who annoyed their Pharaoh.1 The Emperor sent Count Elpidius and many soldiers to protect Eutyches. This is, then, the infamous "Robber-Synod" of Ephesus. No synod in all Church history has left such a name for flagrant brutality.
There was no pretence at a free discussion. The Emperor had commanded the bishops to crush Flavian and restore Eutyches ; Dioscor made them do so. The synod lasted two days. On the first day (August 8, 449) Dioscor called for the soldiers ; they and the crowd of his parabolani rushed into the church ; there followed the scene of wild disorder which gained for this meeting its name of a gang of brigands. Eutyches was declared innocent ; his formula - that our Lord had two natures before the hypostatic union, one after it - was approved. There were shouts and cries, "Eusebius (of Dorylasum) to the fire ! Burn him alive! Cut him in half! " The opponents of Eutyches were to be thrown in the sea.
There would have been great trouble, no doubt a schism, between the East and Rome ; but that just then, fortunately for everyone but himself, the Emperor Theodosius II died (July 28, 450).
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