Mikhail V. Gratsianskiy Participation of the Roman See in the Council of Ephesus in 449

Abstract

The subject of this article is the circumstances of the participation of the See of Rome in the Council of Ephesus (449), represented at the sessions by papal legates. Its aim is to reveal the motives, actions and behaviour of the envoys of Pope Leo the Great (440–461), which led to the position of the Bishop of Rome being ignored by the presidents and participants of the Council, and subsequently made it impossible for him to accept its results. The objectives of the article include an analysis of the conciliar acts and the correspondence of both Pope Leo and his legates during and immediately after the conclusion of the Council. The article presents the circumstances of the convocation of the Council by the Eastern Emperor Theodosius II (408–450), his appointment of council presidents, the course of the Council, the actions of both its presidents and the Roman legates; the statements of the latter being analysed. The procedural consequences of Pope Leo’s refusal to personally participate in the Council’s sessions and the resulting inability to fully convey his theological position to the participants are revealed. The author concludes that the representatives of the See of Rome adopted a biased and inconsistent position at the Council, failed to fulfil their mission of delivering papal correspondence to addressees in Constantinople and Ephesus, and violated both the rules of conduct at the Council, and imperial regulations. Their communications to officials contained inaccurate information regarding the individuals and circumstances of the Council, which subsequently influenced its perception by both contemporaries and subsequent tradition, including the scholarly one.

Keywords:

Pope Leo the Great, Dioscorus of Alexandria, Eutyches, the Council of Ephesus 449, papal legates, emperor Theodosius II.

For Citation

Gratsianskiy M.V. Participation of the Roman See in the Council of Ephesus in 449 // The Historical Reporter. 2025. Vol. LIV. P. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2025.2025.54.002

Mikhail V. Gratsianskiy

Doctor of Sciences (History), Leading Researcher at the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Moscow, Russian Federation.

e-mail: gratsianskiy@mail.ru

SPIN-код: 2140-4868

ORCID: 0000-0002-6981-3216

AuthorID: 111809

ResearcherID: W-8402-2018

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