01 — The Road to Chalcedon

Chalcedon did not arise from nothing. It stands at the end of a twenty-year sequence: St. Cyril’s defense of the one incarnate Word against Nestorius and the Twelve Anathemas of 430; the Council of Ephesus of 431 and the Formula of Reunion of 433 in which Cyril accepted “two natures” language; and then, after Cyril’s death in 444, the hardening of his party under Dioscorus and the collapse of a zealous archimandrite of Constantinople into open heresy. This section supplies the whole of that background.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
ephesus-431-and-the-twelve-anathemas.md Nestorius and the Theotokos; Cyril’s Second and Third Letters; the Twelve Anathemas of 430 and their delicate conciliar standing; the disorderly council of 431 and its dogmatic act
the-formula-of-reunion-and-the-rise-of-eutyches.md The Formula of Reunion of 433 and exactly what Cyril conceded in Laetentur caeli; the anger of the strict Cyrillians; Cyril’s death in 444 and the accession of Dioscorus; Eutyches and his condemnation at the Home Synod of November 448

Reading Order

Read Ephesus 431 and the Twelve Anathemas first for the crisis and Cyril’s answer to it, then The Formula of Reunion and the Rise of Eutyches for the settlement that prepared Chalcedon’s vocabulary and the reaction that made Chalcedon necessary.

A Note on Deferral

The general theory of councils — what makes a council ecumenical, how reception works, how the canons function in Orthodox life — belongs to The Seven Ecumenical Councils and is not repeated here. St. Cyril’s life, exegesis, and wider theology belong to St. Cyril of Alexandria. This section carries only what the Chalcedonian question requires.

See Also