for his conduct and his doctrine, laying bare the unsoundness of his position and urging him to return to the truth. Many letters were exchanged between them, yet Nestorius would not retract his teaching.

He then wrote to the Patriarch of Antioch, asking him to write to Nestorius, to show him the ugliness of his conduct and opinion, the falsity of his doctrine, and to summon him back to the truth. The Patriarch accordingly wrote to Nestorius, warning that if he did not repent they would convene and anathematize him. Numerous letters passed between them, but still he did not recant.

Thereupon they wrote to the Patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem, requesting that they gather in the city of Ephesus to examine the doctrine of Nestorius. Two hundred bishops assembled in the city under the chairmanship of the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Patriarch of Antioch arrived late, and they did not wait for him. They summoned Nestorius, but he refused to appear, so they reviewed his doctrine, judged him worthy of an anathema, pronounced the curse upon him, and exiled him. They affirmed that Mary the Virgin is the Mother of God, and that the Messiah is true God and true man, known in two natures united in a single hypostasis.

This is contrary to union through love, for Nestorius maintained that union meant merely the concurrence of two aspects, whereas true and proper union, he claimed, would be one hypostasis composed of two natures.

When they had anathematized Nestorius, John, the Patriarch of Antioch, arrived. Finding that they had already cursed him before his arrival, he grew angry and said, “You have wronged Nestorius and cursed him unjustly.”