Τῷ εὐλαβεστάτῳ κλήρῳ καὶ τῷ λαῷ
παρὰ τῆς ἁγίας συνόδου.
Οὐδείς τολμήσας τῷ ἰδίῳ κτίστῃ ἐναντιωθῆναι
ἔμεινεν ἔκτος θείας δίκης, ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς ὅσον ἤκε καὶ εἰς ἀνθρωπίνην ὄψιν, ἠμείφθη
μερικῶς διὰ τὸ τὴν τελειοτέραν ἀμοιβὴν τῷ τῆς κρίσεως καιρῷ κατ’ αὐτοῦ
φυλάττεσθαι.
ὅθεν καὶ Νεστόριος ὁ τῆς δυσσεβοῦς
αἱρέσεως ἀνακαινιστὴς φθάσας ἐν τῇ Ἐφεσίων, ἔνθα ὁ θεολόγος Ἰωάννης καὶ ἡ
θεοτόκος παρθένος ἡ ἁγία Μαρία, τοῦ συλλόγου τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων καὶ ἐπισκόπων
ξενώσας ἑαυτόν καὶ κακῷ τῷ συνειδότι ἀπαντῆσαι μὴ τολμήσας, μετὰ τρίτην κλῆσιν
ψήφῳ δικαίᾳ τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος καὶ τῆς αὐτῶν θεοπνεύστου κρίσεως
κατακέκριται καὶ ἐκβέβληται ἐγγράφως ἐπὶ πράξεως ὑπομνημάτων πάσης ἱερατικῆς ἀξίας.
χαίρετε τοίνυν ἐν κυρίῳ πάντοτε,
πάλιν ἐρῶ χαίρετε.
κατήρηται γὰρ τὸ σκάνδαλον καὶ ἐξεριζώθη
τὸ ζιζάνιον ἐκ τοῦ γεωργίου τοῦ πνευματικοῦ χωρίου, ὑμεῖς δὲ ἀναζωπυρήσατε καὶ
λαβόντες τὸν θώρακα τῆς πίστεως ἐκποδίην ἐλάσατε τοὺς τῆς μιαρᾶς καὶ βεβήλου
καινοφροσύνης ἐργάτας· ἔσται γὰρ ὑμῖν ὁ μισθὸς οὐκ ἐλάττων τῶν ἐνταῦθα
κεκμηκότων.
πάντας ὑμᾶς ἀσπάζονται οἱ ἐνταῦθα
σὺν ἡμῖν γνήσιοι ἀδελφοί. (Cyril of
Alexandria, Letter from Ephesus to the Fathers of the Monastics (“Epistulae Variae”), in Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, ed. Edwardus Schwartz, 4 vols. [Berlin: Walter De Gruyter & Co.,
1927], 1.1.2, page 70)
To the most reverent clergy and the people, from the
holy synod.
No one who dared to oppose his own Creator escaped
divine justice; rather, as soon as he came even into human sight, he was in
some measure repaid, because a fuller recompense was being reserved against him
for the time of judgment.
Thus Nestorius, the renovator of a wicked heresy,
having arrived in Ephesus, where are the theologian John and the holy virgin
Mother of God, Saint Mary, and having shut himself off from the gathering of
the holy fathers and bishops, and not daring to face his guilty conscience,
after a third summons was rightly condemned by the vote of the holy Trinity and
by their God-inspired judgment, and was formally expelled from
all priestly dignity by written record.
Rejoice therefore always in the Lord; again I say,
rejoice.
For the stumbling-block has been removed and the tares
have been uprooted from the field of the spiritual place. You, then, rekindle
yourselves and, taking up the breastplate of faith, drive far away the workers
of the foul and profane new doctrine. For your reward will not be less than
that of those who have labored here.
All the brethren here with us send greetings to you.
