y, was read, and placed on the acts, and it was approved by the
Fathers, that all the decrees of Coelestine in the matter of Nestorius had
been suspended until the holy Council should give its sentence. You will
ask if it was the will of the Council merely that the Emperor should be
allowed to prohibit, in the interim, effect being given to the sentence of
the Apostolic See. Not so, according to the acts; but rather, by the
intervention of a General Council's authority, (the convocation of which,
according to the discipline of those times, was left to the Emperor,) the
Council itself understood that all proceedings were of course suspended,
and depended on the sentence of the Council. Wherefore, though the decree
of the Pontiff had been promulged and notified, and the ten days had long
been past, Nestorius was held by the Council itself to be a Bishop, and
called by the name of Most Religious Bishop, and by that name, too, thrice
cited and summoned to take his seat with the other Bishops in the holy
Council; for this expression, to take his seat, is distinctly written; and
it is added, in order to answer to what was charged against him. For it was
their full purpose that he should recognise, in whatever way, the
Ecumenical Council, as he would then afterwards be, beyond doubt,
answerable to it; but he refused to come, and chose to have his doors
besieged with an armed force, that no one might approach him.

"Thereupon, as the Emperor commanded, and the Canons required, the rule of
faith was set forth, and the Nicene Creed read, as the standard to which
all should be referred, and then the letters of Cyril and Nestorius were
examined in order. The letter of Cyril was first brought before the
judgment of the Council. That letter, I mean, concerning the faith, to
Nestorius, so expressly approved by Pope Coelestine, of which he had
declared to Cyril, 'We see that you hold and maintain all that we hold and
maintain;' which, by the decree against Nestorius, published to all
churches, he had approved, and, wished to be considered as a canonical
monition against Nestorius: that letter, I repeat, was examined, at the
proposition of Cyril himself, in these words: 'I am persuaded that I have
in nothing departed from the orthodox faith, or the Nicene Creed; wherefore
I beseech your Holiness to set forth openly whether I have written this
correctly, blamelessly, and in accordance with that holy Council.'

"And are there those who say