of
each other's merit, (Concil tom. iii. p. 1244.)]

[Footnote 47: See the acts of the synod of Ephesus in the original
Greek, and a Latin version almost contemporary, (Concil. tom. iii. p.
991--1339, with the Synodicon adversus Tragoediam Irenaei, tom. iv. p.
235--497,) the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates (l. vii. c. 34) and
Evagrius, (l i. c. 3, 4, 5,) and the Breviary of Liberatus, (in Concil.
tom. vi. p. 419--459, c. 5, 6,) and the Memoires Eccles. of Tillemont,
(tom. xiv p. 377-487.)]

The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the royal ear a baleful
prejudice against the character and conduct of his Egyptian rival. An
epistle of menace and invective, [48] which accompanied the summons,
accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed the
simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church and state,
and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of
Theodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in
the Imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign. Cyril had
repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined,
by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the Orientals; who
assembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and
disorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal license,
he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the
imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and
independence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court and city,
successfully labored to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the
favor, of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternately
swayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace:
superstition and avarice were their ruling passions; and the orthodox
chiefs were assiduous in their endeavors to alarm the former, and to
gratify the latter. Constantinople and the suburbs were sanctified with
frequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches, [49]
had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship
of Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of their
monastic life, they had never mingled with the world, or trod the
profane ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the danger of
the church, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable
duty. At the head of a long order of monks and hermits, who carried
burning tapers in t