The Council’s Letter: The Bishops Who Withdrew

The holy and ecumenical synod, gathered together in Ephesus by the decree of our most religious emperors, to the bishops, presbyters, deacons and all the people in every province and city: [a]

When we had assembled in the chief city of Ephesus, according to the religious decree of the emperors, certain persons, a little more than thirty in number, withdrew from among us, with John, bishop of Antioch, as the leader of their schism. Their names are as follows: first, the said John of Antioch in Syria; John of Damascus; Alexander of Apamea; Alexander of Hierapolis; Himerius of Nicomedia; Fritilas of Heraclea; Helladius of Tarsus; Maximin of Anazarbus; Theodore of Marcianopolis; Peter of Trajanopolis; Paul of Emesa; Polychronius of Heracleopolis; Eutherius of Tyana; Meletius of Neocaesarea; Theodoret of Cyrrhus; Apringius of Chalcedon; Macarius of Laodicea the Great; Zosys of Esbus; Sallust of Corycus in Cilicia; Hesychius of Castabala in Cilicia; Valentine of Mutloblaca; Eustathius of Parnassus; Philip of Theodosia; and Daniel, and Dexianus, and Julian, and Cyril, and Olympius, and Diogenes; Polius; Theophanes of Philadelphia; Trajan of Augusta; Aurelius of Irenopolis; Mysaeus of Aradus; and Helladius of Ptolemais. These men had no privilege of church communion, resting on a priestly authority, by which they could harm or benefit anyone, since some of them had already been deposed. And from their refusal to join in our decree against Nestorius, it was plain to everyone that they were all promoting the opinions of Nestorius and Celestius. So the holy synod, by one common decree, has deposed them from all church communion and deprived them of all their priestly power, by which they might harm or benefit anyone. [b]