Editing Council of Ephesus (section)

===Assembly===
Celestine sent Arcadius and Projectus, to represent himself and his Roman council; in addition, he sent the Roman priest, Philip, as his personal representative. Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria was president of the council. Celestine had directed the papal legates not to take part in the discussions, but to give judgment on them.<ref name="CE2" />

Bishops arrived in Ephesus over a period of several weeks. While waiting for the other bishops to arrive, they engaged in informal discussions characterized as tending to "exasperate rather than heal their differences".<ref name="RobertsonP405">{{cite book|last1=Robertson|first1=John Craigie|title=History of the Christian Church |date= 1854 |publisher=John Murray|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchrist1873robe/page/405 405]|url= https://archive.org/details/historyofchrist1873robe|access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref> The metropolitan of Ephesus, [[Memnon of Ephesus|Memnon]], was already present with his 52 bishops. Nestorius and his 16 bishops were the first to arrive shortly after Easter. As archbishop of the imperial city of Constantinople, he traveled with a detachment of troops who were under the command of Count Candidian. McGuckin notes that the troops were not there to serve as Nestorius' bodyguard but to support Candidian in his role as the emperor's representative. However, McGuckin theorizes that Candidian's progressive abandonment of neutrality in favor of Nestorius may have created the perception that Candidian's troops were, in fact, there to support Nestorius.<ref>McGuckin, p. 54</ref> Candidian ordered all monks and lay strangers to leave the city; he further instructed the bishops not to leave on any pretext until the council was concluded.<ref name= "RobertsonP405" /> Several sources comment that the purpose of this injunction was to prevent bishops from leaving the council to appeal to the emperor directly.<ref>{{citation | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uT09AAAAYAAJ&dq=Candidian&pg=PA103| title = The Council of Ephesus | work = The Church Quarterly Review | volume = 33 | editor-first = Arthur Cayley | editor-last = Headlam | place = Spottiswoode | year = 1892 | page = 103| via = Google books}}</ref>

According to McGuckin, Memnon, as bishop of Ephesus, commanded the "fervent and unquestioned loyalty" of the local populace and thus could count on the support of local factions to counterbalance the military might of Candidian's troops.<ref>McGuckin, p. 55</ref> In view of the verdict of Rome against Nestorius, Memnon refused to have communion with Nestorius, closing the churches of Ephesus to him.<ref>McGuckin, pp. 57–58</ref>

Cyril brought with him 50 bishops, arriving only a few days before Pentecost.<ref>McGuckin, pp. 54–56</ref> There were very few bishops representing the West, as the papal representatives would not arrive until July.<ref name="McGuckin, p. 57">McGuckin, p. 57</ref> The Palestinian delegation of 16 bishops and Metropolitan Flavian of Philippi arrived 5 days after the date that had been set for opening the council, and aligned themselves with Cyril.<ref name= "McGuckin, p. 57"/>

At this point, Cyril announced his intention to open the council; however, Candidian enjoined him from doing so on the grounds that the Roman and Antiochean delegations had not arrived yet.<ref name="Kelly" /> Cyril initially acceded to Candidian's injunction knowing that he could not legally convene a council without the official reading of the Emperor's Sacra.<ref>McGuckin, p. 78; Nonetheless he must have been acutely aware that he could claim no legal status for his synod under imperial law until the official reading of the Emperor's Sacra had taken place.</ref>

A number of bishops, who were undecided between Nestorius and Cyril, did not want to give Cyril, as one party in the dispute, the right to chair the meeting and decide the agenda;<ref>McGuckin, p. 60</ref> however, they began to take Cyril's side for various reasons.<ref>McGuckin, pp. 60–65</ref>

Various circumstances including a detour necessitated by flooding as well as sickness and death of some of the delegates seriously delayed [[John I of Antioch |John of Antioch]] and his bishops.<ref>McGuckin, pp. 58–59</ref> It was rumored that John might be delaying his arrival in order to avoid participating in a council which was likely to condemn Nestorius as a heretic.<ref name="CE2">{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia =Catholic Encyclopedia | title = Council of Ephesus |url= http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=4311}}</ref>