The Idea of Nicaea at the Constantinopolitan Home Synod (448)

Abstract The ecclesial convulsions of 448–51 involved the collision of the conflicting textual receptions of Ephesus 431. The late 440s saw a revival of the controversy over the idea of Nicaea, and the meaning of its Ephesine reception. Domnus, Flavian and Eusebius sought to make the Formula of Reunion (433) the primary locus of Nicaea’s authoritative confirmation, exploiting the reception of Ephesus to grant impeccable Nicene credentials to a strongly dyophysite Christology. The Constantinopolitan ‘Home Synod’ of 448 represented an attempt to enshrine this interpretation of Nicaea as alone authoritative, through the subtle textual shaping of the synodical acta. Eutyches, however, effectively undermined this strategy through his own shrewd counter-presentation of the Nicene faith, and was able to depict Flavian and Eusebius as heretically seeking to add to it.