Many apologists for the papacy appeal to the condemnation of Nestorius by Pope Celestine as alleged evidence that the church at that time recognized the bishop of Rome as having universal jurisdiction and authority over the Universal Church. Here is the primary quotation dealing with this issue:
“If he, Nestorius, persists, an open sentence must be passed on him…and so, appropriating to yourself the authority of our See, and using our position, you shall with resolute severity carry out this sentence, that either he shall within ten days, counted from the day of your notice, condemn in writing this wicked assertion of his….or if he will not do this he will know that he is in every way removed from our body….We have written the same to our brothers and fellow Bishops John, Rufus, Juvenal, and Flavian, so our judgment about him, or rather the divine sentence of our Christ, may be known” (The Letter of Pope Celestine to Cyril of Alexandria, found in PL 77:80, taken from Erick Ybarra's website)
Is this evidence that the bishop of Rome had universal jurisdiction at this time? No. Here is why:
1) It was not Celestine all by himself who condemned Nestorius, it was an entire synod at Rome. Cyril mentions this in his third letter to Nestorius:
“Behold, therefore, how we, together with the holy synod which met in great Rome, presided over by the most holy and most reverend brother and fellow-minister, Celestine the Bishop, also testify by this third letter to you, and counsel you to abstain from these mischievous and distorted dogmas,” (St. Cyril of Alexandria's 3rd Letter to Nestorius)
One might respond that Celestine simply convened a synod Rome simply because it was more "prudent". However, this would be unnecessary in light of canon 25 of Dictus Papae:
"That he [the Pope of Rome] may depose and reinstate bishops without assembling a synod." (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/g7-dictpap.asp)
2) The term used for "authority" by Celestine when he says "appropriating to yourself the authority of our See" is the Latin word auctoritas. In reality, this word does not carry the idea of ecclesiastical jurisdiction at all. Karla Pollmann wrote an important essay on the concept of auctoritas in the book Being Christian in Late Antiquity. Here is what she said:
"Even if the etymology of auctoritas (‘strengthening, augmenting’) as being derived from augere (‘augment, strengthen, increase, magnify’) was not always present in the minds of those using the term, is it still crucial that auctoritas adds more weight to a person’s status, statement, or action by eliciting decisive approval in others. Moreover, one has to distinguish it from potestas, which denotes magisterial power and control by virtue of an office, while auctoritas signifies the influence which is conceded voluntarily to a person, institution, or text." (Karla Pollmann, "Christianity and Authority in Late Antiquity: The Transformation of the Concept of Auctoritas", in Being Christian in Late Antiquity, pg. 159 [source])
Thus when Celestine appropriated his "auctoritas" to Cyril, it was not in reference to jurisdictional power/authority, but rather moral authority, i.e. approval in advance of the decision of Cyril.
Note: Erick Ybarra responded to this by citing canon 5 of the synod at Hippo in North Africa which cites its "full authority"(plenas auctoritas) as the basis for the validity of its judgments over certain cases in the church. While this may be true in this one case, this is crushed by the enormous amount of evidences from contemporary Roman literature which gives the exact same meaning for auctoritas that we are giving right now (more is in Pollmann's paper). Here are two examples:
"auctoritas est argumentum verius atque honestius et cui quasi necesse habeat credi ['Authority is a more truthful and honest argument, which one thinks one has to believe as if by necessity']" (Marius Victorinus, Explanationes in Ciceronis Rhetoricam)
"The pope [Gelasius] wrote as well to Anastasius: “There are in fact two, August Emperor, by whom this world is originally governed; the consecrated authority (auctoritas) of bishops and the royal power (potestas). Of these, the responsibility of the bishops is the more weighty, since even for the rulers of men they will have to give account at the judgment seat of God.” Here Gelasius assigns to bishops auctoritas, a term consecrated in Roman law and belonging to the ideal and moral sphere whose force was derived from tradition and public opinion; to the emperor, potestas, the power granted to Roman magistrates for the carrying out of their executive duties during their term of office. " (Leo Donald Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology, pg. 211)
It is quite obvious here that authority "auctoritas" is in reference to moral authority, not potestas.
3) We have plenty of other examples in church history of bishops excommunicating people outside of their diocese. One such example is that of John Chrysostom excommunicating several bishops in Asia, among whom was Gerontius, the bishop of Nicomedia. Sozomen speaks of this in Book 8, Chapter 6 of his Ecclesiastical History.
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