It befits a most Christian prince to be solicitous for the integrity of the catholic faith, and this I beg of the divine mercy with unwearied prayers, that it may inspire into your heart that which is of the truth, and may not suffer you to be deceived in anything by the fraud of human rivalries. And by me and by all catholic priests, what piety may defend the evangelical and apostolic faith has been fully and clearly disclosed in my letters, which I judge your clemency to have already received some time ago through your servant Epiphanius the tribune, who was sent for the sake of the cause:
nor can it be doubted that we most purely believe this, and constantly affirm this, which also the venerable Fathers, once gathered at Nicaea, sanctioned by their most sacred authority as to be believed and confessed according to the faith of the Creed. For we, venerable emperor, just as we deservedly anathematized the perverse dogma of Nestorius, so too we justly condemn the impiety of these men who deny that the truth of our flesh was assumed by our Lord Jesus Christ, O most glorious one. Wherefore, if your piety deign to grant our suggestion and supplication, that you order an episcopal council to be held within Italy, quickly, with God's help, will all the scandals which have been stirred up to the disturbance of the whole Church be able to be cut away:
so that throughout your whole realm, the integrity of the catholic faith being preserved, we may rejoice both that Christian peace abides and that your glory before God increases. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Asterius and Protogenes. Note: That the following letters were inserted among Leo's letters, Quesnel rightly noted in the brief admonition prefixed to those same letters in these words: 'From the series of the subjoined letters it is manifest that they were written by the counsel and exhortation of holy Leo and of the whole synod, from which and in whose name the foregoing letters of the pontiff were given. We therefore have thought them to be printed in this place on account of the affinity of both.'
For they both give us a clearer knowledge of that synod, disclosing its place, time, subject-matter, and other circumstances; and they seem to have been dictated by Leo himself. Concerning these, see more in Dissertation 4, on the Life and Deeds of St. Leo, at the year 449. The three imperial letters themselves to Theodosius, and the others to Pulcheria, openly attest Leo's counsel; but that these were dictated by Leo himself, nothing indicates; indeed several things in no way agree with Leo's manner of writing. Now, as to the time: since all the letters of the Augusti, both those handed over and those returned, exhibited in the single Chalcedonian collection, lack any chronological notation, different men have thought differently.
Concerning the four earlier letters sent to the East, it must first of all be established. The whole thing hangs upon the interpretation of those words of Valentinian in Letter 55: 'When I had come to Rome to appease the Divinity, on the following day I went in procession to the basilica of the apostle Peter, and there, after the venerable night of the Apostle's day, I was asked, both by the Roman bishop and by others gathered with him from various provinces, to write to your mildness.' Now from the words recited it is gathered that Valentinian came to Rome the day before the festival of the apostle Peter; and on the following day, that is, on the very feast-day, went in procession to the basilica of the apostle Peter;
and there, after the night office, he was entreated by Leo and the other bishops who had convened for that same feast, to write to Theodosius. That the Augustae Placidia and Eudoxia were likewise asked to do the very same thing is clear from other letters of theirs. Cardinal Baronius, at the year 449, no. 164, judged that these four letters were written in that same year after the day of the dedication of the basilica of St. Peter, which is usually celebrated on the eighteenth day of November, and he supposes that the bishops who had taken part in the Roman synod mentioned in the foregoing Letters 44 and following were detained up to that day. But besides the fact that it is not likely that the bishops who on the third day before the Kalends
of October had convened in the City would have been detained at Rome for fifty days, the synod being already completed on the 13th, or later the 15th of October, as is clear from Letter 44 and those following; besides this, I say, no ancient document survives by which it may be proved that in the pontificate of Leo the dedication of the basilica of St. Peter was celebrated on the 18th of November. Add that there is no indication from any other source that Valentinian was at Rome in the year 449; but several documents are at hand which prove that he was present there in the year 450. Quesnel, in Dissertation 14 at the year 449, no. 1, attacking the opinion of Baronius, passed over into another more openly erroneous one, contending that these letters were written after the feast of St. Peter on the 29th of June in the year 450. The error is manifestly detected from two things.
First, because in this year Valentinian was at Rome in the month of March, in which he issued the law inserted among the Novellae under title 7, 'On the Indulgences of the Remainders,' and also in the month of April from title 38, 'On the Annual Ship-owners,' and so forth; from which the feast-day of St. Peter, the day before which he had arrived at Rome, cannot be the 29th of June. Secondly, because since Theodosius died on the 28th of July of that same year 450, if the letters had been written and sent to him after the 29th of June, they would have reached Constantinople after his death, and he could not have returned the other letters which are extant. Therefore another feast-day of St. Peter, together with Tillemont and Pagi, must be sought, and one indeed earlier than the third day before the Nones of March of the year
450, on which the aforementioned law 'On the Indulgences of the Remainders' was given. From the most ancient Bucherian Calendar, in which the feast-days of the Roman Church are noted, we learn that on the eighth day before the Kalends of March a feast was celebrated at Rome, marked there under this title: 'The Nativity of Peter of the Chair.' In this year, therefore, Valentinian arrived at Rome with the Augusti on the ninth day before the Kalends of March; and on the feast-day itself, Leo with the bishops asked them to write to Theodosius. Further, from the Letter 58 of Placidia to Pulcheria it is gathered that they wrote before it was ascertained from Pulcheria's own letters that she herself favored the good cause; otherwise some mention of this matter would have been inserted by Placidia into that same letter.
Now this became known at Rome before the 17th day of March of this year 450, on which St. Leo, congratulating Pulcheria on this matter, gave Letter 60. Therefore the four earlier letters were drawn up a little after the 22nd of February, and before the 17th of March of that same year, and more probably toward the end of February. To each letter, whether written by Valentinian or by the Augustae, Quesnel subjoined the letter which Theodosius returned. We have thought that the method and reckoning of time of the Chalcedonian collection should also be followed. But that a suitable interval may be granted for the transmission of the letters, the letters of Theodosius seem to be referred to April, and therefore we have placed them after Letters 60 and 61, written in March.
Although we think it more probable that all these letters were written in Latin, just as laws were likewise written in Latin, even if they were issued in the East, nevertheless we believe that the original Latin has perished, and that only the Greek version survives, and that the Latin copies which have been transmitted to us are an ancient translation from the Greek, and one labored over by a man less skilled in the Latin tongue, as will be evident from certain passages that are very obscure and very badly rendered, which by no means agree with the original of the Augusti. For this reason also the notation of time, always omitted by the Greek collector, is likewise wanting in the Latin text, which was supplied when the author of the Latin Chalcedonian collection found the Latin originals.
Compare the Preface to the letters, no. 36. Now we set forth the title which is prefixed to the three imperial Letters 55, 56, and 57 in the Chalcedonian collection. In the Greek collection it runs thus: [Greek text]. But in the Latin our codices render it thus: 'The sacred letters, both from our lord Valentinian and from Placidia of divine memory, and also from Eudoxia Augusta, to Theodosius of divine memory, that he should order a council to be celebrated in the regions of Italy.'