Sermons & Letters 168

CHAP. I. — We approve the care of necessary solicitude which your Fraternity pursues in directing letters to us; and, having received your pages through our son Olympius, we perceive that priestly care flourishes in you — to which we too, as far as the Lord grants us to be able, are not wanting, entreating your Charity that, since we have fallen upon a time of labor, you persevere in holy vigilance, until the right hand of the Lord may do valiantly (Ps. 117:16) and crush the tempter beneath the feet of His Church. For the faith of the most clement prince, in all things prepared by God, consoles us; whom again, as was fitting, I have exhorted by my own address:

that with a more stringent constancy he may cause resistance to be made to the audacities of the most impious brigands — whom it is a sacrilege to presume so far upon his favor as even to dare to rave at Constantinople. But this is permitted them, by the reasoning of divine providence, for this cause: that it may appear more and more by what spirit they are driven, lest it could be doubted into how great an audacity they would have burst forth, if, after the condemnation of the most impious heresy, they had received the power to dispute against the faith — so that, as much as is in them, they might rage the more widely with this fury; which fury our brethren and fellow-bishops, who lately fled to you from the parts of Egypt, lament that they have endured;

to whom I would not doubt that the consolations of piety are bestowed both by the most Christian prince and by the God-pleasing charity of your Fraternity, even if you yourself did not write. But I judged it opportune to direct writings to them also, which may be able to strengthen them in the purpose of the common faith, and that they might recognize what they merit for their patience by the heavenly recompense — as the blessed Apostle teaches, saying: 'Receive them therefore with all joy in the Lord, and hold such in honor, because for the faith of Christ they came near even unto death' (Phil. 2:29, 30). CHAP. II. — This indeed displeases me very much:

namely, that among the clerics of your Charity there are said to be certain ones who connive at the adversary's ruinous [teaching], and mingle vessels of mercy with vessels of wrath. In investigating these and coercing them with fitting severity, your diligence ought vigilantly to persist, so that from those whom correction could not profit, amputation may not shrink. For it behooves us to remember the evangelical command, which is enjoined by Truth itself: that if our eye, or foot, or right hand should scandalize us, it should be removed from the framework of the body — because it is better to lack these members in the Church, than to go with them into eternal punishments (Matt. 18:8; Mark 9:42).

For it is in vain that we resist those placed outside the Church, if by those who are within we are wounded in those whom they deceive. This pestilential patience must be utterly cast off from priestly vigor — the patience which, by sparing the sins of others, spares not itself. As Heli the priest of old, by tolerating the offenses of his sons, deserved to experience the sentence of divine justice together with them (1 Sam. 2:27): because by sluggish indulgence he neglected to punish the sinners. As much, therefore, as the opportunity of office invites, let your Charity strive to frequent the most religious prince, and persist in beseeching, by my prayers, not only his royal but also his priestly mind:

that, mindful of the common faith which, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we have received, he may shatter all the machinations of the heretics, and suffer nothing to be lawful to them in the Churches of Christ, lest the divine mysteries be in the power of those to whom, in the house of God — because of the magnitude of their crimes — there remains neither the right of dwelling nor of praying. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus, most illustrious men. 1. The following letter was published by Merlin from ms. collection 12. Quesnel re-read it against ms. Grim. collection 18. But since this same letter was inserted into the encyclical codex, which was written in Greek while Leo was still living, then, unless this original codex had perished, we should possess this letter of St. Leo rendered into Greek.

But there exists a Latin interpretation of this codex, which Epiphanius Scholasticus elaborated. This man, however, when he had obtained a Latin copy of the Leonine letter, inserted it into his own version; and therefore from this codex — which Baluze collated, from the edition of Surius, with two mss., the Bellovacensis and the Corbeiensis — some variants are supplied which were useful to us. 2. The occasion of this letter was given by the letters of the Emperor Leo, which, on account of the Alexandrian tumults, he delivered to all the metropolitans. In the aforesaid encyclical codex — whose order, as it exists in the mss., is set forth from Baluze in vol. V of the Councils, Venice edition, pp. 33ff, chap. 6 — the emperor's letter to Anatolius of Constantinople is described; and afterwards in chap.

11 are subjoined the names of the other bishops to whom similar letters were directed, and among these it is said to have been first given to Leo, the most reverend pontiff of the city of Rome. The imperial letter to Anatolius contains certain things peculiar to the same Constantinopolitan bishop, but then omits other things proper to Pope Leo, which had been inserted into it (see note 1 [below, letter b]); and therefore it cannot be said to have been transmitted to Pope Leo entirely the same, whence it was not to be inscribed to this edition. Nevertheless, what the letters of Augustus similarly sought from Pope Leo is thereby sufficiently known. Namely: Timothy Aelurus having been promoted by the Eutychians to the Alexandrian see, and St. [Proterius] having been slain...

When Proterius had been slain and a very great tumult had been stirred up between the Eutychians and the Catholic Egyptians, both parties took refuge with the emperor by means of petitions of supplication. Both these petitions Leo Augustus sent, together with his own letter, to all the metropolitans, and above all to the Roman pontiff, asking that they should convoke a council and there, as he says, declare concerning the aforesaid Timothy and concerning the Council of Chalcedon what they held in common, without any human terror, and apart from the favour or the hatred of anyone whatsoever: 'with all speed make known to me,' he says, 'your judgement of piety.' Leo the pope, before all the others, wrote back the following letter (chap. 10), and it is described in the encyclical codex in the first place immediately after the names of the bishops that have been indicated (chap. 12), as Evagrius attests in Book II, chap. 3.

From these things, moreover, the error of Pagi is recognized, who at the year 457, no. 11, denied that these letters of the pontiff were given in reply to the imperial encyclicals. For since these letters of the pontiff are inserted into the encyclical codex, we acknowledge that they no less than the others of the other bishops contained in the same codex were written in reply to the imperial encyclical letter. Hence also in chapter 4 mention is made of copies of the petitions of the Catholics and of the Eutychians, which, transmitted together with the imperial letters, are set forth in the same encyclical codex in chapters 7 and 9. The emperor's letter, about October of the year 457, was directed with the utmost speed through the magistriani to all the metropolitans. Hence two bishops, Agapitus of Rhodes (p. 1892) and Lucas of Dyrrachium (p. ...)

(p. 1297) intimate that they received these letters in winter. But if Count Marcellianus in his Chronicle, at the year 458, records both the letters of Augustus and the responses of the bishops, this happened for this reason: that although the imperial encyclical was sent in the year 457, most of the responses nevertheless did not arrive until the year 458, whence the letter of the monk Varadatus (p. 1934) is dated the 27th of August. Thus there is no reason why we should doubt that the following letter of Leo was given in reply to the imperial encyclical. CHAP. I. — I have received with reverence the letters of your Clemency, full of the virtue of faith and the light of truth; letters wherein I would wish to obey even in that matter in which your Piety judges my excellence necessary, that I might attain the greater fruit of beholding your splendour.

But I judge that this will be more pleasing to you, which reason has shown ought to be chosen. For since with holy and spiritual zeal you fortify the peace of the whole Church, and since nothing is more fitting for the defence of the faith than to cling to those things which, through all the instruction of the Holy Spirit, have been irreproachably defined:

we ourselves shall seem to be tearing down what has been well established, and to be breaking, at the whim of a heretical demand, the authorities which the universal Church has embraced, and thus to set no limit to the clashing of the Churches, but rather — once licence to rebel has been granted — to spread abroad the contests rather than to lull them to rest. Wherefore, since after those impieties of the Synod of Ephesus, by which through the crime of Dioscorus the Catholic faith was refuted and the Eutychian perversity taken up, nothing more useful for the preservation of the Christian faith could be ordained than that the holy Synod of Chalcedon should abolish the aforesaid crime;

and that so great a heavenly care for doctrine should be exercised there, that nothing might remain in anyone's opinion which was discordant from the prophetic or apostolic preachings — such moderation being observed, namely, that with only the rebellious and obstinate cast out from the unity of the Church, pardon should be denied to no one who was corrected: what could your Piety decree that is more approvable, more religious, than that those things which have been established not so much by human as by divine decrees should be permitted to be assailed by no one any longer, lest those who have dared to doubt concerning His truth be truly worthy to lose so great a gift of God? CHAP. II.

— Since, therefore, the universal Church has, through the building upon that principal rock, itself been made a rock, and the first of the apostles, the most blessed Peter, heard the voice of the Lord saying: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church' — who is he, save either Antichrist or the devil, who would dare to batter that unconquerable firmness? — he who, persevering in his unchangeable malice, through the vessels of wrath fitted for his deceit, under the false name of diligence, while he pretends to be seeking the truth, longs to sow lies?

And rightly did their incontinent fury and blind impiety prescribe for themselves what ought to be despised and shunned, that while by diabolical instigation they rage against the holy Alexandrian Church, it might be learned of what sort are those who desire that the Synod of Chalcedon be reconsidered. In which it could in no way be received that anything should be held by us against the holy Synod of Nicaea, as the heretics falsely allege, who feign that they hold the faith of the Council of Nicaea; in which our holy and venerable Fathers, gathered against Arius, affirmed that not the flesh of the Lord, but the Godhead of the Son, is consubstantial with the Father; whereas in the Council of Chalcedon, against the Eutychian impiety, it was defined that the Lord Jesus Christ took the truth of our body from the substance of the Virgin Mother.

CHAP. III. — With a most Christian prince, therefore, and one to be numbered among the preachers of Christ with worthy honour, I use the liberty of the Catholic faith, and confidently exhort you to fellowship with the apostles and prophets: that you steadfastly despise and repel those who have themselves deprived themselves of the Christian name; nor suffer impious parricides to treat of the faith by a sacrilegious pretence, men whom it is agreed wish to empty the faith. For since the Lord has enriched your Clemency with so great an illumination of His mystery, you ought without hesitation to consider that royal power has been conferred upon you not for the governance of the world alone, but chiefly for the protection of the Church:

that, by repressing the wicked outrages, you may both defend the things that have been well established and restore true peace to those that have been thrown into confusion — by driving off, namely, the invaders of another's right, and by reforming the ancient seat of the faith of the Alexandrian Church: so that, God's wrath being appeased by your corrections, He may not repay to that formerly religious city the crimes that have been committed, but may remit them. Set before the eyes of your heart, venerable emperor, all the priests of the Lord who are throughout the whole world, that they are supplicating on your behalf for that faith in which is the redemption of the whole world.

In which they surround you more especially who, as followers of the apostolic faith, presided over the Alexandrian Church, pleading before your Piety that you not permit heretical men, deservedly condemned for their perversity, to enjoy their usurpation: since whether you regard the impiety of their error, or attend to the deed of the fury they have perpetrated, they can not only not be admitted to the honour of the priesthood, but deserve to be cut off from the very Christian name. For — that I may say it, your Piety's pardon being obtained — they darken the splendour of your Serenity with a certain contagion, when sacrilegious parricides dare to seek that which not even the innocent may lawfully obtain, most glorious emperor. CHAP. IV.

— Petitions were offered to your Piety, of which you appended copies to your letters. But in those which are of the Catholics making lament, the signature is contained; and because their cause is approvable, the names of the individuals, and the rank of each one's honour, are confidently disclosed. In those, however, which a heretical fraud did not fear to present to an orthodox prince under the uncertain designation of a confused collectivity, therefore the definite name is withheld, lest not only the fewness of the persons, but also their desert, be uncovered. For their number thinks it useful to lie hidden, whose quality has been made known; nor without reason do they fear to profess of what place they are men, who have deserved to be condemned. In the one, therefore, is contained the supplication of the Catholics;

in the other, the fabrications of the heretics are laid bare. Here is the overthrow of the Lord's priests, and of the whole Christian people, and of the monasteries, of unity. (The heretics' little book in the aforesaid encyclical codex lacks subscriptions.) There the continuation of monstrous crimes is demonstrated; so that what was not lawful to be heard might be lawful to be spread abroad. CHAP. V. — Is it not manifest whom your Piety ought to succour, and whom to withstand, lest the Alexandrian Church, which was always a house of prayer, now be a den of thieves? For it is plain that, through a most cruel and most insane savagery, all light of the heavenly mysteries has been extinguished there.

The oblation of the sacrifice has been intercepted, the sanctification of the chrism has failed, and by the parricidal hands of the impious all the mysteries have withdrawn themselves. Nor can it in any way be doubted what ought to be decreed concerning those who, after unspeakable sacrileges, after the blood of a most approved priest was shed and the ashes of his burned body scattered in insult to air and sky, dare to claim for themselves the right of a usurped dignity, and to summon the inviolable faith of apostolic doctrine to councils. It is a great thing, therefore, for you, that to your diadem there should be added also, from the hand of the Lord, the crown of faith, and that you should triumph over the enemies of the Church:

since if it is praiseworthy in you to crush the arms of hostile nations, how great will be the glory to deliver the Alexandrian Church — in whose crushing is the injury of all Christians — from a most insane tyrant? CHAP. VI. — But that my letters may present to your Piety as it were the conversation of one present, whatever I was about to suggest concerning the common faith, I saw ought to be conveyed by the writings that follow. And lest the page of this letter be drawn out to too great a length, I have comprised in other letters those things which agree with the assertion of the Catholic faith: so that, although the things that have been preached by the Apostolic See would suffice, yet these things also which have been added might disclose the snares of the heretics. For your Piety's priestly and apostolic mind,

even this evil ought to kindle to the justice of vengeance: that it pestilently darkens the purity of the Church of Constantinople, in which are found certain clergy consonant with the mind of the heretics, and within the very bowels of the Catholics aiding the heretics by their assertions. In dislodging these, if my brother Anatolius, when he spares too kindly, is found rather sluggish, may you deign, for your faith's sake, to furnish this medicine also to the Church: that such men be expelled not only from the order of the clergy, but also from dwelling in the city; lest the holy people of God be further polluted by the contagion of perverse men. But the worshippers of your Piety, Ju-

-lian the bishop and Aetius the presbyter, I commend at my request, that you may deign calmly to hear their suggestions on behalf of the defence of the Catholic faith: for they are of such a kind that they can be found in all things useful to your faith. Given on the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Constantinus and Rufus, most illustrious men. CHAP. I. — Having again received the letters of your Charity, I have learned with great grief all the things that were most insanely done at Alexandria; if indeed any pages of letters could unfold deeds so atrocious.

But we ought not now to linger in bewailing adversities, since it is more useful to provide for the things that may profit, and that may at length at some time drive off the fury of the heretics from the quiet of the Church. For since divine providence has foreseen for us such a prince, that his faith almost surpasses the solicitude of the priests, the instancy of your Charity is especially awaited, that you cease not to supplicate the most venerable emperor on behalf of the universal Church, and by frequent suggestions to demand that as soon as possible the Alexandrian Church be delivered from its invaders. I indeed, so far as I could, have entreated the most pious prince, that he both command the decrees of the holy Synod of Chalcedon to remain inviolate, and that the assertions of the heretics tend toward a great ignorance...

and that he recognize the most insane and raging blindness of the priest, and that the things which the sacrilegious parricides have committed in usurping the priesthood can be tolerated by no dissimulation; nor can the whole cause be brought to an end in any other way, unless the constitutions of the aforesaid Synod receive the strength of perpetuity, and the most insane invaders be expelled from a seat not their own; and that the Alexandrian people at length become people of their own quiet and peace, lest at the whim of a few heretics they be cast down into harm to the Church and into offence against God. CHAP. II.

— But I have received much consolation in this: that out of the whole number of the bishops who preside over the Egyptian dioceses, only four, long since condemned, could be found to join themselves to Timothy both in the impiety of heresy and in the brigandage of crime; who could in no wise be admitted to demand a synod, even if they were convicted of heretical error alone.

But since both in seizing the episcopate and in slaying the bishop they have perpetrated an unheard-of crime, what place is there for them in the Church, even if they should embrace the Catholic truth? To all the priests of the Lord within Egypt, therefore, whether more recent or residing there from ancient appointment, one help and remedy must be furnished: that they be freed from such unworthy persecutions, and that this evil, which has thrust itself into the inmost parts of so great a city, be driven out by wholesome authority, and that the Christian populace, devoted in faith and works, be able to serve with quiet according to the constitutions of the Fathers. CHAP. III. — Our brethren, moreover, who came to Constantinople from the region of Egypt, I have not ceased to commend to the emperor by my letters;

but I also admonish your humanity to deign to apply as much zeal as you can to the consolation of their pilgrimage, whose presence can much aid your Charity before the most clement prince, lest assent be given to the petition of the heretics for a new synod, which is hostile to the universal Church. Although the Apostolic See is founded upon such faith and stability that it in no wise receives assent to this novelty, and if anyone should believe that connivance ought to be given to the machinations of the adversaries, he will separate himself from the communion of the Catholic Church; since, according to the inspiration of God, both in the faith of Christ's incarnation and in the guarding of the Synod of Chalcedon, the sentence of the universal Church is one;

and especially in our own regions the evangelical doctrine is held so firmly, that it is reckoned a great sacrilege to deviate ever so little from the apostolic tradition. CHAP. IV. — I recall that I wrote to your Charity long ago, that you should suffer no one in the clergy of your Church to consent to the Eutychian heresy: since it concerns peril of the head, if anything be found wounded in the members. But since this has as yet been purged by no correction, and I learn that your presbyter Atticus has advanced to such insolence that in the Church he dares to dispute against the Catholic faith and the Synod of Chalcedon, I am compelled more vehemently to complain of your dissimulation.

For what you ought to have done unadmonished, I marvel is neglected even after our clear writings. And therefore I more sharply admonish, and protest that it must no longer be dissimulated, if you shall have believed that a pestilent man is to be kept any longer in your communion; whom we, if it can be done, would rather have amended than perish: so that, namely, if he desires to be seen corrected and to remain in ecclesiastical society, from that very place whence he disputed many things against the Catholic faith, let him now openly appear as a preacher of that same faith, and let him pass over nothing of the Eutychian dogma which he does not, by the manifestation of his profession, condemn in the hearing of the Christian people:

lest, as I have said, this dissimulation stain you very much, if either this man so noxious, or Andreas, the associate of that same impiety, be neither corrected nor repelled.