While, at the very entrance into the ancient city, we had taken this care to render worship to the most blessed apostle Peter, at the very altar of the martyr, to be adored, the most reverend bishop Leo, restraining himself a little after the prayer, wept before us on behalf of the catholic faith, invoking likewise as witness that very highest of the apostles whom we had approached, surrounded by a multitude of bishops whom he had gathered from countless cities of Italy on account of the primacy of his own place or dignity;
and mingling tears with his words, by the fellowship of his weeping he provoked our groanings too. For no small loss has come from the things that have been done, in that the faith, which for so long a time has been kept according to rule from our most sacred father Constantine, who first shone as a Christian in the empire, has lately been disturbed at the whim of one man, who in the synod of the city of Ephesus is reported to have exercised hatred and contentions rather than anything else, by the presence and fear of soldiers assailing the bishop Flavian of the city of Constantinople, because he
had sent an appeal to the apostolic see and to all the bishops of these parts, through those who had been directed to the council by the most reverend bishop of Rome, who, according to the definitions of the Nicene council, are accustomed to be present, most sacred lord and son, venerable emperor. By this grace, therefore, may your mildness, resisting such great disturbances, command that the truth of the catholic religion of the faith be preserved unspotted:
so that, according to the form and definition of the apostolic see, which we too likewise venerate as preeminent, the state of the priesthood remaining in all things unimpaired for Flavian, the matter may be transmitted to the judgment of the council and of the apostolic see, in which that first one, who was worthy to receive the heavenly keys, established the primacy of the episcopate; since indeed it befits us to preserve reverence in all things toward this greatest city, which is mistress of all lands. But provide more carefully also in this, that what our generation has preserved from ancient times may not seem to be diminished under us, and that through the present example schisms not be generated among the bishops and the holy Churches.