Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XII:
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great.: From the Synod of Chalcedon to Leo.

Letter XCVIII.

From the Synod of Chalcedon to Leo.

The great and holy and universal Synod, which by the grace of God and the sanction of our most pious and Christ-loving Emperors has been gathered together in the metropolis of Chalcedon in the province of Bithynia, to the most holy and blessed archbishop of Rome, Leo.

I.  They congratulate Leo on taking the foremost part in maintaining the Faith.

“Our mouth was filled with joy and our tongue with exultation 433 .”  This prophecy grace has fitly appropriated to us for whom the security of religion is ensured.  For what is a greater incentive to cheerfulness than the Faith? what better inducement to exultation than the Divine knowledge which the Saviour Himself gave us from above for salvation, saying, “go ye and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I have enjoined you 434 .”  And this golden chain leading down from the Author of the command to us, you yourself have stedfastly preserved, being set as the mouthpiece unto all of the blessed Peter, and imparting the blessedness of his Faith unto all.  Whence we too, wisely taking you as our guide in all that is good, have shown to the sons of the Church their inheritance of Truth, not giving our instruction each singly and in secret, but making known our confession of the Faith in conceit, with one consent and agreement.  And we were all delighted, revelling, as at an imperial banquet, in the spiritual food, which Christ supplied to us through your letter:  and we seemed to see the Heavenly Bridegroom actually present with us.  For if “where two or three are gathered together in His name,” He has said that “there He is in the midst of them 435 ,” must He not have been much more particularly present with 520 priests, who preferred the spread of knowledge concerning Him to their country and their ease?  Of whom you were chief, as the head to the members, showing your goodwill 436 in the person of those who represented you; whilst our religious Emperors presided to the furtherance of due order, inviting us to restore the doctrinal fabric of the Church, even as Zerubbabel invited Joshua to rebuild Jerusalem 437 .

II.  They detail Dioscorus’ wicked acts.

And the adversary would have been like a wild beast outside the fold, roaring to himself and unable to seize any one, had not the late bishop of Alexandria thrown himself for a prey to him, who, though he had done many terrible things before, eclipsed the former by the latter deeds; for contrary to all the injunctions of the canons, he deposed that blessed shepherd of the saints at Constantinople, Flavian, who displayed such Apostolic faith, and the most pious bishop Eusebius, and acquitted by his terror-won votes Eutyches, who had been condemned for heresy, and restored to him the dignity which your holiness had taken away from him as unworthy of it, and like the strangest of wild beasts, falling upon the vine which he found in the finest condition, he uprooted it and brought in that which had been cast away as unfruitful, and those who acted like true shepherds he cut off, and set over the flocks those who had shown themselves wolves:  and besides all this he stretched forth his fury even against him who had been charged with the custody of the vine by the Saviour, we mean of course your holiness, and purposed excommunication against one who had at heart the unifying of the Church.  And instead of showing penitence for this, instead of begging mercy with tears, he exulted as if over virtuous actions, rejecting your holiness’ letter and resisting all the dogmas of the Truth.

III.  We have deposed Eutyches, treating him as mercifully as we could.

And we ought to have left him in the position where he had placed himself:  but, since we profess the teaching of the Saviour “who wishes all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth 438 ,” as a fact we took pains to carry out this merciful policy towards him, and called him in brotherly fashion to judgment, not as if trying to cut him off but affording him room for defence and healing; and we prayed that he might be victorious over the many charges they had brought against him, in order that we might conclude our meeting in peace and happiness and Satan might gain no advantage over us.  But he, being absolutely convicted by his own conscience 439 , by shirking the trial gave countenance to the accusations and rejected the three lawful p. 73 summonses he received.  In consequence of which, we ratified with such moderation as we could the vote which he had passed against himself by his blunders, stripping the wolf of his shepherd’s skin, which he had long been convicted of wearing for a pretence.  Thereupon our troubles ceased and straightway a time of welcome happiness set in:  and having pulled up one tare, we filled the whole world to our delight with pure grain:  and having received, as it were, full power to root up and to plant, we limited the up-rooting to one and carefully plant a crop of good fruit.  For it was God who worked, and the triumphant Euphemia who crowned the meeting as for a bridal 440 , and who, taking our definition of the Faith as her own confession, presented it to her Bridegroom by our most religious Emperor and Christ-loving Empress, appeasing all the tumult of opponents and establishing our confession of the Truth as acceptable to Him, and with hand and tongue setting her seal 441 to the votes of us all in proclamation thereof.  These are the things we have done, with you present in the spirit and known to approve of us as brethren, and all but visible to us through the wisdom of your representatives.

IV.  They announce their decision that Constantinople should take precedence next to Rome, and ask Leo’s consent to it.

And we further inform you that we have decided on other things also for the good management and stability of church matters, being persuaded that your holiness will accept and ratify them, when you are told.  The long prevailing custom, which the holy Church of God at Constantinople had of ordaining metropolitans for the provinces of Asia, Pontus and Thrace, we have now ratified by the votes of the Synod, not so much by way of conferring a privilege on the See of Constantinople as to provide for the good government of those cities, because of the frequent disorders that arise on the death of their bishops, both clergy and laity being then without a leader and disturbing church order.  And this has not escaped your holiness, particularly in the case of Ephesus, which has often caused you annoyance 442 .  We have ratified also the canon of the 150 holy Fathers who met at Constantinople in the time of the great Theodosius of holy memory, which ordains that after your most holy and Apostolic See, the See of Constantinople shall take precedence, being placed second:  for we are persuaded that with your usual care for others you have often extended that Apostolic prestige which belongs to you, to the church in Constantinople also, by virtue of your great disinterestedness in sharing all your own good things with your spiritual kinsfolk.  Accordingly vouchsafe most holy and blessed father to accept as your own wish, and as conducing to good government the things which we have resolved on for the removal of all confusion and the confirmation of church order.  For your holiness’ delegates, the most pious bishops Paschasinus and Lucentius, and with them the right Godly presbyter Boniface, attempted vehemently to resist these decisions, from a strong desire that this good work also should start from your foresight, in order that the establishment of good order as well as of the Faith should be put to your account.  For we duly regarding our most devout and Christ loving Emperors, who delight therein, and the illustrious senate and, so to say, the whole imperial city, considered it opportune to use the meeting of this ecumenical Synod for the ratification of your honour, and confidently corroborated this decision as if it were initiated by you with your customary fostering zeal, knowing that every success of the children rebounds to the parent’s glory.  Accordingly, we entreat you, honour our decision by your assent, and as we have yielded to the head our agreement on things honourable, so may the head also fulfil for the children what is fitting.  For thus will our pious Emperors be treated with due regard, who have ratified your holiness’ judgment as law, and the See of Constantinople will receive its recompense for having always displayed such loyalty on matters of religion towards you, and for having so zealously linked itself to you in full agreement.  But that you may know that we have done nothing for favour or in hatred, but as being guided by the Divine Will, we have made known to you the whole scope of our proceedings to strengthen our position and to ratify and establish what we have done 443 .

Footnotes

Ps. cxxvi. 2.

S. Matt. 28:19, 20.

Matt. 18.20.

εὔνοιαν:  others read εὐβουλίαν (good advice).

The reference is to Ezra iii. 2.

1 Tim. ii. 4.

ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἄκρατον τοῦ συνειδότος ἔχων τὸν ἔλεγχον.  There seems, however, some grounds, but no actual necessity for the reading ἔγγραφον = written (instead of ἄκρατον) adopted by the Ball.

ἡ τὸν σύλλογον τῷ νυμφῶνι (lit. bride-chamber) στεφανοῦσα καλλίνικος Εὐφημία; this obscure passage is to a certain extent elucidated by Letter CI., chap. iii. (q.v.).  The martyr, Euphemia, seems to have been a sort of patron saint of Chalcedon.

ἐπισφραγίσασα; others ἐπιψηφίσασα, which seems meaningless here.

The reference (acc. to Ball.) is to the dispute about the bishopric between Bassian and Stephen, in which Leo interfered, though the letter is not extant.

One of the Latin versions adds the names and titles of the subscribing bishops here.  For the subject matter of Chap. iv., see Introduction, p. viii.