Leo, bishop of Rome, to the most beloved brothers, all the bishops established throughout the province of Vienne.

Chapter I: The Church Is Built on Peter’s Rock; Whoever Attempts to Infringe Its Power Acts with Impious Presumption

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, so established the observance of the divine religion that it might shine through all nations and peoples by God’s grace — the truth that had previously been contained in the proclamation of the Law and the Prophets going forth through the apostolic trumpet for the salvation of all, as it is written: Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5). The mystery of this office the Lord wished to belong to all the apostles, but principally placed it in the most blessed Peter, the first of all the apostles, so that from him, as from a head, His gifts might flow into the whole body.1 Whoever dares to depart from Peter’s rock understands he has no part in the divine mystery. He wished him, taken into fellowship with His own indivisible unity, to bear His own name, saying: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church (Matt. 16:18) — so that the building of the eternal temple, by the wondrous gift of God’s grace, should rest on Peter’s rock, and He should strengthen His Church with such firmness that neither human rashness could assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against it.

But whoever attempts with utterly impious presumption to violate this most sacred solidity of the rock — built by God, as we have said — and to infringe its power: follows his own desires rather than what those of old received from those before them, submits to no law, considers himself constrained by none of the Lord’s institutions — departing through the ambition of a novel usurpation from your custom and from Ours, presuming what is unlawful, neglecting what he was bound to uphold.

Chapter II: Leo Corrects Hilary’s Usurpations, Invoking the Apostolic See’s Established Appellate Role and Hilary’s Refusal to Submit to Peter

These matters We strive to correct with mature counsel, God inspiring Us as We believe, preserving around you the grace of Our charity — which the Apostolic See, as you remember, has always extended to your holiness — working together with you to restore the state of your Churches: not introducing innovations but renewing ancient traditions, so that we may abide in the custom handed down to us by our fathers, and may please God through the ministry of good works by removing the scandals of disturbances. Let your brotherhood therefore acknowledge with Us that the Apostolic See, revered by the priests of your province, has been consulted by innumerable letters, and that through cases of various kinds, as ancient custom demands, judgments have been either reviewed or confirmed2 — so that, with the unity of the Spirit preserved in the bond of peace, what was conducted in holiness might serve the growth of enduring charity. For Our solicitude, seeking not its own things but the things of Christ,3 has abrogated neither the dignity divinely given to the Churches nor to the Churches’ priests.

But Hilary, seeking to disturb the state of the Churches and the harmony of the priests with novel presumptions, has departed from this path — well held and wholesomely kept among our forebears — desiring to subject you to his power while refusing to be subject to the blessed Apostle Peter: claiming for himself the ordinations throughout the Gallic churches and transferring to himself the dignity owed to the metropolitan priests; and diminishing even, by words of extreme arrogance, the reverence owed to the most blessed Peter himself — to whom, before all others, the power of binding and loosing was entrusted (Matt. 16:19), and the care of feeding the sheep especially committed (Feed my sheep, John 21:17). Whoever denies the primacy of Peter cannot diminish his dignity in the least; but, puffed up with the spirit of his own pride, plunges himself into the depths.

Chapter III: Celidonius Is Restored to His See After Leo’s Examination

What was transacted in Our proceedings in the case of Bishop Celidonius, and what Hilary said when he was heard in the presence of that bishop — all of this a systematic written account of the events makes clear. When Hilary had no reasonable response that he could offer in the council of holy priests, his heart’s hidden things came to words which no layman could speak and no priest could endure to hear. I grieve, I confess, brothers, and We tried to treat the tumult of his mind with the remedies of Our patience. We were unwilling to worsen the wounds that his insolent words were successively inflicting on his own soul, and We strove to soothe him as a brother — though he was entangling himself with his replies — rather than to distress him by Our own responses. Bishop Celidonius was acquitted, having proven through the clear testimony of his witnesses — even in Hilary’s presence — that he had been unjustly cast out of the priesthood; so that Hilary, who was present with Us, had nothing to put forward in objection. We therefore annulled the judgment previously pronounced in that sentence — the finding that he could not hold the priesthood as the husband of a widow.4 This rule We, upholding legal ordinances, have wished observed with care — not only for priests but for clerics of lesser order as well — so that those who contract such marriages, or who, contrary to apostolic discipline, are shown to have been the husbands of more than one wife, may not be admitted to sacred service. But just as We must either refuse or remove those whose own conduct condemns them, so We must clear through examination those against whom it is falsely alleged, and not allow them to lose their office. For the sentence pronounced against him would have stood if the charges had been true. Accordingly Our fellow bishop Celidonius has been restored to his Church and to the dignity which he ought never to have been denied — as the written record of Our proceedings and the sentence We pronounced, after examination, fully attests.

Chapter IV: Projectus Is Restored; The Apostolic Norm Requires Ordinations to Follow the Consent of Clergy and People

With this matter settled, the complaint of Our brother and fellow bishop Projectus succeeded: his lamentable and grievous letters were sent to Us concerning a bishop ordained over him. A letter from his own citizens, confirmed by numerous individual signatures, was filled with the most bitter complaints against Hilary — that Projectus their bishop had not been free to fall ill, that his priesthood had been transferred to another without their knowledge, and that an heir had been introduced by Hilary, the usurper, as if into a vacant possession while the living bishop remained. We would wish to hear what your brotherhood thinks of this — though Our judgment should not be in doubt about your sentiments, seeing a brother lying abed, tormented not so much by bodily weakness as by another pain. What hope of life remains for one to whom despair of his priesthood is inflicted while another is being substituted? It is clear enough how gentle a heart Hilary has, when he judged his brother’s slow death to be an obstacle to his ambition. As far as lay in his power, he extinguished Projectus’s light and took away his life — by inflicting on him the pain of placing another in his stead, so that no road to recovery might remain open. Even granting that Projectus’s death came in the ordinary course of human mortality: what is Hilary seeking in another man’s province? What is he usurping — that which none of his predecessors before Patroclus ever held?5 Since even what appeared to have been granted to Patroclus for a time by the Apostolic See was afterward revoked by a wiser judgment? The wishes of the citizens should certainly have been awaited, the testimony of the people sought; the judgment of honorable men and the election of the clergy should have been obtained — as those who know the Fathers’ rules observe in ordinations — so that the norm of Apostolic authority be kept in all things, by which it is laid down that the priest who is to preside over the Church must be supported not only by the attestation of the faithful but also by the testimony of those who are outside (1 Tim. 3:7) — lest any occasion of scandal be given, when in the peace and God-pleasing harmony of all voices the one who is to be a teacher of peace is ordained.

Chapter V: The Metropolitan of Each Province Is to Conduct the Ordination of Successor Bishops; Projectus Remains in His Priesthood

But he arrived without warning on those who did not know he was coming, and departed suddenly — traversing many journeys and distant provinces with such speed, as we have learned, that he seemed to pursue glory for courier-like haste rather than priestly moderation. The citizens’ own letter to Us reads: He was gone before we knew he had come. This is not returning but fleeing; not providing pastoral care but applying a thief’s violence, as the Lord says: He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber (John 10:1). Hilary was not studying how to consecrate a bishop but how to kill a man who was ill and to deceive the one he appointed in his place through a wrongful ordination. Nevertheless, believing it to be pleasing to God and consulting all the brothers in common, We have decreed that the one wrongfully ordained be removed, and that Bishop Projectus remain in his priesthood; establishing by this ruling that if any of Our brothers departs this life in any province, the metropolitan of that province shall claim the ordination of his successor for himself. Two cases, as we see, have now been dealt with, in which there is much that appears to have been done contrary to ecclesiastical reason and must await the censure of just judgment. But We cannot delay here any longer, since We are called to address other matters that need to be discussed with your holiness with greater care.

Chapter VI: No One May Be Ordained Without the Clergy’s Subscription, the Testimony of Honorable Men, and the Consent of the People; Ordinations Are Reserved to the Lawful Day

A band of soldiers follows a priest through the provinces, as We have learned, and, supported by armed guards’ presumption, serves his tumultuous invasions of churches that have lost their priests. Men unknown to the cities they are to govern are dragged to ordination. A known and approved man is sought in peace; an unknown one must be imposed by force. We beg and beseech you, and call you to account under the invocation of God, brothers: forbid such things and remove every source of discord from your provinces. We absolve Ourselves before God, having warned you not to permit this further. Priests who are to govern must be sought in peace and quiet, with the subscription of the clergy, the testimony of honorable men, and the consent of the order and the people. He who is to preside over all must be chosen by all. Let each metropolitan defend the ordinations of his own province, together with those who precede others in priestly seniority — this right being restored to them by Us — and let no one dare claim another’s right or encroach on another’s boundaries. Let each one be content with his own limits and his own territory, and know it is unlawful to transfer to another the privilege that belongs to himself. If anyone, negligent of apostolic ordinances and showing too much favor to persons, chooses to surrender his own honor and believes he may transfer his privilege to another — then it is not the one who ceded but the one who in that province precedes the rest of the priests by episcopal seniority who shall claim the power of ordaining for himself. Ordination is not to be celebrated indiscriminately but on the lawful day; and let no one’s standing be secure unless he has been ordained on Saturday evening — at the dawn of the first day of the week — or on Sunday itself. For our forebears judged that the day of the Lord’s Resurrection alone was worthy of this honor, so that the priests who are to be ordained should be conferred on this day above all.

Chapter VII: Hilary Is Stripped of Metropolitan Authority in Vienne

Let each province be content with its own councils, and let Hilary not dare to convene synodal gatherings or to disturb the judgments of the Lord’s priests by inserting himself. Let him know he has been not only expelled from another’s rights, but also stripped of his power over the province of Vienne, which he had wrongfully usurped. It is right, brothers, that the ancient statutes be restored; and since he who claimed the ordinations of a province not his own has been shown in the present case to be such a man as to seek repeatedly a sentence of condemnation by his rash and insolent words, Our decree has preserved for him only the priesthood of his own city, out of the clemency of the Apostolic See. He is not to preside over any ordination or ordain anyone — excluded from the communion of the Apostolic See, which he did not deserve to share6 — since it was God, We believe, who both drew him — inopinate and unexpected by Us — to Our tribunal, and during the examinations held caused him to withdraw secretly, lest he become a sharer in Our communion.

Chapter VIII: Communion Is Not to Be Denied Lightly

No Christian is to be readily deprived of communion, nor is this to be done at an angry priest’s discretion — a thing which a judge ought to inflict, reluctantly and with grief, only as retribution for a grave offense. For We have learned that some have been excluded from the grace of communion for trivial words, and the soul for which Christ’s blood was shed wounded by so harsh a penalty and left defenseless and stripped of all protection against diabolical attacks, so as to be easily captured. Certainly, if a case of such a kind arises that someone must justly be deprived of communion for the gravity of a crime committed, then only the one entangled in guilt is to be subjected to the penalty — nor should one be a partaker in the punishment who is not shown to have been a partaker in the offense. But why is it surprising that such conduct exists toward laymen from one who is accustomed to rejoice in the condemnation of priests?

Chapter IX: Leo’s Decrees Are Issued with God’s Inspiration and the Most Blessed Apostle Peter; Leontius Is Appointed Senior Bishop

Since Our intention is plainly other than this — for We desire the state of all the Churches and the harmony of the priests to be preserved — We exhort and call you to unity in the bond of charity, and with fitting affection admonish you to keep what has been decreed by Us, with God inspiring and the most blessed Apostle Peter,7 now that all causes have been thoroughly examined and weighed, for your peace and dignity — being certain that what we are known to have established profits not so much Our own honor as yours. For We are not defending the ordinations of your provinces for Ourselves — as Hilary may perhaps falsely allege in his fashion, to warp your minds against Us — but We vindicate them for you through Our solicitude, so that no further scope be given to novelty, and no longer any opening be left to a presumptuous person for annulling your privileges. We believe that this alone will profit even Our own satisfaction: that the diligence of the Apostolic See remain unimpaired among you, and that through the custody of priestly discipline We do not allow what belongs to your honor to be lost to wicked usurpations. And since antiquity must always be honored, We will that Our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, a proven priest, be adorned with this dignity, if it please you8 — so that no council in another province be convened without his consent by your holiness, and that he be honored by you all as his age and proven character demand, with the privileges of the metropolitans in their dignity preserved. It is just, and no brother is seen to suffer injury, if those who precede others by priestly seniority are deferred to in their provinces by the remaining priests for the merit of their age. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers.