The holy, great, and universal Synod, gathered by the grace of God and the sanction of our most pious and Christ-loving emperors in Chalcedon, metropolis of the province of Bithynia, to the most holy and most blessed Leo, Archbishop of the Romans.
Chapter I: The Synod Declares Leo Established as the Interpreter of the Voice of Blessed Peter for All, and as Head Over the Members of the Church
Our mouth is filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation (Ps. 125:2). Grace has fitted this prophecy as our own, since through those whom we speak of, the restoration of piety has been confirmed. For what is loftier than faith for rejoicing? What more festive for crowns than the knowledge of the Lord, which the Savior Himself delivered to us for salvation, saying: Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I commanded you (Matt. 28:19–20)? This thread, woven as if of gold from the precept of the Lawgiver, reaching down to us, you yourself have preserved — established as the interpreter of the voice of blessed Peter for all, and drawing to all the beatitude of his faith. And so we, using you as the initiator of good things for our benefit, showed to the Church’s children the inheritance and portion of truth — not each one teaching separately in secret, but declaring the confession of the faith with one spirit, one accord, and one conspiracy; and we were as in a common crown of joy, feasting as at an imperial banquet on the spiritual delicacies which Christ had prepared for His invited guests through your letters, and thought we could see among us the heavenly Bridegroom Himself. For if, where two or three are gathered in His name, He promised to be in their midst (Matt. 18:20), how much more did He show His intimacy with the bishops who preferred the knowledge of His confession over homeland and toil? Over these, indeed, as head over the members, you presided through those who held your rank, offering benevolence. The faithful emperors most fittingly presided over its adornment, like Zorobabel and Joshua (cf. Ezra 3:2), inviting the Church, as Jerusalem, to rebuild itself around the dogmas.
Chapter II: The Synod Condemns Dioscorus’s Tyranny; He Even Dared to Plan Excommunication Against Leo
The adversary, like a beast roaring outside the fold against itself, could seize no one unless one cast himself to be seized by him — as did the man who was once pontiff of the Alexandrians. Having wrought many prior evils, he surpassed them with what followed. For he deposed and condemned — beyond all canonical order — the blessed Flavian, pastor of Constantinople among the saints, who confessed the apostolic faith, and Eusebius, most beloved of God. And Eutyches, condemned for impiety, he established as innocent by his tyrant’s decrees, and restored to him the dignity which your holiness had rightly taken away as from one unworthy of such grace — and, like a singular beast rushing into the vineyard, overturned the finest planting he found there (Ps. 79:14); and reintroduced what had been uprooted as fruitless; and cut off those who had pastoral wisdom; and placed proven wolves over the sheep. After all this, he extended his madness even against the one to whom the Savior entrusted the care of the vineyard — that is, against your holiness — and planned excommunication against you, who hasten to unite the body of the Church. And instead of repenting or seeking mercy with tears, he exulted as over actions done soberly, rejecting the letter of your holiness and opposing all the dogmas of truth.
Chapter III: The Synod’s Mercy Toward Dioscorus and the Definition of the Faith Sealed by the Virgin Euphemia
He should indeed have been at once left among those whose part he had taken for himself; but as disciples of the Savior, who wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4), we hastened to extend mercy to him, summoning him to judgment with fraternal gentleness — not to cut off but to provide him an occasion of salvation through satisfaction — and we prayed that he be shown victorious over those who inscribed accusations against him, so that the festive joy of our council might be brought to completion without Satan prevailing. But he, bearing inscribed in his own conscience the conviction of his guilt, assented to his accusations by refusing judgment, and rejected three lawful summons. Therefore, as gently as we could, we confirmed the decree which he himself had brought against himself by sinning, stripping the wolf of the pastoral garb by which he had previously been merely outwardly concealed. Up to this point the troubles provoked against us were checked, and the grace of good things at once shone forth; and uprooting one tare, we filled the universal world with pure grain, with joy.
And taking on ourselves the power to uproot and to plant, we grieved to cut off one, but planted good things in abundance with diligence. God was at work — and the venerable Euphemia, as if taking our definition of the faith as her own bridal confession, offered it through the most pious emperor and the Christ-loving empress to her Bridegroom, settling every disturbance of adversaries and confirming the confession of truth, underwritten by the votes of all as a friend. These are the things which, present in spirit with you, and acting as those who wished to show favor to brothers in whom your wisdom has nearly appeared, we have accomplished.
Chapter IV: The Synod Discloses Canon 28 Confirming Constantinople’s Ordination Rights, Asks Leo to Honor Their Judgment With His Decrees
We also make known that we have established certain other measures for the ordered calm of affairs and the firmness of ecclesiastical statutes — knowing that your holiness, if it acknowledges them, will approve and confirm them. The custom which has long prevailed in the holy Church of God at Constantinople of ordaining the metropolitans of Asia, Pontus, and Thrace, we have now also confirmed by synodal decree — not so much conferring something on the see of Constantinople as providing fitting calm to metropolitan cities; for from the death of bishops very many tumults frequently arise, while clergy and peoples in those cities remain without a ruler and disorder the ecclesiastical order — a thing which has not escaped your holiness’s notice, especially on account of Ephesus, from which some have so often brought trouble upon you. We have also confirmed the rule of the hundred and fifty holy Fathers who were gathered at Constantinople under the great Theodosius of pious memory — which rule ordained that, after your most holy and Apostolic See, Constantinople, which has been established in second place, should hold the honor; confident that the apostolic ray shining through you has always, in its custom of governing, extended itself also to the Church of the Constantinopolitans, and has enriched those close to you without envy with a share of your goods. Wherefore what we have decreed for the removal of all confusion and the confirmation of ecclesiastical order — deign to embrace as fitting and friendly and as befitting you, most holy and most blessed Father. For those who hold the place of your holiness — the most holy bishops Paschasinus and Lucentius, and the most reverend presbyter Bonifacius who is with them — strongly resisted this, without doubt wishing this good to begin from your providence: so that, as the effect of faith, so also the effect of good order be attributed to you.
For we, caring for the most pious and Christ-loving emperors who are delighted by this, and for the most illustrious senate and the entire imperial city, as one may say, have judged it fitting for the confirmation of this honor to be celebrated by the universal council — and, as if these things had been initiated by your holiness, whom you always foster, we have confirmed them — knowing that whatever sons do rightly reverts to their fathers. We therefore ask that you honor our judgment with your decrees: and as we gave harmony to the head in good things, so may the head complete for its sons what befits them. Thus the pious emperors will be gratified, who confirmed the judgment of your holiness as law; and the see of Constantinople will receive its reward, joined to you always with all zealous devotion toward the cause of piety, in concord with you. That you may know we have done nothing out of favor or enmity, but under divine guidance, we have sent you the full force of all the proceedings for the approval of your sincerity and the firmness and harmony of our actions.
Subscriptions
- Anatolius, bishop of Constantinople. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most holy and most blessed Father.
- Maximus, bishop of the great city of Antioch. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most holy and most blessed Father.
- Juvenalis, bishop of Jerusalem. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most holy and most blessed Father.
- Cyriacus, bishop of the metropolis of Heraclea, subscribed through Lucian, most God-loving bishop. As above.
- Diogenes, bishop of the metropolis of Cyzicus. As above.
- Photius, bishop of the metropolis of Tyre. As above.
- Florentius, bishop of the metropolis of Sardis in Lydia. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Constantius, bishop of the metropolis of Bosra. Pray for my welfare, most holy and most blessed Father.
- Theodorus, bishop of the metropolis of Damascus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Seleucus, by God’s grace bishop of the metropolis of Amasea. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Constantinus, by God’s mercy bishop of the metropolis of Melitene. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most reverend Father.
- Francion, bishop of the metropolis of Philippopolis. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most loving Father.
- Pergamus, bishop of the metropolis of Pisidian Antioch. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Lucianus, bishop of Byza. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Gregorius, bishop of Adrianopolis. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Meletius, bishop of Larissa, acting for the most blessed bishop lord of Apamea in Syria, subscribed. Pray for my welfare, most holy Father.
- Acacius, by God’s mercy bishop of the city of Ariarathea. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Joannes, bishop of Germanicia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Josephus, bishop of Heliopolis. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving and holy Father.
- Calogerus, bishop of Claudiopolis. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father. And I subscribed through Euphrosynus, deacon.
- Heraclius, by God’s mercy bishop of Comana. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Ibas, bishop of the metropolis of Edessa. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Sophronius, bishop of Constantina. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Uranius, bishop of Emesa. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Aetherius, bishop of Smyrna. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Zenobius, bishop. As above.
- Thomas, bishop of Theodosiopolis. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most loving Father.
- Sabas, bishop of Paltus, subscribing through Patricius, bishop. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Patricius, bishop of Neocaesarea. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Rinus, by God’s grace bishop of Junopolis. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Eudoxius, bishop of Chomata. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Nicolaus, by God’s mercy bishop of Acarassus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Evodius, bishop of Sauma. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Triphon, bishop of the Church of Chios. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Paulus, bishop of the most holy Church of Philomelium. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Theoctistus, bishop of Tyra. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Olympius, bishop of the most holy Church of Sozopolis. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Joannes, humble bishop of the city of Barbileum. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Valerius, bishop of the city of Laodicea Phrygia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Basilius, bishop of the city of Nacolia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Noe, bishop of the city. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Uranius, bishop of the city of Iboron. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Manasses, bishop of Theodosiopolis of Greater Armenia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Aurelius, bishop. Pray for us, Father most blessed.
- Restitutianus, bishop. Pray for us, holy and venerable Pope.
- Amacius, bishop of the city of Sotorum. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Meletius, bishop of Larissa. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Fonteianus, bishop of Sagalassus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Theodorus, by God’s mercy bishop of Antiphellus in Lycia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Meliphtongus, by God’s mercy bishop of Heliopolis. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Thalassius, bishop of the city of Parium. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Alexander, bishop of the city of Seleucia in Pisidia. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Musianus, bishop of Limenorum. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Florentius, bishop of Lesbos. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Epiphanius, bishop of the city of Midaeum. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Cyrus, bishop of the city of Sinandus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Pancratius, bishop of Lybiades. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Polychronius, bishop of Antipatris. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Cyriacus, bishop of the city of Trognadorum, subscribed through my presbyter Chrysippus. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Eunomius, bishop of the metropolis of Nicomedia. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Anastasius, bishop of the metropolis of Nicaea. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- Sebastianus, bishop of the city of Berrhoea. Pray for my welfare in the Lord, most God-loving Father.
- Jovinus, bishop of the most holy Church of Debeltum. Pray for my welfare, most God-loving Father.
- And likewise all the remaining bishops subscribed.
Here ends the report of the holy Synod of Chalcedon to Pope Leo.
Footnotes
- ↩ The title archiepiscopo Romanorum — “Archbishop of the Romans” — is the synod’s formal address to Leo. In the Greek original (and the alternative Latin translation by Rusticus the deacon, which the PL preserves as an older version alongside this primary text) the address is to the “most holy and most blessed archbishop of Rome.” That the assembled bishops of the entire Eastern church, comprising over five hundred sees, open their formal report to the council’s president with this title is itself a datum of ecclesiological significance.
- ↩ The Latin is vocis beati Petri omnibus constitutus interpres, et ejus fidei beatificationem super omnes adducens — “established as the interpreter of the voice of blessed Peter for all, and drawing to all the beatitude of his faith.” This is perhaps the most concentrated acknowledgment of Petrine-papal authority in the entire corpus — and it comes not from Leo but from more than five hundred bishops of the Eastern church assembled in council. The synod does not say Leo resembles Peter or represents Peter in some metaphorical sense; it says he has been constitutus — appointed, established — as the interpreter of Peter’s voice for the whole Church. The beatitude attached to Peter’s confession (Matt. 16:17) flows to all through Leo. The PL apparatus notes that the number “circa quingentos viginti sacerdotes” — approximately 520 bishops — comes from the Greek original and the Rusticus translation; the primary Latin text simply says “sacerdotes.” The magnitude is theologically irrelevant to the claim, but historically worth noting.
- ↩ The synod identifies Leo’s legates as those “who held your rank” — qui tuum tenebant ordinem — through whom he presided as head over the members. The head-to-members image is the same Petrine ecclesiology Leo himself uses in Letter X (principally placed in Peter, from whom as from a head gifts flow to the whole body) — now returned to him by the assembled Eastern church. The president of the council is identified not as the emperor, not as Anatolius of Constantinople, but as Leo, present through his legates. Compare Paschasinus’s declaration at Session I of Chalcedon: “The most blessed and apostolic bishop of the Roman city… holds the presidency of this holy synod.”
- ↩ The synod identifies Leo as “the one to whom the Savior entrusted the care of the vineyard” — the recipient of the Petrine commission — and describes Dioscorus’s assault on him as the culminating act of his madness. To plan excommunication against Leo is, in the synod’s framing, to turn the weapons of ecclesiastical discipline against the very person charged with maintaining the Church’s unity. The passage echoes Leo’s own description of Hilary of Arles in Letter X: Hilary desired to subject others to his power while refusing to be subject to Peter. Dioscorus’s act is the most extreme version of the same logic, directed at Leo himself.
- ↩ The canon as confirmed at Chalcedon (Canon 28) restates and amplifies the third canon of the Council of Constantinople I (381), extending Constantinople’s authority over the three Eastern dioceses. The formula post vestram sanctissimam et apostolicam sedem, honorem habere Constantinopolitanam, quæ secunda est ordinata — “after your most holy and Apostolic See, Constantinople, which has been established in second place, should hold the honor” — names the Roman see as first in explicit terms, and places Constantinople’s honor entirely in relation to that primacy. Leo’s legates strongly resisted this canon at the council (see below); Leo subsequently nullified it by apostolic authority. His responses come in three letters: Letter CIV to Emperor Marcian, where he states that Constantinople cannot make itself an Apostolic See and that his stewardship before God does not permit him to yield the Nicene canons to one brother’s ambition; Letter CVI to Anatolius of Constantinople, where he declares that the Constantinople I canons were never sent to Rome and therefore never received, and that no assembly of bishops — however large — can compare itself to Nicaea’s three hundred eighteen or override their decrees; and Letter CV — addressed to the Empress Pulcheria — which delivers the formal apostolic act: “null, void, and entirely without ecclesiastical force,” nullified explicitly “by the authority of the blessed apostle Peter, entrusted to us in the governance of the Church.” The act is not a withholding of approval; it is an annulment, grounded in Petrine authority and issued as a universal judgment.
- ↩ The synod’s framing of the legates’ resistance is remarkable. Rather than conceding that Leo’s representatives simply rejected Canon 28, the letter construes their opposition as evidence of their desire to have the confirmation originate with Leo himself: procul dubio a vestra providentia inchoari et hoc bonum volentes, ut sicut fidei, sic bonæ ordinationis vobis deputetur effectus. The move is diplomatically graceful but also theologically precise: it acknowledges that the canon’s validity depends on Leo’s confirmation. Good ecclesiastical order, like the definition of the faith, has its effect attributed to Leo. The argument is designed to make Leo’s confirmation of Canon 28 appear to be the natural completion of what his own legates were preparing for. As the historical record shows, Leo did not accept this framing — he nullified Canon 28 by apostolic authority across Letters CIV, CVI, and CV, distinguishing it sharply from the doctrinal definitions of the council, which he confirmed. In Letter CVI to Anatolius, Leo explicitly validates the legates’ opposition: their resistance “commends them to me, but accuses you,” he tells Anatolius — inverting the complaint entirely.
- ↩ The phrase Rogamus igitur, et tuis decretis nostrum honora judicium — “We therefore ask that you honor our judgment with your decrees” — is the synod’s explicit request for papal confirmation of its acts. The council has acted; it now asks Leo to ratify what it has done. This structure — council acts, Roman bishop confirms — is the same structure Leo himself invokes in Letter XCIII regarding Constantinople I (see that letter’s Commentary). The synod is here appealing to Leo’s confirmatory authority not as an external imposition but as the completion that gives their acts their full force. Leo confirmed Chalcedon’s doctrinal definitions and nullified Canon 28 by apostolic authority — the confirmation in Letter CV, the canonical and ecclesiological arguments in Letters CIV and CVI. All three acts are his to perform, and he performed them.
- ↩ Sancte ac venerabilis papa — “holy and venerable Pope.” Restitutianus’s subscription is notable for its use of papa as a formal title for Leo. The same title appears in the colophon of the letter itself: Explicit relatio sanctæ synodi Chalcedonensis ad papam Leonem — “Here ends the report of the holy Synod of Chalcedon to Pope Leo.” In the fifth century papa was not yet formally restricted to the Roman bishop in common usage, but its use here in the context of subscriptions from across the Eastern church — addressed to Leo by bishops and the synodal secretary alike — reflects the council’s recognition of his unique dignity.
- ↩ Explicit relatio sanctæ synodi Chalcedonensis ad papam Leonem. The colophon of the letter — supplied by the synodal secretary — calls Leo papa: Pope Leo. This title, used here in the closing of the most authoritative conciliar document in the Leo corpus, reflects the council’s own identification of Leo’s office. The PL manuscript tradition preserves this colophon consistently across the major codices. Combined with the subscriptions addressing Leo as “most holy and most blessed Father,” “most venerable Pope,” and similar honorifics — by bishops from Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Cyrus, Edessa, and scores of other sees across the Eastern church — the letter constitutes the most extensive documentary acknowledgment of Leo’s papal dignity in the entire corpus. The council does not address Leo as a peer patriarch or a senior colleague; it addresses him as father, as head, as the interpreter of Peter’s voice, and as the one whose decrees are needed to give its acts their full force.
Historical Commentary