Leo, bishop, to Julian, Bishop of Cos.
Leo Commands Julian to Join His Care and Counsel With the Legates at the General Council, Acting With the Authority of the Papal Command
What We should command of your devoted spirit, you have recognized many times — for many prior instances have given Us cause to presume upon it. Wherefore, since at the will of the most Christian emperor a priestly synod is to be held in the city of Nicaea, that every clamor of scandal may be removed, We necessarily enjoin upon your brotherhood what is of benefit to the whole Church: that you join your care and action with our brothers and fellow bishops Paschasinus and Lucentius, and our brothers and fellow presbyters Bonifacius and Basilius, whom We command to go to the said assembly in Our stead — joining your care and action with theirs in all things, using the authority of Our command, since We know that you have greater knowledge of all matters transacted there than Our legates do: so that by uniting your care and counsel with theirs they may not err in any part, but all things may come to fruition, with God’s aid, that you shall judge fitting for faith and peace.
Dated the sixth day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ The phrase vice nostra… ire præcipimus — “whom We command to go in Our stead” — is Leo’s standard vicariate-delegation formula. It recurs throughout the pre-Chalcedon correspondence: Letters XIV, LXXXI, and XCI all employ the same structure. Leo does not request that the legates attend; he commands them to go as his personal substitutes. Their acts will be his acts, and their authority at the council is the authority he has delegated, not their own.
- ↩ The Latin is auctoritate nostræ præceptionis usurus — “using the authority of Our command/precept.” Julian’s authority at the council is not his own episcopal standing but Leo’s, delegated to him for this purpose. The phrase parallels the vicariate structure established across the Illyrian letters (V, VI, XIV) and the Constantinople letters (LXIX–LXXXI): the local agent acts under Roman authority rather than on his own account. Note that the Latin says “Our command,” not “the Apostolic See’s command” — the authority named is directly papal, not institutional in an abstract sense.
- ↩ June 26, 451. Letter XCII belongs to the same pre-Chalcedon packet as Letters XCI and XCIII, all bearing the same date. Letter XCI directed Julian to join the legates; XCIII is Leo’s formal letter to the assembled synod itself. The three letters together form Leo’s coordinated commission for the council that would define the faith of Chalcedon.
Historical Commentary