Leo, bishop, to Julian, Bishop of Cos.
Dioscorus’s Death Makes the Correction of Error Easier; Leo Directs Julian to Use Marcian’s Favor and Keep Leo Informed About Alexandria
I write back to acknowledge receipt of your dilection’s letters, brought to me by our son Gerentius — and to say how greatly it pleased me that you have not let slip the opportunity of familiar correspondence, which ought fittingly to be frequent between us on every occasion: so that concerning those things which pertain to Our care for the state of the Church, we may have nothing unknown, nothing uncertain. In this solicitude, the divine protections never fail — permitting the simulations of hypocrites nothing, and confounding their hidden wickedness through its manifest destruction.
For although all the machinations of the heretics were long since shattered and the right hand of truth stripped them of all their forces, now — with Dioscorus dying away, as you report — they have fallen into deeper ruin: and with the instigator of treachery removed, certain unstable and foolish souls have what to fear but not what to follow. Hence the correction of the erring is more easily to be hoped for, and the preaching of the Gospel will be more effective — now that the defender of falsehood has been extinguished: with the piety of the most Christian prince cooperating in this remedy, whose devotion always maintains a holy watch for the advancement of all the Catholic faith.
I therefore exhort and admonish your brotherhood to make wise and gracious use of the royal favor and charity — and not to delay in offering timely suggestions about whatever you judge will be profitable: since we have proved by many experiments that the faith of the most glorious Augustus is such that he judges himself to be governing his kingdom best precisely when he has labored most earnestly for the integrity of the Church. If you learn anything about the progress of the Alexandrian people, let us know — so that as we rejoice in the peace of the Eastern peoples, we may likewise rejoice in the advancement of this people as well.
Dated the eighth day before the Ides of December, in the consulship of the most illustrious Aetius and Studius.
Footnotes
- ↩ The phrase de his quae ad curam nostram pro Ecclesiae statu pertinent, nihil incognitum, nihil habeamus incertum — “concerning those things that pertain to Our care for the state of the Church, we may have nothing unknown, nothing uncertain” — is the universal solicitude formula stated as a claim of right. Leo’s care for the Church’s state extends everywhere; Julian’s regular reporting is the mechanism through which that care is maintained. Nothing is to be unknown or uncertain to Leo — not about Egypt, not about Palestine, not about Constantinople. The phrase is one of the most direct statements in the post-Chalcedon correspondence of what the Apostolic See’s universal pastoral responsibility requires in practice.
- ↩ Leo is directing Julian to manage the imperial relationship actively and strategically — not merely to report to Leo but to press Marcian for the good of the Church through well-timed suggestions. This is the vicariate formula in its operational form: Julian acts as Leo’s standing instrument at the imperial court, offering Leo’s own pastoral judgment in the form of suggestions to the emperor. The phrase “not to delay” (*non moreris offerre*) underscores the urgency — Julian is not merely available as a resource; he is charged to act proactively.
- ↩ December 6, 454. Dioscorus of Alexandria — deposed at Chalcedon in 451 and exiled — died in exile at Gangra in Paphlagonia (modern Çankırı, central Turkey) in September 454. Leo’s letter was written approximately two to three months after the death, upon receiving Julian’s report. The death of Dioscorus closed one chapter in the Eutychian controversy but opened another: the question of who would succeed Proterius at Alexandria and whether the Eutychian party could use the moment of transition to reassert itself. Letter CXXXIX to Juvenal (September 4, 454) had already addressed the Palestinian dimension; this letter addresses the Alexandrian situation through Julian.
Historical Commentary