Leo, bishop, to Pulcheria Augusta.
Chapter I: Leo Rejoices That Both Those Who Stood Firm and Those Who Were Led Astray Have Overcome the Enemy
We rejoice beyond all telling in the holy and God-pleasing efforts of your clemency — defending the Catholic faith against heretics and restoring peace to the universal Church. We give thanks to the merciful and almighty God, who — except for those who chose to love darkness more than light (John 3:19) — has allowed no one to be defrauded of the evangelical truth: so that, with the darkness of error dispersed, the purest light might rise in the hearts of all, and that dark enemy might not exult even over the weak souls of certain ones — for he was overcome not only by those who stood firm, but even by those whom he had caused to change, so that, with error abolished, the true faith might reign throughout the entire world, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ the Lord is in the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). And with the whole world confirmed in the unity of the Gospel and the hearts of all priests directed to the same understanding, it would have been best that — beyond those things for which the holy synod was assembled and which, in accordance with your piety’s effort, were brought to a good and probable conclusion — nothing contrary to Christian truth should be sought, nor through the occasion of an episcopal council should that be importunely pressed which it was not lawful to covet.
Chapter II: Anatolius’s Ambition; Leo’s Legates Faithfully Opposed It in His Stead
For our brother and fellow bishop Anatolius, giving too little thought to how great a benefit of your piety and how great a grant of my favor attended his obtaining the priesthood of the Constantinopolitan Church, was inflamed not so much with joy at what he had obtained as with desire for what exceeded the measure of his honor. He believed this intemperate desire could be aided by the fact that the subscription of certain ones — extorted from them — is said to have lent him their consent; while nonetheless the contradiction of my brothers and fellow bishops, who were faithfully and laudably acting in My stead, stood in the way of those attempts that were set to be destroyed. For since against the statutes of the paternal canons — established in the spiritual decrees long ages ago in the city of Nicaea — no one is permitted to dare anything: so that if anyone wishes to decree something different, he diminishes himself rather than corrupts those canons. If these are kept inviolate, as they should be, by all the pontiffs, throughout all the Churches there will be tranquil peace and firm concord — no dissensions about the measure of honors, no contentions about ordinations, no ambiguities about privileges, no conflicts arising from the usurpation of another’s rights. But with right and fitting equity, the orderly and rational conduct of office and character will be maintained; and truly great (1156) will be the one who is free of all ambition — as the Lord says: Whoever wishes to be greater among you, let him be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be your slave: just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve (Matt. 20:26–28; Mark 10:43). And yet these words were addressed to those who wished to advance from the small to greater things, from the lowly to the highest. But what further does the bishop of the Constantinopolitan Church covet beyond what he has obtained? Or what will satisfy him if the magnificence and eminence of so great a city is not enough? It is excessively proud and immoderate to press beyond one’s own limits — trampling antiquity, trying to seize another’s right, and, so that the dignity of one may increase, attacking the primacies of so many metropolitans, and bringing a war of new disturbance upon the provinces long ordered by the settled moderation of the ancient holy synod of Nicaea.
Chapter III: The Agreements Contrary to the Nicene Canons Are Declared Null; Leo Nullifies Them by the Authority of the Blessed Apostle Peter
Let him acknowledge the man he succeeded. And with all spirit of elation cast out, let him imitate the faith of Flavian, the modesty of Flavian, the humility of Flavian — which carried him all the way to the glory of a confessor. If he wishes to shine in those virtues, he will be praiseworthy and will gain the fullest measure of esteem everywhere — not by pursuing what is human, but by meriting what is divine. By this observance I also pledge my own spirit to be joined with his, and the love of the Apostolic See — which has always been extended to the Church of Constantinople — will suffer no breach through any change of circumstance. For even if immoderate bishops sometimes incur certain faults, the integrity of the Churches of Christ endures. The agreements of bishops, however, which stand in opposition to the rules of the holy canons established at Nicaea — joined with the piety of your faith — We declare null and void; and by the authority of the blessed Apostle Peter We nullify them with a universal and complete definition: adhering in all ecclesiastical causes to those laws which the Holy Spirit established through the three hundred and eighteen bishops for the peaceable and steadfast order of the whole priesthood — so that even if many more should decree something other than what they decreed, whatever is contrary to the constitutions of those Fathers is to be held in no reverence whatsoever.
Chapter IV: Leo Asks Pulcheria to Restrain Anatolius, So Her Glory May Be Praised for Ambition Suppressed
I therefore ask your piety to receive graciously, through our brother and fellow bishop Lucianus — who has faithfully discharged all that his commissioned service required — and through my son the deacon Basilius, the prolixity of my letter, in which I have found it necessary to explain what I think. And since it is your custom to labor for the peace and unity of the Church, hold our brother the bishop Anatolius in salutary restraint in those matters that will profit him — so that the glory of your clemency, as it is magnified for the faith restored, may likewise be proclaimed for ambition suppressed.
Dated the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Herculanus, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ The phrase vice mea agentium fideliter et laudabiliter obviaret — “faithfully and laudably acting in My stead” — is Leo’s explicit endorsement of the legates’ opposition to Canon 28 at Chalcedon. In Letter CI, Anatolius had complained that the legates opposed the canon out of ignorance of Leo’s intentions. Here Leo makes clear the opposite: they were faithful and praiseworthy in their opposition — acting precisely as Leo would have acted, because they were acting in his place. The vicariate formula and the endorsement together demonstrate that Leo’s opposition to Canon 28 was not a policy he arrived at after the fact but the position his representatives carried to Chalcedon from the outset.
- ↩ The formal act of nullification — in irritum mittimus, et per auctoritatem beati Petri apostoli, generali prorsus definitione cassamus — is the culmination of the entire Canon 28 sequence. Three elements of the sentence deserve attention. First: in irritum mittimus — “We declare null and void” — is the declaration of invalidity; the acts have no force from this moment. Second: per auctoritatem beati Petri apostoli — “by the authority of the blessed Apostle Peter” — names the ground of the nullification. It is not Leo’s personal authority as bishop of Rome that nullifies; it is the authority of Peter, which Leo mediates as Peter’s successor. Third: generali prorsus definitione — “with a universal and complete definition” — establishes the scope: this is not a local or provisional ruling but a universal judgment binding on the entire Church. The combination of Petrine authority and universal scope makes this the most formal exercise of papal jurisdiction in the entire Leo corpus.
- ↩ The no-numbers-override principle — etiam si multo plures aliud quam illi statuere decernant, in nulla reverentia sit habendum, quidquid fuerit a praedictorum constitutione diversum — is Leo’s direct answer to the argument from conciliar weight. Five hundred bishops at Chalcedon signed Canon 28; Leo’s response is that the number is irrelevant. The three hundred and eighteen at Nicaea established what the Holy Spirit willed for the governance of the whole Church; any decree by any number of bishops that contradicts that establishment has no authority whatsoever. This is the Nicene principle stated in its most absolute form: divine institution through Nicaea’s three hundred and eighteen cannot be overridden by human accumulation of subsequent episcopal votes.
- ↩ May 22, 452. Letter CV is one of four letters Leo sent on this same date as a coordinated response to the Canon 28 campaign: CIV to Marcian (the stewardship and apostolic see argument), CV to Pulcheria (the formal Petrine nullification), CVI to Anatolius (the canonical and historical argument), and CVII to the Council of Chalcedon. The four letters together constitute the most comprehensive single exercise of papal jurisdiction in the entire Leo corpus: one date, four recipients, one judgment — approached from canonical, theological, formal-juridical, and pastoral angles simultaneously.
Historical Commentary