The See of Peter

The Early Church and Peter's Primacy

Letter CXXII, from Pope Leo to Bishop Julian of Cos

Synopsis: Leo briefs Julian on the same Paschal controversy addressed in Letter CXXI to Marcian, explains that he has written to the emperor requesting an inquiry of expert calculators, and directs Julian to press Marcian persistently to convene the inquiry and report back to Rome swiftly.

Leo, bishop, to Julian, Bishop of Cos.

Leo Briefs Julian on the Paschal Controversy and Directs Him to Press the Emperor for a Swift Inquiry

Writing to the elder Augustus Theodosius, Bishop Theophilus of holy memory ordered the feast’s sequence for a hundred years from that prince’s first consulship. Its seventy-fourth year — under Opilio’s consulship — we celebrated on the day before the Ides of April; the next year, the feast will reasonably follow on the day before the Nones of April. But the seventy-sixth year’s annotation is known to differ from all antiquity’s example and the authority of the Fathers — setting the Lord’s Pascha on the eighth day before the Kalends of May, clearly exceeding the ancient limits, when it could have been set on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May, as others established.

As this uncertainty among the Egyptians causes me no small solicitude, I sent letters to the most Christian and clement prince, diligently explaining this scruple and humbly requesting his customary zeal for the worship of religion — that he command those with perfect knowledge of this calculation to convene and inquire diligently, lest this definition or excess, opposing prior times, be attributed to Our connivance or negligence, causing what was never presumed before in Our days.

As your brotherhood must share this care with Me and prevent such error from occurring, frequently urge the most religious and faithful prince to admonish the Egyptians without dissembling — lest dissent or transgression mar the most sacred day of the greatest feast. Let the most glorious emperor swiftly inform me of what diligent inquiry finds — since it pertains to his salvation and to all’s that God’s worship suffer no error.

Dated the seventeenth day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Opilio, most illustrious man.

Source/Reference

PL 54:1058

Notes / Historical Commentary

Letter CXXII is the companion letter to CXXI — written the same day, to Leo’s Eastern agent rather than to the emperor, directing Julian to ensure that Leo’s request for a Paschal inquiry is pressed persistently and that the findings are reported back to Rome swiftly. The letter’s content is largely a summary of CXXI, and its primacy interest lies less in any new claim than in what it demonstrates about Leo’s operational method.

The phrase “your brotherhood must share this care with me” — enrolling Julian in Leo’s personal solicitude for the universal observance of the feast — applies the same logic visible in the Julian commission letters of the post-Chalcedon period: Julian is not acting on his own initiative or on behalf of his own see; he is acting as the extension of Leo’s solicitude into the Eastern field. The matter at stake is the calendar, not the faith — but the accountability is the same. Leo holds himself responsible for whatever disorder his inaction allows to persist, whether the disorder is doctrinal, canonical, or calendrical. The stewardship of the universal Church extends to every dimension of its common life.