Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to Pulcheria Augusta.
Chapter I: Pulcheria’s Twofold Victory Over Nestorius and Eutyches
What we always presumed of your holy piety’s mind we have confirmed fully by experience: the Christian faith — though assailed by the diverse snares of the perverse — cannot be disturbed, with you present and prepared by the Lord for its defense. For God forsakes neither the mystery of His mercy nor the merit of your labor, through which you long ago expelled the subtle enemy of holy religion from the very heart of the Church: for the Nestorian impiety could not sustain its heresy, because it did not deceive the servant and disciple of truth — however much the poisonous lies of that loquacious man were infused into simpler minds. Through your solicitude, therefore, the devil’s schemes through Eutyches did not go unnoticed — and those who had chosen parts of this twofold impiety fell through the one virtue of the Catholic faith. This is your second victory over Eutyches’s error, most glorious Augusta. If he had possessed any sound heart, he could easily have avoided it — having been long struck down in its authors and prostrated before — lest he stir revived flames from buried ashes by passing into the company of those whose example he had followed. I therefore rejoice with gladness and render fitting vows to God for your clemency’s prosperity — who has already conferred on you through all the parts of the world where the Lord’s Gospel is preached a double palm and crown.
Chapter II: The Entire Roman Church Rejoices; The Reconciliation of Repentant Bishops Through Leo’s Legates and Anatolius
Let your clemency know that the entire Roman Church greatly rejoices in all your faith’s works: whether because you supported our legation with pious affection in all things, and restored the Catholic bishops who had been unjustly expelled from their churches by wrongful sentence, or because you caused the relics of the innocent and Catholic bishop Flavian of holy memory to be recalled with due honor to the Church over which he rightly presided. In all these your glory’s increase is multiplied — as you both venerate the saints for their merits and desire to remove thorns and thistles from the Lord’s field. We learned, through the report both of our own [legates] and of my brother and fellow bishop Anatolius — to whom you deign to bear witness — that some bishops among those who appeared to have given consent to impious acts now seek reconciliation and desire Catholic communion. To their desires we grant effect thus: those who correct themselves and condemn what was badly done by their own subscription may receive the grace of peace through the shared care of our legates whom we sent with the aforementioned bishop — since it is of Christian devotion both to restrain the obstinate with justice, and not to repel the converted with charity.
Chapter III: Eusebius Is in Leo’s Communion; Julian and the Flavian-Loyal Clerics Commended; Leo Has Instructed Pulcheria on All Matters
Since we know how much your clemency deigns to extend pious solicitude to Catholic bishops, we deemed it necessary to indicate that our brother and fellow bishop Eusebius dwells with us and shares our communion — whose Church, it is said, is being ravaged by one unjustly set up in his place. We also ask of your piety — which we do not doubt you will do of your own accord — to favor with due grace both our brother and fellow bishop Julian [of Cos] and the Constantinopolitan clerics who adhered to the holy memory of Flavian with faithful service.
We have instructed your piety through our own agency on what should be done or ordered in all matters.
Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Leo speaking on behalf of “the entire Roman Church” — omnem Romanam Ecclesiam — affirms that Pulcheria’s actions are not merely acknowledged by Leo personally but celebrated by the whole community of the Apostolic See. This is consistent with the pattern of the Roman Synod’s joint involvement throughout the post-Latrocinium correspondence (Letters XLIV, XLV, L, LI, LXI): the Roman bishop’s responses carry the concurring weight of the Roman church as a body, not only the personal judgment of its bishop.
- ↩ The coordination of Leo’s legates with Anatolius of Constantinople as joint agents of reconciliation is ecclesiologically significant. Leo is not directing the reconciliation of these Eastern bishops unilaterally through Rome alone; he is authorizing his legates to work together with Anatolius, whose subscription to the Tome has now made him a trusted collaborator. This is the Apostolic See’s authority operating through a network of shared pastoral care — the same pattern as the Illyrian vicariate (Letters V, VI) and the Gallic correspondence (Letters X, XLI), where metropolitan bishops act as delegates of Leo’s solicitude while retaining their own episcopal standing.
- ↩ Eusebius of Dorylaeum — the bishop who had originally denounced Eutyches before the Home Synod in 448 and had himself been condemned at Ephesus II — was in Rome, having appealed to Leo. Leo’s statement that Eusebius “dwells with us and shares our communion” is the communion-as-standard formula: being in Leo’s communion is the mark of Catholic standing. The church Eusebius has been expelled from is said to be “ravaged” by one “unjustly substituted” for him — the same language Leo used for the Hilary affair (Letter X) and for Anatolius’s own installation before his subscription to the Tome.
- ↩ Per nos quid fieri aut ordinari deberet instruuximus — “through our own agency we have instructed [your piety] on what should be done or ordered in all matters.” This is Leo’s advisory/governing formula applied to the full scope of the Eastern settlement. Everything that needs to be done — the reconciliation of repentant bishops, the protection of Eusebius, the treatment of Julian and the Flavian-loyal clerics — has been specified in Leo’s instructions. The council that is about to meet will do so in full awareness of what Leo has directed. He is not simply reacting to events; he is setting the terms within which events will unfold.
- ↩ April 13, 451 — the same date as Letter LXXVIII to Marcian. The two letters constitute Leo’s paired response to the November 450 imperial correspondence (LXXVI from Marcian, LXXVII from Pulcheria): a brief acknowledgment to the emperor and a longer, more substantive letter to his most trusted Eastern ally. Six months before Chalcedon, Leo is coordinating the final preparations on every front simultaneously.
Historical Commentary