To Leo, most reverend bishop of the Church of the most glorious city of Rome — Marcian.
Marcian Receives Leo’s Legates; Invites Leo to Convene a Synod or Designate Its Location; The Council Will Follow Leo’s Defined Rules
On the tenth day before the Kalends of December, at Constantinople, in the seventh consulship of our most pious emperor, our lord Valentinian, and that of Avienus, most illustrious men, sacred letters were sent by our lord Marcian, perpetual emperor, to the most holy bishop Leo — signifying that those sent by the same most reverend man had been joyfully received.
Your Holiness does not doubt our zeal and prayer — for we desire the true religion of Christians and the apostolic faith to remain steadfast and to be preserved with pious devotion by all the people. We do not doubt that the security of our power rests on right religion and the propitiation of our Savior. Therefore we gladly and with grateful spirit, as befits, received the most reverend men whom Your Holiness sent to our piety.
It remains that, if it pleases Your Beatitude to come to these regions and celebrate a synod, you deign to do so with religious zeal — Your Sanctity will satisfy our desires and decree what benefits the sacred religion. If however it is burdensome for you to come to these regions, let Your Holiness signify this in your own letters, so that our sacred letters may be sent throughout the East, Thrace, and Illyricum, directing all the most holy bishops to convene at a designated place of our choosing: and that they may, with their own disposition, declare what conduces to the Christian religion and the Catholic faith — according to the ecclesiastical rules as Your Holiness has defined.
Footnotes
- ↩ Marcian addresses Leo as “most reverend bishop of the Church of the most glorious city of Rome” — Leoni reverendissimo episcopo Ecclesiae gloriosissimae civitatis Romae. The title “Archbishop of Rome” in the letter’s heading reflects the mss. tradition (the Chalcedonian collection uses archiepiscopum). What is significant is the deferential structure of what follows: the new emperor is writing to Leo to ask how the council should be arranged, effectively placing the initiative in Leo’s hands. The contrast with Theodosius’s letter (LXII), which defended Ephesus II as already settled and required nothing further, could hardly be sharper.
- ↩ November 22, 450 — less than four months after Theodosius II’s death (July 28) and less than three weeks after Leo’s Letter LXXV to Faustus and Martinus (November 8). Marcian had taken power on August 24, 450. Leo’s legates — Abundius, Asterius, Basilius, and Senator, dispatched July 16–17 — had been at the Eastern court throughout the transition and had been received by the new emperor. The speed of Marcian’s outreach to Leo is itself significant: within weeks of stabilizing his accession, he is writing to Rome to arrange a council.
- ↩ Marcian’s opening confession — that he desires “the apostolic faith to remain steadfast” — is more than diplomatic courtesy. It is the new emperor’s declaration of his theological alignment: unlike Theodosius, who had defended Ephesus II and required nothing to change, Marcian identifies the apostolic faith as the standard and its preservation as his imperial goal. “Apostolic faith” in this context implicitly acknowledges the Apostolic See as the custodian of that faith — the institution from which the apostolic character of the tradition is transmitted and measured.
- ↩ Sicut sanctitas tua secundum ecclesiasticas regulas definivit — “as Your Holiness has defined according to ecclesiastical rules.” This is the most significant phrase in the letter. Marcian is not proposing a free deliberation in which all parties begin from equal standing; he is proposing a council that will operate within the framework of rules Leo has already defined. The council’s outcome is, in Marcian’s framing, the application of Leo’s authoritative definition to the particular cases — not an independent determination by the assembled bishops. Compare the structure of Letter LXVI (Leo to the Arles bishops), where Leo’s sentence resolves a provincial dispute by applying the standard he holds: here, at the level of a universal council, Marcian acknowledges the same structure. This is the jurisdictional concession that Theodosius had withheld for fourteen months.
Historical Commentary