Leo, bishop, to Julian, bishop.
Leo Encourages Julian; The Lapsed to Receive Communion Once They Condemn Perfidy; Legates Dispatched After Easter
I received the letters of your brotherhood through our sons the Constantinopolitan clerics, announcing your salutation and indicating that you were burdened with great tribulations — for there was certainly no lack of cause for solicitude and labor, which would weary a mind adhering to truth amid the brazen adversaries of the Catholic faith. As you write, your intent had been to present yourself to us and to your homeland through the occasion of necessity. I had truly hoped for this, that I might more clearly recognize through your own voice all the wiles of the heretics. But thanks be to God, your safety and the Church’s cause have so advanced that you were free to dwell meanwhile with those whose sound consensus was made known to us — as both our brother Anatolius’s writings profess and the acts completed before our legates in his presence demonstrate, most beloved brother.
Therefore, returning mutual salutation to those departing, I confidently exhort you to maintain persevering diligence against the cunning of falsehood — since both your own spirit and our authority support you in this.
Although many better things have been established — namely, that some grieve that they were deceived and, condemning perfidy with its authors, seek the grace of our communion — which we gladly accept, ready to give them the communion they desire once they fulfill their promises — we know that some persist in their obstinacy, and these must be more strictly restrained if they cannot be healed by kindness. For this purpose, we will send our legates after the venerable Paschal day to execute, with your shared counsel, what we have established.
Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Two primacy expressions are embedded in this sentence. First: Anatolius’s writings “profess” to Leo — the bishop of Constantinople has formally reported his profession of faith to the bishop of Rome, satisfying the reporting obligation Leo had imposed in Letters LXIX and LXX. Second: the “acts completed before our legates in his presence” — the formal proceedings in Constantinople were enacted not merely within Anatolius’s own synod but before Leo’s personal representatives, who served as the Apostolic See’s authoritative witnesses. The legitimacy of what was done in Constantinople derives from its having been done before Rome’s legates. This is the same structure visible in Letter LXXX’s approbation of Anatolius’s acts: the proceedings are valid because they were conducted under Leo’s oversight, through his agents, and reported to him for confirmation.
- ↩ Cum tibi ad hoc et tuus animus et nostra auctoritas suffragetur — “since both your own spirit and our authority support you in this.” Leo names two sources of Julian’s support: Julian’s own interior conviction, and the papal authority of the Apostolic See. Julian is not working alone in Constantinople; he has behind him the authority of the Roman bishop, which is a governing reality in the Eastern church, not merely a moral encouragement. Julian of Cos had been Leo’s primary Eastern agent throughout the post-Latrocinium period — present at Ephesus II where Leo’s legates had been unable to function, maintaining communication with Leo throughout the crisis. This letter confirms and strengthens that position.
- ↩ Gratiam nostrae communionis exposcant — “seek the grace of our communion.” The communion-as-standard formula: Leo’s communion is the grace to be sought, the standard of Catholic standing into which the repentant are received. The condition Leo specifies — “condemning perfidy with its authors” — is the same requirement he had imposed in Letter LXXX (Chapter II): anathema of what was received against the Catholic faith before reconciliation. The sequence is consistent: Leo sets the terms; the legates and Julian implement them.
- ↩ Ea quae a nobis constituta fuerint exsequantur — “to execute what we have established.” The legates execute Leo’s decrees; Julian provides local counsel and knowledge. The structure is the same as in Letter LXXX: Leo sets the framework, Julian (like Anatolius) operates within it. The dispatch “after Easter” suggests the legates will depart for Constantinople in late April or May 451 — approximately six months before Chalcedon convenes in October.
- ↩ April 13, 451 — the same date as Letters LXXVIII (to Marcian), LXXIX (to Pulcheria), and LXXX (to Anatolius). All four constitute a single coordinated pre-Chalcedon dispatch: the emperor, the empress, the bishop of Constantinople, and Leo’s own Eastern agent — all addressed on the same day with interlocking instructions for the final phase of preparation before the council meets.
Historical Commentary