Leo, bishop, to Marcian, ever Augustus.
Chapter I: Leo’s Confidence; The Church’s State and the Empire’s Might Strengthened Together; Legates Directed from the Apostolic See
Your clemency’s letters, which I reverently received, and my fellow bishops returning from Constantinople have given me great confidence to write — demonstrating not only by words but by the very effects of deeds that a divine bulwark thrives in you for the defense of the Catholic faith, most glorious emperor. By this not only the state of the Church is strengthened but also the might of your empire is fortified — so that you rightly expect the protection of Him whose truth you cherish.
That my brother Anatolius’s integrity was swiftly revealed, that the reviver of a long-condemned error found no place in Christ’s Church, that Catholic bishops untainted by heretics’ persecution were recalled from unjust exiles, and that the relics of Flavian of blessed memory were received with due honor while his condemner acknowledges his own impiety — these are your virtue’s title and your piety’s fruit. I trust that other insignia of palms will be added, so that as the Constantinopolitan Church rejoices in the received liberty of the apostolic faith, all the provinces of your realm may glory in being cleansed from the contagion of the diabolical doctrine.
As I indicated in prior letters, I have sent my brothers Lucentius, bishop, and Basilius, presbyter, commending them to the favor of your piety in all that must be done — fulfilling the tasks of my solicitude. For, as I learned from my brother Anatolius’s writings and our legates’ reports, many who — compelled by Dioscorus’s faction at Ephesus — gave regrettable consent to detestable decrees now seek pardon for their inconstancy and desire the Catholic communion through corrective satisfaction. Their conversion is not to be neglected, since they fell not by their own judgment but by the impulse of an impious usurper.
Chapter II: The Apostolic See’s Legates to Include Anatolius in Their Deliberations; The Present War Makes a General Synod Impossible
Lest the desires of the repentant be wearied by long delay, or careless leniency rashly receive some without discernment, those directed from the Apostolic See were instructed to include the bishop of the Constantinopolitan city in the fellowship of their deliberation — neither admitting the pestilence’s contagion nor denying the remedies of healing. This diligence in amending all wrongful acts will, with the Lord’s aid, swiftly achieve effect if your piety deigns to aid the restoration of ecclesiastical peace — so that, with you reigning, you may merit to have God’s kingdom within you, that no falsehood violate nor heresy disturb the Catholic faith, nor any be permitted to forsake the evangelical doctrine while enjoying episcopal honor.
Although your clemency has recalled the convening of a synod — which we too had sought — the present necessity allows no reason for all the provinces’ bishops to assemble: for those provinces from which they must chiefly come are troubled by war, preventing their absence from their own churches. Therefore let your clemency reserve it for a more opportune time, God willing, when firmer security is restored — about which those I sent can speak more fully among other matters to your piety.
Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Quo non solum Ecclesiae status, sed etiam vestri robur munitur imperii — the paired strengthening of Church and empire is not a political convenience but a theological claim: the emperor who defends the Catholic faith receives in return the strength of God’s protection for his rule. Leo stated the same principle in Letter LXXXII (Chapter I): orthodox faith and political security are inseparable. The contrast with the Theodosian period is implicit throughout this correspondence — Theodosius’s court had inverted the order by imposing a heretical settlement, and the result had been neither true ecclesiastical peace nor ultimately stable imperial power. Marcian has restored the proper relationship.
- ↩ The solicitude formula — sollicitudinis meae partes implere — “fulfilling the tasks of my solicitude.” The dispatch of Lucentius and Basilius is not a diplomatic courtesy; it is the expression of the Roman bishop’s universal pastoral responsibility, which reaches Constantinople through personal delegates. Lucentius and Basilius join Abundius and Asterius (already at the Eastern court) as Leo’s pre-Chalcedon representation. The phrase “tasks of my solicitude” carries the weight of the established formula: the care of all the Churches belongs to the Roman bishop’s office, and these legates are its instruments.
- ↩ Ab apostolica sede directis — “those directed from the Apostolic See.” Leo identifies his legates not merely as his personal representatives but as persons directed from the Apostolic See — the institutional source of their commission. The reconciliation work they are empowered to carry out derives its authority from the Apostolic See, not from Leo as an individual bishop. The phrase reinforces the governing dimension of the legate’s role: they carry the authority of the institution, not merely the personal mandate of the man.
- ↩ The “war” troubling the Western provinces in June 451 is Attila’s invasion of Gaul — one of the most devastating military campaigns of the fifth century. Attila had crossed the Rhine in late 450 and was ravaging the Gallic provinces through the spring and early summer of 451. The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, at which Attila was checked by Aetius and the Visigoths, was fought in June 451 — the same month as this letter. Leo cannot ask Western bishops to abandon their flocks and travel to a synod when Attila’s forces are burning Gallic cities. The practical impossibility of an Italian council — which Leo had been requesting since Letter LIV — is here finally named explicitly. The council that meets in October 451 at Chalcedon in the East is partly the result of this constraint.
- ↩ June 9, 451. Four months before Chalcedon (October 451). The juxtaposition of this letter with the council’s actual timing is instructive: Leo declines a general Italian synod in June because Attila’s invasion makes Western episcopal travel impossible, while Marcian’s authorization of a council in the East — where travel is unimpeded — proceeds. The council Leo had been demanding since August 449 finally meets, but in the East rather than Italy, because the military situation in the West makes the Italian venue impossible. Leo accepts this. The framework is his; the location is a geographical concession to circumstance.
Historical Commentary