Leo, bishop, to Marcian, ever Augustus.
Leo Sends Legates to Act on His Behalf at a General Council; Aiming to Restore All Matters to the Unity of Faith and Peace
We believed your clemency could grant our desire to postpone the episcopal synod to a more opportune time — considering the present necessity, so that bishops from all provinces might be called to a truly universal council. But since you, out of love for the Catholic faith, wished the assembly to occur now, I did not wish to seem to oppose your devout decision. Thus I sent my brother and fellow bishop Paschasinus — called from a safer province to fulfill the role of my presence — joined by my brother and fellow presbyter Bonifacius and those previously sent, and adding our brother Julian, bishop of Cos, to their company.
We believe they will handle all matters with such moderation — with the Lord’s aid — that whatever caused complaint or disturbance may be recalled to the unity of peace and faith, with all dissension suppressed and no trace of Nestorian or Eutychian impiety left in any bishop’s heart, most glorious emperor. For the Catholic faith — which, guided by God’s Spirit through the holy Fathers, we learned from the blessed Apostles and teach — permits neither error to creep in. If any diseases or wounds can be healed by sincere correction, we desire their restoration to true health, which will be certain and harm no one’s simplicity henceforward if it seeks no excuses to obscure itself — as true confession alone obtains the abolition of sin.
Since some brothers, as we say not without sorrow, could not hold Catholic constancy against the storms of falsehood, my aforementioned brother and fellow bishop will preside over the synod in my stead. I am certain that without hatred or favor those entrusted will labor there, so that with only heretical impiety’s destruction, truth and charity may reign in all God’s churches.
Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Vice meae praesentiae fungi — “to fulfill the role of my presence.” The vice mea delegation formula used throughout the corpus: Paschasinus does not represent Leo at Chalcedon; he acts as Leo. The council that is about to meet will have the bishop of Rome presiding through Paschasinus just as he presides through his Illyrian vicar, through Ravennius in Gaul, and through every legate he has dispatched throughout the post-Latrocinium period. The authority exercised at Chalcedon is the Apostolic See’s authority, carried by a person who acts in Leo’s place.
- ↩ Julian of Cos — Leo’s most trusted Eastern correspondent throughout the entire Latrocinium and post-Latrocinium period — is here formally added to the Chalcedon legation. Julian had been present at Ephesus II, had reported its proceedings to Leo, had maintained Leo’s network in Constantinople throughout the crisis, and had received Leo’s personal encouragement in Letters LXXXI and LXXXVI. His inclusion in the official legation brings his unparalleled knowledge of the Eastern ecclesiastical situation directly into the council’s proceedings alongside Paschasinus’s formal presidential role.
- ↩ The formal statement of Paschasinus’s presidential role: he will preside over the synod *in Leo’s stead*. At Chalcedon, Paschasinus exercised this role concretely: he refused to allow the proceedings to begin until Dioscorus of Alexandria was removed from the assembly, on the grounds that Leo had charged Dioscorus and a judge cannot sit among those he is to be judged. This is not a procedural quibble; it is the Apostolic See’s legate determining the conditions under which the council may legitimately proceed.
- ↩ June 24, 451 — the same date as Letter LXXXVIII commissioning Paschasinus. Both letters dispatched together: Paschasinus receives his full brief; Marcian receives confirmation that Leo’s delegation is complete and the governing standard for the council’s work. Four months later, on October 8, 451, the Council of Chalcedon opened at the church of St. Euphemia in Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople. Paschasinus presided in Leo’s name.
Historical Commentary