Leo, bishop, to Anatolius, bishop.
Chapter I: Legates Sent So That Nothing Is Done Sluggishly; Repentant Bishops to Receive Peace Through Satisfaction and Anathema
Though I trust your charity is devoted to every good work, to make your diligence more effective I judged it necessary and fitting to send my brothers Lucentius, bishop, and Basilius, presbyter, as promised — to join with your charity, so that nothing concerning the state of the universal Church be done doubtfully or sluggishly. With you, to whom we entrusted the execution of our disposition, all can be handled with moderation — neither neglecting benevolence nor justice, but considering divine judgment in all without partiality.
To rightly preserve this observance, the integrity of the Catholic faith must first be upheld, for the path leading to life is narrow and hard (Matt. 7:14), deviating neither left nor right. Since evangelical and apostolic faith overcomes all errors — casting down Nestorius on one side and Eutyches and his allies on the other — remember to uphold this rule: those who, as your charity’s report confirms, grieve having been overcome by fear and terror, compelled to consent to the wickedest judgment at that synod — which lacked the name and merit of a synod — where Dioscorus showed malice and Juvenal ignorance — and now desire Catholic communion: these should receive fraternal peace through their satisfaction, condemning Eutyches, his doctrine, and his associates with the curse of anathema.
Chapter II: The Most Serious Cases Reserved for the Apostolic See’s More Mature Counsels; Names Not to Be Recited at the Altar
Concerning those who sinned more gravely in this cause — having claimed a higher place in that unfortunate synod to burden the simplicity of humbler brothers with the prejudices of their arrogance — if they repent and cease to defend their error, turning instead to condemn it, their satisfaction, if judged irrefutable, should be reserved for the more mature counsels of the Apostolic See. After examining and weighing all things, what must be decided about their actions may then be judged. Until the course of events shows what must be established, none of them should have their names recited at the altar in the Church the Lord willed you to govern — as we wrote previously.
Chapter III: Anatolius Urged to Act With the Legates; All Further Deliberation to Be Reported to Leo’s Solicitude
Regarding the memorandum your charity’s clerics presented — it was unnecessary to include our opinion in letters, since entrusting all to our legates sufficed, through whose words you will be more diligently instructed. Strive, most beloved brother, to faithfully and effectively execute with these brothers — chosen as worthy agents for so great a matter — what befits God’s Church: since the reason of the cause, the hope of divine aid, and the holy faith and religious devotion of the most clement princes encourage you, in whom we experience not only Christian but episcopal affection.
If further deliberation is needed on any matter, send a swift report to us — so that our solicitude, after examining the nature of the causes, may establish what must be observed.
Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Ne quid de universalis Ecclesiae statu dubie aut segniter ageretur — “so that nothing concerning the state of the universal Church be done doubtfully or sluggishly.” The phrase identifies the scope of what is at stake in the reconciliation process: not merely the Eastern church’s internal affairs, not merely the resolution of particular episcopal cases, but the state of the universal Church. Leo’s solicitude extends to all of it, and his legates are dispatched precisely to ensure that the work is carried out with the decisiveness and clarity the Apostolic See requires.
- ↩ Infelicis synodi, quae nec nomen nec meritum synodi habere potuit — “that unfortunate synod which could have neither the name nor the merit of a synod.” Leo’s characterization here is the formal statement of Ephesus II’s nullity. The council began with proper form — imperially convened, bishops present — but forfeited its standing as a synod by operating through military intimidation, suppressing the Roman legates, and producing a verdict contrary to the faith without the confirmation of the Apostolic See. A gathering that does these things cannot claim the name or merit of a synod, regardless of how it began. The language provides the theological ground for treating Ephesus II’s acts as null rather than merely reversible.
- ↩ Apostolicae sedis maturioribus consiliis reservetur — “should be reserved for the more mature counsels of the Apostolic See.” The most serious cases in the post-Ephesus reconciliation process are explicitly reserved to Rome’s direct judgment. Anatolius and the legates handle the rank-and-file repentant; the ringleaders are reserved for the Apostolic See. This is the appellate jurisdiction in its most institutional post-conciliar form: Rome retains the most consequential cases for its own determination, delegating only the more straightforward ones to local agents. The structure mirrors Leo’s handling of the Gallic and Illyrian cases throughout the corpus: the local metropolitan handles ordinary cases; exceptional cases go to Rome.
- ↩ The closing solicitude formula — nostra sollicitudo constituat quid observandum sit — “our solicitude may establish what must be observed” — is the governing formula in its most explicit statement for the post-Ephesus settlement. Anatolius and the legates execute; Leo’s solicitude establishes. The reporting obligation runs from Constantinople to Rome; the governing determination runs from Rome to Constantinople. This is the same two-directional structure visible in Letter LXXXI (Anatolius’s writings reporting to Leo; Leo’s legates present as authoritative witnesses) — stated here as the standing operational principle for the entire reconciliation process.
- ↩ June 9, 451 — the third letter in the coordinated June 9 packet, alongside LXXXIII (to Marcian) and LXXXIV (to Pulcheria). The three letters together cover every major channel simultaneously: the emperor receives the institutional and political framework; the empress receives the operational directives about Eutyches; Anatolius receives the detailed instructions for executing the reconciliation process. Leo is not writing sequentially; he is coordinating the entire Eastern settlement from Rome in a single day’s correspondence.
Historical Commentary