The See of Peter

The Early Church and Peter's Primacy

Letter XCIX, from Bishop Ravennium and Other Gallic Bishops to Pope Leo

Synopsis: The bishops of Gaul, writing to Leo under the leading signature of Ravennium of Arles, excuse their delayed reply, report that Leo’s letter to Flavian has been received throughout Gaul as a symbol of the faith — inscribed on the heart’s tablets by all who heed the mystery of redemption — note that the mystery of the Incarnation declared through Leo’s mouth has been a light to the faithful and a refutation to the unfaithful, and close by giving thanks that God has given the Church so great a pontiff in Leo’s time.

To the truly holy lord, and venerable pope Leo with apostolic honor most blessed in Christ: from Ravennium, Rusticus, Venerius, Constantianus, Maximus, Armentarius, Florus, Sabinus, Valerianus, Constantius, Nectarius, Maximus, Asclepius, Maximus, Ursus, Ingenuus, Justus, Valerius, Superventor, Chrysaphius, Fonteius, Petronius, Idatius, Ætherius, Eulalius, Eustathius, Fraternus, Victurus, Eugenius, Hilarus, Verus, Amandus, Gerontius, Proculeianus, Julianus, Helladius, Armentarius, Honoratus, Eparchius, Anemius, Dynamius, Maximinus, Ynantius, and Palladius.

Chapter I: The Bishops Excuse Their Delay in Replying

When your beatitude’s letter — which you sent to the East for the defense of the Catholic faith — was delivered to us, we wished at once to offer thanks to Your Apostolic Authority for so great a gift; but the difficulty of assembling quickly, the great distances by which we are spread apart across the lands, and the unseasonable weather beyond what is normal in our regions prevented us. May therefore your apostolate pardon our tardiness, which arose not from idleness or pretense but from genuine necessity — a necessity which, though it robbed us of the grace of speed, was unable to take from us the cause for rejoicing.

Chapter II: Leo’s Letter to Flavian Has Been Received Throughout Gaul as a Symbol of the Faith

We rejoiced therefore, with Christ’s favor, at reading the letters of your beatitude — and having had its full instruction disclosed to us, we at once caused all within Gaul to rejoice with us: grieving alongside you for those who, abandoning the light of the Catholic faith, fell into the darkness of error. Your apostolic writings, inscribed as a symbol of the faith on the heart’s tablets by all who do not neglect the mystery of redemption, and committed to tenacious memory so as to be better prepared for confounding heretical errors — many, rejoicing and exulting in it, recognized the conviction of their own faith, and take delight that by paternal tradition they have always held what your apostolate has set forth. Some, made more zealous by your beatitude’s admonition, rejoice to have received such full instruction — grateful for the occasion it gives them to speak freely and confidently, even with the authority of the Apostolic See supporting them, while each declares what he believes.

Chapter III: The Mystery of the Incarnation Has Been Declared Through Leo’s Mouth to Faithful and Unfaithful Alike

But who could judge any thanks adequate to Your Apostolic Authority for so great a gift — a gift by which you have adorned not only Gaul but the entire world with priceless gems? The faithful owe it to your doctrine, after God, to hold steadfastly to what they believed; the unfaithful also owe it: that, with the truth made known, they depart from their own perfidy, and, flooded with the light of apostolic tradition, abandon the darkness of their error — and follow and believe rather what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches through your mouth concerning the mystery of His Incarnation than what the devil, the enemy of human salvation and truth, instills.

Chapter IV: The Bishops Abstained From Writing to the Emperor After News From the East

We had also wished to write to your son, the most glorious and faithful emperor, on this same matter — congratulating him on his faith and making known our own humble solicitude in following you in Christ — but when news from the Eastern regions was brought to us, we judged it no longer necessary. Through the merits of your apostolate, the pious Lord has seen to it that a heresy long nourished in secret has come to light in your time. It pertains to the praise of your solicitude that the error of the wicked could not lurk hidden; it redounds to the glory of the faith that perverse persuasion has found no one to take part in it, or lost those it had found. May the merciful Lord, preserving your apostolate, look upon His Church spread through all the world; for while you are so vigilant, both those who care for their own souls are made more zealous in the faith, and those who are somewhat lukewarm are kindled to greater solicitude by so great an example.

Chapter V: The Bishops Give Thanks That God Has Given the Church So Great a Pontiff

Keeping this always before our eyes, we do not cease to give thanks and to make supplication to our Lord and God — rejoicing that to so great a seat of holiness, faith, and apostolic doctrine, from which, with Christ’s favor, the fountain and origin of our religion has flowed, He has given such a pontiff: and praying that He preserve the gift and grant of your pontificate through a very long age for the building up of His Churches. And though we are unequal in merit, yet with equal faith, if anything — God forbid — should be attempted against the Catholic Church by profane assault, we stand ready, with the Lord’s strengthening, to lay down our souls alongside your beatitude for the truth of the faith, and to spend this life for the sake of the author of our salvation and the bestower of eternity.

In another hand: Pray for me, lord most worthy of blessedness, and venerable pope with apostolic honor.

I, Rusticus, bishop, venerating your apostolate in the Lord, give you greeting, and humbly beg that you deign to pray for me.

I, Venerius, salute you, my lord in Christ, most reverend; and beg that you deign to pray for me.

Constantianus, bishop, salutes your beatitude.

Valeranus, bishop, salutes your beatitude.
Nectarius, bishop, salutes your beatitude.
Constantinus, bishop, salutes your beatitude.
Maximus, bishop, salutes your apostolate.
Asclepius, bishop, venerating your apostolate in the Lord, gives much greeting.
Maximus, bishop, salutes your apostolate.
Ursus, bishop, salutes your beatitude.
Ingenuus, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Justus, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Valerius, bishop, salutes your apostolate.
Superventor, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Verus, bishop, reverently salutes your apostolate.
Helladius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord.
Ætherius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord.
Eulalius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord.
Anemius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord.
Chrysaphius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord.
Petronius, bishop, salutes your holiness in the Lord, and begs that you deign to pray for him.
Fonteius, bishop, reverently salutes your apostolate, and begs that you deign to remember him.
Ydatius, bishop, salutes your apostolate in the Lord.
Hilarus, bishop, salutes your apostolate with much veneration in Christ.
Victurus, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Eugenius, bishop, salutes your beatitude.
Palladius, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Fraternus, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Amandus, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Gerontius, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Proculeianus, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Dynamius, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Julianus, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Armentarius, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Honoratus, bishop, venerating your crown, gives greeting.
Eparchius, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Eustathius, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Maximus, bishop, venerating your apostolate, gives greeting.
Ynantius, venerating your crown, gives greeting.

Source/Reference

PL 54:966

Notes / Historical Commentary

Letter XCIX is the synodal reply of the Gallic episcopate to the Tome — or rather, to the report of the Tome’s outcome brought by Leo’s legates returning from the East. It belongs to the same cluster of responses from the Western churches as Eusebius of Milan’s Letter XCVII, and it reads alongside that letter as evidence of how the Latin West received what Leo had done. Where XCVII gave Leo the subscriptions of the Italian episcopate following the preceding sentence of his authority, XCIX gives him the subscriptions of Gaul — a province whose difficult history with Rome (the Hilary of Arles affair, the authority disputes of the 440s) makes its warm acknowledgment all the more striking.

The theological heart of the letter is in Chapter II, in the phrase the bishops use to describe the reception of the Tome: Leo’s apostolic writings have been received “as a symbol of the faith” — inscribed on the heart’s tablets by all who heed the mystery of redemption. The language is precise and deliberate. A symbolum fidei in fifth-century usage is a confessional standard, a rule of faith — the kind of formula by which orthodoxy is measured. To say that Leo’s letter to Flavian has been received as a symbol of the faith is to say that the bishops of Gaul treat it as a doctrinal norm, not merely a respected opinion. The Gallic church is not evaluating the Tome against some other standard; it is using the Tome as the standard. This reception — from the same province that had contested Leo’s authority barely a decade earlier — demonstrates the range of the primacy claim in practice.

Chapter III contains the phrase that most directly frames Leo’s doctrinal authority: “what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches through your mouth concerning the mystery of His Incarnation.” The bishops of Gaul are not attributing the Incarnation doctrine to Leo as its author; they are identifying Leo’s mouth as the instrument through which Christ teaches the Church what the Incarnation is. This is the Petrine theology of the papacy applied in its doctrinal register: Peter is the rock, the Church is built on it, and Christ speaks through the one who sits in Peter’s seat. The phrase echoes the Council of Chalcedon’s acknowledgment of Leo as “the interpreter of the voice of blessed Peter for all” — the same claim, now from the West rather than the East.

The three bishops whose subscriptions stand apart from the main list — Rusticus, Venerius, and Constantianus — write individually and at greater length, in the manner of senior bishops giving a more personal greeting. Rusticus of Narbonne appears elsewhere in the Leo corpus as the recipient of a lengthy canonical letter (Letter CLXVII); his subscription here, venerating Leo’s apostolate and humbly begging prayer, places him in the same posture of deference visible in his other correspondence with Rome. The anonymous closing in “another hand” — “Pray for me, lord most worthy of blessedness, and venerable pope with apostolic honor” — uses the title papa for Leo and combines it with the apostolicus honor that also appears in the letter’s formal address. For the reader tracking the vocabulary of papal dignity across the corpus, XCIX adds the Gallic episcopate’s witness alongside Chalcedon’s.