The See of Peter

The Early Church and Peter's Primacy

Letter XVIII, from Pope Leo to Januarius, Bishop of Aquileia

Synopsis: Leo writes to Januarius, bishop of Aquileia, to commend his pastoral diligence and instruct him that any cleric of any rank who has lapsed into heresy or schism and returns to the Church must first make a full profession of condemnation of his error, and may thereafter be retained in his current grade but may not be promoted — warning that if Leo’s decrees, grounded in the authority of the Apostolic See, are neglected, he will be moved to act more severely.

Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to Januarius, bishop of Aquileia.

Reading the letters of your brotherhood, We recognized the vigor of your faith, known to Us before now, and We rejoice that you vigilantly expend your pastoral care on the flock of Christ, guarding against wolves who enter in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15), lest their beast-like savagery tear the simple to pieces or corrupt the sound with ways that have not been amended.

Chapter I: Clerics Who Return from Heresy Must Profess Condemnation of Their Error and May Not Be Promoted

To prevent any viperous deceit from creeping in under the guise of conversion, We deem it necessary to admonish your beloved — warning that it puts souls in danger if any who have strayed from Us into the congregations of heretics and schismatics are received as Catholics without a legitimate profession of satisfaction. How great a solicitude We will that the precepts of the Fathers’ canons be preserved throughout all the Lord’s Churches, and that this care belongs above all to the priests of all peoples, so that the rules of the holy constitutions are not corrupted by any excesses — of this We have no doubt you are fully aware. We marvel therefore that you, in your region, are departing from what the authority of the Apostolic See had established as the most carefully observed practice.

It is most wholesome and full of spiritual medicine that presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, or any clerics who seek correction and wish to return to the Catholic faith they long abandoned must first unambiguously confess their errors, and condemn those who taught them — leaving no grounds for hope in their perverse beliefs, and protecting the community from contamination by the force of their own profession against themselves.

We command that the ordinance of the canons be observed in this manner: granting great benefit if such clerics, stripped of all hope of promotion, remain permanently in their present grade — provided they have not been defiled by a repeated baptism. He incurs grave guilt before God who judges such persons worthy of advancement in holy orders. If promotion is granted to those without reproach only with great scrutiny, it must not be allowed at all to those under suspicion.

Your beloved, whose devotion We cherish, must align its care with Our dispositions, ensuring that what We suggest and ordain for the Church’s safety and the maintenance of the canons’ authority is carried out circumspectly and swiftly. Let your beloved not doubt that, if — as We do not believe — Our decrees, grounded in the authority of the Apostolic See, are neglected, We shall be moved to act more severely: since the faults of lesser ranks are most of all attributable to idle or negligent leaders, who nourish a pestilence by failing to apply the remedies it requires.

Given on the third day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Calepius and Ardabur, most illustrious men.

Source/Reference

PL 54:706

Notes / Historical Commentary

Letter XVIII is a short canonical ruling addressed to Januarius, bishop of Aquileia, concerning the proper treatment of clerics who lapse into heresy or schism and then return. The ruling itself — retain them in their present grade, allow no promotion — is a standard canonical position, and the letter’s brevity reflects the straightforwardness of the case. What the letter contributes to the project, however, is the framing in which that ruling is delivered: the solicitude formula, the explicit grounding in the authority of the Apostolic See, and the threat of more severe action if Leo’s decrees are neglected.

Aquileia, the letter’s destination, was one of the major episcopal sees of the Western Church — the ecclesiastical capital of northeastern Italy, located at the head of the Adriatic (modern Aquileia in the Friuli region, near modern Trieste and Grado). Its bishop held patriarchal authority over a large region covering the northeastern Italian provinces and the approaches to the Balkans. The see had ancient apostolic claims of its own, tracing its foundation to the Evangelist Mark and, by some accounts, to Peter’s own direction. Leo’s instruction to Januarius carries the same tone as his instructions to other major sees: the Roman bishop’s solicitude reaches here as everywhere, the canons’ precepts are to be observed throughout all the Lord’s Churches, and deviation from Leo’s decrees will be met with more stringent measures.

The closing threat is worth noting precisely: Leo says that if his decrees, “grounded in the authority of the Apostolic See,” are neglected, he will act more severely — and he attributes any laxity on Januarius’s part not to ignorance but to negligence, which Leo holds to be the worst form of pastoral failure. The pastoral charge and the jurisdictional authority are inseparable: Januarius’s responsibility to his flock and his responsibility to implement Leo’s ordinances are presented as two aspects of the same obligation. The letter closes the year 447 — a year in which Leo addressed the Spanish heresy, the Sicilian liturgical irregularity, and the Sicilian property crisis — with a reminder that the same authority that reaches Spain and Sicily reaches Aquileia too.