The See of Peter

The Early Church and Peter's Primacy

Letter XXX, from Pope Leo to Empress Pulcheria

Synopsis: Leo writes to Empress Pulcheria to inform her of the Eutychian heresy revealed in Flavian’s report, to describe the error of Eutyches as a deviation from the Catholic truth that Christ is truly of our nature, and to ask her to employ her customary holy zeal to banish this blasphemy from all minds — noting that the Apostolic See’s moderation balances severity toward the obstinate with mercy for the corrected, and that he has sent legates in his stead to the Ephesian synod.

Leo, bishop, to Pulcheria, Empress.

Chapter I: Eutyches Has Erred Against the Truth of Christ’s Human Nature; His Error Must Be Removed Before It Spreads

The Church of God has great cause for confidence in the faith of Your Clemency, proven so many times and by so many examples: taught by the Holy Spirit, you submit your whole authority to Him through whose gift and protection your reign is secure. Through the report of our brother and fellow bishop Flavian, we have learned of a dissension in the Constantinopolitan Church stirred up by Eutyches, as the text of the synodal acts makes clear.

It belongs to your glory to remove this error — which, as I believe, arose more from ignorance than from cunning — before it gains strength from the obstinate consent of the imprudent. As Nestorius fell from the truth by asserting that Jesus Christ was born only a man from the Virgin Mother, so Eutyches has deviated from the Catholic path, denying that He is of our nature — wishing what bore the servant’s form and was made like us to be a mere image, not the truth of our flesh. It profits nothing to call our Lord, the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a true and perfect man if He is not believed to be a man of her race and seed, as the Gospels proclaim from the very beginning. I grieve deeply and am sorrowful that one who was formerly honored for his humility now dares to assert such vain and perverse things against the singular hope of us and of our fathers. When he saw that his foolishness displeased Catholic ears, he should have withdrawn, not troubled the Church’s bishops until he merited the sentence of condemnation — which none will be able to relax if he persists in his error.

Chapter II: The Apostolic See’s Moderation; Legates Sent in Leo’s Stead

With great trust in the sincerity of your piety, I beseech your most glorious clemency to support the freedom of Catholic proclamation with your holy zeal, as you always do. No obscure or minor point of our faith is being attacked; this ignorant audacity is assailing what the Lord willed that no one in His Church should be ignorant of. By your accustomed piety, strive to ensure that this blasphemous foolishness against the singular mystery of human salvation is banished from all minds. If he who fell into this temptation comes to his senses and condemns his errors by word and written subscription, let communion be restored to his order. The moderation of the Apostolic See preserves this balance: severity toward the obstinate, mercy for those who make correction. Let Your Clemency know that we have written to our brother Flavian and charged those we have sent with the task of granting pardon if the error is abolished.

Lest Our presence seem to be absent from the pious emperor’s arrangement of an episcopal council, We have sent Our brothers — Bishop Julius, and the priest Renatus, and my son the deacon Hilarius — to act in Our stead. Better counsel will come to the one who erred if he repents in the very place where he erred and receives indulgence where he merited condemnation.

Given on the Ides of June, in the consulship of Asturius and Protogenes, most illustrious men.

Source/Reference

Notes / Historical Commentary

Letter XXX is the shorter of the two letters Leo wrote to Empress Pulcheria on June 13, 449 — the same day as Letter XXIX to Theodosius. Letter XXXI covers much of the same ground in more expanded form and may have been sent as a follow-up or replacement. Both belong to the cluster of letters dispatched with and after the Tome, coordinating the Eastern response to the Eutyches affair across multiple recipients simultaneously.

Pulcheria Augusta was the elder sister of Emperor Theodosius II — a consecrated virgin of exceptional personal piety and considerable political influence at the Eastern court. Her relationship with Leo was one of the more significant alliances of the mid-fifth century: she was orthodox in her theology, devoted to the Council of Ephesus I and to the memory of Cyril of Alexandria, and disposed to support Leo’s position in the Eutychian controversy. Leo’s decision to write to her separately from the emperor, and at length (Letter XXXI runs considerably longer), reflects his awareness that she was a power at court independent of her brother. After Theodosius II died in July 450 and was succeeded by the general Marcian — whom Pulcheria married in a nominal union that preserved her vow of virginity — it was Pulcheria and Marcian together who convened the Council of Chalcedon in October 451, where the Tome was received and “Peter has spoken through Leo” was proclaimed.

The most significant passage in Letter XXX for the present project is the brief but pointed statement about the Apostolic See’s moderation: sedis apostolicae moderatio hanc temperantiam servat. Leo is not merely describing his own personal inclination toward balance between rigor and mercy; he is ascribing that balance to the Apostolic See as its institutional characteristic. The disposition to be severe with the obstinate and merciful with those who correct themselves belongs to the Roman see as a feature of its governance — not to any individual bishop’s temperament. This is consistent with the pattern throughout the corpus in which Leo’s personal authority and the authority of the Apostolic See are inseparable: what Leo does, he does as the custodian of Peter’s see, not as an individual.