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| To Leo, Bishop of Rome.
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CXIII. To Leo,
Bishop of Rome.1877
| 1877 This celebrated letter may be dated towards the end of 449,
allowing time for news to reach Theodoret of his deposition at the
Latrocinium on August 11. In 445 Leo had procured the well known decree
from Valentinian III, addressed to the famous Aetius in connexion with
the dispute with Hilary of Arles, constituting the bishop of Rome the
chief authority in the Western Church, basing his demands not so much
on the recognised precedence of the imperial see as on the supposed
primacy of St. Peter. But in 451, only two years after the date of
Theodoret’s letter the council of Chalcedon (Can. xxviii), after
recording the canon (iii) of Constantinople that “the bishop of
Constantinople shall have the primacy of honour after the bishop of
Rome, because that Constantinople is new Rome,” added “we
decree the same things concerning the privileges of Constantinople,
which is new Rome. The Fathers formerly gave the primacy to the see of
old Rome, because she was the imperial city, and gave like privileges
to new Rome, rightly judging that the city which enjoyed like imperial
privileges should also be honoured in matters ecclesiastical, being
next in rank.” We are yet very far from later claims. Indeed even
Gregory the Great when he protested against the title of
œcumenical bishop, assumed by John the Faster, did not claim it
for himself. |
If Paul, the herald of the
truth, the trumpet of the Holy Ghost, hastened to the great Peter1878
| 1878 Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem, not to Peter, but
“unto the Apostles and elders.” Acts xv. 2. Peter took a
leading part in the discussion, but the “sentence” was
pronounced not by Peter, but by James, and the decree was that of
“the Apostles and elders with the whole Church.” The slight
“wresting” of the scriptures of which Theodoret is guilty
is due rather to a desire to compliment an important personage than in
anticipation of later controversies. | in order that he might carry from
him the desired solution of difficulties to those at Antioch who were
in doubt about living in conformity with the law, much more do we, men
insignificant and small, hasten to your apostolic see1879
| 1879 Rome was the only apostolic see in the West. | in order to receive from you a cure
for the wounds of the churches. For every reason it is fitting for you
to hold the first place, inasmuch as your see is adorned with many
privileges. Other cities are indeed adorned by their size, their
beauty, and their population; and some which in these respects are
lacking are made bright by certain spiritual boons. But on your city
the great Provider has bestowed an abundance of good gifts. She is the
largest, the most splendid, the most illustrious of the world, and
overflows with the multitude of her inhabitants. Besides all this, she
has achieved her present sovereignty, and has given her name to her
subjects. She is moreover specially adorned by her faith, in due
testimony whereof the divine Apostle exclaims “your faith is
spoken of throughout the whole world.”1880
And if even after receiving the seeds
of the message of salvation her boughs were straightway heavy with
these admirable fruits, what words can fitly praise the piety now
practised in her? In her keeping too are the tombs that give light to
the souls of the faithful, those of our common fathers and teachers of
the truth, Peter and Paul.1881
| 1881 The traditional places of sepulture are, of half of each of the
holy bodies, the shrine of SS. Peter and Paul in the crypt of St.
Peter’s; of the remaining moiety of St. Peter the Lateran; of St.
Paul, St. Paolo fuori le Mura. | This thrice
blessed and divine pair arose in the region of sunrise, and spread
their rays in all directions. Now from the region of sunset, where they
willingly welcomed the setting of this life, they illuminate the world.
They have rendered your see most glorious; this is the crown and
completion1882
| 1882 Κολοφών. cf. note on page 262. | of your good things; but in
these days their God has adorned their throne1883
| 1883 St. Paul is treated as in a sense bishop of Rome. The idea may
have some bearing on the hypothesis sometimes adopted, to avoid the
difficulties in the early Roman succession, that there was a Gentile
line derived from St. Paul, who ordained Linus, and after him Cletus;
and that for the Jewish brethren St. Peter ordained Clement. | by setting on it your holiness,
emitting, as you do, the rays of orthodoxy. Of this I might give many
proofs, but it is enough to mention the zeal which your holiness lately
shewed against the ill-famed Manichees, proving thereby your
piety’s earnest regard for divine things. Your recent writings,
too, are enough to indicate your apostolic character. For we have met
with what your holiness has written concerning the incarnation1884
| 1884 His dogmatic epistles and his sermons. He is not known to have
written any large treatise. | of our God and Saviour, and we have
marvelled at the exactness of your expressions.
For both writings agreed in
setting forth both the everlasting Godhead of the Only-begotten derived
from the everlasting Father, and the manhood derived from the seed of
Abraham and David; and that the nature assumed was in all things like
unto us, being unlike to us in this respect alone, that it remained
free from all sin; since it springs not of nature but of free
will.
The letters moreover contain
this, that the Only-begotten Son of God is one, and his Godhead
impassible, immutable, and invariable, like the Father who begat Him
and the Holy Spirit; and that on this account He took the passible
nature, divine nature being incapable of suffering, that by the
suffering of His own flesh He might bestow freedom from suffering on
them that have believed in Him. These statements and others of like
nature were contained in your letters. We, in admiration of your
spiritual wisdom, have lauded the grace of the Holy Ghost uttered
through you, and we invoke and beseech and beg and implore your
highness to protect the churches of God that are now assailed by the
storm.
We had expected that through the
instrumentality of the representatives1885
| 1885 Dioscorus presided, and next him sat Julius of Puteoli, who in
company with the presbyter Renatus, and the deacon Hilarius (successor
to Leo in the papacy) had carried to Flavian the famous
“tome” of Leo in June 449. Leo (Epp. XXXII. and XXXIV.)
describes his legates as sent “de latere meo.”
According to one version of the story Renatus died at Delos on the way
out. Labbe IV. 1079. | sent by your holiness to Ephesus, the
tempest would have been done away, but we have fallen under severer
attacks of the storm. For the very righteous bishop of Alexandria was
not content with the illegal and very unrighteous deposition of the
most holy and godly bishop of Constantinople, the lord Flavianus, nor
was his soul satisfied with a similar slaughter of the rest of the
bishops, but me too in my absence he stabbed with a pen, without
summoning me to the bar, without trying me in my presence, without
questioning me as to my opinions about the incarnation of our God and
Saviour. Even murderers, tomb-breakers, and adulterers, are not
condemned by their judges until they have themselves confirmed by
confession the charges brought against them, or have been clearly
convicted by the testimony of others. Yet I, nurtured as I have been in
the divine laws, have been condemned by him at his pleasure, when all
the while I was five and thirty days’ march away.
Nor is this all that he has
done. Only last year when two fellows tainted with the unsoundness of
Apollinarius had gone thither and patched up slanders against me, he
stood up in church and anathematized me, and that after I had written
to him and explained my opinions to him.
I lament the disturbance of the
church, and long for peace. Six and twenty years have I ruled the
church entrusted to me by the God of all, aided by your prayers. Never
in the time of the blessed Theodotus,1886
the chief bishop of the East; never
in the time of his successors in the see of Antioch, did I incur the
slightest blame. By the help of God’s grace working with me more
than a thousand souls did I rescue from the plague of Marcion; many
others from the Arian and Eunomian factions did I bring over to our
Master Christ. I have done pastoral duty in eight hundred churches, for
so many parishes does Cyrus contain; and in them, through your prayers,
not even one tare is left, and our flock is delivered from all heresy
and error. He who sees all things knows how many stones have been cast
at me by evil heretics, how many conflicts in most of the cities of the
East I have waged against pagans, against Jews, against every heresy.
After all this trial and all this danger I have been condemned without
a trial.
But I await the sentence of your
apostolic see. I beseech and implore your holiness to succour me in my
appeal to your fair and righteous tribunal. Bid me hasten to you, and
prove to you that my teaching follows the footprints of the apostles. I
have in my possession what I wrote twenty years ago; what I wrote
eighteen, fifteen, twelve, years ago; against Arians and Eunomians,
against Jews and pagans; against the magi in Persia; on divine
Providence; on theology; and on the divine incarnation. By God’s
grace I have interpreted the writings of the apostles and the oracles
of the prophets. From these it is not difficult to ascertain whether I
have adhered to the right rule of faith, or have swerved from its
straight course. Do not, I implore you, spurn my prayer; regard, I
implore you, the insults piled after all my labours on my poor grey
head.
Above all, I implore you to tell
me whether I ought to put up with this unrighteous deposition or not;
for I await your decision. If you bid me abide by the sentence of
condemnation, I abide; and henceforth I will trouble no man, and will
wait for the righteous tribunal of our God and Saviour. God is my
witness, my lord, that I care not for honour and glory. I care only for
the scandal that has been caused, in that many of the simpler folk, and
especially those whom I have rescued from various heresies, cleaving to
the authority of my judges and quite unable to understand the exact
truth of the doctrine, will perhaps suppose me guilty of
heresy.
All the people of the East know
that during all the time of my episcopate I have not acquired a house,
not a piece of ground, not an obol, not a tomb, but of my own accord
have embraced poverty, after distributing, at the death of my parents,
the whole of the property which I inherited from them.
Above all I implore you, O holy
sir, beloved of God, to grant me the help of your prayers. I have told
you this by the reverend and godly presbyters Hypatius and Abramius
chorepiscopi1887
| 1887 No word exactly renders the title of these ministers, discharging
functions of an episcopal kind, though without high responsibility.
They are first mentioned in the Councils of Ancyra and of
Neo-Cæsarea and fifteen of them subscribed the decrees of
Nicæa. | and by Alypius exarch1888
| 1888 Exarch, in its most ordinary ecclesiastical sense nearly
equivalent to patriarch, came also to be used of officers charged with
the visitation of monasteries. | of our monks. I would hasten to you
myself were I not kept back by the chains of the imperial order, which
imprison me as they do others. Treat my messengers, I beseech you, as a
father might his sons; give them kindly and unbiassed audience; deign
to grant your protection to my old age,1889
| 1889 If born in 386 (Garnerius), Theodoret would now be 63. Tillemont
says 393. | slandered as it is and attacked in
vain. Above all, regard, to the utmost of your power, the faith
conspired against; preserve for the churches the inheritance of their
fathers unimpaired. So will your holiness receive the recompense due for
such deeds from the great Giver of all good gifts.1890
| 1890 The tone of this letter, it need hardly be said, is quite
inconsistent with the later idea of an “appeal to Rome.” It
is “an appeal,” but the appeal of a wronged man for the
support, succour, and advice, of a brother bishop of the highest
position and character. It does not on the face of it suggest that Leo
has any authority to review or alter the sentence of the council.
Tillemont (Mém. Ecc. xv. 294) observes that though addressed to
Leo in person the appeal is really made to the bishops of the West in
council. Leo remonstrated, but Theodosius and his court maintained that
the decrees of the Latrocinium must stand. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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