Letter
XXVIII.
To Flavian commonly called “the
Tome.”
I.
Eutyches has been driven into his
error by presumption and ignorance
244
.
Having read your letter, beloved, at the late
arrival of which we are surprised
245
, and having
perused the detailed account of the bishops’ acts
246
, we have at last found out what the
scandal was which had arisen among you against the purity of the
Faith: and what before seemed concealed has now been unlocked and
laid open to our view: from which it is shown that Eutyches, who
used to seem worthy of all respect in virtue of his priestly office, is
very unwary and exceedingly ignorant, so that it is even of him that
the prophet has said: “he refused to understand so as to do
well: he thought upon iniquity in his bed
247
.” But what more iniquitous
than to hold blasphemous opinions
248
, and not to
give way to those who are wiser and more learned than ourself.
Now into this unwisdom fall they who, finding themselves hindered from
knowing the truth by some obscurity, have recourse not to the
prophets’ utterances, not to the Apostles’ letters, nor to
the injunctions of the Gospel but to their own selves: and thus
they stand out as masters of error because they were never disciples of
truth. For what learning has he acquired about the pages of the
New and Old Testament, who has not even grasped the rudiments of the
Creed? And that which, throughout the world, is professed by the
mouth of every one who is to be born again
249
,
is not yet taken in by the heart of this old man.
II.
Concerning the twofold nativity and
nature of Christ.
Not knowing, therefore, what he was bound to think
concerning the incarnation of the Word of
God
,
and not wishing to gain the light of knowledge by researches through
the length
and breadth
of the Holy Scriptures, he might at least have listened attentively to
that general and uniform confession, whereby the whole body of the
faithful confess that they
believe in
God
the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son
250
, our
Lord
, who
was born of the Holy Spirit and
251
the Virgin
Mary.
By which three statements the devices of almost all
heretics are overthrown. For not only is
God
believed to be both Almighty and the Father, but the
Son is shown to be co-eternal with Him, differing in nothing from the
Father because He is
God
from
God
252
, Almighty from
Almighty, and being born from the Eternal one is co-eternal with Him;
not later in point of time, not lower in power, not unlike in glory,
not divided in essence: but at the same time the only begotten of
the eternal Father was born eternal of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary. And this nativity which took place in time took nothing
from, and added nothing to that divine and eternal birth, but expended
itself wholly on the restoration of man who had been deceived
253
: in order that he might both
vanquish death and overthrow by his strength
254
,
the Devil who possessed the power of death. For we should not now
be able to overcome the author of sin and death unless He took our
nature on Him and made it His own, whom neither sin could pollute nor
death retain. Doubtless then, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit
within the womb of His Virgin Mother, who brought Him forth without the
loss of her virginity, even as she conceived Him without its
loss.
But if he could not draw a rightful understanding
(of the matter) from this pure source of the Christian belief, because
he had darkened the brightness of the clear truth by a veil of
blindness peculiar to himself, he might have submitted himself to the
teaching of the Gospels. And when Matthew speaks of “the
Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham
255
,” he might have also sought out the
instruction afforded by the statements of the Apostles. And
reading in the Epistle to the Romans, “Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of
God
, which He had promised before by His prophets in the
Holy Scripture concerning His son, who was made unto Him
256
of the seed of David after the
flesh
257
,” he might have bestowed a loyal
carefulness upon the pages of the prophets. And finding the
promise of
God
who says to Abraham, “In
thy seed shall all nations be blest
258
,” to
avoid all doubt as to the reference of this seed, he might have
followed the Apostle when He says, “To Abraham were the promises
made and to his seed. He saith not and to seeds, as if in many,
but as it in one, and to thy seed which is Christ
259
.” Isaiah’s prophecy also
he might have grasped by a closer attention to what he says,
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and they shall
call His name Immanuel,” which is interpreted “
God
with us
260
.” And
the same prophet’s words he might have read faithfully.
“A child is born to us, a Son is given to us, whose power is upon
His shoulder, and they shall call His name the Angel of the Great
Counsel, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty
God
, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the age to
come
261
.” And then he would not speak
so erroneously as to say that the Word became flesh in such a way that
Christ, born of the Virgin’s womb, had the form of man, but had
not the reality of His mother’s body
262
. Or is it possible that he thought
our
Lord
Jesus Christ was not of our nature
for this reason, that the angel, who was sent to the blessed Mary ever
Virgin, says, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power
of the Most High shall overshadow thee: and therefore that Holy
Thing also that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of
God
263
,” on
the supposition that as the conception of the Virgin was a Divine act,
the flesh of the conceived did not partake of the conceiver’s
nature? But that birth so uniquely wondrous and so wondrously
unique, is not to be understood in such wise that the properties of His
kind were removed through the novelty of His creation. For though
the Holy Spirit imparted fertility to the Virgin, yet a real body was
received from her body; and, “Wisdom building her a
house
264
,” “the Word became flesh and
dwelt in us
265
,” that is, in
that flesh which he took from man and which he quickened with the
breath of a higher life
266
.
III.
The Faith and counsel of
God
in regard to
the incarnation of the Word are set forth.
Without detriment therefore to the properties of
either nature and substance which then came together in one
person
267
, majesty took on humility, strength
weakness, eternity mortality: and for the paying off of the debt
belonging to our condition inviolable nature was united with possible
nature, so that, as suited the needs of our case
268
, one and the same Mediator between
God
and men, the Man Christ Jesus, could both
die with the one and not die with the other.
269
Thus in the whole and perfect nature of
true man was true
God
born, complete in what
was His own, complete in what was ours. And by “ours”
we mean what the Creator formed in us from the beginning and what He
undertook to repair. For what the Deceiver brought in and man
deceived committed, had no trace in the Saviour. Nor, because He
partook of man’s weaknesses, did He therefore share our
faults. He took the form of a slave
270
without stain of sin, increasing the human and not diminishing the
divine: because that emptying of Himself whereby the Invisible
made Himself visible and, Creator and
Lord
of
all things though He be, wished to be a mortal, was the bending
down
271
of pity, not the failing of power.
Accordingly He who while remaining in the form of
God
made man, was also made man in the form of a
slave. For both natures retain their own proper character without
loss: and as the form of
God
did not do
away with the form of a slave, so the form of a slave did not impair
the form of
God
. For inasmuch as the
Devil used to boast that man had been cheated by his guile into losing
the divine gifts, and bereft of the boon of immortality had undergone
sentence of death, and that he had found some solace in his troubles
from having a partner in delinquency
272
, and that
God
also at the demand of the principle of
justice had changed His own purpose towards man whom He had created in
such honour: there was need for the issue of a secret counsel,
that the unchangeable
God
whose will cannot be
robbed of its own kindness, might carry out the first design of His
Fatherly care
273
towards us by a
more hidden mystery
274
; and that man who
had been driven into his fault by the treacherous cunning of the devil
might not perish contrary to the purpose of
God
275
.
IV.
The properties of the twofold
nativity and nature of Christ are weighed one against
another.
There enters then these lower parts of the world
the Son of
God
, descending from His heavenly
home and yet not quitting His Father’s glory, begotten in a new
order by a new nativity. In a new order, because being invisible
in His own nature, He became visible in ours, and He whom nothing could
contain was content to be contained
276
:
abiding before all time He began to be in time: the
Lord
of all things, He obscured His immeasurable majesty
and took on Him the form of a servant: being
God
that cannot suffer, He did not disdain to be man that
can, and, immortal as He is, to subject Himself to the laws of
death. The
Lord
assumed His
mother’s nature without her faultiness: nor in the
Lord
Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin’s
womb, does the wonderfulness of His birth make His nature unlike
ours. For He who is true
God
is also
true man: and in this union there is no lie
277
, since the humility of manhood and the
loftiness of the Godhead both meet there. For as
God
is not changed by the showing of pity, so man is not
swallowed up by the dignity. For each form does what is proper to
it with the co-operation of the other
278
; that is
the Word performing what appertains to the Word, and the flesh carrying
out what appertains to the flesh. One of
them sparkles with miracles, the other
succumbs to injuries. And as the Word does not cease to be on an
equality with His Father’s glory, so the flesh does not forego
the nature of our race. For it must again and again be repeated
that one and the same is truly Son of
God
and
truly son of man.
God
in that “in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God
, and the Word was
God
279
;” man in that “the
Word became flesh and dwelt in us
280
.”
God
in that “all things were made by
Him
281
, and without Him was nothing
made:” man in that “He was made of a woman, made
under law
282
.”
The nativity of the flesh was the manifestation of human nature:
the childbearing of a virgin is the proof of Divine power. The
infancy of a babe is shown in the humbleness of its cradle
283
: the greatness of the Most High
is proclaimed by the angels’ voices
284
. He whom Herod treacherously
endeavours to destroy is like ourselves in our earliest stage
285
: but He whom the Magi delight to
worship on their knees is the
Lord
of
all. So too when He came to the baptism of John, His forerunner,
lest He should not be known through the veil of flesh which covered His
Divinity, the Father’s voice thundering from the sky, said,
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased
286
.” And thus Him whom the
devil’s craftiness attacks as man, the ministries of angels serve
as
God
. To be hungry and thirsty, to be
weary, and to sleep, is clearly human: but to satisfy 5,000 men
with five loaves, and to bestow on the woman of Samaria living water,
droughts of which can secure the drinker from thirsting any more, to
walk upon the surface of the sea with feet that do not sink, and to
quell the risings of the waves by rebuking the winds, is, without any
doubt, Divine. Just as therefore, to pass over many other
instances, it is not part of the same nature to be moved to tears of
pity for a dead friend, and when the stone that closed the
four-days’ grave was removed, to raise that same friend to life
with a voice of command: or, to hang on the cross, and turning
day to night, to make all the elements tremble: or, to be pierced
with nails, and yet open the gates of paradise to the robber’s
faith: so it is not part of the same nature to say, “I and
the Father are one,” and to say, “the Father is greater
than I
287
.” For although in the
Lord
Jesus Christ
God
and man is one person, yet the source of the degradation, which is
shared by both, is one, and the source of the glory, which is shared by
both, is another. For His manhood, which is less than the Father,
comes from our side: His Godhead, which is equal to the Father,
comes from the Father.
V.
Christ’s flesh is proved real
from Scripture.
Therefore in consequence of this unity of person
which is to be understood in both natures
288
, we read of the Son of Man also
descending from heaven, when the Son of
God
took flesh from the Virgin who bore Him. And again the Son of
God
is said to have been crucified and buried,
although it was not actually in His Divinity whereby the Only-begotten
is co-eternal and con-substantial with the Father, but in His weak
human nature that He suffered these things. And so it is that in
the Creed also we all confess that the Only-begotten Son of
God
was crucified and buried, according to
that saying of the Apostle: “for if they had known, they
would never have crucified the
Lord
of
glory
289
.” But when our
Lord
and Saviour Himself would instruct His
disciples’ faith by His questionings, He said, “Whom do men
say that I, the Son of Man, am?” And when they had put on
record the various opinions of other people, He said, “But
ye
, whom do ye say that I am?” Me, that is, who am
the Son of Man, and whom ye see in the form of a slave, and in true
flesh, whom do ye say that I am? Whereupon blessed Peter, whose
divinely inspired confession was destined to profit all nations, said,
“Thou art Christ, the Son of the living
God
290
.”
And not undeservedly was he pronounced blessed by the
Lord
, drawing from the chief corner-stone
291
the solidity of power which his name also
expresses, he, who, through the revelation of the Father, confessed Him
to be at once Christ
and Son of
God
: because the receiving of the one of these
without the other was of no avail to salvation, and it was equally
perilous to have believed the
Lord
Jesus
Christ to be either only
God
without man, or
only man without
God
. But after the
Lord’s
resurrection (which, of course,
was of His true body, because He was raised the same as He had died and
been buried), what else was effected by the forty days’ delay
than the cleansing of our faith’s purity from all darkness?
For to that end He talked with His disciples, and dwelt and ate with
them, He allowed Himself to be handled with diligent and curious touch
by those who were affected by doubt, He entered when the doors were
shut upon the Apostles, and by His breathing upon them gave them the
Holy Spirit
292
, and bestowing on
them the light of understanding, opened the secrets of the Holy
Scriptures
293
. So again
He showed the wound in His side, the marks of the nails, and all the
signs of His quite recent suffering, saying, “See My hands and
feet, that it is I. Handle Me and see that a spirit hath not
flesh and bones, as ye see Me have
294
;” in
order that the properties of His Divine and human nature might be
acknowledged to remain still inseparable: and that we might know
the Word not to be different from the flesh, in such a sense as also to
confess that the one Son of
God
is both the
Word and flesh
295
. Of this
mystery of the faith
296
your opponent
Eutyches must be reckoned to have but little sense if he has recognized
our nature in the Only-begotten of
God
neither
through the humiliation of His having to die, nor through the glory of
His rising again. Nor has he any fear of the blessed apostle and
evangelist John’s declaration when he says, “every spirit
which confesses Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh, is of
God
: and every spirit which destroys
Jesus is not of
God
, and this is
Antichrist
297
.” But
what is “to destroy Jesus,” except to take away the human
nature from Him, and to render void the mystery, by which alone we were
saved, by the most barefaced fictions. The truth is that being in
darkness about the nature of Christ’s body, he must also be
befooled by the same blindness in the matter of His sufferings.
For if he does not think the cross of the
Lord
fictitious, and does not doubt that the punishment He underwent to save
the world is likewise true, let him acknowledge the flesh of Him whose
death he already believes: and let him not disbelieve Him man
with a body like ours, since he acknowledges Him to have been able to
suffer: seeing that the denial of His true flesh is also the
denial of His bodily suffering. If therefore he receives the
Christian faith, and does not turn away his ears from the preaching of
the Gospel: let him see what was the nature that hung pierced
with nails on the wooden cross, and, when the side of the Crucified was
opened by the soldier’s spear, let him understand whence it was
that blood and water flowed, that the Church of
God
might be watered from the font and from the
cup
298
. Let him hear also the blessed
Apostle Peter, proclaiming that the sanctification of the Spirit takes
place through the sprinkling of Christ’s blood
299
. And let him not read cursorily the
same Apostle’s words when he says, “Knowing that not with
corruptible things, such as silver and gold, have ye been redeemed from
your vain manner of life which is part of your fathers’
tradition, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb
without spot and blemish
300
.” Let him
not resist too the witness of the blessed Apostle John, who says:
“and the blood of Jesus the Son of
God
cleanseth us from all sin
301
.” And
again: “this is the victory which overcometh the world, our
faith.” And “who is He that overcometh the world save
He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God
. This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus
Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it
is the Spirit that testifieth, because the Spirit is the truth
302
, because there are three that bear witness,
the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are one
303
.” The Spirit, that is, of
sanctification, and the blood of redemption, and the water of
baptism: because the three are one, and remain undivided, and
none of them is separated from this connection; because the catholic
Church lives and progresses by this faith, so that in Christ Jesus
neither the manhood without the true Godhead nor
the Godhead without the true manhood is
believed in.
VI.
The wrong and mischievous confession
of Eutyches. The terms on which he may be restored to
Communion. The sending of deputies to the east.
But when during your cross-examination Eutyches
replied and said, “I confess that our
Lord
had two natures before the union but after the union
I confess but one
304
,” I am
surprised that so absurd and mistaken a statement of his should not
have been criticised and rebuked by his judges, and that an utterance
which reaches the height of stupidity and blasphemy should be allowed
to pass as if nothing offensive had been heard: for the impiety
of saying that the Son of
God
was of two
natures before His incarnation is only equalled by the iniquity of
asserting that there was but one nature in Him after “the Word
became flesh.” And to the end that Eutyches may not think
this a right or defensible opinion because it was not contradicted by
any expression of yourselves, we warn you beloved brother, to take
anxious care that if ever through the inspiration of
God’s
mercy the case is brought to a satisfactory
conclusion, his ignorant mind be purged from this pernicious idea as
well as others. He was, indeed, just beginning to beat a retreat
from his erroneous conviction, as the order of proceedings
shows
305
, in so far as when hemmed in by your
remonstrances he agreed to say what he had not said before and to
acquiesce in that belief to which before he had been opposed.
However, when he refused to give his consent to the anathematizing of
his blasphemous dogma, you understood, brother
306
,
that he abode by his treachery and deserved to receive a verdict of
condemnation. And yet, if he grieves over it faithfully and to
good purpose, and, late though it be, acknowledges how rightly the
bishops’ authority has been set in motion; or if with his own
mouth and hand in your presence he recants his wrong opinions, no mercy
that is shown to him when penitent can be found fault with
307
: because our
Lord
, that true and “good shepherd” who laid
down His life for His sheep
308
and who came to
save not lose men’s souls
309
, wishes us to
imitate His kindness
310
; in order that while
justice constrains us when we sin, mercy may prevent our rejection when
we have returned. For then at last is the true Faith most
profitably defended when a false belief is condemned even by the
supporters of it.
Now for the loyal and faithful execution of the
whole matter, we have appointed to represent us our brothers
Julius
311
Bishop and Renatus
312
priest [of the Title of S. Clement], as well as my son Hilary
313
, deacon. And with them we have
associated Dulcitius our notary, whose faith is well approved:
being sure that the Divine help will be given us, so that he who had
erred may be saved when the wrongness of his view has been
condemned.
God
keep you safe, beloved
brother.
The 13 June, 449, in the consulship of the most
illustrious Asturius and Protogenes.
244
The original word
(
imperitia
) implies that a recluse like Eutyches (an
archimandrite of a convent) ought never to have entered into a nice
controversy like the present: he has not enough
savoir
faire
, and his knowledge is not quite up to date, is a little
old-fashioned.
245
The exact reason of
the delay is not altogether certain: we know Flavian had written
much earlier than the date of arrival warranted: it is No. XXII.
in the series.
246
Viz., the proceedings
of the
σύνοδος
ἐνδημοῦσα
summoned by Flavian at Constantinople.
247
Ps. xxxvi. 4
.
248
Impia
sapere
, to think disloyal things against God: cf. the
recta sapere
, “to have a right judgment” of the
Collect for Whitsunday.
249
Knowledge of and
belief in the principles of the Faith as contained in the Creed
(
symbolum
) have of course always been required
before Baptism from very early times. Leo here calls catechumens
regenerandi
, just as those who are being baptized are spoken of
as
renascentes
(e.g. Lett. XVII. 8), those who have been
baptized as
renati
(
passim
), and the rite
itself as
sacramentum regenerationis
(e.g. Lett. IX. 2).
250
The Latin
unicus
is not so exact as the Greek original
μονογενής
:
elsewhere, however,
unigenitus
is used.
251
N.B.
et
(and)
not
ex
(out of).
252
The language of the
Nicene Creed.
253
I.e. by the
Devil: the allusion is to Adam’s fall in Paradise.
254
Sua
virtute
: in patristic Latin
virtus
is, as is well
known, usually the translation of the Greek
δύναμις
and has a much
wider meaning than moral excellence, our virtue.
255
S.
Matt. i. 1
.
256
ei
. So
the Vulgate.
257
Rom. i. 1–3
.
258
Gen. xii. 3
.
259
Gal. iii. 16
.
260
Is.
vii. 14. and S. Matt. i. 23
.
261
Is. ix. 6
. “The angel of the great
counsel” (
magni consilii angelus
) is a translation of the
LXX. (which in the rest of the verse either represents a very different
original text, or contents itself with a loose paraphrase), and is
again repeated in the “Counsellor” (
Consiliarius
),
two words farther on (which is also the Vulgate reading).
262
This was the third
dogma of Apollinaris (more fully stated in Lett. CXXIV. 2 and CLXV. 2)
that our Lord’s acts and sufferings as man belonged entirely to
His Divine nature, and were not really human at all.
264
Prov. ix. 1
.
265
In nobis
, which
he seems from the immediately following words to interpret as meaning
“in our flesh,” and not “amongst us,” as the
R.V. and others.
266
Quam spiritu
vitæ rationalis
(
λογικοῦ
)
animavit
.
263
S.
Luke i. 35
.
267
A famous passage
quoted by Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 53, 2, and Liddon Bampt. Lect., p.
267. Compare Serm. lxii. 1,
quod…in unam personam
concurrat proprietas utriusque substantiæ
(Bright), also xxii.
2, xxiii. 2.
268
Quod nostris
remediis congruebat
, where
remedia
must mean the disease
which needs remedies (a sort of passive use).
269
This passage from
“Thus in the whole” to “not the failing of
power” is repeated again in Sermon xxiii. 2, almost word for
word.
270
The reference, of
course, is to
Phil. ii.
6
: no passage is a
greater favourite with the Fathers than this.
271
Compare S. Aug. ad
Catech. § 6,
humilitas Christi quid est? manum Deus homini
iacenti porrexit: nos cecidimus, ille descendit: nos
iacebamus, ille se inclinavit. Prendamus et surgamus ut non in
pœnam cadamus.
272
De
prævaricatoris consortio
:
prævaricator
originally is a legal term, signifying “a shuffler” in a
suit, an advocate who plays into the hands of the other side.
273
Pietas
, as
in the collect for xvi. S. aft. Trin., where the English,
“pity” represents the Latin “
pietas
”
philologically as well as in meaning. Cf. n. 2 in chap. vi.
274
Sacramento
,
(
μυστηρίῳ
):
what the “mystery” was is finely set forth by Canon
Bright’s hymn, No. 172, H. A. and M. (new edition).
275
The whole of the end
of this chapter from “For inasmuch as,” and the beginning
of the next down to “laws of death,” is repeated word for
word in Sermon XXII., chaps. i. and ii.
276
Incomprehensibilis voluit comprehendi
. Canon
Bright’s references are most apposite: “compare Serm.
lxviii.,
idem est qui impiorum manibus comprehenditur et qui nullo
fine concluditur:
and Serm. xxxvii. 1,
genetricis
gremio continetur qui nullo fine concluditor
. This
‘antithesis’ has been grandly expressed in Milman’s,
‘Martyr of Antioch.’
“‘And Thou wast laid within
the tomb…
Whom heaven could not contain,
Nor the immeasurable plain
Of vast infinity enclose or circle
round.’”
277
I.e. , there is no
fancy, no pretending: each nature is in equal reality present,
the human as well as the Divine, thus opposing all Docetic and
Monophysite heresies.
278
This passage
(which is repeated in Serm. liv., chap. 2, down to
“injuries”), was objected to by the Illyrian and
Palestinian bishops as savouring of the heresy of Nestorius who
“divided the substance:” but it is obvious that the
same words might have an orthodox meaning in the mouth of one who was
orthodox and to the unorthodox would bear an unorthodox
construction.
280
Ibid.
14
.
281
Ibid.
3
, the Latin is
per
ipsum
(Gk.
δι᾽
αὐτοῦ
) (through Him).
282
Gal. iv. 4
.
283
Viz., that it was
laid “in a manger:” the Gk. version has
σπαργάνων
,
“swaddling clothes,” to represent
cunarum
and this
meaning is adopted by Bright [and Heurtley], S.
Luke ii. 7
.
284
Ibid.
13
.
285
Similis est
rudimentis hominum
.
286
S.
Matt. iii. 17
.
287
S.
John xiv. 28; x. 30
: the reconciliation of this class
of apparently contradictory statements is often undertaken by Leo [e.g.
Sermon xxiii. 2 and lxxvii. 5; Ep. xxviii. 4 and lix. 3], and by other
fathers (e.g. by Augustine
de Fide et Symbolo,
18).
279
S.
John i. l
.
288
This is what
theologians call
communicatio idiomatum
, or in Gk.
ἀντίδοσις
, the
interchange of the properties of the two natures in Christ. The
passage from the beginning of the chapter to “the Lord of
glory” is somewhat freely adapted from S. Aug., c. Serm. Arian.,
cap. 8.
289
1 Cor. ii. 8
.
291
A principali
petra
. The Gk. version giving
ἀπὸ
τῆς
πρωτοτύπου
πέτρας
: others translate it
“from the original (or archetypal) rock,” but it seems
better to link the passage more closely with
Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 6
, &c., although the Greek rendering
is against this: see Serm. iv. chap. 2, where Leo is expounding
the same favourite text. Bright’s note 64 is most useful in
explaining the Leonine exposition. “Three elements,”
he says, combine in the idea; (1) Christ Himself; (2) the faith in
Christ; and (3) Peter considered as the chief of the Apostles and under
Christ, the head of the Church.” Hence
petra
is
applied to each of these at different times.
292
S.
John xx. 22
.
293
S.
Luke xxiv. 27
.
294
Ibid.
39
.
295
i.e. not to fall into
the Charybdis of Nestorianism in avoiding the Scylla of
Eutychianism.
296
Fidei
sacramento
.
297
John iv. 2, 3
: the Lat. for
“destroys” (or “dissolves,” Bright) is
solvit
(so also in Lett. CXLIV. 3), which appears to be an
exclusively Western reading: for Socrates, “the only Greek
authority for
λύει
” (the Gk.
equivalent), according to Dr. Westcott, quotes no Gk.
mss.
as giving it, though he unhesitatingly makes use of
that reading. The Gk. version here however, gives
διαιρεῖν
, which
simply begs the question (in Leo’s favour) as to the original
meaning of the phrase
solvere Jesum
, though on the face of it
that is not at all necessarily obvious.
298
Et lavacro
rigaretur et poculo
: that is by the two great
“generally necessary” sacraments of which he takes the
water and the blood “from His riven side which flowed” to
be a symbol.
299
This refers to
1 Pet. i. 2
(
q.v.
).
300
1 Pet. i. 18
.
301
1 John i. 7
.
302
Some of the
mss.
here give
Christus
for
Spiritus
(the reading adopted also by the Vulgate):
in this case you must translate
that Christ
is the Truth instead
of
because of the Spirit, &c
.: but see
Westcott’s note
in loc
.
303
1 John v. 4–8
. The absence of the verse on the
“Heavenly witnesses” (distinctly a western insertion) is to
be noticed. On Leo’s interpretation of this mysterious
passage Canon Bright’s note 168 should be consulted.
290
S.
Matt. xvi. 13–16
.
304
This was the only
compromise of his views which Eutyches could be brought to make at the
synod of Constantinople. Though it was rejected, and did not
hinder his condemnation, it was never met with a direct, categorical
refutation.
305
Gestorum ordo
,
as before, in chap. 1. A report of the proceedings had
accompanied Flavian’s letter.
306
Fraternitas
vestra
: or, as the Gk. version apparently took it, “you
and the rest of the brethren” (
ἡ ὑμῶν
ἀδελφότης
).
307
It will be remembered
that he had been degraded from the priesthood and deprived of his
monastery, as well as excommunicated: he might be reinstated in
all these privileges, the mercifulness of Leo hints, if he recant his
errors.
308
S. John x.
11 and 15
.
309
S.
Luke ix. 50
.
310
Pietatis
, a
beautiful word, expressing now the Father’s pitying protection,
now the children’s loyal affection, and here the Elder
Brother’s love for the younger and weaker. Cf. n. I. on
chap. iii.
311
Bishop of Puteoli.
312
Died at Delos on the
way. The words “of the title of S. Clement” are of
doubtful authenticity, and not found in the Gk. version. The
parish churches of Rome seem to have been called
tituli
at
their first founding about the beginning of the 4th cent.
a.d.
Cf. our Eng. term “title,” and
refer to Bingham, Bk. viii. § 1.
313
Afterwards
Leo’s successor in the see of Rome, 461–8.