Letters 37
37 To Theodosius Augustus PL 54, 811
Unity of Faith is essential but the point at issue hardly required a general council, it is so clear.
On receiving your clemency’s letter, I perceived that the universal Church has much cause for joy, that you will have the Christian Faith, whereby the Divine Trinity is honoured and worshipped, to be different or out of harmony with itself in nothing. For what more effectual support can be given to human affairs in calling upon God’s mercy than when one thanksgiving, and the sacrifice of one confession is offered to His majesty by all. Wherein the devotions of the priests and all the faithful will reach at last their completeness, if in what was done for our redemption by God the Word, the only Son of God, nothing else be believed than what He Himself ordered to be preached and believed. Wherefore although every consideration prevents my attendance on the day which your piety has fixed for the councils of bishops: for there are no precedents for such a thing, and the needs of the times do not allow me to leave the city, especially as the point of Faith at issue is so clear, that it would have been more reasonable to abstain from proclaiming a synod: yet as far as the Lord vouchsafes to help me, I have bestowed my zeal upon obeying your clemency’s commands, by appointing my brethren who are competent to act as the case requires in removing offences, and who can represent me: because no question has arisen on which there can or ought to be any doubt. Dated 21st of June, in the consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes, (449).
Fidei et confessionis unitatem esse servandum. Legatos ad synodum Ephesinam missos, ad quam ut se conferret, necessitas non sinit.
LEO THEODOSIO Augusto.
Acceptis clementiae vestrae litteris, multum universali Ecclesiae gaudendum esse perspexi, quod christianam fidem, qua divina Trinitas honoratur et colitur, in nullo dissimilem, in nullo vultis esse discordem. Quid enim rebus humanis ad exorandam misericordiam Dei efficacius suffragetur, quam si una gratiarum actio, et unius confessionis sacrificium majestati ejus ab omnibus offeratur? In quo sacerdotum et cunctorum fidelium ita demum erit plena devotio, si in his quae per unicam Dei Filium Deum Verbum pro nostra redemptione sunt gesta, nihil aliud sentiatur, quam quod ipse de se et praedicari jussit et credi. Unde quamvis ad diem, quem concilio episcopali pietas vestra constituit, 887 occurrere me ratio nulla permittat; cum nec aliqua ex hoc ante exempla praecesserint, et temporalis necessitas me non patiatur deserere civitatem praesertim cum tam evidens fidei causa sit, ut rationabilius ab indicenda synodo fuisset abstinendum: tamen in quantum Dominus juvare dignatur, meum studium commodavi, ut Clementiae vestrae statutis aliquatenus pareatur, ordinatis hinc fratribus meis, qui amputandis scandalis pro causae qualitate sufficiant, quique praesentiae meae impleant vicem: quia non talis quaestio orta est de qua aut possit, aut debeat dubitari. Data duodecimo kalendas Julii, Asturio et Protogene viris clarissimis consulibus.