To Dorus of Beneventum, on a Presbyter Promoted over His Seniors

Leo, bishop, to Dorus, his dearly loved brother. [a]

We are grieved that the opinion we hoped to hold of you has been disappointed. We have found out that you have done things whose blameworthy novelty breaks the whole system of church discipline. Yet you know very well how carefully we wish the provisions of the canons to be kept in all the churches of the Lord, and how we wish the priests of all the peoples to count it their special duty to keep the rules of the holy ordinances from being broken by any excesses. We are surprised, therefore, that you, who ought to have been a strict keeper of the commands of the Apostolic See, have acted so carelessly, or rather so defiantly, as to show yourself not a guardian but a breaker of the laws handed down to you. For from the report of your presbyter Paul, which is attached, we have learned that among you the order of presbyters has been thrown into confusion by strange intrigues and vile collusion. One man has been promoted hastily and too soon, and others have been passed over, though their age recommended their advancement and no fault was charged against them. [b]

But suppose the eagerness of a schemer, or the ignorant zeal of his supporters, demanded what custom has never allowed, namely that a beginner should be put ahead of veterans, and a mere boy ahead of older men. It was your duty, by diligence and teaching, to check the improper desires of those who asked, with all reasonable authority. Otherwise the man you hastily advanced to priestly rank would enter on his office to the injury of those he was joined with, and would be spoiled by the growth in him, not of the virtue of humility, but of the vice of conceit. For you were well aware that the Lord had said, “He who humbles himself will be exalted, but he who exalts himself will be humbled,” and also, “But you seek to grow from little, and from the greater to be less.” Both actions are out of order and out of place. All the fruit of people’s labors is lost, and every measure of their merits is made void, if the gaining of rank is measured by the amount of flattery used. So the eagerness to stand out lowers not only the one who seeks it, but also the one who goes along with him.

But if, as is claimed, the first and second presbyters were so content to have Epicarpius put over their heads that they demanded he be honored to their own disgrace, what they wanted should not have been granted them when they were willingly degrading themselves. It would have been more worthy of you to oppose so pitiful a wish than to give in to it. Their base and cowardly submission, however, could not prejudice others whose consciences were clear and who had not insulted God’s grace. Whatever the arrangement by which they gave up their precedence to another, they could not lower the standing of those who came next after them. Nor, because they had placed the last above themselves, could he take precedence over the rest.

The presbyters we have mentioned, then, who have declared themselves unworthy of their proper rank, deserved even to be deprived of their priesthood. Yet, to show the gentleness of the Apostolic See in sparing them, they are to be put last of all the presbyters of the church. And so that they may bear their own sentence, they are to be below the very man whom they preferred to themselves by their own judgment. All the other presbyters are to remain in the order that the date of his ordination gives to each. Let no one but those two lose any of his standing. Let this disgrace fall only on those who chose to put themselves below a junior who had only lately been ordained, so that they may feel that the saying of the Gospels applies to them, where it is said: “With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.” But let Paul the presbyter keep his place, from which he would not budge, with a firmness that deserves praise. And let there be no further encroachments to anyone’s harm. You, beloved, not undeservedly bear the discredit for the whole affair; so take steps with all speed to put it right, at least by carrying out these commands of ours. Otherwise, if a just complaint is brought to us a second time, we may be forced into stronger displeasure. For we would rather restore discipline by correcting what has been done wrong than increase the punishment. Know that we have entrusted the carrying out of our commands to our brother and fellow bishop Julius, so that everything may be settled at once as we have ordered. Dated the 8th of March, in the consulship of the illustrious Postumianus (in the year 448). [e]