To Flavian, Asking for a Full Report

To his dearly loved brother Flavian the bishop, Leo the bishop. [a]

Our most Christian and merciful emperor, in his holy and praiseworthy faith and his concern for the peace of the catholic church, has sent us a letter about the matters that have stirred up such a noise of disturbance among you. So we are surprised, brother, that you have been able to keep silent to us about the scandal that has arisen, and that you did not rather take steps to inform us at once by your own report, so that we would have no doubt about the truth of the case. For we have received a document from the presbyter Eutyches. He complains that on the accusation of Bishop Eusebius he has been wrongly deprived of communion, even though, he says, he came when you summoned him and did not refuse to be present. He also asserts that he presented a formal appeal in that very court, but it was not accepted, and that he was then forced to put out letters in his own defense in the city of Constantinople. While the matter stands so, we do not yet know how justly he has been separated from the communion of the church. But in view of how serious the matter is, we wish to know the reason for what you did and to have the whole affair brought to our knowledge. For we desire the judgments of the Lord’s priests to be carefully weighed, and without information we cannot decide one way or the other until we have all the proceedings accurately before us. [b]

So, brother, let us know in a full account, carried by the most suitable and capable person you have, what new teaching has arisen against the ancient faith that needed to be corrected by so severe a sentence. For both the restraint proper to the church and the devout faith of our most godly prince require us to show great concern for the peace of Christendom: that dissensions may be cleared away and the catholic faith kept unimpaired, and that those whose faith has been proved may be strengthened by our authority, once those who hold what is wrong have been called back from their error. And no difficulty can arise on this side, since the presbyter we have named has declared in his own statement that he is ready to be corrected if anything in him is found to deserve rebuke. For in such matters it is right for us to take every precaution that love is kept and the truth defended without the noise of strife. So, beloved, since you see how anxious we are about so great a matter, hurry to inform us of everything as fully and clearly as possible (this ought to have been done before). Otherwise, amid the conflicting statements of the two sides, we may be misled by some uncertainty, and the dissension, which ought to be stifled at its birth, may be fed. For God has impressed on our heart the need to keep from violation, by anyone’s misinterpretation, those decrees of the venerable fathers which have received divine ratification and belong to the foundation of the faith. God keep you safe, dear brother. Dated the 18th of February, in the consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes (in the year 449). [e]