To the Synod of Ephesus

Leo the bishop to the holy synod assembled at Ephesus. [a]

The devout faith of our most clement emperor knows that it especially concerns his glory to keep any seed of error from springing up within the catholic church. So he has paid such respect to the divine ordinances as to apply to the authority of the Apostolic See for a proper settlement, as if he wished the most blessed Peter himself to declare what was praised in his confession. For when the Lord asked, “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?” the disciples mentioned the opinions of various people. But when he asked what they themselves believed, the chief of the apostles, grasping the fullness of the faith in one short sentence, said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is: you, who are truly Son of Man, are also truly Son of the living God; you, I say, true in Godhead, true in flesh, and one in both, the properties of the two natures being kept intact. If Eutyches had believed this with understanding and thoroughly, he would never have retreated from the path of this faith. For Peter received this answer from the Lord for his confession: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” But one who both rejects the blessed Peter’s confession and contradicts Christ’s gospel is far removed from any union with this building. He shows that he never had any zeal for understanding the truth, and had only the empty appearance of high esteem, since he did not adorn the gray hairs of old age with any ripe judgment of the heart. [b]

But the healing even of such men must not be neglected, and the most Christian emperor has piously and devoutly desired a council of bishops to be held, so that all error may be destroyed by a fuller judgment. So I have sent our brothers Julius the bishop, Renatus the presbyter, and my son Hilary the deacon, and with them Dulcitius the notary, whose faith we have proved, to be present in my place at your holy assembly, brothers, and to settle in common with you what accords with the Lord’s will. That is: first the pestilent error is to be condemned, and then the restoration of the man who has erred so unwisely may be discussed, but only if he embraces the true doctrine and fully and openly, with his own voice and signature, condemns the heretical opinions in which his ignorance has been caught. This he promised in the appeal he sent us, pledging himself to follow our judgment in all things. On receiving the letter of our brother and fellow bishop Flavian, we replied to him at some length on the points he seems to have referred to us. So, when this error that seems to have arisen has been destroyed, there may be one faith and one and the same confession throughout the whole world, to the praise and glory of God, so that “in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” Dated the 13th of June, in the consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes, in the year 449. [d]