To Julian of Cos, on the Coming Council

Leo the bishop to his dearly loved brother Julian the bishop. [a]

Your letter, beloved, which has just reached me, shows with what spiritual love for the catholic faith you are inspired. It makes me very glad that devout hearts all agree in the same opinion, so that, according to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, what the apostle says may be fulfilled in us: “Now I beg you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment.” But Eutyches has put himself entirely outside this unity, if he persists in his perversity, still does not understand the chains the devil has bound him with, and thinks that anyone who shares his ignorance and madness should be counted among the Lord’s priests. For some time we were uncertain in what way he was displeasing to catholics. We had received no letter from our brother Flavian, and Eutyches himself complained in his letter that the Nestorian heresy was being revived, so we could not fully learn the source or the motive of so crafty an accusation. But as soon as the minutes of the bishops’ proceedings reached us, everything that was hidden beneath the veil of his deceitful complaints was revealed in all its abomination. [b]

Our most clement emperor, in the kindness and godliness of his mind, wished a more careful judgment to be passed on the standing of one who until now has seemed to be held in high esteem, and for this purpose he has seen fit to call a council of bishops. So, by the hands of our brothers Julius the bishop and Renatus the presbyter, and of my son Hilary the deacon, whom I have sent from my own side in my place, I have sent our brother Flavian a letter suited to the needs of the case. From it you also, beloved, and the whole church may know what we hold, as handed down from God, about the ancient and unique faith which this unlearned opponent has attacked, and what we preach without alteration. Yet, because we must not forget the duty of mercy, we have judged it in keeping with our moderation as priests that, if the condemned presbyter corrects himself without reserve, the sentence that binds him should be remitted. If, however, he chooses to lie in the mire of his foolishness, let the decree stand, and let him share the lot of those whose error he has followed. Dated the 13th of June, in the consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes, in the year 449. [d]