To the Empress Pulcheria, on the Synod at Ephesus

Leo the bishop, and the holy synod assembled in the city of Rome, to Pulcheria Augusta. [a]

If the letters about the faith which were sent to your grace by the hands of our clergy had reached you, you would certainly have been able, with the Lord’s help, to provide a remedy for what has been done against the faith. For when have you ever failed the priests, or religion, or the faith of Christ? But those who were sent were so completely prevented from reaching your clemency that only one of them, Hilary our deacon, fled and returned, and that with difficulty. So we thought it necessary to write our letter again. And so that our prayers may deserve to carry more weight, we have attached a copy of the very document which did not reach your clemency. We entreat you even more earnestly than before to take under your protection the religion in which you excel. It will win you glory all the greater in proportion to the wickedness of the crimes against which your royal faith requires you to act, so that the soundness of the Christian faith may not be violated by any plot of human devising. For the things that were believed to need settling and healing by the meeting of a synod at Ephesus have not only led to still greater disturbances of the peace, but, what is more to be regretted, even to the overthrow of the very faith by which we are Christians. [b]

Those who were sent, one of whom escaped the violence of the bishop of Alexandria, who claims everything for himself, and faithfully reported to us what took place in the synod, opposed, as was fitting, what I will call the frenzy, not the judgment, of one man. They protested that what was being carried through by violence and fear could not overturn the mysteries of the church and the creed itself, composed by the apostles. They protested too that no injuries could cut them off from that faith which they had brought to the holy synod from the see of the blessed apostle Peter, fully set out and explained. This statement was not allowed to be read out, at the bishop’s request. No doubt this was so that by rejecting the faith which has crowned patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, they might overthrow (we shudder to say it) the birth according to the flesh of Jesus Christ our Lord and the confession of his true death and resurrection. So we have written on this matter, as well as we could, to our most glorious and (what is far greater) our Christian prince, and at the same time we have attached a copy of that letter to this one to you. We wrote so that he may not allow the faith in which he was born again, and in which he reigns by God’s grace, to be corrupted by any innovation. For Bishop Flavian remains in communion with us all, and what has been done without regard to justice and against all the teaching of the canons can on no account be held valid. And because the Synod of Ephesus has not removed but increased the scandal of disagreement, I have asked him to appoint a place and time for holding a council within Italy, with all quarrels and prejudices on both sides suspended. Then everything that has given offense may be reconsidered with greater care, and, without wounding the faith and without injuring religion, those priests who wavered and were forced to sign may return into the peace of Christ, with only their errors removed. [c]

So that we may be worthy to obtain this, may your well-proven faith and protection, which has always helped the church in her labors, be pleased to advance our petition with our most gracious prince, under a special commission from the blessed apostle Peter to do so. Then, before this civil and destructive war gains strength within the church, he may grant an opportunity of restoring unity with God’s help, knowing that the strength of his empire will grow with every widening of catholic freedom that his kindly will brings about.

Dated the 13th of October, in the consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes (in the year 449).