To Paschasinus of Lilybaeum, on Eutyches and the Date of Easter

Leo the bishop to Paschasinus, bishop of Lilybaeum. [a]

Brother, I do not doubt that all the causes of scandal that have arisen in the churches of the East about the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ are fully known to you. Yet in case anything may have happened to escape your care, I have sent for your attentive reading and study our letter which deals with this matter most fully, the one we sent to Flavian of holy memory and which the universal church has accepted. I have done so in order that, understanding how completely this whole blasphemous error has been destroyed with God’s help, you too in your love for God may show the same spirit. You should know that those men are utterly to be abhorred who, following the blasphemy and madness of Eutyches, have dared to say that there are not two natures, that is, perfect Godhead and perfect manhood, in our Lord, the only Son of God, who took it upon himself to restore mankind. They think they can deceive our wariness by saying that they believe the one nature of the Word to be incarnate. But the Word of God, in the Godhead of the Father, of himself and of the Holy Spirit, does indeed have one nature; yet when he took on himself the reality of our flesh, our nature too was united to his unchangeable substance. For there could be no talk even of Incarnation unless the Word took the flesh upon himself. And this taking on of flesh forms so complete a union that no division must be imagined between the Godhead and the living flesh, not only in the blessed Virgin’s giving birth but also in her conception, since in the unity of person the Godhead and the manhood came together both in the conception and in the giving birth of the Virgin. [b]

So the same blasphemy is to be abhorred in Eutyches as the fathers once condemned and overthrew in earlier heretics. Their example ought to have helped this foolish fellow, by putting him on his guard against what he could not grasp with his own understanding, so that he would not empty the peerless mystery of our salvation by denying the reality of human flesh in our Lord Jesus Christ. For if there is not true and perfect human nature in him, then he did not take us upon himself, and the whole of our belief and teaching, according to his heresy, is emptiness and lying. But because the truth does not lie, and the Godhead cannot suffer, both substances remain in God the Word in one person. And the church confesses her Savior in such a way as to acknowledge him both unable to suffer in his Godhead and able to suffer in the flesh, as the apostle says: “although he was crucified through our weakness, yet he lives by the power of God.” [d]

And so that you may be more fully instructed in everything, beloved, I have sent you certain quotations from our holy fathers, so that you may clearly see what they thought and what they preached to the churches about the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation. Our delegates also produced these quotations at Constantinople, together with our letter. And you should know that the whole church of Constantinople, with all its monasteries and many bishops, has given its assent to that letter, and by their signatures they have anathematized Nestorius and Eutyches with their dogmas. You should also know that I have recently received a letter from the bishop of Constantinople, which says that the bishop of Antioch has sent instructions to all the bishops throughout his provinces and has gained their assent to my letter and their condemnation of Nestorius and Eutyches in the same way.

We also think it necessary to lay this on your care. Inquire diligently, in those places where you are sure of getting information, about that point in the reckoning of Easter which we have found in the table of Theophilus and which troubles us greatly. Discuss with those who are learned in such calculations the date on which the day of the Lord’s resurrection should be kept four years from now. For the next Easter, by God’s goodness, is to be kept on the 23rd of March, the one after that on the 12th of April, and the one after that on the 4th of April. But Theophilus of holy memory has fixed the 24th of April to be kept in the year 455, which we find to be quite contrary to the rule of the church; while in our Easter cycles, as you know very well, Easter that year is set down to be kept on the 17th of April. So, to remove all our doubts, we ask you to discuss this point carefully with the best authorities, so that in future we may avoid this kind of mistake. Dated the 24th of June, in the consulship of the illustrious Adelfius (in the year 451). [e]