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 wholly merged in the sense of the surpassing dignity of his see, and his zeal was always high-minded and inspired by an overmastering passion for unity in faith and discipline, and it might have fared ill with that faith and discipline in those days of weakness and trouble if a man of his persistence, integrity, piety, and strength had not been raised up to defend and secure both the one and the other. The notes of the discipline which he enforced were authority, uniformity, and antiquity, the authorities to which he appealed Scripture, tradition, and the decrees of councils or the holy see. His zeal for uniformity shewed itself in the beginning of his reign by his care that the whole of Christendom should celebrate Easter on the same day. In 444 according to the Roman calculation, it fell on Mar. 26, according to the Alexandrian on Apr. 23. In this difficulty Leo wrote to St. Cyril, who replied, of course, in favour of the Alexandrian computation, and Leo had to surrender his point: "non quia ratio manifesta docuerit, sed quia unitatis cura persuaserit," and the Roman cycle gave way to the Alexandrian (Epp. lxxxviii. xcvi. cxxi. cxxii. cxxxiii. [from Proterius of Alexandria], cxxxvii. cxxxviii.). Where it did not clash with his own he could support the authority of other bishops. He maintained the rights of metropolitans and reproved a bishop for appealing to himself in a difficulty instead of consulting his metropolitan (Ep. cviii. 2). The bishop was to rule with a strong hand. He must know the law and must not shrink from enforcing it, for it is "negligent rulers who nourish the plague, while they shrink from applying to it an austere remedy," and the "care of those committed to us requires that we should follow up with the zeal of faith those who, themselves destroyed, would destroy others" (Epp. i. 5; iv. 2; vii.). Among his disciplinary directions were regulations forbidding the ordination of slaves (Ep. iv.), which, though justified on the ground that they are not free for the Lord's service, are couched in language breathing more of the Roman patrician than of the Christian bishop (cf. "quibus nulla natalium dignitas suffragatur," "tanquam servilis vilitas hunc honorem capiat," "sacrum ministerium talis consortii vilitate polluitur"). Moreover a second marriage, or the marriage of a widow or divorced woman, was a bar to orders (Epp. iv. 2, 3; xii. 5), and those in orders, even subdeacons, must abstain from "carnale connubium, ut et qui habent, sint tanquam non habentes, et qui non habent, permaneant singulares" (Epp. xiv. 4 and clxvii. 3). The day of ordination and consecration was to be Sunday only (Ep. vi.) or Saturday night (Ep. ix.). The proper antecedents of the consecration of a bishop he declared to be "vota civium, testimonia populorum, honoratorum arbitrium, electio clericorum (Ep. x. 4, 6; ccxvii. 1). In case of a division of votes the metropolitan must decide and be guided by the preponderance of supporters and of qualifications (Ep. xiv. 5). When ordained no cleric was to be allowed to wander; he must remain in his own church (Ep. i.; cf. xiii. 4; xiv. 7). All must rise in due order from the lower to the higher grades (Ep. xii. 4; cf. Ep. xix.). Unambiguous condemnation of heresy is to be required before ordination from those who are suspected; and those who are reconverted must give up hope of promotion (Epp. xviii.; cxxxv. 2). The multiplication of bishops in small places where they are not needed is forbidden (c. 10). As he insists on the relative dignity of different parts of the body of Christ (Ep. cxix. 6), so he reasons that each part should fulfil only its own functions. Laymen and monks—i.e. those extra ordinem sacerdotalem—are not to be allowed to preach (Epp. cxix.; cxx. 6). He would enforce local discipline by insisting on provincial councils. Baptism was only to be given at Easter or Pentecost, except in cases of necessity (Epp. xvi. and clxviii.). For the Mass, the rule of the Roman church, which he would enforce on Alexandria also, is that where the church will not hold all the faithful, it should be celebrated on the same day as often as is necessary for them all to "offer" (Ep. ix. 2). As to ecclesiastical penance, believing that "indulgence of God cannot be obtained except by sacerdotal supplication," he gives rules for receiving penitents, etc. (Epp. cviii. 2; clxvii. 2, 7–14), and directs that in ordinary cases ("de penitentia quae a fidelibus postulatur ") private confession, first to God and then to the priest, should be substituted for public confession, the scandals in which might deter from penitence altogether (Ep. clxviii.). The laity under penitential discipline are exhorted to abstain from commerce and the civil law courts (Ep. clxvii. 10, 11), and, even those who have at any time been penitents are advised to abstain from marriage and ordered to abstain from military service (cc. 12–13). Neo of Ravenna asked whether returned captives who had no memory of baptism should be baptized. On this, as a "novum et inauditum" point, Leo consulted the synod, "that the consideration of many persons might lead more surely to the truth" (Ep. clxvi. p. 1406). He greatly dreads appearing to sanction a repetition of baptism, but decides that where no remembrance is possible and no evidence can be obtained, baptism may be given. Leo had a strong opinion on usury. "Fenus pecuniae," he says, "est funus animae." "Caret omni humanitate" (Serm. xvii.), and it is forbidden to the laity as to the clergy (Ep. iv. 2, 4). "Penitence," he says, "is to be measured not by length of time, but by sorrow of heart" (Ep. clix. 4); "not instituting what is new, but restoring what is old," is his canon of reformation (Ep. x. 2). Among his rules for episcopal government we may notice the following as characteristic: "Integritas praesidentium salus est subditorum, et ubi est incolumitas obedientiae ibi sana est forma doctrinae" (xii. 1); or this: "sic est adhibenda correptio, ut semper sit salva dilectio;" or this: "constantiam mansuetudo commendet, justitiam lenitas temperet, patientia contineat libertatem."

Leo's theology is to be gathered chiefly from some six or seven dogmatic epistles and from his sermons (Epp. xxviii. the tome to Flavian, xxv. to Julian, lix. to the church of Constantinople, cxxiv. to the monks of Palestine, cxxxix. to Juvenal, clxv. the "second tome," to the emperor Leo, all written between 449