Pope Leo I, 'the Great'
(r. 440-461), Third Sermon on His Ordination
Trans. Charles Lett Feltoe, The Letters and Sermons
of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome,
in A
Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian
Church, ed. Philip Schaff and
Henry Wace, 2d ser., vol. 12 (New York, 1895; repr. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), pp. 116-118.
Uploaded and modernized with introductory notes by John S. Ott,
Department of History, Portland State University. A portion of
the same translation appears on the Internet Medieval Sourcebook at
Fordham University, formerly maintained by Paul Halsall. Feltoe's
translation is in the public domain.
The text below is slightly abridged. Footnotes in the original
text have generally been omitted here and
biblical quotations have been revised following the Oxford Study
Edition of the New Revised English
Bible with Apocrypha, ed. Samuel Sandmel (Oxford University
Press, 1989). Revised 8 July 2010.
Notes to the text:
Italian-born, Leo rose to preeminence in the Roman church and went on
to
become one of its most powerful early medieval popes. During his
eventful pontificate, he combatted established and emergent
non-orthodox Christian sects, including Pelagians, Priscillianists,
Manichaeans, Nestorians, and Eutychians. His reign was crucial
for the
centralization of the priesthood under papal power and authority, as
his sermon below on the
"Petrine doctrine" epitomizes. Leo sent Latin delegates to the
important, fourth ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, convened by
the Roman (Byzantine) Emperor
Marcian (r. 450-457) and attended by more than 500 bishops from all
over
Christendom. The Council grappled and ultimately decreed the
orthodox position on the nature of Christ, repudiating the assertion
that Christ possessed only one nature, a view then widely held by many
Christians (termed Monophysites for their subordination of Christ's
human nature to his divinity). The Council of Chalcedon passed 27
canons and added a subsequent resolution. Leo rejected the
resolution, which elevated the church and patriarch of Constantinople
to an
authoritative position within Christendom virtually equal to that of
Rome. The Monophysite reaction to Chalcedon's canons on Christ's
nature was violent and angry in Egypt and Palestine, and the unity of
the Christian church was pressed hard in the ensuing decades.
Leo is equally famous for confronting Attila the Hun outside Rome the
following year, in 452. He and other delegates sent by the Romans
successfully negotiated Attila out of making a frontal assault on the
city. Attila retired and died the following year.
The sermon below is dated to 443 C.E.
Delivered on the anniversary of
his elevation to the pontificate.
I. The honor of being raised to the episcopate must be
referred solely to the divine head of the Church.
As often as God's mercy deigns
to bring around the day of His gifts to us, there is, dearly beloved,
just and reasonable cause for rejoicing, if only our appointment to
[papal] office be referred to the praise of Him who gave it [to
us]. For though this recognition of God may well be found in all
of His priests, yet I take it to be peculiarly binding on me, who,
regarding my own utter insignificance and the greatness of the office
undertaken, ought myself also to utter that exclamation of the prophet,
"O Lord, I have heard tell of thy deeds; I have seen, O Lord, thy
work." [1] . . .
And finally, now that the mystery of this Divine priesthood has
descended to human agency, it runs not by the line of birth, nor is
that which flesh and blood created chosen, but without regard to the
privilege of paternity and succession by inheritence, those men are
received by the Church as its rulers whom the Holy Ghost
prepares. So that in the people of God's adoption, the whole body
of which is priestly and royal, it is not the prerogative of earthly
origin which obtains the unction, but the condescension of Divine grace
which creates the bishop.
II. From Christ and through St. Peter the priesthood is
handed on in perpetuity.
Although, therefore, dearly beloved, we be found both weak and
slothful in fulfilling the duties of our office, because, whatever
devoted and vigorous action we desire to do, we are hindered by the
frailty of our very condition; yet having the unceasing propitiation of
the Almighty and perpetual Priest, who being like us and yet equal with
the Father, brought down His godhead even to things human, and raised
His manhood even to things divine, we worthily and piously rejoice over
His dispensation, whereby, though He has delegated the care of His
sheep to many shepherds, yet He has not Himself abandoned the
guardianship of His beloved flock. And from His overruling and
eternal protection we have received the support of the Apostles' aid
also, which assuredly does not cease from its operation. And the
strength of the foundation, on which the whole superstructure of the
Church is reared, is not weakened by the weight of the temple that
rests upon it. For the solidity of that faith which was praised
in the chief of the Apostles is perpetual: and as that remains which
Peter believed in Christ, so that remains which Christ instituted in
Peter. For when, as has been read in the Gospel lesson, the Lord
had asked the disciples whom they believed Him to be amid the various
opinions that were held, and the blessed Peter had replied, saying,
"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God," the Lord says, "Simon
son of Jonah, you are favored indeed! You did not learn that from
mortal man; it was revealed to you by my heavenly Father. And I
say this to you: You are Peter, the Rock, and on this rock will I build
my church, and the powers of death shall never conquer it. I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; what you forbid on earth
shall be forbidden in heaven, and what you allow on earth shall be
allowed in heaven."[2]
III. St. Peter's work is still carried out by his successors.
The dispensation of truth therefore abides; and the blessed Peter
persevering in the strength of the rock, which he has received, has not
abandoned the helm of the Church, which he undertook. For he was
ordained before the rest in such a way that, from his being called the
rock, from his being pronounced the foundation, from his being
constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, from his being set
as the umpire to bind and to loose, whose judgments shall retain their
validity in heaven, from all these mystical titles we might know the
nature of his association with Christ. And still today he more
fully
and effectually performs what is entrusted to him, and carries out
every part of his duty and charge in Him and with Him, through whom he
has been glorified. And so if anything is rightly done and
rightly
decreed by us, if anything is won from the mercy of God by our daily
supplications, it is of his work and merits whose power lives and whose
authority prevails in his see [of Rome]. For this, dearly
beloved, was gained by
that confession, which, inspired in the Apostle's heart by God the
Father, transcended all the uncertainty of human opinions, and was
endued with the firmness of a rock, which no assaults could
shake. For
throughout the Church Peter daily says, "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God," and every tongue which confesses the Lord accepts the
instruction his voice conveys. This faith conquers the devil, and
breaks the bonds of his prisoners. It uproots us from this earth
and
plants us in heaven, and the gates of Hades cannot prevail against
it.[3]
For with such solidity is it endued by God that the depravity of
heretics cannot mar it, nor the unbelief of the heathen overcome it.
IV. This festival then is in St.
Peter's honor, and the progress of his flock redounds to his glory.
And so, dearly beloved, with reasonable obedience we celebrate
today's festival by such methods, that in my humble person he [i.e.,
Peter] may be recognized and honored, in whom abides the care of all
the shepherds, together with the charge of the sheep commended to him,
and whose dignity is not abated even in so unworthy an heir. And
hence the presence of my venerable brothers and fellow-priests, so much
desired and valued by me, will be the more sacred and precious, if they
will transfer the chief honor of this service in which they have
deigned to take part to him whom they know to be not only the patron of
this see [that is, Rome], but also the primate of all bishops.[4]
When, therefore, we utter exhortations in your ears, holy brethren,
believe that he is speaking whose representative we are: because it is
his warning that we give, nothing else but his teaching that we preach,
beseeching you to "be mentally stripped for action"[5] and lead a
chaste and sober life in the fear of God, and not to let your mind
forget his supremacy and consent to the lusts of the flesh. . . .
For though the whole Church, which is in all the world, ought to abound
in all virtues, yet you especially, above all people, it becomes to
excel in deeds of piety, because founded as you are on the very citadel
of the apostolic rock, not only has our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed you
in common with all men, but the blessed apostle Peter has instructed
you far beyond all men. Through the same Christ our Lord. [Amen.]
Endnotes
1. Habakkuk 3:2.
2. Matt. 16:15-19.
3. Echoing again Matt. 16:18.
4. Leo is here referring to himself, of course.
5. Or: "gird up the loins of your mind" (Feltoe trans.). 1 Peter
1:13.