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THE LIVES AND TIMES OF THE POPES IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
SAINT LEO I A.D. 440-461
SAINT LEO, son of Quintian, is called the Great, on account of his rare and eminent knowledge. According to some authors, he was a Roman, but others make him a native of Tuscany. Leo had been created cardinal-deacon by Pope Saint Zosimus, and he was absent from Rome at the time of the death of Saint Sixtus III, having been sent to Gaul by the senate, to establish a good understanding between the Roman generals Aetius and Albinus. Theodosius knew him from having previously seen him in Asia, presiding over the Council of Ephesus, and had conceived a high opinion both of his talents and his piety. He had no ambitious feeling when he was named pope, in spite of his absence. He immediately applied himself to condemn and put down the still existing heresies of the Manichaeans, the Priscillianists, the Pelagians, and the Eutychians. Father Cacciari, in his edition of the works of Saint Leo, has collected all the documents which tend to prove the great services which this pope rendered to the Church during the dangers which continued to threaten her both in the East and in the West. Among the letters then published must be mentioned the celebrated Letter 24 to Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople. Of that letter we shall have more to say when we reach the pontificate of Saint Hilary, who strongly confirms that decision in praising the wisdom of his illustrious predecessor. Saint Leo soon had occasion to show the activity of his courage. Saint Hilary, Bishop of Aries, had deposed from the see of Besançon the Bishop Celidonius, accused of having married a widow and having as a secular judge pronounced sentences of death. For those two causes he could not be bishop, as it was strictly forbidden to raise to the episcopate a bigamist or a criminal judge. From the bishop's sentence Celidonius appealed to Saint Leo, who, finding him falsely accused and completely innocent, re-established him in his see. In 451 Saint Leo had the fourth general council celebrated at Chalcedon. There were present six hundred and thirty-six Fathers, exclusive of four legates of the pope; the Emperor Marcian, the Empress Pulcheria, and many senators were present. This council condemned Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, and Eutyches, archimandrite or abbot-general of a celebrated monastery of Constantinople, who recognized but one nature in Jesus Christ. In this council also was treated the case of Bassian and Stephen, the former of whom had been deposed from the see of Ephesus, and the latter put in his place. It was decided that a third bishop should be ordained, and that the two contestants should be supported at the expense of the church treasury, receiving two hundred gold crowns per annum "for support and consolation", as the council expressed it. That was the origin of ecclesiastical pensions, until then unknown. Among the innumerable decisions of Saint Leo must be distinguished that by which he ordered the removal from ecclesiastical office and sacerdotal title of those who should marry widows. He strictly forbade usury, whether among clergy or laity. In 459 he forbade public confession, as never having been commanded by the Church. He called that confession a "presumption against the apostolical rule", secret confession being sufficient. In the Canon of the Mass he added the words, "Sanctum Sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam"; but it is not certain that it was he who also ordered the saying of the words, "Ite missa est", and "Benedicamus Domino". It is inferred from Letter 84 that Saint Leo was the first to accredit apostolic nuncios to princes. In fact, in a letter addressed to the Emperor Marcian, the pontiff begins by begging the emperor to treat the Bishop Julian kindly; and he adds: "I beg your affection for your venerator, my brother, the Bishop Julian; his deferences will represent to you my presence. I trust entirely to the sincerity of his faith; I have delegated to him my powers against the heretics of our time, and I have required that, on account of the care he is to have for the churches and for the peace, he should remain near your person. Deign to listen, as though my own voice spoke, to his observations for the unity of Catholic concord". Many similar recommendations still in our own day are in the letters of credit of an apostolic nuncio. One of the finest incidents in the life of Saint Leo was the determined courage with which, near Mantua, he prevailed on Attila, king of the Huns, a Tartar people, who called himself the scourge of God, to withdraw his army from Italy. (Baronius relates, on the authority of a writer of the eighth century, that Attila saw besides Pope Leo, while he was speaking, two real persons, whom he believed to be Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It is very clear that the sudden retirement of that barbarian, at the bidding of a priest, is a greater marvel than any apparition.) It was to escape from that Scourge that the populations of Padua, of Vicenza, and of Verona founded the city of Venice. God had reserved yet another triumph to Saint Leo. Genseric, king of the Vandals, advanced with his army towards Rome. Leo met the conqueror six miles from the city. He could not obtain a promise that the city should be spared, but the king promised that no depredation or hostility should be committed against those who should seek shelter in the basilicas of Saint John, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul. The remainder of the city was sacked for fourteen days. Among other rich spoils, the plunderers found there the vessels of gold and silver which Titus had brought from Jerusalem. Until then those vessels had been most carefully preserved, but it was forgotten to conceal them in one of the basilicas spared by Genseric. Trithemius, in his Ecclesiastical Writers, calls Leo the Tully of ecclesiastical faculties, the Homer of sacred theology, the Aristotle of arguments for the faith, the Peter of apostolical authority, and the Paul of Christian charity. Quesnel, on his part, in a kind of dedication at the head of his edition of the whole works of this pope, calls Saint Leo "an apostolic man, luminary of the Church, pillar of the orthodox faith, interpreter of the voice of Peter, defender of the apostolical dogmas, a man who has equalled the apostles, and who is equal to the angels". In truth, this great pontiff was not only an author profoundly versed in sacred knowledge, but also very skilful in the profane sciences, as his letters and sermons attest. They display a just and exact doctrine, a more than ordinary gravity and eloquence, accompanied by a style which sometimes perhaps is incorrect, but which nevertheless pleases and charms by the imagery which adorns it. M. Receveur gives the following judgment : "Although the writings of Saint Leo are not free from some faults partaking of the bad taste of his age, they are remarkable for elegance and nobleness of style, precision and neatness of ideas, strength of reasoning, and the pathetic movements of a brilliant eloquence which seizes the mind and penetrates the heart". In four ordinations, in December, this pope created a hundred and eighty or a hundred and eighty-six bishops, eightyone priests, twelve, or, as some say, thirty-one, deacons. He governed the Church twenty-one years, one month, and four days, and died on the 11th of April, 461. He was the first pontiff buried in Saint Peter's. His predecessors had been interred in the subterraneans, beside the holy apostle, or in the portico. His remains have four times been removed into four different parts of that basilica. The first translation took place in the reign of Sergius I, in the year 688. That pontiff had been removed from the atrium of the old basilica into the interior. Gregory XIII, about the year 1580, had them removed to the chapel which he raised in honor of this saint in the present basilica. The third removal was ordered by Paul V in 1607. On the 26th of March the body was found almost perfect, with the pontifical ensigns and the pallium. Paul ordered that the precious relic should be placed on the following day under the altar of the Blessed Mary della Colonna, where were already deposited the bodies of Saints Leo II, Leo III, and Leo IV. Finally, Clement XI, in 1715, leaving the three bodies just named under the altar, ordered the body of Saint Leo I to be removed on the 11th of April, the feast-day of the saint, and with solemn pomp conveyed to the altar named after the saint previously erected by Innocent II. There is placed the celebrated bas-relief by Alexander Algardi, which represents the saint meeting Attila. The sculptor has not forgotten the apparition of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which produces an admirable effect in that dramatic composition. Saint Leo shows to the Scythian king the two apostles, and threatens him with their anger. That bas-relief, placed between two pillars of Oriental granite, shows with an imposing majesty. It is one of the finest works of modern sculpture. Benedict XIV, while only promoter of the faith and canon of Saint Peter, took part in this last translation, and he describes it in his work on the canonization of the saints. So many authors speak of Saint Leo that it is almost impossible to cite them. But we must mention that the edition of Saint Leo's works given by Quesnel is accused of falsifications, and that full confidence may be given to the editions by Cacciari, of the order of Carmelites, and by the brothers Peter and Jerome Ballerini, learned priests of Verona. The Jesuit library at Rome contains a
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