Letter 6: The brotherly love of our colleagues makes us read with grateful mind the letters of all priests ; for in them we embrace one another in the spirit as if we were face to face, and by the intercourse of such epistles we are associated in mutual converse. But in this present letter the affection displayed seems to us greater than usual: for it inf...

Leo to his beloved brother Anastasius. The brotherly love of our colleagues means we read letters from our fellow priests with a grateful heart. Through correspondence we embrace one another in spirit as though face to face. But your letter stood out — the affection in it was greater than usual, for it gave a full account of the state of the churches and pressed us to exercise the vigilant care our office demands. We are placed, by the Lord's will, on a watchtower: we must approve what is sound and correct — with whatever remedies are necessary — whatever has gone wrong through anyone's overreach. We want the harvest to be abundant; we cannot afford to let weeds take root. On the authority entrusted to Anastasius Your request has reached us through our son Nicolaus the priest: that you, as your predecessors did, should receive from us authority over Illyricum [the large Roman administrative region covering the western Balkans and northern Greece] for the enforcement of canonical order. We grant this, and we charge you earnestly to allow no concealment or negligence in governing the churches throughout Illyricum, which we commit to you as our representative. We follow the precedent set by Siricius of blessed memory — the first to establish this arrangement — who entrusted those same churches to your predecessor Anysius, a man who had fully deserved the confidence of the Apostolic See. We want you to emulate both your immediate predecessor and those before him, all of whom are known to have deserved and exercised this privilege, so that we may rejoice in the progress of the churches in your care. Things go well when authority is held by someone who acts with integrity and carries out the duties of the priesthood with skill; authority becomes nothing but a burden when the person who holds it fails to exercise proper judgment. On ordination standards Hold the helm entrusted to you firmly, brother, and keep your attention on everything within your charge — protecting what will earn you reward and resisting those who try to undermine canonical discipline. Throughout the provinces committed to you, let only those men be consecrated who are commended by a genuinely worthy life and proper standing among the clergy. Give no room to personal favoritism, political maneuvering, or purchased votes. Examine candidates carefully, and let them be formed in church discipline over a substantial portion of their lives. If all the requirements set down by the holy Fathers are met, and if they have observed everything the blessed Apostle Paul requires — that a priest be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), and that she was a virgin when he married her, as God's law demands — then they may be ordained. We are particularly insistent on this point, to close off every avenue of excuse. No one should imagine he can attain the priesthood if he married before baptism and, after his first wife's death, took a second wife after receiving grace. The earlier marriage cannot be ignored or erased: he is as much the father of children born before baptism as of those born to his second wife afterward. For while sins and unlawful acts are washed away in baptism, what is lawful and permitted is not annulled. On metropolitan ordinations No one is to be ordained a priest throughout these churches without proper deliberation — careful judgments will be formed about candidates who know your scrutiny, brother, is to be expected. Any bishop ordained by his metropolitan without your knowledge should understand that his position with us is uncertain, and those who have presumed to act in this way must answer for it. While each metropolitan retains his authority to ordain within his province, the ordination of metropolitans themselves must be conducted only after careful and considered judgment. We demand particular excellence in those who preside over their fellow priests. Attend to this with all diligence, so that you may be seen to keep the Apostle's instruction: "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily" (1 Timothy 5:22). On synods and appeals to Rome Every brother summoned to a synod must attend and not absent himself, for it is there above all that matters essential to good order ought to be resolved. More frequent gatherings among the Lord's priests make failures far easier to avoid, and close association does more for moral improvement and brotherly affection than almost anything else. If questions arise they can be settled there under the Lord's guidance, with no ill feeling left behind — only deeper love. But if a more serious question arises that cannot be resolved at the synod under your presidency, send your report to us and seek our counsel, so that we may reply under the Lord's inspiration. By our decision we will maintain our right of review in accordance with long-established tradition and the reverence owed to the Apostolic See. Just as we wish you to exercise authority in our name, we reserve to ourselves those matters that cannot be settled locally and those cases in which appeal has been made to us. On the days for ordination See to it that this letter reaches all the brethren, so that no one can claim ignorance of what we require. We have also sent instructions to the metropolitans of the several provinces, so that they understand they must comply with these apostolic directives and that in obeying you, our representative, they obey us. One further matter we cannot pass over: we have heard that certain brethren ordain bishops on Sundays as required, but confer the priesthood on presbyters and deacons on any day indiscriminately. This is contrary to the canons and the tradition of the Fathers — and it must stop. The same rule applies to all sacred orders without exception: after a proper interval, a man being ordained priest or deacon must have advanced through all the lower clerical ranks in sequence, so that he has time to learn what he will one day be required to teach. Dated the 12th of January, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the eighteenth time) and Albinus (AD 444).

Leo to his beloved brother Anastasius. I. He is pleased to have been consulted by the bishops of Illyricum on important questions. The brotherly love of our colleagues makes us read with grateful mind the letters of all priests ; for in them we embrace one another in the spirit as if we were face to face, and by the intercourse of such epistles we are associated in mutual converse. But in this present letter the affection displayed seems to us greater than usual: for it informs us of the state of the churches , and urges us to a vigilant exercise of care by a consideration of our office, so that being placed, as it were, on a watchtower, according to the will of the Lord, we should both lend our approval to things when they run in accordance with our wishes, and correct, by applying the remedies of compulsion, what we observe gone wrong through any aggression: hoping that abundant fruit will be the result of our sowing the seed, if we do not allow those things to increase which have begun to spring up to the spoiling of the harvest. II. Following the examples of his predecessors he nominates Anastasius Metropolitan of Illyricum. Now therefore, dear brother, that your request has been made known to us through our son Nicolaus the priest, that you, too, like your predecessors, might receive from us in our turn authority over Illyricum for the observance of the rules, we give our consent and earnestly exhort that no concealment and no negligence may be allowed in the management of the churches situated throughout Illyricum, which we commit to you in our stead, following the precedent of Siricius of blessed remembrance, who then, for the first time, acting on a fixed method, entrusted them to your last predecessor but one , Anysius of holy memory, who had at the time well deserved of the Apostolic See, and was approved by after events: that he might render assistance to the churches situated in that province whom he wished kept up to discipline. Noble precedents must be followed with eagerness that we may show ourselves in all things like those whose privileges we wish to enjoy. We wish you to imitate your last predecessor but one as well as of your immediate predecessor who is known equally with the former to have both deserved and employed this privilege: so that we may rejoice in the progress of the churches which we commit to you in our stead. For as the conduct of matters progresses creditably when committed to one who acts well and carries out skilfully the duties of the priestly position, so it is found to be only a burden to him who, when power is entrusted to him, uses not the moderation that is due. III. Ordinees must be carefully selected with especial reference to the Canons of the church. And so, dear brother, hold with vigilance the helm entrusted to you, and direct your mind's gaze around on all which you see put in your charge, guarding what will conduce to your reward and resisting those who strive to upset the discipline of the canons. The sanction of God's law must be respected, and the decrees of the canons should be more especially kept. Throughout the provinces committed to you let such priests be consecrated to the Lord as are commended only by their deserving life and position among the clergy. Permit no licence to personal favour, nor to canvassing, nor to purchased votes. Let the cases of those who are to be ordained be investigated carefully and let them be trained in the discipline of the Church through a considerable period of their life. But if all the requirements of the holy Fathers are found in them, and if they have observed all that we read the blessed Apostle Paul to have enjoined on such, viz., that he be the husband of one wife, and that she was a virgin when he married her, as the authority of God's law requires, [then ordain them ]. And this we are extremely anxious should be observed, so as to do away with all place for excuses, lest any one should believe himself able to attain to the priesthood who has taken a wife before he obtained the grace of Christ, and on her decease joined himself to another after baptism. Seeing that the former wife cannot be ignored, nor the previous marriage put out of the reckoning, and that he is as much the father of the children whom he begot by that wife before baptism as he is of those whom he is known to have begotten by the second after baptism. For as sins and things which are known to be unlawful are washed away in the font of baptism, so what are allowed or lawful are not done away. IV. The Metropolitans must not ordain hastily nor without consulting their Primate. Let one be ordained a priest throughout these churches inconsiderately; for by this means ripe judgments will be formed about those to be elected, if your scrutiny, brother, is dreaded. But let any bishop who, contrary to our command, is ordained by his metropolitan without your knowledge, know that he has no assured position with us, and that those who have taken on themselves so to do must render an account of their presumption. But as to each metropolitan is committed such power that he has the right of ordaining in his province, so we wish those metropolitans to be ordained, but not without ripe and well-considered judgment. For although it is seemly that all who are consecrated priests should be approved and well-pleasing to God, yet we wish those to have peculiar excellence whom we know are going to preside over the fellow priests who are assigned to them. And we admonish you, beloved, to see to this the more diligently and carefully, that you may be proved to keep that precept of the Apostles which runs, lay hands suddenly on no man 1 Timothy 5:22 . V. Points which cannot be settled at the provincial synod are to be referred to Rome. Any of the brethren who has been summoned to a synod should attend and not deny himself to the holy congregation: for there especially he should know that what will conduce to the good discipline of the Church must be settled. For all faults will be better avoided if more frequent conferences take place between the priests of the Lord, and intimate association is the greatest help alike to improvement and to brotherly love. There, if any questions arise, under the Lord's guidance they will be able to be determined, so that no bad feeling remains, and only a firmer love exists among the brethren. But if any more important question spring up, such as cannot be settled there under your presidency, brother, send your report and consult us, so that we may write back under the revelation of the Lord, of whose mercy it is that we can do ought, because He has breathed favourably upon us : that by our decision we may vindicate our right of cognizance in accordance with old-established tradition and the respect that is due to the Apostolic See: for as we wish you to exercise your authority in our stead, so we reserve to ourselves points which cannot be decided on the spot and persons who have made appeal to us. VI. Priests and deacons may not be ordained on weekdays any more than bishops. You shall take order that this letter reach the knowledge of all the brethren, so that no one hereafter find an opportunity to excuse himself through ignorance in observing these things which we command. We have directed our letter of admonition to the metropolitans themselves also of the several provinces, that they may know that they must obey the Apostolic injunctions, and that they obey us in beginning to obey you, brother, our delegate according to what we have written. We hear, indeed, and we cannot pass it over in silence, that only bishops are ordained by certain brethren on Sundays only; but presbyters and deacons, whose consecration should be equally solemn , receive the dignity of the priestly office indiscriminately on any day, which is a reprehensible practice contrary to the canons and tradition of the Fathers , since the custom ought by all means to be kept by those who have received it with respect to all the sacred orders: so that after a proper lapse of time he who is to be ordained a priest or deacon may be advanced through all the ranks of the clerical office, and thus a man may have time to learn that of which he himself also is one day to be a teacher. Dated the 12th of January, in the consulship of Theodosius (18th time) and Albinus (444). About this page Source. Translated by Charles Lett Feltoe. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3604006.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.