to the Empress Pulcheria: 'The agreement of the bishops, contrary to the rules of the Holy Canons made at Nicasa, the piety of your faith uniting with us, we declare void, and, by the authority of Blessed Peter the Apostle, by a general decree we altogether cancel.'[1] S. Peter Chrysologus writes to Eutyches, who had asked his judgment on his doctrine: 'In all things I exhort you, honourable brother, that you obediently attend to the things which have been written by the blessed Pope of the City of Rome, because Blessed Peter, who in his own See lives and presides, offers the truth to those that seek it. We therefore, for the love of peace and of faith, cannot hear causes of faith without the consent of the Bishop of the City of Rome.'[2]
And here we may stay our course. We have reached the period of undivided unity, when all the world looked to the See of Peter as the source of supreme authority in jurisdiction and in faith. The two keys of jurisdiction and of knowledge, intrinsically inseparable, are here visible in the hands of Leo. The two great prerogatives of Peter, 'Feed my sheep,' and 'I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not,' are as explicitly recognised in the Council of Chalcedon as by us at this day. I forbear to quote the testimony of individual Fathers. S. Augustine and S. Optatus would give it in abundance. But I have endeavoured to exhibit the tradition of the Church in its public and authoritative practice. I think it undeniable that throughout all the
- ↑ Ad Pulcher. ibid. p. 1158, sec. 3.
- ↑ Ep. Petri Chrys. ad Eutychen, inter Opp. S. Leonis, ibid, p. 779.
