and 458). These epistles are wholly occupied with the controversial statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation. His others are devoted almost entirely to discipline and organization. Of his genuine sermons 96 remain, five, "de natali suo" (vid. sup.), on the see of St. Peter; six, "de collectis," on the duty of almsgiving; nine, "de dec. mens. jejunio," on the duty of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting; ten, "de Nativitate," theological and practical discourses on the Incarnation; eight, "in Epiphaniae solemnitate," containing more narrative than do the Christmas sermons, and specially applicable to an age no longer tried by persecution; twelve, for Lent, on fasting and works of mercy; one on the Transfiguration; nineteen on the passion, preached on Sundays and Wednesdays in Holy Week, being devotional and practical commentaries on the Gospel narrative; two for Easter, preached on the eve; two for Ascensiontide; three for Pentecost, containing theological statements; four for the Pentecostal fast; four on the feasts on St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Lawrence; nine on the fast of the seventh month; one on the Beatitudes; and one against Eutyches when some Egyptian merchants arrived who tried to justify the doings of the Egyptian Eutychians.
Leo's style is generally forcible, and always to the point—businesslike and severe, epigrammatic and terse in expression. No doubt the love of epigram and antithesis, characteristic of his age, always tends to simple mannerism and obscurity, but in Leo the tendency is under control; he is almost always weighty and clear, and sometimes eloquent. To impress his meaning, he has no objection whatever to repeating himself (Serm. xxv. init.). Some epistles (e.g. Epp. cxxiv. and clxv.) are extremely similar even in language. His sermons are in very much the same style as his epistles. Sozomen (vii. 19) says "that in his day in Rome neither bishop nor any one else teaches the people in the church." This statement is denied and its meaning disputed (cf. notes in loc. and Migne, Patr. lv. p. 197), but at least we should judge from Leo's sermons that there is no tradition of pulpit eloquence behind him. His tone is that of the Christian bishop, reproving, exhorting, and instructing with the severity of a Roman censor (Milman, Lat. Christianity, i. 233). Sometimes indeed he rises to eloquence, but generally speaks with a terse brevity, more adapted, but for its epigrams which would catch the ear, to be read than merely listened to. The sermons are mostly very short, and the practical aspect of the truth as opposed to the speculative is specially prominent. If Christ has renewed our nature, we must live up to the possibilities of the nature He has renewed. The mystery of the Incarnation is incomprehensible by the understanding; but for that let us rejoice, "sentiamus nobis bonum esse quod vincimur" (Serm. xxix.). Christ must be God and man—man to unite us to Himself, God to save us, "Expergiscere igitur, o homo, et dignitatem tuae cognosce naturae; recordare te factum ad imaginem Dei, quae etsi in Adam corrupta in Christo tamen est reformata" (xxvii. 6).
Leo's theological statements are always characterized by great clearness, fulness, strength, an intense reverence for dogma, and a deep conviction of its supreme importance. His theology is throughout of the Western type, for he is wholly on the practical, not on the speculative, side of theology. Philosophical theory, speculation on the relation of the Persons in the Trinity, there is none, only a clear and powerful grasp upon the dogma as an inexpugnable truth of quite incomparable practical importance. Moreover, his statement of the doctrine of the Trinity is Western, tallying with the Athanasian Creed, with none of the Eastern doctrine of "subordination" remaining, "In Trinitate enim divina, nihil dissimile, nihil impar est, ut omnibus existentiae gradibus exclusis, nulls ibi Persona sit anterior, nulla posterior" (Serm. lxxv.; lxxvi. 2, cf. Serm. xxii. 2, where he interprets "My Father is greater than I" of the Incarnate Son only). Being ignorant of Greek, he could not be versed in Eastern theology; but in the "testimonia patrum" (Ep. ccxv.), more Greek than Latin fathers are quoted (of course from translations).
His Doctrine of the Incarnation.—This was produced in antagonism to Eutychianism and is coloured by this antagonism. The Eutychianism which he opposes is not so much the particular doctrine of the particular man as that which he represents—namely, the denial of the real and permanent humanity of Jesus Christ. He presents a dilemma to Eutyches: either, he says, denying as you do the two natures in Christ, you must hold the impiety of Apollinaris, and assert that the Deity was converted into flesh and became passible and mortal, or if you shrink from that you fall into the Manichean madness of denying the reality of the body and the bodily acts (Ep. cxxiv. 2). If he can escape from this dilemma, he is sure to be only veering to the opposite pole of Arianism. For Christ is spoken of as being "raised," "exalted," etc. What is exalted if the humanity is not real? You must assert the divinity of Christ to be an inferior one, capable of exaltation (Ep. lix. 3). Thus Eutyches is to Leo the representative of the "Manichean impiety," as he is fond of calling it, which denies the reality of our Lord's manhood. This gives him his starting-point to assert our Lord's true and perpetual humanity, while avoiding the contrary Nestorian error of abstracting from His perfect divinity, which was always being charged upon the anti-Eutychians, "in integra ergo veri hominis perfectaque natura verus natus est Deus, totus in suis, totus in nostris . . . humana augens, divina non minuens" (Ep. xxviii. 3) The human nature was really created and really assumed; created in being assumed (Ep. xxxvi. 3). There is the whole of human nature, body and soul, and the whole of the divine (Ep. xxxv. 2); each nature remains distinct in its operations, "glorificata permanet in glorificante, Verbo scilicet operante quod Verbi est et carne exsequente quod carnis est. Unum horum coruscat miraculis, aliud succumbit injuriis"; "proprietas divinae humanaeque naturae individua permanet." All through the life he traces the duality of the operations in the unity of the Person (Epp. xxviii.; cxxiv. 5). And so perfect is this unity
