sed multo magis ab erroribus jejunandum" (xci. 2). The "abstinentia jejunantis" must be the "refectio pauperis" (xiii.); "sentiant humanitatem nostram aegritudines decumbentium, imbecillitates debilium, labores exulum, destitutio pupillorum et desolatarum maestitudo viduarum" (xl. 4). Fasting without such works of mercy is not a purification of the soul, but a mere affliction of the flesh (xv.). In Lent, prisoners are to be set free and debts forgiven (xli. 3). If a man cannot fast from bodily weakness, let him do works of love (lxxxvii. 3). Through all Leo's sermons in penitential seasons there runs a great sense of the unity of the church's work and the co-operation of all her members in the penitential discipline and prayers. "The fullest abolition of sins is obtained when the whole church joins in one prayer and one confession" (lxxxviii. 3). The merit of holy obedience is the strength of the church against her enemies (lxxxviii. 2, 3). Public acts are better than individual ones (lxxxix. 2). Leo's remedies for sins—as well those of habitual laxity as the more venial and accidental—are self-examination, penitential works, fasts, prayers, works of mercy and moral self-discipline as the means of purification (cf. 1. 1, 2; lxxxviii. 3; xli. 1; xliii. 3). Forgiveness of injuries (xliii. 4) and the exercise of love (xlv.) are insisted on from this point of view: "qui potuit malitia pollui, studeat benignitate purgari" (xlv. 4). The Christian is purified by moral effort and discipline and his sanctification is his purification (but cf. xcii. 1; l. 1, 2; lxxxviii. 5).
Another aspect of Leo's work as an ecclesiastical writer remains to be considered. "The collect as we have it is Western in every feature: in that 'unity of sentiment and severity of style' which Lord Macaulay has admired; in its Roman brevity and majestic conciseness, its freedom from all luxuriant ornament and all inflation of phraseology" (Bright, Ancient Collects, append. 206); and there is no early Western writer to whose style it bears a closer resemblance and with whose character it is more consonant than that of Leo, its reputed inventor. How much of Leo's work the fragment of the Sacramentary attributed to him by its first editor in 1735, P. Joseph Blanchinius, actually contains, it is impossible to say. "Muratori holds it to be a series of Missae, clumsily put together by a private person at the end of the 5th cent., containing much that [Leo] wrote." Certainly it is Roman, certainly the oldest Roman sacramentary, and certainly it contains much which is in the style and expresses the doctrine of St. Leo. As certainly Leo's work, Quesnel with propriety specifies two noble "prefaces," for the consecration of a bishop and a presbyter ("Deus honorum omnium," and "Domine sancte," § xxvii. 111 and 113, Migne), and an "Allocutio archidiaconi ad episcopum pro reconciliatione poenitentium" (at the end of the Sacramentary in Migne's ed.). In the Liber Pontificalis the addition of the words "sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam" to the Canon of the Mass is ascribed to Leo (Migne, Patr. liv. p. 1233). Collects in the English Prayer-book derived from the Leonine Sacramentary are those for the 3rd Sun. after Easter (referring originally to those who had been baptized on Easter Eve), the 5th Sun. after Trinity (suggested originally by the disasters of the dying Western empire), and the 9th, 13th, and 14th Sundays after Trinity. (See Bright, pp. 208, 209).
Before concluding this notice of Leo as a theologian, we must mention a statement of Gennadius (de Script. Eccles. lxxxiv.; Patr. Lat. lviii. 1107), that the letters of pope Leo on the true Incarnation of Christ are said to have been addressed to their various destinations, and dictated ("ad diversos datae et dictatae") by Prosper of Aquitaine. It is also stated that one or two of Leo's sermons are found in one MS. assigned to St. Prosper. But Gennadius himself attributes "the tome," the chief of Leo's letters on the Incarnation, absolutely to his own hand (c. lxx.). It is very probable that Leo should have brought Prosper, "doctissimus illorum temporum," with him from Gaul to Rome, to assist him in his conflicts with heresy: he may have been secretary to him, as Jerome was to pope Damasus;[1] he may specially have exerted himself for St. Leo against the Pelagians. But the unity and individuality of style which run all through St. Leo's writings, and which appear not least strongly marked in his dogmatic epistles, forbid us to attribute to Prosper in any sense their authorship, though he may have assisted in their composition. (Cf. Tillem. xv. p. 540, xvi. 25, and note 7 on St. Prosper; Arendt, Leo der Grosse, p. 417, etc.)
Leo is said to have restored the silver ornaments of the churches of Rome after the ravages of the Vandals, and repaired the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, placing a mosaic in the latter which represented the adoration of the four-and-twenty elders; and to have built a basilica in honour of St. Cornelius, established some monks by the church of St. Peter, instituted guardians, called at first "cubicularii," and afterwards "capellani," for the tombs of the apostles (Tillem. xv. art. 73; Vita Anastasii, Migne, Patr. Lat. liv. 55, 1234); and received St. Valentine, bp. of Passau, at Rome and sent him to missionary work in Rhaltia (Tillem. xv. 175).
Leo died in 461 (Marcell. Chron., etc.), possibly on Nov. 10 (Tillem. xv. n. 73). He was buried in the church of St. Peter, where, it is said, no previous pope not a martyr was buried (Anast. Vita Pontif., Patr. Lat. liv. p. 60, Migne). He has been honoured as a saint and confessor. Benedict XIV. in 1754 decreed him the title of a doctor ecclesiae (Patr. Lat. Iv. 835). He is commemorated in the Roman church on Apr. 11; in the Eastern on Feb. 18 (AA. SS. Apr. ii. p. 15).
The genuine works of Leo which we possess are 96 sermons and 173 letters. On works ascribed to him (the de Vocatione, etc.) consult discussions in Migne's Patr. Lat. For history of edd. see Schoenemann's Notitia Hist.-Lit. in S. Leonem, prefixed to Migne's ed. The most famous editions of his whole works
- ↑ It appears probable that Ep. cxx. (to Theodoret) was written by a secretary, and that Leo's personal salutation is added at the end. See concluding words, "et alia manu, Deus to incolumem custodiat, frater charissime." Cf. conclusion of Ep. cxxiii. (Proterius to Leo), and Marcian's letter, Ep. c.
