Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 1664
In his letter to Bishop Anastasius of Thessalonica Pople Leo the Great forbids the ordination of men who had more than one wife or married a widow or a divorcee; the ordinations of bishops, presbyters, and deacons are to be celebrated on Sundays; the letter of the Illyrian bishops to which Leo replies was brought to Rome by the Presbyter Nicolaus. Letter 6 of Pope Leo the Great, written in Rome, AD 444.
Letter 6 [inc. "Omnium quidem"]
 
Leo is grateful for the letter from the bishops of Illyricum carried by the Presbyter Nicolaus (petitio tuae dilectionis innotuit per filium nostrum presbyterum Nicolaum) in which they asked him important questions. In response he nominates Anastasius his vicar in Illyricum just as previous popes did with his predecessors.
 
3. Credita itaque tibi, frater charissime, gubernacula pervigil tene, et mentis tuae oculos per omnia quae curae tuae videas iniuncta circumfer, in mercedem tuam profutura custodiens, et his qui disciplinam canonum labefactare nituntur obsistens. Divinae legis sanctio veneranda, et canonum specialius decreta serventur. Per commissas tibi provincias tales Domino sacerdotes, quibus sola vitae et clericalis ordinis suffragantur merita, consecrentur. Nihil gratiae personali, nihil ambitioni, nihil redemptis permittas licere suffragiis. Examinentur diligentius, et per longum vitae tramitem disciplinis ecclesiasticis, qui ordinandi fuerint, imbuantur. Si tamen illis omnia quae a sanctis Patribus sunt constituta conveniant, et quae beatum apostolum Paulum de talibus legimus praecepisse custodierint, ut unius uxoris vir sit, et hanc virginem, ut auctoritas divinae legis cavet, acceperit. Quod ita sollicitius volumus custodiri, ut omnibus excusationibus locum adimamus, ne se quisquam credat posse ad sacerdotium pervenire, qui uxorem antequam Christi gratiam consequeretur accepit, qua deficiente alteram post baptismum coniunxerit sibi. Cum negari uxor illa non possit, nec prioris coniugii numerus aboleri, et eorum ita sit pater filiorum quos ante baptismum ex illa susceperit, quemadmodum et illorum fit quos ex altera post baptismum noscit suscepisse. Sicut enim peccata et quae illicita esse noscuntur per lavacrum baptismatis abolentur, ita quae sunt legis praecepto concessa vel licita non delentur.
 
There follow the decrees saying that the metropolitan bishops shall not ordain bishops without consultation with their primate, i.e. the papal vicar, and that issues that could not be settled at the provincial council shall be referred to Rome.
 
6. Haec itaque in omnium fratrum facies notitiam pervenire, ut nullus deinceps per ignorationem in observandis his quae praecepimus excusandi se reperiat facultatem. Ad ipsos etiam metropolitanos singularum provinciarum nostra, quibus eos moneremus, scripta direximus: ut noverint apostolicis obediendum esse sententiis, et tunc se nobis parere cum fraternitati tuae ex nostra delegatione coeperint, secundum ea quae scripsimus, obedire. Cognovimus sane, quod non potuimus silentio praeterire, a quibusdam fratribus solos episcopos tantum diebus Dominicis ordinari; presbyteros vero et diaconos, circa quos par consecratio fieri debet, passim quolibet die dignitatem officii sacerdotalis accipere; quod contra canones et traditionem Patrum usurpatio corrigenda committit, cum mos quibus est traditus circa omnes sacros ordines debeat omnimodis custodiri; ita ut per longa temporum curricula, qui sacerdos vel levita ordinandus est, per omnes clericalis officii ordines provehatur: ut diuturno discat tempore, cuius et doctor ipse futurus est. Data pridie idus Ianuarias, Theodosio XVIII et Albino coss.
 
(Patrologia Latina 54, 617-620 = Ballerini 1753: 619-623; see also Silva-Tarouca 1937: 56-57)
Letter 6 [inc. "Omnium quidem"]
 
Leo is grateful for the letter from the bishops of Illyricum carried by the Presbyter Nicolaus  (petitio tuae dilectionis innotuit per filium nostrum presbyterum Nicolaum) in which they asked him important questions. In response he nominates Anastasius his vicar in Illyricum just as previous popes did with his predecessors.
 
3. 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 thee 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 is allowed or lawful is not done away.
 
There follow the decrees saying that the metropolitan bishops shall not ordain bishops without consultation with their primate, i.e. the papal vicar, and that issues that could not be settled at the provincial council shall be referred to Rome.
 
6. 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 day before the Ides of January, in the consulship of Theodosius (18th time) and Albinus [=12 January AD 444].
 
(trans. Ch. Lett Feltoe 1895: 5-6)

Discussion:

On the papal vicariate in Illyricum see Wessel 2008: 114-121. See also the letter directed to the bishops of Illyricum [1663].
 

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
  • Danubian provinces and Illyricum
City
  • Rome
  • Thessalonica

About the source:

Author: Leo the Great
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Leo the Great was the bishop of Rome from AD 440 to his death in AD 461. We have the collection of 173 letters of Leo.
Edition:
P. and G. Ballerini eds., Sancti Leoni Magni Romani pontificis opera, vol. 1, Venice 1753
Patrologia Latina, vol. 54
C. Silva-Tarouca, Collectio Thessalonicensis: epistularum Romanorum Pontificum ad vicarios per Illyricum aliosque episcopos, Roma 1937
 
Translation:
Bibliography:
S. Wessel, Leo the Great and the spiritual rebuilding of a universal Rome, Leiden ; Boston 2008.

Categories:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Permanent relationship before ordination
      Family life - More than one marriage
        Further ecclesiastical career - Bishop
          Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
          Impediments or requisits for the office - Marriage
            Act of ordination
              Ecclesiastical administration - Ecclesiastical envoy
              Relation with - Wife
                Relation with - Woman
                  Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops
                    Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1664, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1664