Folio 90

St. Leo I, The Great, 440-461

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that to be at all Catholic which appears to be contrary to the views presented above.

ST. SIXTUS III 432-440

"Creed of the union" of the year 433, by which peace was restored between St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Antiochenes [St. Cyril, Ep. 39: MG 77, 176 D f. 7; see R n. 2060; approved by St. Sixtus III, App. n. 5002 ff.]

ST. LEO I, THE GREAT 440-461

The Incarnation1 (against Eutyches)2

[From the dogmatic epistle (28) "Lectis dilectionis tuae" to Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, June 13, 449]

(2) . . . see R n. 2182.

143. (3) The uniqueness of each nature being preserved and combined in one person, humility was assumed by majesty, weakness by strength, mortality by eternity, and for the sake of paying the debt of our creation, an inviolable nature was joined to a passible nature; so that, because it was adapted to our relief, one and the same mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ [I Tim. 2:5] both could die by reason of the one, and could not die on account of the other. Accordingly, in the whole and perfect nature of true man, true God was born, complete in His own, complete in ours. . . .

144. (4) Consequently, the Son of God entered into these lowly conditions of the world, after descending from His celestial throne, and though He did not withdraw from the glory of the Father, He was generated in a new order and in a new nativity. In a new order, because invisible in His own, He was made visible in ours; incomprehensible [in His own], He wished to be comprehended; permanent before times, He began to be in time; the Lord of the universe assumed the form of a slave, concealing the immensity of His majesty; the impassible God did not disdain to be a passible man and the immortal [did not disdain] to be subject to the laws of death. Moreover, He was generated in a new nativity, because inviolate virginity [that] did not know concupiscence furnished the material of His body. From the mother of the Lord, nature, not guilt, was assumed; and in the Lord Jesus Christ born from the womb of the Virgin, because His birth was miraculous, nature was not for that

  1. The Fathers of Council IV of CHALCEDON received this epistle, crying, "PETER has spoken through LEO" [Hrd II 305 E]. ↩

  2. Cf. Silva-Tarouca, S.J., S. Leonis M. Tomus ad Flavianum, episc. Cstpl., Romae, 1932, 24 ff. ML 54, 763 A ff.; Jf 423; Hfl II 356 Nota; Msi V 1371 D ff.; Hrd II 291 E ff.; BR(T) App. (I) 29a f. ↩