4 He is thinking especially of the martyred Flavian.
5 Dioscorus of Alexandria is meant.
8 A reference to Letter XCVIII. (from the Synod of Chalcedonto Leo), chap. ii. shows that Dioscorus had threatened Leo with excommunication; excommunicationem meditatus est contra te qui corpus ecclesioe unire festinas.
9 This was of course Flavian. Quesnel quotes Liberatus the deacon (chap. x. of the Breviary) as asserting that no sooner was Dioscorus made bishop of Alexandria than oppressit Cyrilli heredes et per calumnias multas ab eis abstulit pecunias. His accusers at Chalcedon charge him with being an Origenist, an Arian, a murderer, an incendiary, and an evil liver generally.
14 Inter utrumque hostem novelloe perfidioe, sc. Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
15 The Ballerinii remind us that all these allusions to keeping the balance of Truth in this and the last chapter,and here to acting promptissme et evidentissime were intended for Theodoret's especial benefit, who from his former defence of Nestorius and attacks on Cyril had been suspected of the Nestorian taint, but had expressly cleared himself at the Council of Chalcedon. This explains the res ipsoe and the, experimenta of the next sentence. and the solemn adjuration of the sentence next but one.
16 See the Acts of Chalcedon I, ingrediatur et reverendissimus episcopus Theodoretus ut sit particeps synodi, quia et restituit ei episcopatum sanctissimus archiepiscopus Leo, and 8, where the judges ask for a verdict, "sicut et sanctissimus Leo archiepiscopus iudicavit," to which the whole council replied Post Deum Leo iudicavit.
17 This is Letter CXIX. to Maximus, bishop of Antioch.
18 It must be remembered that monachus esse in those days meant complete withdrawal from all active life in the world the preaching orders being a much later institution. The Ballerinii suggest that it may have been a certain abbot Barsumas, who with his followers is said (Act. Chalc. 4) totam Syriam commovisse. See also Lett. CXIX., chap. vi.
1 See Letter CXVII., chap. iii., n. 8.
3 Ratio sacramentorum, it cannot be too often repeated that to Leo and other early Fathers, all nature, and all its phenomena, and all God's dealings with mankind are sacramenta. and capable of a sacramental (i.e. higher, inner, interpretation: the particular sacramentumhe is thinking of here is the incarnation, which he speaks of just below, as often elsewhere, as the sacramentum salutis humanoe (the sacrament or mystery whereby man is saved.
4 Viz., the places in Palestine where these monks themselves lived, which trustworthy history or tradition connects with the various incidents in our Lord's life.
5 Eudocia had just made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
6 Agant poenitentiam: this is the regular: this is the regular and very expressivetranslation in the Latin Versions and among the Fathers of the Greek metanoei=n.
7 They had seized Jerusalem, and deposed Juvenal, theBishop, setting up a partisan of their own in his stead.
8 Leo not unfrequently joins these two together as equallyresponsible (e.g. Lett. CIX. 3).
1 It will be remembered that Leo himself knew not a word of the language, which will account for his uncertainty, consequent helplessness, and uneasiness in this and other cases where a knowledge of the language would have served him in excellent stead.
2 I.e. so much good at all events has come from your objection that we know you are strongly opposed to Eutyches, at present my own special abhorrence.
3 The whole of chap. ii. will be found repeated in Ep. clxv, chap. ii.
5 Cf. Ep. xxii. chap. 3 "conatus- antiqua impii Valentini "(the adherent of Apollinaris and head of one of the sections af the Apollinarians after his death) "et Apollinaris mala dogmata renovare." The third dogma of Apollinaris was that "Christ's manhood was formed out of a divine substance." Bright, 147.
6 Eutyches had expressly tried to guard himself against this imputation: Ep. xxi. chap. 3, "anathematizans Apollinarium Valentinum, Manem et Nestorium, & c." See Bright's valuable notes 32, 33, 34, and esp. 35, where he shows that "it was polemical rhetoric to say that he was reviving Apollinarian or Valentinian theories."
7 It must be clearly understood that this ugly word is here andelsewhere employed to translate,passibilis (pafhto/j) for no reason, except the necessity of the case: pati and pa/scein are both broader signification than "suffer or its synonyms: they are simply the passive of facere and poiei=n ( pra/ssein) and there is no proper equivalent in ordinary English parlance. This tendency of terms to become more and more narrow and of particular application is constantly meeting and baffling one in translating the Latin and Greek lanquages.
8 Leo elsewhere also makes this hardly justifiable inferencethat Eutychianism is a new form of Docetism as this view was called; chap. vi. below, and Serm. lxv. c. 4 "isti phantasmatici Christiani," also xxviii. 4, and lxiv. 1, 2. That the Manichoeans naturally held Docetic views on the Incarnation is obvious when we remember that their fundamental misconception was that matter is identical with evil.
9 Marcion was the founder of one of the most formidableGnostic sects towards the close of the second century: Tertullian wrote a famous treatise (still extant) against him. Like other Gnostics, his views involved him in Docetism.
12 Proevaricatio: this is a legal term which is often used of sin (esp. in connexion with Adam's transgression). Its original technical meaning is the action of an advocate who plays into the enemy's hand. In theology the devil (dia/boloj) is man's adversary, and man himself is befooled into collusion with him by breaking God's Law.
13 Potens ad privilegium:privilegium is another legal term signifying technically a bill framed to meet an individual case generally in a detrimental way, such bills being against the spirit of the Roman law: here Leo uses it in a sense more nearly approaching our English idea of "privilege."
15 Sub peccati proeiudicio : yet a third legal term: proeiudicium in Roman law was a semi-formal and anticipatory verdict by the judge before the case came on for final decision in court; in chapter vi. we have the verb proeiudicare.
18 The idea of vicarious death was not unfamiliar to the Greeks and Romans: e.g. Alkestis dying for her husband Admetos. and the fairly numerous examples of "devotion" Of Roman Generals on the battlefield.
19 S. John xii. 32, omnia : with the Vulgate.
20 It is scarcely necessary to point out that the old story of the ' communicatio idiomatum ' is here again discussed: cf the Tome, chapters iv. and v.
21 S. Matt. iii. 17, and Bright's note 5.
22 S. John i. 29. the repetition of the Ecce (behold) is in ccordance with the old Latin versions: cf. Westcott in loc.