VIII. The Sicilian bishops are to send three of their number to each of the half-yearly meetings of bishops at Rome.
Wherefore we require this first and foremost for the keeping of perfect harmony, that, according to the wholesome rule of the holy Fathers that there should be two meetings of bishops every year [200] , three of you should appear without fail each time, on the 29th of September, to join in the council of the brethren: for thus, by the aid of God's grace, we shall the easier guard against the rise of offences and errors in Christ's Church: and this council must always meet and deliberate in the presence of the blessed Apostle Peter, that all his constitutions and canonical decrees may remain inviolate with all the Lord's priests.
These matters, upon which we thought it necessary to instruct you by the inspiration of the Lord, we wish brought to your knowledge by our brothers and fellow-bishops, Bacillus and Paschasinus. May we learn by their report that the institutions of the Apostolic See are reverently observed by you. Dated 21 Oct., in the consulship of the illustrious Alipius and Ardaburis (447).
[168] From this letter it might be gathered that it was a universal practice of the early Church based on the precepts of the apostles, to restrict Baptism to the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, and exclude Epiphany. Whereas as a matter of fact the restriction was almost exclusively Roman; all the Eastern Churches and a good many of the Western recognizing the Epiphany as a suitable occasion for the rite. Leo is too fond of claiming Apostolic authority for his dictates, and none such exists here, as far as we know.
[169] It will be noticed that Leo's order of events, though probably correct, is not that of the modern Kalendar, which places the Epiphany (Jan. 6) soon after the Circumcision (Jan. 1), and not after the Purification (Feb. 2): unless it was some little time after, Herod's cruelty was unnecessarily great in including children of two years old in his massacre (S. Matt. ii. 16).
[170] S. Luke ii. 49, in his quæ Patris mei sunt (Vulgate): this version leaves the expression en tois tou Patros mou in its original ambiguity, but Leo's commentary immediately following gives his decision in favour of "in My Father's house."
[171] S. Matt. iii. 17.
[172] Innumeris consecratos fuisse virtutibus, where virtutes, as often, corresponds to the Gk. dunameis.
[173] Sacramentorum mysteria coruscasse: it is instructive to find the two words here conjoined, Leo so often using them apparently as equivalents. No one, moreover, after reading this sentence, can doubt what in early times Western Christians meant by sacramentum , see Letter XII. chap. 3, &c.
[174] S. John x. 17.
[175] 1 Cor. i. 10.
[176] Renascentibus (pres. part.) here, not renatis (past).
[177] Rom. vi. 3-5. Notice the support here given to the marginal alternative of the R.V., "united with," instead of "united in" ( Lat. complantati similitudini, &c.).
[178] Per similitudinem et formam mysterii.
[179] This was a favourite interpretation of the symbolism with the fathers. Cf. Serm. LXX., chap. 4, and Bright's n. 97 thereon.
[180] Celebrandæ generaliter gratiæ, where generaliterhas much the same sense as the Eng. "generally" has in the definition of a sacrament in the Eng. Ch. Catechism as "generally necessary to salvation."
[181] S. Matt. xxviii. 19.
[182] S. John xiv. 16.
[183] Ibid. 26.
[184] Ibid. xvi. 13.
[185] It need hardly be pointed out that these words, "where the sacrament is the same," refer to the sacramentum (in its Leonine sense), that has just been explained, viz,, that Christus est veritas et spiritus sanctus est spiritus veritatus.
[186] Leo does not often quote from the Acts, and here he expressly includes it in the Canon, and alludes to its authenticity (fideli historia docet).
[187] Acts ii. 37-41.
[188] Principalis et maximi sacramenti custodienda nobis est mystica et rationalis exceptio (another reading being exemplatio (symbolism), which Quesnel prefers, thinking that the words have reference to the appropriateness of this symbolic rite of Baptism being performed at Easter-tide).
[189] S. John i. 13.
[190] Gal. iv. 4.
[191] S. Matt. v. 17.
[192] Rom. x. 4.
[193] Baptismi sui in se condidit sacramentum: the baptism of Christ has very generally been associated with the Epiphany: the record of it, for instance, in S. Luke iii. 15-23, is the 2nd morning lesson for the Festival in the English Church. It is, however, not clear who the "some" were whom Leo mentions above as putting Christ's baptism on the same day as the Epiphany; perhaps he means the Eastern Church.
[194] Col. i. 18.
[195] Cf. Lett. XXVIII. (The Tome), chap. vi., where the same explanation of the sacred incident in the Lord's passion is given.
[196] S. John i. 17. Cf. Rev. xix. 20, "for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy."
[197] S. John i. 29.
[198] Phil. ii. 21.
[199] S. Matt. iii. 11; S. Luke iii. 16.
[200] Cf. Lett. XIV., chap. 8, where the same rule is laid down.