[272] De prævaricatoris consortio: prævaricator originally is a legal term, signifying "a shuffler" in a suit, an advocate who plays into the hands of the other side.
[273] Pietas, as in the collect for xvi. S. aft. Trin., where the English, "pity" represents the Latin "pietas" philologically as well as in meaning. Cf. n. 2 in chap. vi.
[274] Sacramento, (musterio): what the "mystery" was is finely set forth by Canon Bright's hymn, No. 172, H. A. and M. (new edition).
[275] The whole of the end of this chapter from "For inasmuch as," and the beginning of the next down to "laws of death," is repeated word for word in Sermon XXII., chaps. i. and ii.
[276] Incomprehensibilis voluit comprehendi. Canon Bright's references are most apposite: "compare Serm. lxviii., idem est qui impiorum manibus comprehenditur et qui nullo fine concluditur: and Serm. xxxvii. 1, genetricis gremio continetur qui nullo fine concluditor. This antithesis' has been grandly expressed in Milman's, Martyr of Antioch.' "And Thou wast laid within the tomb... Whom heaven could not contain, Nor the immeasurable plain Of vast infinity enclose or circle round.'"
[277] I.e. , there is no fancy, no pretending: each nature is in equal reality present, the human as well as the Divine, thus opposing all Docetic and Monophysite heresies.
[278] This passage (which is repeated in Serm. liv., chap. 2, down to "injuries"), was objected to by the Illyrian and Palestinian bishops as savouring of the heresy of Nestorius who "divided the substance:" but it is obvious that the same words might have an orthodox meaning in the mouth of one who was orthodox and to the unorthodox would bear an unorthodox construction.
[279] S. John i. l.
[280] Ibid. 14.
[281] Ibid. 3, the Latin is per ipsum (Gk. di' autou) (through Him).
[282] Gal. iv. 4.
[283] Viz., that it was laid "in a manger:" the Gk. version has sparganon, "swaddling clothes," to represent cunarum and this meaning is adopted by Bright [and Heurtley], S. Luke ii. 7.
[284] Ibid. 13.
[285] Similis est rudimentis hominum.
[286] S. Matt. iii. 17.
[287] S. John xiv. 28; x. 30: the reconciliation of this class of apparently contradictory statements is often undertaken by Leo [e.g. Sermon xxiii. 2 and lxxvii. 5; Ep. xxviii. 4 and lix. 3], and by other fathers (e.g. by Augustine de Fide et Symbolo, 18).
[288] This is what theologians call communicatio idiomatum, or in Gk. antidosis, the interchange of the properties of the two natures in Christ. The passage from the beginning of the chapter to "the Lord of glory" is somewhat freely adapted from S. Aug., c. Serm. Arian., cap. 8.
[289] 1 Cor. ii. 8.
[290] S. Matt. xvi. 13-16.
[291] A principali petra. The Gk. version giving apo tes prototupou petras: others translate it "from the original (or archetypal) rock," but it seems better to link the passage more closely with Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 6, &c., although the Greek rendering is against this: see Serm. iv. chap. 2, where Leo is expounding the same favourite text. Bright's note 64 is most useful in explaining the Leonine exposition. "Three elements," he says, combine in the idea; (1) Christ Himself; (2) the faith in Christ; and (3) Peter considered as the chief of the Apostles and under Christ, the head of the Church." Hence petra is applied to each of these at different times.
[292] S. John xx. 22.
[293] S. Luke xxiv. 27.
[294] Ibid. 39.
[295] i.e. not to fall into the Charybdis of Nestorianism in avoiding the Scylla of Eutychianism.
[296] Fidei sacramento.
[297] John iv. 2, 3: the Lat. for "destroys" (or "dissolves," Bright) is solvit (so also in Lett. CXLIV. 3), which appears to be an exclusively Western reading: for Socrates, "the only Greek authority for luei" (the Gk. equivalent), according to Dr. Westcott, quotes no Gk. mss. as giving it, though he unhesitatingly makes use of that reading. The Gk. version here however, gives diairein, which simply begs the question (in Leo's favour) as to the original meaning of the phrase solvere Jesum, though on the face of it that is not at all necessarily obvious.
[298] Et lavacro rigaretur et poculo: that is by the two great "generally necessary" sacraments of which he takes the water and the blood "from His riven side which flowed" to be a symbol.
[299] This refers to 1 Pet. i. 2 (q.v.).
[300] 1 Pet. i. 18.
[301] 1 John i. 7.
[302] Some of the mss. here give Christus for Spiritus (the reading adopted also by the Vulgate): in this case you must translate that Christ is the Truth instead of because of the Spirit, &c.: but see Westcott's note in loc.
[303] 1 John v. 4-8. The absence of the verse on the "Heavenly witnesses" (distinctly a western insertion) is to be noticed. On Leo's interpretation of this mysterious passage Canon Bright's note 168 should be consulted.
[304] This was the only compromise of his views which Eutyches could be brought to make at the synod of Constantinople. Though it was rejected, and did not hinder his condemnation, it was never met with a direct, categorical refutation.
[305] Gestorum ordo, as before, in chap. 1. A report of the proceedings had accompanied Flavian's letter.
[306] Fraternitas vestra: or, as the Gk. version apparently took it, "you and the rest of the brethren" (he humon adelphotes).
[307] It will be remembered that he had been degraded from the priesthood and deprived of his monastery, as well as excommunicated: he might be reinstated in all these privileges, the mercifulness of Leo hints, if he recant his errors.
[308] S. John x. 11 and 15.
[309] S. Luke ix. 50.
[310] Pietatis, a beautiful word, expressing now the Father's pitying protection, now the children's loyal affection, and here the Elder Brother's love for the younger and weaker. Cf. n. I. on chap. iii.
[311] Bishop of Puteoli.
[312] Died at Delos on the way. The words "of the title of S. Clement" are of doubtful authenticity, and not found in the Gk. version. The parish churches of Rome seem to have been called tituli at their first founding about the beginning of the 4th cent. a.d. Cf. our Eng. term "title," and refer to Bingham, Bk. viii. § 1.
[313] Afterwards Leo's successor in the see of Rome, 461-8.