the 106th to Anatolius
himself, and he will see that St. Leo bases his opposition to it throughout
on its being a violation of the Nicene Canons: there is not a word in all
the three letters about any violation of the rights of St. Peter. May we
not quote, alas! St. Leo's words, in these letters, to St. Leo's successor.
"He[100] loses his own, who lusts after what is not his due.... For the
privileges of the Churches, instituted by the Canons of the holy Fathers,
and fixed by the decrees of the venerable Nicene Synod, cannot be plucked
up by any wickedness, or changed by any innovation. In the faithful
execution of which work, by the help of Christ, I am bound to show
persevering service; since the dispensation has been entrusted to me, and
it tends to my guilt, if the rules of the Fathers' sanctions, which were
made in the Nicene Council for the government of the whole Church, by the
teaching of God's Spirit, be violated, which God forbid, by my connivance;
and if the desire of one brother be of more weight with me than the common
good of the whole house of the Lord." This to the Emperor. To the Empress,
thus:--"Since no one is allowed to attempt[101] anything against the
statutes of the Fathers' Canons, which many years ago were based on
spiritual decrees in the city of Nicea; so that if any one desires to
decree anything against them, he will rather lessen himself than injure
them. _And if these are kept uninjured, as it behoves, by all Pontiffs,
there will be tranquil peace and firm concord through all the Churches.
There will be no dissensions concerning the degree of honours; no contests
about ordinations; no doubts about privileges; no conflicts about the
usurpation of another's right; but under the equal law of charity, both
men's minds and duties will be kept in the due order_; and he will be truly
great, who shall be alien from all ambition, according to the Lord's words,
'Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, &c.'" But to
Anatolius, thus:--"Those[102] holy and venerable Fathers, who in the Nicene
city established laws of ecclesiastical Canons, _which are to last to the
end of the world_, when the sacrilegious Arius with his impiety was
condemned, live both with us and in the whole world by their constitutions;
and if anything anywhere is presumed upon contrary to what they appointed,
it is without delay annulled, &c."

But _what_ the violation was he likewise states: it is not any wrong d