Tome of Leo

Background: The Eutychian Crisis and the Tome

Eutyches, an elderly archimandrite in Constantinople, was condemned at a local synod in 448 for teaching that after the Incarnation Christ had only one nature — the divine absorbing the human (Monophysitism). His rehabilitation at the irregular "Robber Council" of Ephesus (449) provoked Pope Leo I (440–461) to write Epistle 28 to Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople. The letter became known as the Tome of Leo.

When read at the Council of Chalcedon (451), the bishops acclaimed: "This is the faith of the Fathers, this is the faith of the Apostles. So we all believe; thus the orthodox believe. Anathema to him who does not thus believe. Peter has spoken through Leo." The council's Definition of Faith built its crucial four adverbs ("without confusion, without change, without division, without separation") directly on the Tome's theology.

Epistle 28 — Key Passages on the Two Natures

Translation: Philip Schaff, NPNF Series I, Vol. XII (adapted). Written 449 AD.

On the Incarnation

Each of the two natures retains without defect its own proper character; and as the form of God does not take away the form of a servant, so the form of a servant does not impair the form of God. Because the devil was boasting that, beguiled by his deceit, man had been left without divine protection, and that God had not known of what He had assumed in the weakness of mortal nature — He took on him our nature without the stain of sin, so as to enlarge what is ours and not to diminish what is his. (Phil. 2:6–8)

On the Unity of the Person

He who is true God is likewise true man. In this union there is no falsehood, because the humility of the manhood and the loftiness of the Godhead exist in mutual accord. For just as God is not changed by the compassion which He exhibits, so man is not consumed by the dignity which he receives. For each form does the acts which belong to it in communion with the other; namely, the Word performing what belongs to the Word, and the flesh carrying out what belongs to the flesh.

To be born and to grow, to eat and drink, to be tired and to sleep, to feel grief and weep, to suffer death — this is of the manhood. (Luke 2:52; John 11:35) But to walk on the sea with feet that do not sink, to rebuke winds, to restore the eyes of the blind, to raise Lazarus four days dead — this is of the Godhead. (John 11:43–44; Matt. 14:25)

On the Incarnate Lord

The same one Son of God entered these lower regions of the world to overthrow the devil and to free man; who, though invisible in his own nature, became visible in ours; though incomprehensible, willed to be comprehended; though remaining before time, began to be in time; the Lord of all things, He obscured his infinite majesty and took on him the form of a servant; being God that cannot suffer, disdained not to be man that can, and, immortal as He is, to subject himself to the laws of death. (Heb. 2:14–18)

The nativity which took place in time took nothing from and added nothing to that divine and eternal birth, but expended itself wholly on the restoration of man who had been deceived: in order that he might both overcome death and overthrow by his strength the devil who had the power of death. For we would not have been able to overcome the author of sin and death unless he had taken our nature on him who could neither be contaminated by sin nor detained by death. (Rom. 8:3–4)

Reception and Legacy

Chalcedon 451: Acclamation of the Tome

When the Tome was read aloud at Chalcedon, session by session, the bishops responded with acclamations recorded in the acts:

"This is the faith of the Fathers; this is the faith of the Apostles. So we all believe; the orthodox so believe. Anathema to him who does not so believe. Peter has spoken through Leo. The Apostles so taught. Leo taught piously and truly. Cyril so taught. The everlasting memory of Cyril! Leo and Cyril taught the same thing. Anathema to him who does not so believe."

The Four Chalcedonian Adverbs

The Definition of Chalcedon built on Leo's two-natures language with four qualifications that have defined orthodox Christology ever since. Christ is one Person in two natures:

• Without confusion — the natures are not merged (against Eutyches/Monophysitism)
• Without change — neither nature is transformed into the other (against Apollinarianism)
• Without division — the two natures are not split into two persons (against Nestorianism)
• Without separation — the union is permanent, not temporary

The Tome is received as authoritative in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy (by the Chalcedonian churches), and historic Protestantism. (Col. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:5)