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Course 9 · Lesson 2.5

Eutyches and the Tome of Leo

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 9 outline

Module 1: The Person of Christ in Scripture

  1. Jesus fully human in the Gospels and letters
  2. Jesus fully divine: names, works and worship
  3. The incarnation in John, Philippians and Hebrews
  4. The questions Scripture leaves for later theology

Module 2: The Christological Controversies

  1. Early errors: docetism and ebionitism
  2. Arius and Apollinarius: is the Son a creature, is the mind missing?
  3. Two schools: Antioch and Alexandria
  4. Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria
  5. Eutyches and the Tome of Leo

Module 3: Ephesus and Chalcedon

  1. The Council of Ephesus in 431 and the title Theotokos
  2. The Chalcedonian Definition of 451, phrase by phrase
  3. Hypostatic union explained: one person in two natures
  4. Those who did not accept Chalcedon: Oriental Orthodox and the Church of the East

Module 4: Christology After Chalcedon

  1. The later councils: two wills and one person
  2. The communication of properties and the suffering of God the Son
  3. Kenosis and the knowledge of Christ
  4. Modern challenges to Chalcedon and replies

Module 5: The Work of Christ: Atonement, Resurrection, Ascension

  1. Atonement in Scripture: images and metaphors
  2. Ransom and victory: Christus Victor
  3. Satisfaction and penal substitution
  4. Moral influence, recapitulation and healing
  5. The resurrection and the ascension of Christ

Module 6: The Holy Spirit in Scripture and the Early Church

  1. The Spirit in the Old and New Testaments
  2. Early Christian views of the Spirit
  3. The deity of the Spirit: Basil, Athanasius and Constantinople
  4. Procession of the Spirit and the filioque

Module 7: Gifts of the Spirit and Sanctification

  1. Gifts in the New Testament: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4
  2. Gifts across the traditions: cessationist, continuationist and Pentecostal views
  3. Sanctification in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant thought
  4. The fruit of the Spirit and the discernment of spirits

All courses

Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 2.5

What you will learn

  • Explain the teaching attributed to Eutyches and why it was alarming to his critics.
  • Narrate the sequence from the synod of 448 to the Second Council of Ephesus in 449.
  • Summarize the main claims of Pope Leo’s Tome.
  • Explain how the Tome prepared the language of Chalcedon.

The big idea

Eutyches, the head of a monastery in Constantinople, was a fierce opponent of Nestorius. In trying to avoid any division in Christ, he was accused of saying that after the incarnation there was only one nature, and that Christ’s humanity was not of the same kind as ours. A local synod condemned him in 448. A larger council at Ephesus in 449 cleared him by force and deposed his accuser. Leo, bishop of Rome, wrote a letter, the Tome, setting out two natures in one person, and it became a key text at Chalcedon.

Key terms

Eutychianism
A label for the teaching that after the union Christ has only one nature, in which the human is absorbed. Also called Monophysitism, though that name is used for several different positions.
Monophysite
From Greek words for one nature. A label, often applied by opponents, for those who say Christ has one nature after the union. Many who hold this view reject the label.
Archimandrite
A senior abbot, the head of one or more monasteries in the Eastern church.
Tome
A volume or long letter. The Tome of Leo is a letter from Pope Leo I to Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, dated 449.
Properties
In this debate, the characteristic qualities of a nature. Divine properties include being uncreated and unchanging. Human properties include being born, hungry and mortal.
Latrocinium
A Latin word meaning robbery, used by Leo for the Second Council of Ephesus. Often rendered Robber Council.
Pope
The bishop of Rome. In this period he was one of five leading bishops, and Catholic and Orthodox Christians differ on the nature of his authority.

Background

After the Formula of Union in 433, the peace between Alexandria and Antioch held for a time. In the 440s the conflict returned from the other direction. Eutyches, an elderly monk who had been a leading voice against Nestorius, was accused by Eusebius of Dorylaeum, who had also fought Nestorius, of going too far the other way.

The matter reached the emperor, the patriarchs of Alexandria and Constantinople, and the bishop of Rome. For historians the period is a study in how a theological question became tangled with court politics and rival sees, so the sequence of events needs to be told carefully.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: What Eutyches taught, and what is uncertain

According to the records of the synod, Eutyches said that Christ was “from two natures” before the union but that there was one nature after it. He also declined to say that Christ’s body was of the same substance as ours, though he affirmed that Christ was born of Mary and was truly man. His concern was to avoid any suggestion of two sons, as with Nestorius.

His critics heard in this a denial that Christ’s humanity was real and complete. Eutyches protested that he confessed the faith of Nicaea and Ephesus. Historians note that the records come from his opponents, that he was old and not a trained theologian, and that his actual views were probably less clear than either side claimed.

Step 2: The synod of 448 and the Second Council of Ephesus

Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, held a synod in November 448 and condemned Eutyches for refusing to affirm two natures after the union. Eutyches appealed to Pope Leo and to Dioscorus, the new bishop of Alexandria, who supported him. The emperor Theodosius II called a council at Ephesus in August 449 and put Dioscorus in charge.

That council restored Eutyches and deposed Flavian and others. Soldiers and monks were present, Leo’s letter was not read, and Flavian was badly treated and died soon afterward. Leo called the council a robbery. The East eventually agreed that it had been irregular, though some in Egypt and elsewhere defended it.

Step 3: The Tome of Leo

Before the council, in June 449, Leo wrote a letter to Flavian. It states that the one Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true man, that each nature keeps its own properties, and that both come together in one person. He wrote that the nature of God and the nature of man are joined without mixture or loss, and that each acts in communion with the other: the Word does what belongs to the Word, and the flesh does what belongs to the flesh.

Leo also stated that one and the same Christ is both the one who is born and the one who is not born, mortal and immortal, because both belong to the single person. He then applied this to Eutyches: if the humanity were not truly of the same kind as that of other human beings, the redemption would not be real. The Tome uses Latin terms, natura and persona, that were not exact equivalents of the Greek ones. This helped and complicated its reception in the East.

Step 4: The reaction

When Theodosius died in 450, his sister Pulcheria and her husband Marcian took power. They favored a new council. They summoned it first for Nicaea and then moved it to Chalcedon, near Constantinople, where it met in 451. When the Tome was read, the acts record the bishops exclaiming that Peter had spoken through Leo, a phrase that Catholic writers cite and others read as an acclamation of agreement.

Some bishops, however, hesitated, and asked whether the Tome agreed with Cyril. They compared it with his letters and found it in line. The Tome became one of the foundations of the Chalcedonian Definition, along with Cyril’s letters.

Step 5: How to assess the case

Defenders of Chalcedon say Eutyches held that the humanity was swallowed up and that the Tome rightly answered him. Critics, including many Oriental Orthodox, say the Tome leans toward Antioch and risks splitting Christ, and that Eutyches was not the real target but Dioscorus and the Alexandrian party. Both views have long histories.

A fair summary is that the Tome contains much that Cyril would have accepted, but also an emphasis on the distinction between acts that could seem to divide Christ. Whether it expressed the full unity of the person remained a point of dispute.

  1. What is the difference between from two natures and in two natures?
  2. Why would someone with Eutyches’s concerns be alarmed by language about two natures?
  3. What were the main problems with the Second Council of Ephesus?
  4. How does the Tome make use of the idea that each nature keeps its own properties?
  5. Why did some bishops at Chalcedon want to compare the Tome with Cyril?
  6. What does this lesson suggest about the use of imperial power in doctrinal disputes?

Examples

Two acts, one Christ

Leo contrasts the child wrapped in cloths in the manger with the child adored by the wise men. He says both stories speak of the same person, the one showing the lowliness of his humanity and the other the majesty of his divinity.

The robbery at Ephesus

At the 449 council, those who objected were pressured and some signed under threat. When Chalcedon later reviewed the proceedings, several bishops said they had signed in fear. The episode is often used to show why later churches insisted on free discussion.

A constructed analogy

A student asks: if a drop of vinegar falls into the sea, does it remain vinegar? That image of absorption was used in antiquity to show what the church did not mean. Chalcedon says the natures are not mixed in that way. (An illustration from the later tradition and not a quotation.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic teaching treats the Tome as an authoritative statement received by Chalcedon, and honors Leo as a Doctor of the Church. Catholic writers often cite the acclamation at Chalcedon as evidence of the esteem of Rome’s teaching.

Orthodox

The Orthodox Church accepts Chalcedon and treats the Tome as consistent with Cyril and with the faith of the church. Orthodox writers generally see the acclamation as homage to the correctness of the doctrine rather than a proof of a special papal teaching authority.

Oriental Orthodox

These churches hold that Eutyches was rightly condemned for denying the real humanity of Christ, but that the Tome and Chalcedon go too far in dividing him. They honor Dioscorus as a defender of Cyril, though many accept that the proceedings of 449 were flawed.

Protestant

Protestant churches generally accept the substance of the Tome as an expression of the doctrine of Christ in the Chalcedonian Definition, and judge it by Scripture. Reformed and Lutheran confessions refer to the two natures in one person.

Historians

Historians stress the role of Pulcheria, Marcian, Dioscorus and the court. They also debate how much of the Tome Leo wrote himself and what his advisers contributed, and how accurately the ancient records show what Eutyches taught.

Why it matters

The Tome supplied the key phrases that Chalcedon would write into its Definition, and the controversy around Eutyches explains why the Definition contains so many negations. Reading the Tome is the best preparation for reading the Definition.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Eutyches simply said Christ was not human.

Correction: On the records, he said Christ was born of Mary and was truly man, but he refused to say that Christ’s body was of the same substance as ours and denied two natures after the union. The charge that he absorbed the humanity is how his critics read these claims.

Misunderstanding: Everyone who rejected Chalcedon followed Eutyches.

Correction: The Oriental Orthodox churches condemn Eutyches. Their objection to Chalcedon is about language and about the Tome, not about the claim that Christ’s humanity is absorbed. Later lessons describe this more fully.

Misunderstanding: The Tome was a papal command that the East simply obeyed.

Correction: The bishops at Chalcedon examined the Tome and compared it with Cyril before accepting it. Catholics and Orthodox disagree on the status of the pope’s teaching but agree that the bishops weighed the letter.

Knowledge check

What was Eutyches accused of teaching?

He was accused of teaching that Christ was from two natures before the union but of only one nature after it, and of denying that Christ’s body was of the same substance as ours. His critics said this absorbed the humanity into the divinity. He said he confessed the faith of Nicaea and Ephesus.

What happened at the Second Council of Ephesus in 449?

Under Dioscorus of Alexandria and with imperial backing, the council restored Eutyches and deposed Flavian and others. Leo’s letter was not read. Soldiers and monks intimidated opponents, and Flavian died soon afterward. Leo called it a robbery, and Chalcedon later reviewed and reversed its acts.

State the main teaching of the Tome of Leo.

The Tome teaches that Christ is one person who is truly God and truly man, with each nature keeping its own properties and neither mixed with nor lost in the other. Each nature acts in communion with the other. Without a real human nature, redemption would not be real.

How did Chalcedon use the Tome?

The bishops read it, compared it with the letters of Cyril, found them in agreement and used both as sources for the Definition. Some hesitated, and the council did not simply accept it on Leo’s authority alone.

Think it through

  1. How should a student weigh a record written only by opponents?
  2. Is a statement about natures also a statement about worship and salvation?
  3. What do the events of 449 suggest about the relation of councils to rulers?
  4. How does the Tome try to avoid both Nestorius’s error and that of Eutyches?

Independent assignment

Reading the Tome

In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. Read the Tome of Leo in the library. Pick out five sentences that state a position, and for each, write a note on which error it answers. Then write a paragraph on what the Tome keeps from Cyril and what may have worried Alexandrian readers. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study