blessed Archbishop
and Father Leo, so Anatolius.' The rest to the same effect: 'I agree; I am
of the same mind; I agree to the condemnation made by the Council; I
declare, I decree the same:' and the subscription, 'I, Paschasinus, declare
and subscribe;' 'I, Anatolius, declare and subscribe;' and so the rest.

"Thus from Peter the head and source of Unity the sentence began, and then
became of full force by common agreement of the Bishops, just as that first
Council of the Apostles is always represented.

"By this is understood the letter of the Emperor Valentinian to the Emperor
Theodosius: 'We ought to defend with all devotion, and preserve in our
times uninjured, the dignity of the veneration due to the blessed Apostle
Peter: so that the most blessed Bishop of the Roman city may have power to
judge concerning the faith and Bishops.' Not, however, alone, but with the
condition added by the Emperor, 'That the aforesaid Bishop,' at least, in
those causes which touch the faith and the universal state of the Church,
'may give sentence after assembling the Priests from the whole world.' That
is, by a common decree, as both Leo himself had demanded, and as we have
seen done in the Council itself.

"With the same view, the Empress Pulcheria writes to Leo concerning
assembling the Bishops, 'who,' she says, 'when the Council is made, shall
decree, at your instance, concerning the Catholic confession, and
concerning Bishops.'

"The Emperors Valentinian and Marcian write the same to Leo: that, 'by the
Council to be held,' every thing should be done at his instance: first
laying this down, that he 'possessed the first rank in the Episcopate, as
to faith.'

"Hence it is very plainly evident, that, in the usual order, both the Pope
should have the initiative, and the Bishops sitting with him should be
judges; and that the force of an irreversible decree lies in agreement: the
very thing to which the Empress Pulcheria bears witness, in her letter to
Strategus the Consular, who was ordered to protect the Council from all
violence: 'that the holy Council, holding its sittings with all discipline,
what has been revealed by the Lord Christ should be confirmed in common by
all, without any disturbance, and with agreement.'

"Meanwhile, it is evident that proceedings are at the instance of the
Pontiff, yet so that the force of the decree lies, not in the sole
authority of the Pontiff, which no one then imagined, but in the consent