itself and approval of the Council: and that the Fathers and the Council
decree together, judge together, and the sentence of the Council is the
sentence of the Pope; which, when the consent of the Churches is added, is
then held to be irreversible and final, which is all I demand.

"Another important point treated in the Council of Chalcedon, that is, the
establishing of the faith, and the approval of Leo's letter, is as follows.
Already almost the whole West, and most of the Easterns, with Anatolius
himself, Bishop of Constantinople, had gone so far as to confirm by
subscription that letter, before the Council took place; and in the Council
itself the Fathers had often cried out, 'We believe, as Leo: Peter hath
spoken by Leo: we have all subscribed the letter: what has been set forth
is sufficient for the faith: no other exposition may be made.' Things went
so far, that they would hardly permit a definition to be made by the
Council. But neither subscriptions privately made before the Council, nor
these vehement cries of the Fathers in the Council, were thought sufficient
to tranquillize minds in so unsettled a state of the Church, for fear that
a matter so important might seem determined rather by outcries than by fair
and legitimate discussion. And the Clergy of Constantinople exclaimed, 'It
is a few who cry out, not the whole Council which speaks.' So it was
determined that the letter of Leo should be lawfully examined by the
Council, and a definition of faith be written by the Synod itself. So the
acts of foregoing Councils being previously read, the magistrates proposed
concerning Leo's letter, 'As the Gospels lie before you, let every one of
the most reverend Bishops declare whether the exposition of the 318
Fathers, and, after that, of the 150 Fathers, agrees with the letter of
holy Leo.'

"Since the question as to examining the letter of Leo was put in this form,
it will be worth while to weigh the sentences, and, as they are called, the
votes of the Fathers, in order to understand from the beginning why they
approved of the letter; why they afterwards defended it with so much zeal;
why, finally, it was ratified after so exact an examination of the Council.
Anatolius first gives his sentence. 'The letter of the most holy Leo agrees
with the Creed of the 318 and the 150 Fathers; as also with what was done
at Ephesus under Coelestine and Cyril; therefore I agree and willingly
subscribe to it.' These are the words