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By 431, as a deacon, he occupied a sufficiently important position for Cyril of Alexandria to apply to him in order that Rome's influence should be thrown against the claims of Juvenal of Jerusalem to patriarchal jurisdiction over Palestine -- unless this letter is addressed rather to Pope Celestine I. About the same time Johannes Cassianus dedicated to him the treatise against Nestorius written at his request. But nothing shows more plainly the confidence felt in him than his being chosen by the emperor to settle the dispute between Aetius and Albinus, the two highest officials in Gaul.
During his absence on this mission, Pope Sixtus III died ( August 11, 440), and Leo was unanimously elected by the people to succeed him. On September 29September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). There are 93 days remaining. Events 61 BC Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph, for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars. 855 Pope Benedict III becomes Pop he entered upon a pontificate which was to be epoch-making for the centralization of the government of the Church.
An uncompromising foe of heresy, Leo found that in the diocese of Aquileia, PelagiansPelagianism is a belief that original sin did not taint human nature (which, being created from God, was divine), and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil with no Divine aid whatesoever. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" fo were received into church communion without formal repudiation of their errors; he wrote to rebuke this culpable negligence, and required a solemn abjurationAbjuration (from Lat. abjurare to forswear), a solemn repudiation or renunciation on oath. In English common law, it signified the oath of a person who had taken sanctuary to leave the realm for ever; this was abolished in the reign of James I. The Oath a before a synodA synod (also known as a council is a council of a church, usually a Christian church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine or administration. An ecumenical council is so named because it is a synod of the whole church (or, more accurately, of what tho.
Manicheans fleeing before the Vandals had come to Rome in 439Events Eudoxia, wife of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, is granted the rank of Augusta following the birth of their daughter Eudocia. October 19 Carthage falls to the Vandals Northern China united under the Northern Wei Dynasty; era of Northern Dynasti and secretly organized there; Leo learned of this around 443, and proceeded against them by holding a public debate with their representatives, burning their books, and warning the Roman Christians against them. His efforts led to the edict of Valentinian IIIValentinian III ( July 2, 419, Ravenna March 16, 455, Rome), Roman emperor ( 424 to 455). He was born as the only son of Constantius and Placidia, daughter of the great Theodosius. He was elevated as Caesar on October 23, 424 in Constantinople, and after against them ( June 19, 445).Nor was his attitude less decided against the Priscillianists. Bishop Turrubius of Astorga, astonished at the spread of this sect in Spain, had addressed the other Spanish bishops on the subject, sending a copy of his letter to Leo, who did not let slip the opportunity to exercise influence in Spain. He wrote an extended treatise ( July 21, 447) against the sect, examining its false teaching in detail, and calling for a Spanish general council to investigate whether it had any adherents in the episcopate -- but this was prevented by the political circumstances of Spain.
Leo enforced his authority in 445 against Dioscurus, Cyril's successor in the patriarchate of Alexandria, insisting that the ecclesiastical practise of his see should follow that of Rome; since Mark, the disciple of Peter and founder of the Alexandrian Church, could have had no other tradition than that of the prince of the apostles.
The fact that the African province of Mauretania Caesariensis had been preserved to the empire and thus to the Nicene faith in the Vandal invasion, and in its isolation was disposed to rest on outside support, gave Leo an opportunity to assert his authority there, which he did decisively in regard to a number of questions of discipline.
In a letter to the bishops of Campania, Picenum, and Tuscany (443) he required the observance of all his precepts and those of his predecessors; and he sharply rebuked the bishops of Sicily (447) for their deviation from the Roman custom as to the time of baptism, requiring them to send delegates to the Roman synod to learn the proper practise.
The assertion of Roman power over Illyria had been a strong point with previous popes. Pope Innocent I had constituted the metropolitan of Thessalonica his vicar, in order to oppose the growing power of the patriarch of Constantinople there. But now the Illyrian bishops showed a tendency to side with Constantinople, and the popes had difficulty in maintaining their authority. In 444 Leo laid down in a letter to them the principle that Peter had received the primacy and oversight of the whole Church as a requital of his faith, and that thus all important matters were to be referred to and decided by Rome. In 446 he had occasion twice to interfere in the affairs of Illyria, and in the same spirit spoke of the Roman pontiff as the apex of the hierarchy of bishops, metropolitans, and primates. However, after his death the influence of Constantinople was again predominant.