TOME OF LEO

TOME OF LEO. Officially titled the Tomos ad Flavianum, this doctrinal decree of Pope Leo the Great (q.v.) was addressed to Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople (q.v.) in 449. It defined, in opposition to Eutychius, the union of God and man in Christ as two natures (q.v.) united in one person. At Leo’s insistence the Tome was part of the official statement of faith at Chalcedon (q.v.) in 451, though with supplementary documents, and it was not without a careful examination of the Tome’s contents by the council fathers (in spite of Leo’s express command) to see if it was in agreement with the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria (qq.v.). Aside from the doctrinal interest of the Tome, a subject of fierce debate for centuries afterward, the document represents the first occasion that a Roman pope sought to substitute his own decree for the deliberations of a council.