before the Lord. Thus, therefore, to arrive gloriously at the chair in which he was appointed; then to return home with his own glory, to feast at that time with those present and to rejoice together.
CONSTITUTION CXVI
Concerning the archbishopric of Patras, a golden bull
. (It does not exist.)CONSTITUTION CXVII
New legislation of Leo and Alexander concerning the fact that all editions proceed from the first. This was enacted in the year 6127, and deposited in the orphanage.
Every tax assessment, proceeding from Augustus Caesar, rendered all people of the same kind tributary. Hence, public taxes originated. Therefore, from the public emphyteutic payments which are rendered in this city, guarded by God, our predecessor the Emperor Justin B, in the venerable secretum of the princes of the Apostles, dedicated to the orphanages, in addition to his other bounties, an annual public tax of 443 solidi, having inserted it under title 170, according to his own sacred legislation, which is situated in that great Church of God, so that the properties of the orphanage might not be alienated, but be leased to three persons. Later, however, toward the end of his life, he also published a golden bull concerning the donation of those 443 solidi, and through it he correctly and justly set forth the time for the use and possession by the inhabitants. And Her Serenity, having taken it into our hands, wished that what was well-ordained by him should obtain the force of law, and commanded that it be valid for all subsequent and continuous times. And therefore it is defined: that from the first person to the first it ought to be possessed as leased; with no one in the Lord C prohibiting it from remaining, and after the completion of the lease from the first person, to revert to the first possessor, and to provide double the emphyteutic tax which is accustomed to be paid, and the customary fee.
CONSTITUTION CXVIII
Condemnatory sentence against judges, pronounced by Leo and Alexander, the pious emperors.
I think, indeed, that none of those who happen to hold judicial office will ever fall into such perversity as to judge and pass votes contrary to the established laws. But if anyone should slip into such great folly, once convicted, he shall suffer the punishment laid down by the laws; and if he escapes us, he shall not escape the unsleeping and wakeful eye, to which nothing, however secret it may be, is unknown. Nevertheless, we have thought it very safe to reinforce this also with curses and D dire imprecations. May he find God fighting against him, and the heavenly and bodiless powers warring against him; may he fall wretchedly, and suffer loss of both his present life and be condemned to the future one.
A His house’s foundations shall fire consume, and his seed shall be dishonored for all time, and seek bread, in return for the fact that he rendered the freedom of the laws the slave of manufactured and corrupt judgments.
LEO THE EMPEROR, SURNAMED THE WISE
OPERUM PARS TERTIA
CONTINENS
POEMS, WRITINGS PERTAINING TO MILITARY AFFAIRS, ORACLES
APOLOGY OF LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
ΚΑΘ' ΗΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ ΜΕΝ ΣΕΒΕΙ, ΤΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΔΕ ΦΑΥΛΙΖΕΙ
APOLOGY OF LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
IN WHICH HE SHOWS VENERATION FOR CHRIST, BUT CRITICIZES THE DOCTRINES OF THE GENTILES.
(Ex Anecdotis Græcis P. Matrangæ, Romæ, 1850, tom. II.)Multi me arguunt lingua maligna talia exprobrantes: B Mirum sermonem! quomodo nobilem solvis lectionum mercedem, pulchra alimenta patri tuo secundo præbes, dilecte, præceptorum monumentum clamans ad æternum tempus! quod insanus, quod blasphemus, quod apostata a Christianorum fide fuerit Leo.
Multi me scurrilibus verbis lacerant: "O excellent discourse! How noble a reward for lessons you pay, Bestowing fair nourishment upon your second father, O best of men, making of his teachings A monument crying out to eternal time! That it is foolish, that it is blasphemous, that it is an apostate From the Christian faith that Leo is."
Alii me incusant, ignari fortasse veræ quam sequor rationem. Audent dicere mendacium esse sermonem artificiosa inimicorum arte consutum, quo me perditum dicunt temere magistrum vita functum alloqui.
Others mock me, perhaps ignorant Of the true ways I follow— They dare to say the discourse is a lie, Stitched together by the cunning art of enemies, By whom they say I have been drawn away, Vainly speaking against the teacher who has left this life.
Ego vero audiens tales scurrilitates, quandiu potui circumspecte sustinui; et in illos irasci nolens, Hippoclidis voce contestatus sum: loquens præsertim veritatem diligit, ut ait David, in corde suo, cujus robur, vocis organa tollens, C longum tempus non consumit. Cum vero...
I, for my part, hearing such scurrilities, As long as I could, I endured circumspectly; And unwilling to be angered at them, I answered back with the saying of Hippoclides: "He who speaks truly loves the truth," As David says, "within his heart,"
As the long flowing course of time does not destroy the sinews of speaking instruments. But since they are raging out of wickedness, and casting stones full of bitterness, shooting words against us from afar, perhaps they have snatched at the cicada’s wing, pricking us—if one must boast—in order to repay evil with evil, as the matricide, the son of Atreus, says: "He found an idle proverb in life." But I, writing a good word in response to a good one, leave behind a memory in life—that of the parricide of an impious master—even if the Greeks are torn apart in the midst of it, having become furious in their discourse along with the Telchines.
B And first, moved by divine zeal, I set Christ, the God-Word, as judge, as He alone is the fountain of truth; and for the Word I designate a throne and a footstool, the orders of the holy angels standing by; and I summon a great theater of men, and I call forth my accusers, entering into the midst like some new soldier; not to an Olympic contest, I say, but to the Churches which exist above and below, I step at last into the arena of words.
Perish those who deny the Divine; may they be driven by furies who are maddened with Manes; let those perish who worship the gods of the Greeks, gods subject to love and the passions, gods wounded by base men, adulterous gods and harlot goddesses, C goddesses who married keepers of oxen, and gods who are lame, and goddesses who are one-eyed.
Fall they who do not wisely adore God known in three persons, and celebrated in one sole nature. Let them die who have not worshipped the flesh of the Divine Word with fear and with their whole heart. Let Christ confound the blasphemies; may the Savior exterminate all heresies; may Christ dissipate the perversity of schisms and all the malignity of envy; may the Savior destroy those who, for the sake of glory, divide the Church into factions.
D Being alive, I think these things, and dead, I shall say them again there, rejoicing before the angels. To what end am I more a debtor to you, O You who see all things, in mind, in kidneys, and in heart, O You who rightly search the thoughts?
Such also is this heroico-elegiac [poem] of his. "Go away from me, O thrice-wretched Polymnia, go away, O Muses; for I now love rhetoric above all: having found Photius, the high priest and teacher of old men,"—[the author] speaks truly of Photius having been sent into exile, with the madness of the Greek schismatics held in contempt. [index: entries preserved]