Pope Leo

The Roman Catholic Church has a new Pope. Robert Francis Prevost, the first American-born Pope, has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. In honor of the new Pope, here is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of my book, Christ’s Faithful Servants (copyright 2023), about Pope Leo I, also known as Pope Leo the Great:

Attila the Hun. Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns^[1] in 444. He was the most powerful—and the most feared—man in Europe at that time. Stories of his cruelty were so frightening that Christians called him the “scourge of God.” Both the eastern and western branches of the Roman Empire paid him tribute to keep him from attacking. But when the emperor in the west, Valentinian III,^[2] stopped paying tribute in about 450, Attila invaded Gaul with an army of 500,000 men. Only the combined armies of Rome and the Visigoths stopped his advance, achieving a draw against him in one of the deadliest battles in history, on the Catalaunian Fields. Having been stalemated in Gaul, Attila invaded Italy in 452. He destroyed the city of Aquileia, captured Verona, collected tribute from Milan, and advanced on Rome. No army remained in his way—only a pope.

Leo and Attila. Leo (also known as Pope Leo I and Leo the Great) grew up in the Italian city of Volterra, about thirty-five miles southwest of Florence, in the province of Tuscany. He was educated as a priest, rose to the position of senior deacon by 430, and was an advisor to Pope Xystus III. Leo became bishop of Rome (another name for the pope) in 440, when Xystus died. For twenty-one years, Leo was one of the strongest and ablest popes in history. His most famous test came when he was confronted by the mighty Attila.

As Attila approached Rome, Pope Leo and two Roman officials went to meet him, unarmed. Leo spoke with Attila in private, and somehow convinced him to withdraw. The Huns retreated to Hungary, where Attila died the following year, 453. Since neither Leo nor Attila ever disclosed the substance of their discussions, no one knows exactly what Leo said or how he convinced Attila to leave.^[3]

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Leo’s Influence. Pope Leo consistently argued for the primacy of the bishop of Rome as the head of the Christian Church worldwide. He based this reasoning on the role of Peter as the leader of Jesus’ apostles. Leo believed that each bishop of Rome succeeded to Peter’s authority.^[4] When the Chalcedon council accepted the co-equality of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, Leo rejected the council’s decision. The bishops in the west followed his lead, as did the Western Roman Emperor, Valentinian III, who made Leo’s primacy the law in the west. The pope’s authority today over all Roman Catholics in the world owes much to the efforts and influence of Pope Leo.

He was also a voice of moderation and reason within the Church. While he supported monasteries, and even established some, he opposed the extreme views espoused by some monks who viewed all forms of business, commerce, and banking as inherently evil.

Leo died on November 10, 461, and was later made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Christ’s Faithful Servants is available on Amazon. You can see a description of the book here, and a list of contents along with chapter excerpts here.

[1]. The Huns originally migrated from Mongolia and eastern Russia in about the third century. By 375 they had crossed the Volga River (which flows into the Caspian Sea) into western Russia. In Attila’s time, the Huns were established in Hungary and Germany, on the borders of the Empire, and had subordinated most of the Germanic peoples under their rule.

[2]. Valentinian III was the Western Roman Emperor from 425 to 455.

[3]. Attila had some valid military reasons for withdrawing. He was running short of food for his enormous army and disease had broken out among his soldiers. He may also have worried about an army approaching from the east sent by Marcian, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

[4]. Leo’s argument relied heavily upon Matthew 16:17-19, which says:

And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Many in Leo’s day—and many since then—disputed the validity of Leo’s argument in favor of the primacy of the bishop of Rome, arguing that “this rock” refers not to Peter but to Christ, as in 1 Peter 2:4-9.