LEO I. [d. 461 ]

Leonis pontificis maximi sermones quam diligentissime nuperrime castigati, et quantum anniti ars potuit fideliter impressi.

      Venice 1505 - Venetiis, Bartholomaeus de Zanis impressit, Ioannes Andreas episcopus Aleriensis edidit. 1505. Folio, 84 leaves, complete. ONE OF ONLY THREE KNOWN COPIES, with OCLC, KVK, BNF, Lib. Cong. together showing institutional holdings only at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and Staatsbibliothek Berlin. Leo's pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening disintegration of the Western Empire, while the Orient was profoundly agitated over dogmatic controversies, this great pope, with far-seeing sagacity and powerful hand, guided the destiny of the Roman and Universal Church. Leo was no less active in the spiritual elevation of the Roman congregations, and his sermons, of which ninety-six genuine examples have been preserved, are remarkable for their profundity, clearness of diction, and elevated style. The first five of these, which were delivered on the anniversaries of his consecration, manifest his lofty conception of the dignity of his office, as well as his thorough conviction of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, shown forth in so outspoken and decisive a manner by his whole activity as supreme pastor. CE.