Section 05: Canon 28 and the Primacy
The most contested East–West material in the compendium. Chalcedon’s Canon 28 elevated Constantinople on the rationale of the “imperial city”; Leo confirmed the council’s faith but annulled the canon “by the authority of blessed Peter.” This section, governed by Methodology §4, sets the Petrine and imperial-city rationales for primacy side by side, and lays out Leo’s developed Petrine theology — presenting the Roman and the Orthodox readings of each: the Roman reported accurately in its own terms, the Orthodox stated as the teaching of the Church, which has examined the developed doctrine of papal supremacy and not received it.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father / Latin)
Contents
| File | Title | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| leo-and-canon-28.md | Leo and Canon 28 | Flagship (§4). The content of Canon 28 and the imperial-city rationale; Canon 3 of Constantinople (381) behind it; the legates’ protest; Leo’s confirmation of the faith and annulment of the canon (Epp. 104–106, with Pulcheria’s “null and void”); his Nicene, apostolic-sees, and Petrine grounds; the clash of the Petrine and imperial-city rationales as two ecclesiologies; the Roman and Orthodox readings, both sourced; the canon’s survival in the East (Quinisext, Canon 36). The history is reported evidentially; the ecclesiological framing stands within the Orthodox reading. |
| the-petrine-theology.md | The Petrine Theology | Leo’s developed doctrine of the see of Peter from his sermons (the anniversary sermons; the feast of Peter and Paul); “Tu es Petrus,” the rock, the principalitas, the indignus heres beati Petri; the most developed patristic-era doctrine of Roman primacy; then the divergent readings — Roman (jurisdictional primacy by divine right) and Orthodox (primacy of honour within a synodal Church; the Cyprianic background) — both sourced, with the Orthodox reading stated as the Church’s own. |
How to Use
- Both files are governed by Methodology §4: every contested claim carries both the Roman and the Orthodox position, each sourced; the Roman position is reported accurately as what it is — a doctrine the Orthodox Church has examined and not received.
- Read Leo and Canon 28 for the canonical and ecclesiological clash, and The Petrine Theology for the doctrine of the Petrine see that underlies Leo’s whole stance.
Cross-References
- The Council and the Tome — the doctrinal act of the same council, received where Canon 28 was rejected.
- The Roman Faith — the theological vision of Rome behind the primacy claims.
- The Contested Legacy — the long afterlife of this dispute in the Roman and Orthodox traditions.
- St. Photius the Great and St. Mark of Ephesus — the later Eastern witnesses on the primacy question.
- St. Cyprian of Carthage — the third-century background to the “primacy of honour” reading.
- The Pre-Schism Church — the ecclesiological setting of the undivided Church.
References
Full citations are at the foot of each file. Canon 28 is cited from ACO tom. II and Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils; Leo’s letters as Epp. 104–106 (PL 54; trans. Feltoe, NPNF 2nd ser. vol. 12); the sermons by number; the secondary scholarship principally Wessel, Neil, Meyendorff, L’Huillier, and Ullmann.