Leo the Great (Leo I) (440-61)

Importance

•          Now known as the “pioneer pope”

•          Believed in a hierarchical church with everything converging on Rome

•          Believed in papal supremacy

•          Held to idea of plenitudo potestatis (plentitude of power) for the See of Peter where the pope as heir of Peter, ruled over the whole church

•          His teachings on the nature of Christ were adopted as orthodoxy at the Council of Chalcedon (451)

•          Persuaded Attila the Hun to stop a raid on Rome