Leporius

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Leporius was a monk from Gaul and later (by 430) a priest. Advancing the view that man did not stand in need of divine grace, and that Christ was born with a human nature only, he was excommunicated in consequence of these heretical doctrines. He moved to Africa, and there became familiar with Aurelius and St. Augustine, by whose instructions he profited so much that he not only became convinced of his errors, but drew up a solemn recantation addressed to Proculus, bishop of Marseilles. In 418 he publicly confessed his error in the still extant Libellus emendationis sie satifactionis ad Apiscopos Galliae, sometimes with the addition Confessionem Fideii Catholicae continens de Mysterio Incarnationis Christi, cum Erroris pristini Detestatione. It was held in very high estimation among ancient divines, and its author was regarded as one of the firmest bulwarks of orthodoxy against the attacks of the Nestorians. .  Although now reinstated in his ecclesiastical privileges, Leporius does not seem to have returned to his native country, but, laying aside the profession of a monk, was ordained a presbyter by St. Augustine, A.D. 425, and appears to be the same Leporius so warmly praised in the discourse De Vita et Moribus Clericorum.

Writings:

  • Libellus emendationis sie satifactionis ad Apiscopos Galliae

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Quotes and Excerpts:

DOCUMENT OF AMENDMENT 3
(Written ca 426 A.D.)
“We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the Ever-Virgin Mary, was born God; and confessing each substance, we accept, in the light of pious faith, that His humanity and His divinity are united inseparably. And thus, from the time when He took flesh, we say that all that was of God passed into the Man, and all that was of man came into God; and that is what we mean when we say that the Word became flesh: not that by some conversion or change He began to be what He before was not, but that by the power of the divine economy the Word of the Father, never departing from the Father, deigned to become really man; and the Only-begotten was incarnate in that secret mystery which He understood (for it is ours to believe, His to understand).

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