Neophytes were excluded from major orders; married men aspiring to the priesthood were required to promise a life of continency, and it was forbidden to consecrate a bishop without the assistance of three other bishops and the consent of the Metropolitan. A council of 451 held after the close of the Council of Chalcedon in that year, sent its adhesion to the "Epistola dogmatica" of Pope Leo I, written by Flavian of Constantinople (see Eutyches) Apropos of the conflict between the archiepiscopal See of Vienne and Arles a council was held in the latter city in 463, which called forth a famous letter from St. Leo I.Leonis I, Opp., ed.
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Taking his stand on the authority of the Bible and of papal decisions, he proceeds to enter on speculative discussion. The first book treats of God and His attributes; the second, of the creation, of angels, of the soul, of the fall of man and of original sin; the third, of the ancient and the new law, and of the Incarnation; the fourth, of God's power, of Christ's Passion and of hell and purgatory; the fifth, of the Resurrection, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the preaching of the Gospel, of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and confession and some virtues and vices. The sixth book deals with a variety of subjects, including ignorance, negligence and frailty, good and bad spirits, the choirs of angels, merits, and the administration of the Sacrament of Penance; the seventh discusses the forgiveness of sins, penance and fasting, prayer, tithes, the civil power, the priesthood, its privileges and obligations, continency, the contemplative and active life, and matrimony. The eighth book deals with the Blessed Sacrament, the Second Advent, Antichrist, the Last Judgment and the ultimate state of the saved and the lost.
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