303 Te Discoveries of  Manuscripts fom Late Antiquity. Teir Impact on Patristic Studies and the Contemporary World (Conference Proceedings 2 nd International Conference on Patristic Studies), ed. by Patricia Ciner and Alyson Nunez, Turnhout, 2021 (STR), pp. 303-320 DOI 10.1484/M.STR-EB.5.122756 © BRONWEN NEIL Macquarie University, Australia POPE LEO I’S LETTERS ON “THE MANICHEAN PERVERSITY” Leo the Great (440–61) presided over the see of  Rome during one of  the most turbulent periods in that turbulent city’s history. Leo’s homilies have received much greater scholarly attention than his one hundred and forty-three surviving letters, probably due to the absence of  a critical edition of  the full collection. Tese letters cor- roborate the evidence of  Leo’s sermons for the bishop of  Rome’s close attention to pastoral care, especially regarding heresy among his Roman fock. In his letters to bishops throughout Italy and, more broadly, through the divided western and eastern churches, Leo sought to establish the status of  the bishop of  Rome as the highest authority on questions of  doctrine. 1 In January 444 Pope Leo informed the bishops of  Italy of  the outcome of  his investigations into the activities and beliefs of  the Manicheans in Rome. His sole surviving letter on the subject gives 1 In the absence of  a critical edition we are reliant on the Migne edition of  PL 54. Selected letters are translated by E. Hunt, St Leo the Great. Letters, Fathers of  the Church, 34 (Washington, DC: Te Catholic University of  America Press, 1957). Selected letters and sermons pertaining to Manicheism are edited and translated by H. G. Schipper & J. Van Oort (eds), St Leo the Great: Sermons and Letters Against the Manicheans. Selected Fragments, Corpus Fontium Manichaeo- rum Series Latina 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000). Other selected letters on theo- logical controversies appear in Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum 2.2.1 and 2.4, ed. by E. Schwartz (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1932); and in Textus et documenta, series theologica, 9, 15, 20 and 23, ed. by C. Silva-Tarouca (Rome: Pontifcia Uni- versitas Gregoriana 1923, 1934, 1935, 1937). Te sermons have been edited by A. Chavasse, Sancti Leonis Magni Romani pontifcis tractatus septem et nonaginta, CCSL 138 and 138a (Turnhout: Brepols, 1973) and by R. Dolle, Sermons de Léon le Grand. SC 22bis, 49bis, 74bis, 200 (Paris: Cerf, 1961–2000). 18_Neil.indd 303 18_Neil.indd 303 16/07/21 14:26 16/07/21 14:26