world (a. d. 452), Leo, with only two companions, crozier in hand, trusting in the help of God, ventured into the hostile camp, and by his venerable form, his remonstrances, and his gifts, changed the wild heathen's pur- pose. The later legend, which Raphael's pencil has employed, adorned the fact with a visible appearance of Peter and Paul, accompanying the bishop, and, with drawn sword, threatening Attila with destruction unless he should desist.* A similar ' Comp. above, § 59. ^ See the particulai-s in § 36, above, near the close. ^ Comp. Perthel, I. c. p. 90 sqq., and p. 104 sqq. * Leo himself says nothing of his mission to Attila. Prosper, in Chron. ad ann. 452, mentions it briefly, and Canisius, in the Vita Leonis (in the Acta Sanctoi-unt, for the month of April, torn. ii. p. 18), with later exaggerations. VOL. n. — 21 322 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. case occuiTed several years after (455), when the Yandal king Genseric, invited out of revenge by the empress Eudoxia, pushed liis ravages to Rome. Leo obtained from him the promise that at least he would spare the city the inflictions of murder and fire ; but the barbarians subjected it to a fourteen days' pillage, the enormous spoils of which they transported to Carthage ; and afterward the pope did everything to alleviate the consequent destitution and suffering, and to restore the churches.' Leo died in 461, and was buried in the church of St. Peter. The day and circumstances of his death are unknown." The literary works of Leo consist of ninety-six sermons and one hundred and seventy-three epistles, including epistles of others to him. They are earnest, forcible, full of thought, churchly, abounding in bold antitheses and allegorical freaks of exegesis, and sometimes heavy, turgid, and obscure in style. His collection of sermons is the first we have from a Roman bishop. In his inaugural discourse he declared preaching to be his sacred duty. The sermons are short and simple, and were delivered mostly on high festivals and on the anniversa- ries of his own elevation.^ Other works ascribed to him, such as that on the calling of all nations,^ which takes a middle ground on the doctrine of predestination, with the view to reconcile the Semipelagians and Augustinians, are of doubtful genuineness. ' Comp. Leo's 84th Sermon, which was preached soon after the departure of the Vandals, and Prosper, Chron. ad ann. 455. ^ The Roman calendar places his name on the 11th of April. But different writers fix his death on June 28, Oct. 30 (Quesnel), Nov. 4 (Pagi), Nov. 10 (Butler). Butler quotes the concession of Bower, the apostate Jesuit, who, in his Lives of the Popos, says of Leo, that " he was without doubt a man of extraordinary parts, far superior to all who had governed that church before him, and scarce equalled by any since." anum Demosthenem. ^ Sermones de natali. Canisius (in Acta Sanct., I. c. j). 17)