ABSTRACT
Pope Leo composed his first florilegium to justify the doctrine of his Tome to Flavian, but only on the occasion of the second dispatch of this document to the East, during negotiations undertaken between Rome and the new patriarch of Constantinople, Anatolius. Pope Leo's failed attempt marks the beginning of a lull in the history of Diophysite theological literature. The only means of defence left available to the champions of Diophysite theology, whether willingly or unwillingly subjected to the imperial religious policy, against encroaching Monophysitism was research into the teaching of the Fathers, which is to say in practice, the composition of florilegia. The patristic documentation gathered at the time of the Henotikon and under the reign of justinian, of which people's authors only supply people in part, was further exploited in the seventh century, eighth century and beyond. Such an enterprise presupposes as a preliminary condition perfect editing and classification of the contributions of the fifth and sixth-century theologians.
