Return to Table of Contents
Leo IV (847-855)
Forgiveness of Sins for Those Who Dies in Battle With the Heathen
Now we hope that none of you will be slain, but we wish you to know that the kingdom of heaven will be given as a reward to those who shall be killed in this war. For the Omnipotent knows that they lost their lives fighting for the truth of the faith, for the preservation of their country, and the defence of Christians. And therefore God will give then, the reward which we have named.
In Migne, Patrologia Latina, 115: 656-657, and 161:720,
trans. Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 511-12.