From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (unknown)
Date: ~515-523 AD
Context: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and Constantinople over the condemnation of the Monophysite patriarch Acacius. Pope Hormisdas (514-523) worked tirelessly to resolve this schism, which was finally healed in 519 under Emperor Justin I.
[This letter is part of the extensive diplomatic correspondence generated by the resolution of the Acacian Schism. The schism had divided the Eastern and Western churches for thirty-five years over the condemnation of Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, who had promoted a compromise formula (the Henotikon) that Rome rejected as insufficiently orthodox. Hormisdas conducted negotiations through multiple embassies to Constantinople, exchanging letters with emperors, patriarchs, imperial officials, and powerful aristocratic women at court. The correspondence reveals the machinery of late antique ecclesiastical diplomacy: formal theological demands, careful diplomatic language, networks of lay and clerical allies, and the constant anxiety of a pope trying to manage events happening months away by letter.]
HOKJiiSDA QuiBus suPRA. Ita uos incolomitatis et actuum uestrorum cura sollicitat, ut quamnis frequentibus occasionibus non praetermittamus hortari certos nos de his, quae circa ts uos aguntur, fieri litteris destinatis. nam et cum per hominem illustris uiri atque magnifici patricii filii nostri Agapiti desideriis nostris congruos miserimus affatus et nunc quoque anxietatis nostrae credidimus solatio, si ad uos praesentia scripta mitteremus: tantum est, ut de actibus atque sospitate 2
6 uestra quantum p^: quantum uestra V 7 receptione F, corr. p 8 quo scripsi: co (on eo?) F, eo a ^non"^ immemores Car. 9 que admodum F, corr. a 12 scytarum V 16 tili (= tamen) V: tum Car. 19 adortationibuB V
694
Hormisda Germano etc; Possessor Hormisdae
uestra nec non et de mora, per quam uos detineri plurimum dolemus, releuetis nos alloquiis sub occasione idonea porti- toris. Data VI. Idus lul. Kusticio u. c. cons.
◆
From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (unknown)
Date:~515-523 AD
Context:Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and Constantinople over the condemnation of the Monophysite patriarch Acacius. Pope Hormisdas (514-523) worked tirelessly to resolve this schism, which was finally healed in 519 under Emperor Justin I.
[This letter is part of the extensive diplomatic correspondence generated by the resolution of the Acacian Schism. The schism had divided the Eastern and Western churches for thirty-five years over the condemnation of Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, who had promoted a compromise formula (the Henotikon) that Rome rejected as insufficiently orthodox. Hormisdas conducted negotiations through multiple embassies to Constantinople, exchanging letters with emperors, patriarchs, imperial officials, and powerful aristocratic women at court. The correspondence reveals the machinery of late antique ecclesiastical diplomacy: formal theological demands, careful diplomatic language, networks of lay and clerical allies, and the constant anxiety of a pope trying to manage events happening months away by letter.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.