Letter 137

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Constantinople, bishops) 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.]

^April' Hormisdae papae ad Tiinotheum Constantinopolitanum episcopum. Caritate cogente se eum litterix convenire quamvis nondum correrlum; ui cor- ^.\^\ rectionem ne differat ac praeterita per futura diluat compensetque, hortatwr. Hormisda Timotheo episcopo Constantinopolitano. 1. Non mirabitur dilectio tua rationem praeteriti silentii mei, si quae praecesserint universa consideret: non mirabitur praeseutis 23^^' alloquii; si quae sit vis caritatis expendat. Sustinere enim omnii» caritatem, magistro gentium docente cognovimus; quae si sua, aica^fc continet doctrina ipsa^ non quaerit, an incongrue abusus privilegi^ meO; quod tibi potius prodesse possit; exhibeo? Exspectare emc^ me decuit ab errantium conjunctione te liberum^ et sic amare coK — rectum: videre ab improbandis dividi, atque ita litterario sermoim.^ complecti. Sed quem optes^) reducem, cur differas yocare tardaK».- tem? Cur non detur locus moderationi^ quum nihil detrahitur aeqimi- tati? Impendenda sunt quae laborantibus prosunt^ si noe societatais contagione non poUuunt. 2. Haec causa mihi fuit praesentium litterarum^ ut horter, ut moneam^ ne terram nostram jacere patiamur negligentius infecan- dam. Non diu infructuosam arborem occupare solum diligens per- mittit agricola: patienter exspectat; sed numquid sub continuatioin^ perdurat? Yocatus ad salutaria^ non moreris. Prope ab innocentia» non recedit; qui ad eam sine tarditate reverterit. Movere patnm monitis^ et insistens fidelibus sine lapsu aut errore vestigiiS; pne^ cedentia dilue per futura. Adjacet tibi modo ad justa populoe ift" citando, modo pro fide principalibus vestigiis^) supplicando, dirigcp^ (|uod devium est, solidare quod dubium. Magno te convenit labor^ providere, ut causas transacti temporis rectae tegat sedulitas actw^— nis. Praestat quidem animae suaC; per quem universali aliquid coi^'' fertur Ecclesiae: et ita se res habet, ut si studiosus, si indefeaw^ institeris; fiat tibi utilis causa communis. Data ut supra^). 28 *) b cc optem reducem^ cur di/feras: praeter Hormisdae sententiam» quip'* generaJi locutione: quem quisque optet reducem, curdifferat, eleganter dicitfv^* optes etc. ^^ •) H. e. principis Anastasii vestigiis provolutus. — Mox ed. confert ..* f^' EPI8T0LAE 27 — 29. 801