Letter 141

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

1:-|^'^.^^- Hormisclae papae acl orthodoxos Constantinopoli constitn Ut eo8, qui synodum Calchedonensejn et Leonis epistolam de fide declinant^ aversentur et fugianty admonet. Hormisda derO; populo et monachis orthodo: Constantinopoli consistentibus. ^o*^ 1. Si is, qui calicem aquae frigidae, mandata evangelica se^zua- tus, obtulerit, mercedem boni propositi ipso Domino, qui haec doci-rxi/;, restituente consequitur; nonne qui tanto populo fidelium veritatr«in annuntiare distulerit, juste poenam damnationis incurrit? Hinc Gsty quod interminationem mandati coelestis eflugiens, (quod decet, loqaen- dum est in his quae ad Deum pertinent, nec tacendum) habens quoque vestrae salutis affectum, admonitionem eorum quae praesens necessitas poscit assumpsi, omnes, quibus curae est fide integra Ghristianam religionem servare, contestans, ut eos, qui sanctam Calchedonensem synodum et beati Leonis de fide catholica conscri- ptas epistolas declinant, quibus possunt viribus aversentur et fugian t, : quando ipsi sunt, qui Eutychetis et Dioscori Alexandrini vel pofaus nefanda Manichaeorum contagione poUuti, verbo quidem advereu»^ constituta patrum videntur habere certamen, rebus autem cont^^* incarnationem Domini nostri Jesu Christi evidenter insurgunt. 2. Recordamini, carissimi, quae fuerunt Basilisco palatinam ) archen incubanto tentata, et temporum illorum acta vel visa t^^* audita recolite: quam scelesta tunc fuerit Timothei cognomed Aeluri, quam impudens et monstniosa praesiimptio, quantos e& per universum orbem fidei se vestrae fervor ostenderit, ProbaY-^^ 32 ') Vulg. palatinae arci, vel palatinae aulae, Praetnlimus CTun G' palatii archen, maxinio postqiiam infra epist. 50 n. 1 eodem loqnendi modo leginv Passim vos aestimet arches inclitae aceepisse titulos, Hic autem HonmBda iBi sibi vult: dum regale imperium Basiliscus injiate possideret. Eodem intellecio i cubator aulae Siculae Dionysius a Macrobio dictus est. De verbo incuhart m Simplicii epistolam 6 not. 7 edisaeruimus. Porro nonc HonniBda in mem- riam revocat, quod Basilisco tyranno contigisse narrat Evagriua hisl ecd. IHt Timotheus AeluruSy inquit, quum in urhem regiam venisset, persuasit BasiKieo, encyciicas litteras ad omnes uhique episcopos milteret, et ea quae CiMedone gtt fuerant et Leonis tomum anathemati subjiceret. Yemm ut idem scriptor ibid. c- ^ docet, mox idem tyrannus a populo monachisque regiae nrbia coactns eit, Hv" teras prioribus contrarias, quibua CalchedonenBiB synodos confiimabato, ndtteftf* EPISTOLAE 31 — 33. 807 Constautinopolitanus popnlus, quam pure deceat credentes Chri- a. 517. la servare mysteria. Sed transacta utinam studia fuissent, et nunc similia tempus expeteret! Rursum enim iidem haeretici t improbum de profundo, quo immersi tenebantur, attoUunt. le ideo rogo, hortor, admoneo dilectionem vestram: ab eorum conciliis et communione secemite. Recordamini zeli prioris, et re in vobis lucem scintillam ignis spiritualis ostendite, ne sim- an in vobis veritatis affectum perditorum astutia expugnasse se Leat. Et haec quidem, quantum ad praesentem necessitatem et mendam contra impios cautionem, dixisse sufficiat. Spero tamen, . si admonitio ista promoverit, et mihi et vobis utilis erit: ido et Deus in vestra salute glorificabitur, et fructus nostrae ntudinis apparebit. Data III Nonas Aprilis, Agapito viro cla- no consule.