Letter 152

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

seu a. 516 d. Exemplum relationiB Johannis episcopi Constantinopolitani per accepta Gratum missae ad Hormisdam papam. d 20Dec ' Se rectae fidei esse studiosum et quatuor synodos suscipere profitetur, Leom « jj atque ipsius Ilormisdae nomen in diptychis inscriptum docet, utque legati paeis amantes mittantur, rogat. Domino meo et peromniaDei amatori sanctissimo fratri et comministro Hormisdae Johannes in Domino salutem. 1. Saluto vestram sanctitatem, ca^ssime in Christo frater, et salutans praedico, quoniam recta fides salva est et caritas fraterni- tatis firmata est. Hoc Deus solus potens per studium Christianonim et piissimonmi imperatorum fieri voluit. Scribere igitur apostolice et rescripta*) suscipere fraterne Dei amore dignemini. Ego enim inquisibili ratione doctrinam sanctissimorum apostolorum secmidum traditionem sanctorum patrum teiiens, similiter honorem consubstan- tiali et per omnia sanctae Triuitati oflero, sicut in Nicaea trecen- torum octodecim coetus promulgavit, et in Constantinopoli centnm quinquaginta conventus firmavit, et iu Ephesina concursuis*) ducen- torum firmavit, et in Calchedone conventus sexcentorum triginta patrimi firmavit. Hanc ergo fidem usque ad ultimum anhehtom per gratiam Dei custodiens, spiritualibus amplexibus tam vestram sanctitatem quam etiam orthodoxas ecclesias ex animo amplector, una tecum in veritate sentiens, et una tecum sperans in illo die per hanc fidem salvari bona voluntate Patris et Filii et Spiritos sancti. Consubstantiali enim Trinitati omnis gloria debetur nunc et in saecula saeculorum! 2. Omnem in Christo fraternitatem , quae cum vestra est san- ctitate, ego et qui mecum, plurimum in Domino salutamus. Tan- Eumdem Gratum infra Justinus epist. 129 n. 1 virum suhlimem wkagiitrum ictM et Johannes Constantinopolitanus epist. 61 n. 1 clarissimum comitem simpliciter vocant. 43 ') Ita G" a'; b scripta. ') Ita G'. b cc omitt. concursus. EPISTOLAE 42—44. 833 im ad satisfaciendum scripsimus; ut et venerabile nomen sanctae a. 518. scordatidnis Leonis^ quondam facti urbis Romae archiepiscopi, in ^cria diptychis tempore consecrationis propter concordiam affigere- ir'), et vestrum benedictum nomen similiter in diptychis praedice- Qur. Ut de omnibus aut«m satisfiat vestrae sanctitati^ quoniam acem vestram amplectimur et de unitate sanctarum Dei ecclesiarum oramuS; rogamus vos pacificos viros destinare et vestrae dignos postolicae sedis/ qui debeant satisfacere et satisfactionem nostram Qscipere; ut et in hac parte Christus Deus noster glorificetur, qui »er vos pacem hanc mundo servavit. Accepta XIII Galendas Janu- riaS; post^) consulatum Agapiti.