Letter 154

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin, Gratus) 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.]

(a. 518 c. Hormisdae papae ad Justinum impertttorem. nn. vel initio a. Justino initia imperii gratulatur, utque Ecclesiae manus suae solatia porrigat precainr. p. 519.) Hormisda Justino Augusto. 1. Venerabilis regni vestri primitiis, fili gloriosissime, loco muneris gratulationem suam catholica transmittit Ecclesia^ per quos') se post tantam discordiae fatigationem requiem pacis invenire con- fidit. Nec est dubium, ideo ad rerum summam coelesti vos provi- dentia pervenisse, ut tantis temporibus impacta religioni in Orientis partibus aboleatur injuria. Debitas^) beato Petro apostolo imperii vestri primitias reddidistis, quas hac ratione devote suscepimos, quia ecclesiarum per vos proxime futuram credimus sine dubitatione con- cordiam. Deus, qui pietatis vestrae sensibus alloquendi nos vota concessit, ipse circa sincerum religionis suae cultum praestahit, sicnt optamus, aftectum^). ep. -11. 2. Significastis, nolentibus et recusantibus vobis imperii pondofi ') b quaque. Superiore Justini epistola 42 Hormisda tantum ut ad regiaa lurbem mittat sacerdotes, non ut ipse veniat, rogatur. — Ibidem ed. fmod /feri non debet, "*) b cc effectum ... ordinata sunt. EPISTOLAE 4^ — 46. 835 impositmii; qua ratione electos vos coelesti constat esse judicio 8e-(a. 518.) cnndum apostolum dicentem: Non est potestas nisi a Deo; quae autem ^^' sunt, a Deo ordinatae sunt. Superest, ut a Deo electi, sicut et cre- dimuS; Ecclesiae, quam laborare cernitis, manus vestrae solatia por- rigatis. Cessent qui paci ejus obsistunt, quiescant^) qui in forma pastorum conantur gregem Christi dispergere^)! Istorum correctio vires vestri firmat imperii; quia ubi Deus recte colitu#, adversitas non habebit eflFectum. Hanc gratulationis paginam per Alexandrum virum clarissimum non omisimus destinare, sperantes cum Dei no- stri adjutorio per Gratum virum clarissimum filium nostrum de sin- gulis, quae ad unitatem Ecclesiae pertinent, nos clementiae vestrae praebituros esse responsum.