Letter 155

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

Hormisdae papae ad Justinuni imperatorem. ^^jan)"^ Ll. Vt^ qiiae pro pace Ecdesiae imperator incepit, perfidaty precatur. Quid ah episcopis ad unitatem propensis faciendufh sit, se et litteris et adjecto libello exposuisse declarat, Justini de Grato judicium confirmat, Hormisda Justino Augusto. Sumptam de imperii vestri ortu laetitiam, quamvis apud nos pollentem merito praecedenti , quoque geminastis alloquio. Reci- ep. 42. proca devotione testati, jam tunc secutura praevidimus, quae nunc de ecclesiasticae unitatis afFectu coelestis gratiae inspiratione signi- ficastis. Habes ergo, clementissime imperator, praesentem de tali Toto jam gloriam, sed exspecta^) de perfectione perpetuam. Haec sunt validissima imperii vestri fundamenta, quae in ipso nascentis regni principio divinam universis praeferunt sancta dispositione eulturam. Tenete itaque hanc piae sollicitudinis curam, et pro ca- tholicorum pace, sicut coepistis, insistite: quia Deus noster, qui vobis hunc tribuit animum, elegit etiam, per quos praestet efiFectum. Nam et episcoporum vota precesque vobis^) efiusas gratanter ani- plectimur: qui tandem loci sui consideratione commoniti ea deside- rant, quae dudum ut sequi vellent, sedis apostolicae exhortatio cre- bra non defuit, Et quoniam clementiam vestram id cupere, illos etiam haec didicimus"^) postulare, quae res hactenus ecclesiarum ') a* dicimus, 5.3* (a. 519.) pacem sub intentiosa ^) obstinatione diviserit; nec pietatis Tesine nec illorum refugit velut latenti causa notitiam. Quid igitur faeen debeant, et litteris nostris et libelli^); quem direzimus, serie con- tinetur. Haec si^ Deo nostro et clementia vestra adjuTante^ SDSci- piunt et sequuntur, poterit ad eam, quam maximo desideranras a^ dore, perveniri concordiam. Filius praeterea noster vir*) sabliinis Gratus^ sactp consistorii comes et magister scrinii memoriae, osten- ditin se vestrum allegationis suae maturitate judicium: cujus mon sensibus vestris eo referente melius asseretur.