Letter 156
Hormisdas→Hormisdas, Rome|hormisdas
From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.]
(a.5i9m. Hormisdae papae ad Johannem Gonstantinopolitannm
Jan.) •
^ episcopnm.
Oaudei, quod concilium Calchedonense et s. Leonfs episiolas suscipiat ac seeum p.l
in una fide consentiat (n. 1 — 2). Restare aity ut et Acacium exseereiur et Ubel-
lum, qui propterea annectitur, a se subscriptum remittat (n. 3). Grati qMoque
fidem commendat («.4).
Hormisda Johanni episcopo Gonstantinopolitano.
ep.4:). 1. Spirituale gaudium directis caritas tua significavit affatibos,
docendo^); ut catholicae religionis disciplina ordinem suum vestris
partibus Deo nostro juvante receperit. Haec esse beneficia miseri-
cordiae supernae quis dubitet? Haec quis dubitet venerabilis prin-
cipis tropaeis adjungi? Quis ambigat; quia major ei de hac pace,
quam de quibuslibet praeliis triumphus acquiritur? Istius laboris
gloria nescit occasum: quia ubi Deus recte colitur^ nuuquam adver-
sariorum crescit iniquitas.
ep. 43. 2. Dilectionis tuae confessionem gratanter accepimus, per quam
sanctae synodi^) comprobantur , inter quas instauratione constituto-
rum omniimi Calchedonense concilium praedicastis^ et cathohcorum
<) Ita G^ Ed. contentiosa.
'-") Qui uimirum superioribus epistolis 7 et 26 habetor subnexas.
') Inter has sanctas sjuodos recensetur et Constantinopolitana, quam tie
primum ut oecumcnicam a summis pontificibus comprobatam legere est
BPI8T0LAE 46 — 48. 837
nomero adjungi desideranS; sancti papae Leonis in diptycliis nomen (a. 519.)
asseveras scriptum. Ista laudanda sunt^ si perfectionis subsequatur
effectus : quia recipere Calchedonense concilium et sequi sancti Leo-
nis epistolas; et adhuc nomen Acacii defenderC; hoc est inter se
discrepantia vindicare. Quis Dioscorum et Eutychetem condemnahS;
innocentem ostendere possit Acacium? Quis Timotheum et Petrum
Alexandrinum et alium Petrum Antiochenum et sequaces eorum
dedinans^ sicut diximuS; non abominetur Acacium^ qui eorum com-
Biunionem secutus est?
3. De caritate^) siquidem tua meliora Dei omnipotentis exspe-
etamus auxilio^ habentes optimae promissionis spem^ sicut ad nos
quae direxisti tua*), tecum in veritate sentiens, et ipsa defendens,
sperans in illo judicio per ipsa te posse salvari, Post haec quid re-
stat; nisi ut sedis apostolicae^ cujus iidem te dicis amplecti^ se-
quaris etiam sine trepidatione judicia? Igitur partibus Orientalibus
ostende per te quod sequantur exemplum, ut omnium laus, qui cor-
recti fuerint, tuis laboribus applicetur. Ergo quum magna denun-
ties et fidem beati apostoh Petri te amplecti significes, recte credens
in ea salutem nostram posse subsistere ^) , libellum * cujus continen-
tia subter annexa est, a caritate tua subscriptum ad nos dirige, ut
sine conscientiae formidine unam communionem; sicut oramus, ha-
bere possimus.
4. Pro persona quoque filii nostri Grati viri clarissimi Deo
nostro gratias sine cessatione persolvimuS; cujus fides et recta cre-
dulitas nostrum circa se excitavit atfectum: dignus re vera, qui
tantae curam susciperet actionis et maximi principis ad nos man-
data perferret.
◆
From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.