Letter 157

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin, 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 Jostiniannm comitem. (a. 5i9in. Jan.) Laudato Ulius bonae volunialis initio rogaty ut Acacii cum seguacibus nomen re- moveatur. Denique missos a se legatos indicat. Hormisda episcopus Justiniano*). Litterarum vestrarum serie religionis ope pollente devotionis ') b civitate, rejecto ad oram de caritate, quod sane praeferendum. 48 ') Ita G^ Ed. add. Augusto, Ao vero Augusti nomen Justiniano tum non Qongruebat. (a. 519.) op^^^issima gi-atulatione suscepta, gratias Diviiiitati retulimus, quia dedistis indicium, facile a vobis fieri quod potuissemus bortari. Hinc est, quod quia sponte laudabilia cupitis, digne ad principatos api- cem generis*) vestri stemmata pervenerunt. Quapropter insistite et religiosae vivacitatis animis imminete, ut quemadmodum pro bonae voluntatis initio genus vestrum meruit culmen imperii, in aetema vobis de perfectione gloria sint triumphi. Videte, quo desiderio pacis^) gaudia ludificatus diu mundus exoret: respicite, generalita- tis animos vestri praesumptione beneficii certa spe quietis attoUL Non est quod se dubietas inserat, non est quod «iliquid ambigoitatis accedat, quum testamini, quod et nos quidem bene novimaSy acce- dere ad ecclesiarum concordiam religiosi principis vota. Quapropter tantae magnanimitati gratias agentes, quanta possumus petitione deprecamur, ut Acacii nomen cum sequacibus suis, quod plene uni- tatis ecclesiarum impedit gaudium, damnationis ordine sit remotum. Nos enim convenientes causae qualitati direximus legatos, quibns praesentibus initium, quod dedistis, gaudii possit secundum quae mandatis continentur impleri.