Letter 172

From: Unknown sender To: Unknown recipient (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.]

Beu Exemplum relationis Andreae episoopi Praevalitani. 22Aprn Frusira quosdam Epiri novi episcopoSy tnaxtme iUius arcldepiscopum , contra ^^^ ^' unitatem simulasse; Scampinum et Lignidonensem episcopos nec non Constantino- polilanos ad pacem rediisse; epistolas iUorum se hic adjungere. Domino semper meo beatissimo et apostolica sede intima veneratione praeferendo atque angeli- cis meritis coaequando patri patrum, papae Hormisdae Andreas. Commendans me humillime vestigiis vestris piissimis, indico propter synodum Epiri novi, quoniam finxerunt anathematizare intra^) semetipsos aliquas personas. Hoc tantummodo ingenio usi •)»Ita G'. Ed. ipsius, Mox G' a* gloriosa ... cum famulo meot b cc religiosa, omitt. deinde cum, Ubi haud dubitavimus corrigere confamulo meo, ex graeco airp^ovlm, quomodo antiquis familiare est sese vocare conservos^ condiaconos, consacerdotes et comministros. Leonem Augustum subscribunt metropolitanus Dyrrachinus, et episcopi Scam- pinus, Lignidi, Vallidi ApoUoniadis , Aulonae, et secundum superiorem obser- 85G S. nORMISDAE rAPAE a 519. simt; ut nos in sua malitia caperent. Quibus restitit divina Trinitag per vestras sanctas preces ; et quum deprehensi fuisscut in sua ma- litia, nunquam potuimus archiepiscopo suorum^) suadere, ut ad viam veritatis et ad vestra praecepta flecteretur '). Sed modo quum advenerunt beatissimi atque sanctissimi domini episcopi vel diacones directi a sancta corona vestra, occurrerunt illis Scampinus episcopus vir beatissimus Trojus cum omni gaudio et luminaribus: et, porrecto libello secundum vestram praeceptionem, statim recepti sunt in pace Christi, et missas celebraverunt cum ipso in Scampina civitate. Et videntes Lignidonenses *) quod fecit Scampinus, simili modo et ipsi secuti sunt. Nam dum istas litteras ordinaremus, supervenit ma- gistrianus de urbe Constantinopolitana , qui nuntiavi^, quia Deo propitio precibus sanctis vestris et Constantinopolitani miserunt ana- thema Acacio, et cum pace Pascha celebraverunt. Jam quid se- quatur, vestra intercessio apud Deum laboret, ut ad perfectum serri sedis apostolicae inveniamur. Epistolas vero, quas destinaverunt ad raeam humilitatem supra memorati viri beatissimi episcopi^), pietati vestrae junctas transmisi. Accepta die qua supra*).