From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Avitus, Pompeius)
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.]
9Jil1./ Hormisdae papae ad Pompejom.
t't ea vivacitatey qua pacvt initium curavit^ procuret et ejus plenitudinem,
Hormisda Pompejo.
Ita devotionis nostrae animum gaudio concordiae fatemur im-
pletum, ut nulla credamus' verba sufficere, quibus fidei vestrae puri-
EPISTOLAE 81—85. 883
tatem Taleamus explere. Magna profecta memoria felicitatis trans- (a.5l9.)
ibitis ad posteros^ quia yos in facienda pace soUicitudine certum est
foisse constrictos. Habetis apud Divinitatera meritum, cujus reli-
gioni persolvitis affectum. Operati quidem estis generalitatis desideria,
sed et vestra pariter completa sunt vota; et quum animae vestrae
paraveritis praemium^ universitas sibicgaudet beneficium impensum.
Quapropter debita honorificentia salutantes hortamur et petimus, ut
vivacitate, qua quietis ecclesiasticae coepistis initium, procuretis
effectum, et quocunque contentionis alicujus videritia remansisse
vestigia, curetis modis omnibus insequenda. Adeste ecclesiarum
Dei plenissimae tranquillitati , insistite labori, quera fidei vestrae
munere Domino curastis offerre. Facitis enim, ut majore a vobis
fiducia exigamus plenitudinem, quos gratulamur desideratae dulcis-
simae adunationis initia votiva fundasse. Data^) consule suprascripto.
◆
From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Avitus, Pompeius)
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.