From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Avitus, Anastasia)
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 Anastasiam. (a.5i9d.
^ ^ 9Jul.)
Ut propter plenam dissensioms exstinctionem vota sua conjungat pontificis precihus.
Hormisda Anastasiae.
Postquam Deus noster Ecclesiae suae membra in pacem pristi-
nam redeuntis solidavit, diu vos desiderasse testamini*), quod pro-
venisse gaudentes, et nos quidem indesinenter divinam clementiam
deprecamur, ut sicut has regni primitias gratanter accepit, ita fidem
boni principis omni semper adjuvet prospetitatis effectu^), et tara
ipsum quam vos omnes in sacrosancto religionis amore custodiat,
ut quorum fides errorem pessimae dissensionis abjecit, et tu ita in
terris floreas, ut aetemae salutis remuneratio subsequatur. Nuuc
igitur vos quoque vota nobiscum conjungite, et omnibus a Deo
viribus implorate: ut hujus correctionis exemplum omnes sequantur
ecclesiae, ut nihil sibi diabolus remansisse gaudeat, quem in totum
pene jam nostra concordia gratulatur exclusum.
◆
From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Avitus, Anastasia)
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.