Letter 208

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Dioscorus) 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. 519 d. Hormisdae papae ad Dioscorum diaconum. 3Dec.) Ut cogitet, quomodo ii, qui Calckedonense concilium scripio damnaoerantt re- p. 11; cipiendi sint. Ecdesias Alexandrinam et Antiochenam^ nec non Tkomam^ Xico- stratum ei Johannem Nicopolitanum ei commendat, Hormisda Dioscoro diacono^). 1. De laboris tui, quem cum Dei omnipot^ntis juvamine susce- pisti, pro ea parte, quae acta est, gratulamur efiectu; et indicamus, ut quemadmodum revocandi sunt hi, qui ex scripto Calchedoneusis concilii constituta damnaverunt, debeas cogitare, ne^) forsitan tales non schismatici sed magis haeretici videantur. An certe , una sit causa tam eorum, qui sermonibus, quam eonim, qui convincuntur •') Tres de iis exstant Justiniani epistolae, scil. 78, 89 et 99. Ex iis antem vel 89 vel 99 videtur memorari. — Mox ed. faciemus. Scytliis errorem liic Hormisda attribuit. Certum enim est, eum de illoniin causa niliil hactenus judicare voluisse , sed ejus cognitionem ad legatoram reA- tum distulisse. 104 ^) Inscriptio nulla exstat in G'. EPISTOLAE 103 — 105. 905 scripto damuasse^), quia per hanc distantiam filius noster vir illu- (a. 519.) stris Albinus religiosus videtur facere quaestionem? Et cogita, utrum et scribentes contra Calchedonense concilium per illura generaleni libellum tantum suscipi debeant, an certe aliquid amplius adjicere^). 2. De Alexandrina et Antiocheua ecclesiis^) solatio Dei nostri adjutus enitere, ut omnibus recte dispositis communioni catholicae socientur. Thomae quoque et Nicostrati fratrum et coepiscoporum nostrorum observatio*') nos longa contristat; et miramur, cur apud catholicum principem rectae fidei laborare videantur episcopi, quo- rum desideria tua debebit caritas sublevare agendo, quatenus optata consequentium') moeror converti possit in gaudium. 3. Johannes Nicopolitanus episcopus per Ammonium diaconum nobis scripsit, quod ei aliqui malevoli apud principem nituntur ge- nerare calumniam : quem dilectioni tuae commendamus hortantes, ut elabores, ne ejus quieti inimicorum possit nocere subreptio. Quem Ammonium diaconum ad nos venientem in sedis apostolicae nolui- mus communione suscipere tamdiu, donec habito cum Sergio diacono tractatu, quid ordinari debuerit, quaereremus; et hoc deliberatio nostra supradicto^) diacono probabilis invenit, ut per testiraonium libelli communioni catholicae jungeretur: quem libellum sollemniter oblatum, et nostrae ofierentem communioni significamus adjunctum. Data.