Letter 210

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Nicostratus, 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.]

Horiuisdae papae ad Johannem Gonstantinopolitanum. ^sDccf Thoma tt Nicdstrato Constantinopoli indigne susceptis, se ipaum spretum videin. lis quam piimum consultum vult. Hormisda Johanni^) episcopo Constantinopolitano. Reperimus Thomatem et Nicostratum fratres et coepiscopos nostros ConstantinopoU non ita susceptos, sicuti nostra fuere desi- deria, et ipsi semper optabant. Non solum enim loca eis debita^) dicuntur ablata, sed a communione quoque eos cognovimus fuisse suspensos. Quod quam acerbe ferat animus noster, etiam fraterni- tatem et dilectionem tuam credimus aestimare. Et ideo quantam diligentiam causae videtis magnitudinem poscere, tantam vos effi- caciam debetis sine mora praestare, et agere, ne nos magis, apud^) quos fuerunt, videamur esse contempti-, quum illis contra, quam desiderium commune habuit, sollicitudinis molestia fuerit indecenter injecta in tantum, ut nec de facultatibus eorum, quae eis dicuntur invasae, a fratre et coepiscopo nostro Johanne, dicatur aliquod^) antequam, sicut pervideritis ^ ut oportet, firmentur ea quae hene disposita sunt ab eis. ') G* Data dls cons, sSy ed. Data supradicto consuie. 106 ^) In vulg. Johanni episcopo ei Dioscoro diacono. Addimus cum G ' Constan- tinopolitano. In eodem G* quidem postea hic adjicitur et Dioscoro diacono, eed in praevio illius indice generali haec verba absunt. Et ea quidem abesse de- bere inde nobis persuasum est: 1*^ quod in ea Hormisda unum et singularem alloquitur his verbis fraternitatem et dilectionem lunvi (non vestram) credimus aesii- mare; 2° quod eam in epistola 144 recolat ac memoret ut ad unum Johannem Bcriptam; 3° quod non aliter de ea in subnexa epistola 107 loquatur. Verum autiquariuB, hujus epistolae 107 illud legens: tam ad Johannem fratrem et coepi- scopum nostrnm scripta direximiis, quam dilectissimo filio noslro Dioscoro diacono per Utieras inJunanmuSy in eum inductus est errorem, ut unam eamdemque epistolam ibi designari, adeoque hanc 106 uon tantum Johanni episcopo, sed et Dioscoro diacono inscribendara existimaret. Johannem, ciyus epistola synodica ad Johannem Constautinopolitanum concilii ConBtautinopolitani sub Mena actioni V (Hard. U, 134*2) inserta est, eique primuin subscribere Johannem Caesareae (in Palaestina) episcopum. Nec deest conjectura, a.6l9. ordinatum, nec litteras nostras, quas per eos misimus^), fui^ su- seeptas. De quibus omnibus ita vos agere desideramus instanter, ut ad nos caritas vestra de eflFectu hujus causae valeat sub celeritate rescribere. Data quo supra consule.