Letter 244

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

(a.52im. Hormisdae papae ad Epiphanium Constautiuopolitauiuu. Apnl.) In Eliae , Thomae et Nicosirati suscipienda communione ne moram. hJIom pomat. y, Xi Hormisda Epiphauio episcopo Oonstantinopoii- tano. Oportuerat quidem fraternitatem tuam divini contemplatione judicii atque caritatis nostrae respectu Eliam, Thomam atque Nico- stratum fratres et coepiscopos nostros, postquam in consortium com- munionis nostrae recepimus, ad divina tecum *) mysteria incunctanter admitterC; atque ad ecclesias suas, a quibus eos discordiae ern>r 'excluserat, pro pacis nostrae plenitudine revocare: ut unitas, quam post annorum multa curricula per totum orbem suis Deus restaura- vit ecclesiis, nuUa voluntatum nostraruni distantia laederetur. Sed quia rem tam gratam et patrum statutis venerabilibus cougruentem quibusdam tarditatibus contigit nunc usque differri, unde etiaiu ad oi>. 106. decessorem fraternitatis tuae nos scripsisse .meminimus: hortainur. ^ £x epistola, quam Isidorus Marcellini nomine confinxit, eum hic legi^' coUigitur quae nobis, ut in ^ prima manu. Ex veteribus coUectionis Hispanat.' ut et Isidori libris, in quibus superior Hormisdae ad Epiphanium opistoh 111 proxiniae ejusdem ad Salustiimi praemittitur , hunc papam id quo<l Epiphiuio illic respondet iiotare, ac praedictae epistolae 141 exemplar ad Baeticos desti- nassc conjectamus. Unde consequens est, ut haec ad Baeticos et illa ad S«i- lustium non citius mense ApriU anni 521 conscripta sint. '') Ita P FO*''^*. Al. plenius expedire (J' expediri). ®) J* J* c' soq. suh hac parte; corriguntur ex iisdem mss. et i*. '^') Ita J* p -Ti*, nisi quod i* mMs indulta. Al. sunt illis laiius indic. ne prir. nobis (J* nos) ind. convellereni. Ac vero Hormisda in epistola Bupcriori non pro- pria sed aUorum privilegia servari curat. 144 ') b cc omitt. tecum, moxquc G' post quam annorum ... unde minc etiam. EPISTOLAE 143 — 145. 983 ut laetitiam, quarn de clamnato praeteritae dissensioiiis errore per- (a 621.) cipimus, in nullo itenim diserepantium animorum causa contristet. Etenim nulli videtiu: vos^) nobiscum pleno communicare mentis af- fectu, si eos qui nobiscum conmiunicant a vestro consortio segregatis. Incassum certe videntur pacem recipere, qui pacis diflFerunt prae- cepta complere. Quidquid enim in illorum suscipienda communione moramini, quodammodo de nostra reconciliatione detrahitis. Et pro- videndum est, frater carissime, ne si ecclesiarum nostrarum tandem desuper indulta concordia ab his exordiimi sumat exemplis, et reli- gionis veneranda regula et apostolicae sedis auctoritas imminuta, quod absit, per Orientem potius quam restituta videatur.