Letter 57

From: Unknown sender To: Unknown recipient (Gratus) 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.]

<H0RMiSDA nioscoRO DiACONo. > De laboris tui, quem cum dei omnipotentis iuuamine suscepisti, pro ea parte, quae acta est, gratulamur effectu et indicamus ut, quemadmodum reuo- candi sint hi, qui exscripto constituta Chalcedonensis concilii damnauerunt, debeas cogitare, ne forsitan tales non scismatici sed magis haeretici uideantur an certe una sit causa tam eorum qui sennonibus, quam eorum qui conuincuntur scripto damnasse, quia per hanc distantiam filius noster uir illustris Albinus religiosus uidetur facere quaestionem. et cogita, utrum et scribentes contra Chalcedonense concilium per illum generalem libellum tantum suscipi debeant an certe aliquid aniplius adicere. de Aleiandrina et Antiochena ecclesiis 2 solatio dei nostri adiutus enitere, ut omnibus recte dispositis communioni catholicae socientur. Thomae quoque et Nico- 3 strati fratrum et coepiscoporum nostrorum obseniatio nos longa contristat et miramur, cur apud catholicum principem corr. p 7 Cdie>quo Bupra scripsi: (^f V 178. Haec episiula mtssa non uidetur, immo ni fallor nihil est nisi vetustior quaedam forma epietulae 175. Edd, Car. P 508; Collect. Concil; BTA I 429; Thiel 904; commemorat Bar. ad a. 519, 134. 10 Hormisda Dioscoro diacono praefimt Car. (cf. indicem generalem editum in Prolegom. cap. I): om. V 11 deo F, corr. o 13 sunt Car. ei scripto F, correxi 14 cogitari F, corr. scismaticis^F, corr. a 15 uidentur F, corr. o 17 per F: propter Couat. 22 nostrij nri a: nn ut uidetur V enitire F, corr. o 630 Hormisda Pompeio; Honnisda DioBcoro rectae fidei laborare uidentur episcopi. quorum desideria tua debebit caritas subleuare ageudo, quatenus optata consequen- 4 tium maeror conuerti possit in gaudium. loliannes Nicopoli- tanus episcopus per Ammonium diaconum nobis scripsit, quod ei aliqui maliuoli apud principem nitantur generare calumniam: quem dilectioni tuae commendamus hortantes, ut elabores, ne eius quieti inimicorum possit nocere subreptio. 5 quem Ammonium diaconum ad nos uenientem in sedis apo- stolicae noluimus communione suscipere tamdiu, donec habito cum Sergio diacono tractatu quid ordinari debuerit quaereremus, et hoc deliberatio nostra supra dicto diacono probabilis inuenit, ut per testimonium libelli communioni catholicae iungeretur: quem libellum soUemniter oblatum et nostrae offerentem communioni significamus adiunctum. Data.