From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (unknown)
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.]
ITEM EXEMPLUM EPISTOLAE lUSTINIANI.
«0 Ut plenissima fidei perfectio doctrina beatitudinis uestrae nobis proueniat, iterum Eulogium uirum strenuum agentem in rebus iuxta alias causas etiam hacpropter direximus, per qnem ualde petimus, ut per omnia responso apostolatus uestri circuminspecto et cautissimo in confessione catholicae fidei
25 confirmetur. post semel enim diuina misericordia donatam 2 catholicae ecclesiae unitatem quidam asserunt Christum filium
1S8. Bat. (simul cum ep. 224) a. 519 die 15 Oct., per Eulogium; accepta die 17 Nou. Edd. Car. P 526; CoUect. Concil; Thiel 897. 22 hanc propter p 24 circumspecto o
646
Homiisda lustiniano; Hornusda lustiniano
dei dominum nostrum pro nostia salute carne crucifixum unum de trinitate debere praedicari. quod si suscipiendum sit, paterna prouisione reuerentia uestra cautissimo suo rescripto quid sequi quidue super hoc euitare debeamus nos certiorare dignetur; quoniam uerba uidentur facere dissen- & sionem: nam sensus inter catholicos omnes unus esse probatur.
3 imponite igitur uobis semel susceptum laborem, sancte ac uenerabilis pater, etiam in hoc decessores uestros sequentes, quorum memoriam et amplectimini et consortio pontificatus omatis, et de hac intentione liberos nos properate reddere lo et securos. hoc enim credimus esse catholicura, quod uestro
4 religioso responso nobis fuerit intimatum. quia uero dictum est Scythicos monachos hac ratione ad sedem uestram acces- sisse, pro traditione patrum et ordine regularum praebito eis responso nihil formidantes ad nos cum litteris uestris iubete i» remittere; quarum etiam exemplaria consignata praedicto uiro strenuo Eulogio dari praecipite. haec enim omnia ideo petimus uos disponere cautius, ut ne locus mendacio uel insidiis detur, quoniam siimmo cum desiderio fidem catholicam amplec- tentes uestra doctrina unitatem uniuerso orbi petimus con- 20 donari.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (unknown)
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.