From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (Germanus, Celer, 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.]
CELER. Maxima nobis gi'atulationis causa praestatur, quotiens 5 ad apostolatum uestrum scribendi tempus emerserit. nunc 2 igiturremeantebeatissimo Germano episcopo uel reuerentissimis uiris, qui a uobis pro coniungendis sanctis ecclesiis fuerunt destiuati. necessarium duximus sanctitatem uestram debite uenerari, indicantes ante dictos habuisse quidem studium, ut 10 uoluntatem uestram plenus sequeretur effectus ; sed quia totum corpus erat infirmum, interim caput, quod prius necessarium iudicatur, adhibito medicamine uestro sanatum est et dissensio, quae erat inter uenerabiles ecclesias Bomanam et Constantinopolitanam, unitate interueniente sepulta est et alia non parua membra simili sunt diuinitatis gratia purgata atque coniuncta. hanc etiam spem gerimus uniuersi, quod 3 gratia dei, quae semper sedi uestrae permansit et per- manet, huiusmodi uobis inspirationem bonitatis praebeat, ut mansnetudine et dispensatione uestra reliquum adhuc corpus, «0 quod habetur infirmum, sicut superius a nobis dictum est, uestro medicamine unitate recepta iungatur. specialiter autem 4 deprecamur pontificium uestrum, ut pro nobis benigno patris animo orare iubeatis.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (Germanus, Celer, 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.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.