From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.]
EXEMPLUM EPISTOLAE lULIANAE ANICIAE. DOIINO BEATISSIMO ATQUE APOSTOLICAE SEDIS PROBATISSIMO PONTIFICI HORMISDAB PAPAE PATRI lULTANA ANICIA. QuaC
prima sunt, tuae beatitudini salutationis obsequium persol- uimus, optantes ut hanc paginam tuis uenerandis optutibus diuinitas faciat recenseri et pro suae ecclesiae uigore aug-
108. Bat. ut ep. 192. Edd. Car. D 536; Collect. Concil; Thiel 920.
42*
658
lastinus Hormisdae; lustinianus Hormisdae
menta salutaria uestrae uitae suifragare dignetur, quatenus te peruigili poterit contra aduersos et rabidos canes statiis ecclesiae uindicari. etenim, uenerabilis pater, quod de nostrae fidei integritate curam geris, uicariis gloriosi Petri apostoli ista ^ conueniunt, cui dominus pascendarum ouium iniunxit 5 2 ofBcium. cognoscat ergo tua pro nobis sancta soUicitudo nos firmius tenere rectae fidei finaitatem immobilem, pro qua, ne eius uiolaremus sanctimoniam, hactenus repugnauimus. quod uero tuus apostolatus pro tantae pietatis causa curara ferre praecepit, in quantum potuimus, pro nostris uiribus non 10 desiuimus spiritu lenitatis aduersos admonere dei nobis gratia cooperante.
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From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.