From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
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.]
HORMiSDA EUFiMiAE AUGUSTAE. Orare no8 et pro uestra incolo- mitate deo nostro uota persoluere cum catholicorum etiam coetu sine cessatione pontificum non uestrae studium exorati- onis inuitat sed deuotum atque persistens in ecclesiastica
2 stimulat conciliatione propositum. quis enim ab haeretica segregatus conspiratione se teneat, ' quis aliis in sua utatur deprecatione principiis, nisi ut uobis serenissimoque principi iugali uestro et uita sit longior et ad prosperitatis augmentum gratia diuina proximior, qui ini<ti>a felicis imperii plectendi execrationibus consecrastis erroris et amicam diabolo pacifica
3 expulistis intentione discordiam? unde nunc decet uos laudabilibus coeptis insistere et per totum orbem perfectam spargere medicinam, quia Christo maior numerus gregis oblatus mercedem confidenter exigit largiorem. inter quae curae uestrae sit, ut nuUum sanatas iamdudum personas uulnus afficiat sed communionis unitas magnum sit iustitiae im-
4 petrandae suffragium. quaesumus namque, ut tandem de uenerabilibus fratribus et coepiscopis nostris Helia Thomate atque Nicostrato, quod sacrissimorum canonum dictat aucto- ritas, uobis decementibus impleatur, ne uideantur ut auctores alicuius mali, quod primi ad unitatem sedis apostolicae festinarunt, in communi omnium gaudio soli meruisse percelli et in facto laudabili uictam personali odio cessisse iustitiam.
5 nostris ergo precibus apud clementissimum Augustum uestras adiungite, ut fructum, quem illis pati-um regulae tribui et conseruari praecipiunt, inimica tergiuersatio aufeire non possit.
208. Dat ut ep. 202. Edd. Car. P 511; Collect. ^oncil ; BTA I 434; Thiel 890; commemorat Bar. ad a. 519, 134. 2 adq V 5 inuite F, corr. o2 6 reconciliatione Car. 7 segragatus F, corr. a 10 initia o': inia V 11 consecratis V, corr. Car. 16 Satanas iamdudum prostratus uulnus afficiat (efficiat edit. reg.) Car. 17 imperandf F, corr. 20 sacratissimorum ot 23 commoni V
Epist. ccni 1 — ccmi 8.
66S
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From:Pope Hormisdas, Rome
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.