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 lusTiNiANO iLLusTRi. Studium uestrum erga ecclesiasticam pacem et damnatos haereticae contentionis errores ipsis rerum eflfectibus approbamus; cuius uos operis
2 magna immensaque sine dubio merces expectat. hinc est quod, quicquid pro canonum firmitate et pro apostolicae sedis reue- rentia necessarium duxerimus, magnitudini uestrae secura peragendum protinus praesumptione mandamus, quia cum magno uos gaudio pro causis talibus sperata suscipere multi- plicia huiusmodi eiempla testantur. quare omissis in longa circuitione principiis ad rem ipsam praesentis paginae uerba
3 conuertimus. maeret ecclesia et in magno uotiuae unitatis exordio frui praestita non potest pro unius causae afflictione laetitia: hanc ut nobis soUicitudinem beneficia uesti*a sub- moueant, non paruis precibus exoramus. angit nos enim et praesens dolor et futurorum occasio procurata certaminum, per quam et uenerabilium patrum regulae neglegantur et
4 apostolicae sedis putatur auctoritas posse contemni. nam cum diuino clementissimique principis beneficio sed et uestro simul adnisu hi soli credantur esse pontifices et iure ecclesias continere, qui ad communionem nostram damnatis erroribus redire consentiunt, Heliae Thomati atque Nicostrato fratribus et coepiscopis nostris, qui bonum causae etiam sub aduerso impenitore dedere principium, non solum nihil ad prouectum
1 printipis V
Epist. CCVI 5 - CCVIII 3.
667
bona studia profuerunt uerum etiam coUatae sibi a domino obtinere nequeunt officia dignitatis et extorres a commissis sibi gregibus subire coguntur miserias damnatorum. quapropter 5 quaesumus et per diuinam uos misericordiam obtestamur, ut
5 eorum causae, quae iusta est^ summum patrocinium et probatae uiuacitatis impendatis ailectum piissimi principis haerendo uestigiis^ quatenus eos tandem suis ecclesiis et pietatis intuitu et iustitiae contemplatione restituat, quia in illorum contumelia ab inimicis asseritur optatum nostrae communionis displicuisse
10 consortium.
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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.