From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (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.]
EXEXPLUM RELATIOXIS DOROTHEI EPISCOPI THES8AL0NICEXSIS. SANCTISSIMO AC BEATISSIMO PATRI ET COMMINISTRATORI HOR- MISDAE D0R0THEU8 IN DOMINO SALUTEM. PropOSiti nOStrf Ct
15 orationis est summum studium, per omnia beatissime et ter beate pater, et scribere frequenter ad uos sanctissimos et mutua mereri colloquia et nuUo tempore exortem me ab huiusmodi laetitia esse condecet. quoniani igitur manifeste 2 cognoui quosdam sanctas aures uestras perturbare et scio
» procul dubio, uos in omnibus esse perfectos et quia nihil sine iudicio audire possitis nec ulli penitus uestrum animum accommodare, et ut non amplius per taciturnitatem largiri tempus uidear illis, qui nihil quidem a nobis laesi sunt sed sine causa et superflue aduersus nos armati sunt: deo tamen 3
n et uestrae satisfacio sanctitati, quia pro lohanne uiro reueren- tissimo episcopo, qui paulo ante a uestra uenerabili corona directus est, praedestinaui me periculis et mortem sustinui et meam pro eius scio me obiecisse animam et hoc ostenditur gestis et ex his, qui quamquam per meam absentiam acerrime
8 coDtameliam edit reg.
668
Hormisda Dorotheo, Heliae etc» Germano
4 uideantur esse discussi. et quid longo sermone opus est uti, cum uobis omnia dominus deus noster lesus Christus pate- facere et satisfacere possit? quia et, quando cognoui uos ad apostolicae sedis praesulatum euocari, commune gaudium totius mundi esse iudicaui. ab illo enim tempore hoc ipsum scribens ad uoS; quantum ad me, quicquid ad honorem et satisfactionem uobis et apostolicae sedi pertinet, nihil prae-
5 termisi sed nec praetei-mitto. paulo post autem scietis, peruenerabiles, annuente domino lesu Christo, quia haec ab exordio mihi sunt excogitata et, quando dominus deus tempus dedit, ad effectura haec sunt perdueta. omnem cum uestra sanctitate in Christo fraternitatem ego quoque et mei plurimum salutamus.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (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.