From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
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.]
HORMisDA DOROTHEo EPiscopo THEssALONicENsi. Considcrantes tuae fraternitatis ecclesiam ante praetereuntis mala discordiae olim cum sede apostolica praecipua fuisse caritate coniunctam te nuper pacis desuper redditae esse credebamus auctorem: sed quia, quos praeuenire debueras, sequi etiam remoraris, non leuiter pro fraternitate tua dilatae correctionis ingemiscimus • 2 tarditatem. scribis enim aures nostras cuiusdam sceleris atrocitate turbatas: utinam usque ad nos tantum tam dete- stabilis fama percurreret ac non toto orbe Christianis mentibus tam dolendum quam execrabile facinus nuntiaret, ut qui te innocentem nesciunt, a christianitatis simul credant tramite deuiasse! in qua enim mundi parte immauitatis huius inuidia non et catholicas contristat ecclesias et haereticorum praua 3 uota laetificat? quae nos a dilectionis tuae conscientia, sicut litteris intimas, ostendi cupimus aliena: quid enim uotis nostris magis conuenit, nisi ut redire ad pacem catholicam
9 per uenerabiles F, corr. Thiel
209. Bata (simul cum ep, 201) a. 520 die 29 Oct, per Eulogium; respondet epistulae 208. Edd. Car. P 546; Bar. ad a. 520, 63; BTA I 445; Thiel 956. 18 redite V 28 loetificat V
EpiBt. ccvm 4 — CCXI 1.
669
uolentes episcopos a crudelitate et criminibus contingat semper innoxios comprobariV expectamus igitur, si non desunt frater- nitati tuae ueritatis deo notae praesidia, ut et tanti sceleris a te repellas inuidiam et in reconciliatione fidei tandem eorum, 5 qui reuersi sunt, sequaris exempla. Data IIII. Eal. Nouemb. Busticio u. c. cons.
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From:Pope Hormisdas, Rome
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.