From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (Gratus, 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.]
lusTiNus AUGusTus HORiiisDAE PAPAB. Illustrem uirum reue- rentissimum episcopum grato suscepimus animo non pro honore tantum, qui debetur sacerdotibus, uerum etiam pro affectu uestrae sanctitudinis, nam quicumque tuo comprobatus iudicio fuerit, est apud nos etiam iudicatus probatissimus. de opera
quam edit. reg.: quam quod V
Epiit. CCXI 2 — CCXIII 3.
671
taroen et fauore, qui sacrosanctis inferendus est eorum ecclesiis, tuDC demum opoi*tunius statuetur, cum legati, quos nuper ad regem magnificum Transamundum destinasse noscimur, reuersi propitia diuinitate responsum nobis retulerint. uestra autem 2 5 beatitudo supernum nobis praesidium indefessis orationibus postulare dignetur. Data XV. Kal. Decemb. Constantinopoli donmo lustino perpetuo Augusto <cons.> Accepta XI. Kal. luu. Busticio cons.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (Gratus, 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.