Letter 100
Hormisdas→Unknown|hormisdas
From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To: Unknown recipient (Constantinople, 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 CfERMANO £T lOHAXNI EPISCOPIS ET BLANDO PRES-
BYTERO. Grauiter nos lohannis catholi<ci> afflixit interitus, quem haeretici Dorothei uesania perhibetis extinctum. nam eundem Dorotheum Constantinopolim iussu principis didicimus lo
2 euocatum. aduersus quem domno et filio nostro clementissimo principi debetis insistere, ne ad eandem ciuitatem denuo reuertatur sed episcopatus, quem numquam bene gessit, honore deposito ab eodem loco ad ecclesiam longius relegetur uel cei-te huc ad urbem sub prosecutione congrua dirigatur. u
3 ad hanc etiam partem iuuigilare debebitis, ne in loco eius Aristides totius mali incentor et conscius quibuslibet subrep- tionibus ordinetur, nam nihil prodest mutari personam, si eius deformis nequitia perseueret; sed talem uirum debetis eligere, ut de iudicio uestro cuncta catholicorum congregatio so
4 gratuletur. his igitur obseruatis pro Thomae atque Nicostrati Iratrum et coepiscoporum nostrorum personis intentio dilectionis uestrae uehementer debet incumbere. nam quid prodest ecclesiam redintegrasse, si ab eius corpore sacerdotes uideamus extraneos, quos in nostram communionem uos caute atque » rationabiliter non ignorastis esse susceptos? unde non leuiter nos res ista contristat, si ab his, qui sedis apostolicae
2 de inseruit Bar.
227. JDat. (simul cum ep, 175) a. 519 die 3 Dec; per Paulinum. Edd, Car. P 515; Bar. ad a. 519, 134; Collect. Concil; BTA I 438; Thiel 903. 8 catholi F, corr. a 12 insiste F, corr. a 14 ad ec- clesiam V: ac ecclesia Car., ab ccclesia Bar. 18 nt (= nihil) F: nul a, tmde nulli o 19 eius deformis nequitia scripsi: eldem formis nequicie F, eiusdem fonnam nequitiae a, eiusdem fonna nequitiae o' 23 pde F 24 corpore ex corporis F
Epist. CCXXVI 8 — CCXXVm 2.
693
praedicationem sequuntur, neglegantur qui in eius fide et consensu recepti sunt. idcirco, sicut hortati sumus, pro eorum 5 eommunione atque loco serenissimo principi ueheraenter insistite; nam in eadem causa domno et filio nostro clemen-
5 tissimo principi et uiro illustri lustiniano filio nostro scripta direximus, hortantes, ut cum uestra, quantum ad ecclesiarum suarum receptionem pertinet, debeant caritate tractare. de quo uos articulo nostrae ordinationis 'suspicamur immemores : diximus enim, quemadmodum exclusis occupatoribus hi, de
10 quibus loquimur, ad proprias reuertantur ecclesias, ut illi alibi, si tamen rectae sunt fidei, ordinentur. de personis 6 Scytharum monachorum uir illustris lustinianus nobis scripsit, quarum exemplaria litterarum fraternitati uestrae direximus. qui cum noUent sustinere uestrae dilectionis aduentum et
15 obseruationum moras se dicerent ferre non posse, temptauerunt clam de urbe discedere. quos tamen nos fecimus soUicitius custodiri, ea, quae de uobis contraria dixerunt, uolentes agnoscere, ut, cum reuersi deo propitio fueritis, eorum error rationabilibus adhoilationibus corrigatur. Data 111. Non.
jo Decembr. Eutharico u. c. cons.
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From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To: Unknown recipient (Constantinople, 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.