Letter 140

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Possessor, 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.]

Hormisdae papae ad Possessorem ^piscopnm. a.5i7d. •j i\.pru. Fide iUius laudata, ul in ea crescat et constanter perseoeret, hortatur. Hormisda^) Possessori episcopo. Optimam vestrae caritatis audientes instantiam, et cognoscentes ectae fidei'^) tramitem, quem sine strepitu vindicatis, Deo nostro p*atias sine cessatione persolvimus: ut et in ea dispositione per- istas, et ceteris quod sequantur tribuere possis exemplum. Ista unt dona coelestia, ista sunt divinae retributionis indicia, ista sunt )ei judicia, quae te a catholico sacerdotum noluerunt separari con- ortio. Unde, frater carissime, praesentibus hortamur alloquiis, ut n ea constantia, qua^) electus es, perseveres, et augmenta proba- dlibus initiis subministres : quia bonum opus, praecipue quod ad loctrinam fidei pertinet, nisi semper creverit, videtur imminui. Et i tribulatio mundana contigerit, ante oculos nostros^) futura prae- aia ponentes, apostolica nos admonitione consolemur, dicentes: Non^^^- uni condignae passiones hujus temporis ad fuluram gloriam, quae re- ' elabitur nobis. Meliora tamen speramus, quia Deus, qui per beatum .postolum dixit: Qui vos non dimisit tentari super quod poiestis; ipsel^'^^. iro sua pietate, quos suos elegit esse, et de laqueis adversariorum, ' ®) b cc haud temere hic addunt: Dala ut supra Agapito v. c. cons. l ') PoBsessor Africanus episcopus is, ut videtur, qui in catalogo episcojjorum !arthagine anno 484 jussu regis Hunerici cougregatorum appellatur Zabensis in fauritania Sitifensi episcopus, jam Constantiuopoii pro negotiis Ecclesiae ver- abatur, quum eo primum Ennodius ac socii pervenerunt. Hos ille in propu- uauda catholica fide constanter adjuvare non contentus, etiam libello remeanti- •ag dato, summum pontificem de fidei suae siuceritate certiorem fecit; hinc ata epistolae higus occasio. ') Non displiceret quod apud Baron. qua exorsus es, si id ciun auctoritate OfluiBset. \ a. 517. sicut semper, oripiet. Libellum dilectionis tuae de confessioue reci fidei per legatos uostros remeantes accepimus, et in eo sinceritatt tuae fraternitatis agnovimus : quia quod recte credit, sub attestatioiK=r-ie publica praedicare non distulit. Data III Nonas Aprilis, Agapil \Tro clarissimo consule.