From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin)
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.]
Justiui imperatoris ad Hormisdam papam.
Se imperalorem electum esse significat,
Justinus Augustus Hormisdae papae.
Dei beneficia licet multis^ maxime tamen summis pontificibus
couvenit indicari. Proinde sanctitati vestrae per has sacras dedara-
mus epistolas^ quod primum quidem inseparabilis Trinitatis favore,
deinde amplissimorum procerum sacri nostri palatii et sanctissiini
senatus nec non electione firmissimi exercitus ad imperium nos,
licet nolentes ac recusantes, electos*) fuisse atque firmatos. Preca-
'•) Ita G' et consentit graecum. At a* gtd errores ... perfidime: qaod Bfr
ronius retineus nonnulla supplere (scil. Anastasius imperator) compalsiiB td ab
Hormisdao mente aliena.
EPISTOLAE 40 — 42. 831
mur proinde, ut sanctis orationibus vestris divinae potentiae suppli- a. 618.
cetis; quatenus initia nostri roborentur imperii. Hoc enim et nos
sperare et vos decet implere. Data Calendis Augusti Constantino-
poli, Magno viro clarissimo consule.
◆
From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin)
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.