Letter 166
Hormisdas→Hormisdas, Rome|hormisdas
imperial politics
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.]
(a.5i9m. Hormisdae papae ad Justinianum domesticorum cmnitem.
Febr.) ^ *^
Utteras iltius amore fidei plenas cum muneribus se aecepisse ac legaios misisse p
significat, utque pacem, quam speral, ad effectum perduci cmrei, instat.
Hormisda Justiniano viro illustri.
1. Magnitudinis vestrae litteras sanctae fidei plenas amore
suscepimus, quibus ad exercendam apud vos praedicationis apostoli-
cae firmitatem opportimitatem nobis provenisse divinitus nontiastis.
Unde indesinenter Domino nostro agimus gratias/ qui ad tam prae-
clara remedia et tempus vobis et animum dedit. £t nos quidem
desuper ista agnoscimus ordinari^ postquam ei detulit divina maje- •
stas imperium^ qui se ad componendam ecclesiarum paeem indicat
ordinatum. Ergo restat, ut universi episcopi partis Orientalis juxta
libelli seriem ad correctionis pervenisse se testentur effectum. Patet
venerandae via concordiae, nota^) sunt optatae remedia sanitatis.
SacerdoteS; qui catholicam pacem desiderant^ professionem cathoh-
cam non recusent; non enim opus est partibus^) errorem corrigi;
sed radicitus amputari. Insistite igitur, sicut coepistis, ut merces
66 *) Theodorae iixoris Jusliniani soror , teste Prooopio hist. arc. c. 9, Anssta-
sia niincupabatur.
57 ^) G* a* notata, rectius b nota, Quocirca et ad ipsummet Johannem inepi*
stola sequeuti scribitur: licet quae pro fidei unitate facienda suni tuae eariialtis m-
titiwn latere non possint.
EPISTOLAE 66 — 68. 849
apud Deum vestra, quae de boni operis inchoatione habet initium, (a. 619.)
de perfectione consequatur eflFectum. Animum quidem vestrum talem
missa ad nos testantur alloquia; ut ad plenitudinem boni propositi
Don multum indigeatis hortatu; nostri tamen desiderii ea, quae spem ,
dedit, oratio^) amplius accendit ardorem, et avidius gaudia impleri
cupimus, quae instare jam divinitus arbitramur. Hinc est, quod
beatum Petrum apostolum quotidie suppliciter obsecramus, ut vobis,
per quos integrari membra sua sancta jam sperat Ecclesia, et effe-
etum Deus celerem et salutem tribuat longiorem.
2. Nos quidem, vestris animis obsequentes, viros direximus ad
solidandam sub apostolicae dispositionis ordinatione concordiam.
Vestrum est, ut sicut nos bonae intentioni deesse noluimus, ita eos
ad^) nos optatum referre faciatis effectum. Munus vestrum vene-
randa sacraria susceperunt: quod amplius beato Petro apostolo
facietis acceptius, si per vos optatam ecclesiae receperint unitatem.
◆
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.