Letter 171

From: Unknown sender To: Unknown recipient (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.]

seu a. 5i9d. Exemplum epistolae Theodoriti episcopi LignideiiBis M ad 22ApriL — . . , acc. d. Honnisdam papam. ' Suam ei laetitiam de ecclesiis ad unitatem ipsius opera revocatis significat, p Domino sancto, beato, praedicabili et adorando apostolico patri, Hormisdae papae urbis Ro- mae, humilis famulus tuus Theodoritus. Meae quidem exiguitatis non esset, tam magna praesmnere, et ad vestrum pium sanctum apostolatum pusilli sermone pracsentes parvulas destinare paginas. Sed quia pro insita vobis humanitate pio propitiationis aiiimo omnia nutu Divinitatis protegere consuevi- stis, lucidum diem et totius festivitatis repletum omui reddidistis mundo, et omnia') veatris praedicandis precibus ad pristinum uni- ") G^ J' a^ b cci* duhitare. B? correxit deviare. ") J 0 c* c* i* add. Ora pro nobis sanctissime et beatissime frater. •3) G' a' b cc die XXVI I, Verius JO i* die vicesimo octavo^ utpote quum feria quiuta hebdomadae sauctae , quac hoc anno 519 in 28 Martii diem incide- bat, libellum a Johanne subscriptum legati iu epistola 64 n. 2 testentar. '^) JO c' c' i* consulibus domno Justino imperatore et EracUo (seu Uer&cHo^ vv. cc. consulibus era DLVll^ corrupte. 62 *) G' Litunideftsis f al. Litanidensis. Ex epist. 60 liquet, legendum esse Ltgm- densis. — Mox ed. non essc tam. BPISTOLAB 61 — 63. 855 tatis reyocastis statani; et in unmn concordare vel subjugare vestris a. 619. praedicabilibus et adorandis meritis annuistis. Ideoque etsi meis obrutus iniquitatibus et ab eis undique oppressus, ex ipsis^) recrea- tus infernis, recurrente ad gloriosa vestigia vestra confamulo meo viro religioso Pullione, usurpavi me tam per eum quam etiam his parvulis et exiguis ^), vestris praedicandis et adorandis repraesentare vestigiis, divinum omnibus viribus exorans favorem, et clara voce cum omnibus omnino cantans : Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra Luc. pax hominibus bonae voluntatis: qui pro sua incomprehensibiK pietate^'^^* vestris mirificis precibus omnia illuminavit et liberavit; et lucidum et totius festivitatis repletum diem in toto orbe vestris Deo dignis precibus praestitit, et ab omni iniquitate eripuit; et omnem nodum coUigationis absolvit, et omnem semitam aperuit. Hanc itaque gra- tulationis repletam pio vestro pacem *) offerens apostolatui, deprecor, uti pro meae flebilitatis exiguitate vestris piis precibus memores esse dignemini, domini sancti beati apostolici patres ! Accepta XTTI Calendas Julias, domino Eutharico viro clarissimo consule.