From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To: Unknown recipient (Pompeius)
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.]
eeu
(a. 519 d Exemplum epistolae Pompeji ad Hormisdam.
ti2 Apnl.)
Impcraiorem ac sc ipsum itiius precibus commendai.
Doniino meo beatissimo et apostolico patri Hor-
'■') EJ. ouiitt. ei cfmssimt'.
08 ') K(l. 1'cncrnndftr ... ui Jn pro souciiaaimo.
EPISTOLAE 67 — 70. 8G5
misdae archiepiscopo^) universali Ecclesiae (a. 519.)
Pompejus^).
Sanctis beatitudinis testrae precibus omnipotcmtis Dei pietas
exorata tantae nobis fidei principem condonare dignata est, ut reli-
giosissimis clementiae ejus meritis redintegratio pacis ecclesiasticae,
quae votis onmium fidelium poscebatur, jure videatur esse collata; •
in cujus regis proventu solidissima principatus sui fundamenta sancti
Spiritus operatione constituit, quae tantum robur obtinent stabili-
tatis invictae, quantum actionis excellentia unica et admirabilis
aestimatur. Et ideo reverendam vestri pontificatus beatitudinem
cultu reciprocantis alloquii salutantes quaesumus, ut magis magisque
pro clementissimi atque invictissimi domini nostri principis prosperi-
tate orare dignemini, quatenus ineflFabilis omnipotentis Dei pietas
sua dona, iu quibus etiam fructus vestrae agricolationis exuberat,
justis gratiae opitulatione custodiat: nobis quoque filiis vestris spiri-
tuali vobis conglutinatis affectu, quos hujus operis maxime semper
sollicitudo constrinxit, suffiragatrix intercessio sanctimoniae ponti-
ficalis assistat.
◆
From:Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To:Unknown recipient (Pompeius)
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.