Letter 180

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

f^;^.^^.^ Hormisdae papae ad Oermanum et soeios. 25April. ^ ^ De eoritm incolumitate et rebus f/estis certior /ieri cupit. p.l Hormisda Germano etJohanni episcopis, Feliciet Dioscoro diaconis et Blando presbytero. Opinionum divcrsitas diu nos facit de prosperitate vestra vel 3^ ') Orationis series postulare videtur invicto ... vexiUo. 71 V) Poni])eji, ut ad epist. 69 est aunotatuin, consobriua et uxoris ejus Ana- stasiae cognata, cujus praeclaruui quoddain facinus Gregorius Turon. lil». *ie glor. mart. 1. l c. 103 comniendat. EPISTOLAE 70—73. 8G7 de susceptae actionis qualitate sollicitoS; praecipue quum nihil cer-a. 519. tum tam diuturno tempore vestrae dilectionis potuissemus rescriptione cognoscere. Nos tamen reperta latoris occasione faaec ipsa signi- ficare maluimus. Quapropter salutantes^ cum Dei omnipotentis auxiUo incolumes nos esse cognoscite, quod et de vobis audire de- sideramus. Sed ut de onmibuS; quae gesta sunt; nostram plenius possitis instruere notionem, a quibus personis vel in quibus locis bene, sicut credimus, sus<?epti fueritis, vel ubi aut sub qua festivi- tate resurrectionis dominicae caritas vestra tenuerit diem, et quid deinceps egeritis, per omnia rescriptis currentibus declarate: qua- tenus nostram ^) cogitationem de vestra et actuum prosperitate rele- vare possitis, et si quid instructioni quam suscepistis causae de- fuerit, subjungere cum Dei nostri solatio valearaus. Data VII Ca- lendas Majas, Eutharico viro clarissimo consule.