From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Celer)
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.]
Hormisdae papae ad eosdem. 29 Apnl
Suam de eorum gesiis soUidAidinem Paulino defensore misso significai.
Hormisda quibus supra.
Animus noster diuturna redditur exspectatione sollicitus: prae-
cipue ad tantum principem destinati, sub celeritate nos certiores
debuissetis ef ficere. Nam ante ^) diem ascensionis dominicae litteras
vestras credebamus nos posse suscipere. Idcirco tam vestrae sospi-
tatis indicia quam profectum causae, quam peragendam cum Dei
nostri juvamine suscepistis, desideramus agnoscere. Paulinum eccle-
siae Romanae defensorem cum scriptis praesentibus destinare cura-
vimus, tam principi litteras, quam singulis, quibus oportuit, diri-
gentes. Quapropter Deum nostrum congruis precibus oramus, ut
ipse salutem vestram sua propitiatione custodiat, et causae qualem
desideramus concedere dignetut effectum: quia nihil majus inter
titulos optimi imperatoris adscribitur, quam si eum ecelesia Graeca
praesens et futura praedieare mereatur pacis auctorem. Data III
Calendas Majas, Euthjirico viro clarissimo cousule.
72 ^) Ed. vesiram cogiiationem ... revelare possiiis. Collatione facta hujus loci
cum hoc altero epist. 74 (quod ei facere pro nosirae cogiiaiionis relevaiione debe-
tis) emendantur.
73 *) Quirni Pascha hoc anno in diem 31 Martii incidisset, Ascensionis soUe-
mnitas Maji dumtaxat 9 die ceh^branda nondum attulserat, quum haec scriberet.
65
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From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Celer)
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.