Letter 193

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin, 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.]

Hormisdae papae ad Johannem Illicitanae ecelesiae episcopiim. ^*j^'\"* 1 3. Ecclesiam ConslanlinopoUtanam ad sedis apostolicae communionem rediisse nuntiat, et libellum a Johanne ejus antistite conscriptum cum sacra Justini transmittit. Hormisda Johanni episcopo^) Illicitano. Vota nostra caritatem tuam latere nolumus, ne qui particeps fuit sollicitudinis , gaudiorum fructu redderetur extorris. Et ideo Constantinopolitanam ecclesiam ad communionem nostram rediisse, Domino propitiante tradentihus significamus alloquiis, et mandato- rum, quae legatis nostris dedimus, in omnibus seriem fuisse comple- tam. De qua parte, ut ad dilectionem tuam plenius perfectum'^) gau- dium penreniret, libelli Johannis fratris et consacerdotis nostri Constan- ei). Gi. tinopolitani episcopi, et Justini clementissimi principis Orientis sacrarum btterarum exemplaria^) pariter credimus destinanda; indi-ep. G6. cantes nihilominus, per Orientis partes plurimos episcopos sic fecisse. Superest, ut a nobis competentibus precibus Divinitas exorata con- cedat, quatenus de aliarum quoque ecclesianmi redintegratione gra- tulemur. Ea vero, quae significare curavimus, iii eorum sacerdotum, qui fratemitati tuae vicini sunt, curabis perferre notitiam, ut et ipsi de effectu tantae rei gratias nobiscum coelestis misericordiae beneficiis referre non cessent.- Deus te incolumem custodiat, frater carissime !