Letter 194

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

sea Exemplum epistolae Justiniani per fratrem Froemptoris ad (a-^i^ m Hormisdam papam. » l/t expedito Scytharum monachorum negoticf Johannem et Leontium ad se remittat. Quidquid est cautius, quidquid firmius, ut pro sancta fide et concordia sanctarum ecclesiarum geratur, optamus. Unde ad beati- 87 *) 6* Data quo supra cons. Nullus autem in proximis epistolis nominatus est consul nisi Eutbaricus. Neque obscurum est, hanc epistolam cum superiori- bus fiiisse transmissam. 88 ') a' et cc ad marg. MilecopoHtano , et in textu ex „Vatic." Melicitano. Haud dubie ex titulo Ad Johannem EUcitanum librarius litteram M geminans cor- ruptionem hanc induxit, quae ope codicum laudatorum, quaravis in iis non sit haec salutatio, sauatur. Plura de inscriptione conf. supra mon. praev. pag. 113. (a.6l9.) tudinem vestram et frater*) noster gloriosissimus Yitalianus per Paulinimi virum sublimem defensorem vestrae ecclesiae rescripsit^, et nos per eumdem significare curavimus, illa debere beatitudinem vestram perficere, quae pacem et concordiam sanctis concedant ecclesiis. Subinde tamen, qui^) certius responsum ad sanctitatem vestram referat, cum litteris piissimi nostri imperatoris destinavimus. Nam quanta quaestio in partibus nostris orta est, potest etiam antefatus*) vir religiosus defensor sanctitatem vestram instruere. Unde petimus, ut, si est possibile, celerrimo dato responso et satisfactis religiosis monachis, Johannem et Leontium ad nos remittatis. Nisi enim precibus et diligentia vestra ista quaestio soluta fuerit, vere- mur, ne non possit ecclesiarum sanctarum pax^) provenire. Ergo cognoscentes, quia et merces et periculum liujus rei vobis servator, diligenter tractate, et firmissimum responsum per antefatos religiosoe monachoS; si est possibile, antequam legatus noster ad beatitudinem vestram perveniat, uobis remittite; in hoc enim solo omnis pendet intentio.