Letter 198

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.]

Hormisdae papao ad Jastinum Augustiim. ^.t^^V' Ut suis sedibus eiiam Eliani^ Thomatem ei Nicosiratum restituendos curet. Hormisda Justino Augusto. Gloriosis clementiae vestrae laboribus ecelesiasticae prima^) concordiae et orbis pacati votiva tranquillitas generali praedicatione respondent. Quae res nostri parcum*) reddit ac retinet ad agendas gratias sermonis officium. Illud tamen, quod pro vobis indesinenter Domino nostro preces efFmidimus, non tacemus. Quia in votis infi- nitus affectus est, fiiiitiun esse potest in praedicatione judicium. Verum inter haec pietatis vestrae beneficia una nos, quae etiam vehementer afficit, cura non deserit, quod Eliam, Thomatem atque Nicostratumfratres et coepiscoposmeos,qui primi ecclesiasticam festina secuti sunt devotione concordiam, non solum magni frustratur pahua principii; verum etiam mali miseria comitatur exempli. Quare cle- mentiam vestram mixto etiam precibus fletu deposcimus, ne gaudia nostra^ quae de haereticorum quotidie conversione praestatis, prae- fatorum abjectio intoleranda conturbet: quia non sola personarum nos causa sollicitat, quibus et boni facti simul sufficere gloria posset et meriti, sed quod venerabilium constituta canonum contemnuntur'^), 93 '] c^ seq. palma. Sine auctoritate mutari non dcbuit prima, quod primas ac praecipuas partcs sonat. Thomae et sociorum eadem videtur exstitisse causa, quae episcoporum illorum, in quorum gratiam Leo epist. 93 c. 3 scribit: Quia vero non ignoramus, plurimos episcopos, quia haeresim non reciperent, sedibus suis pulsos et in exsilia deportaiosy atque in locum supcrslitum alios subslititios: his primitus vulncribus adhibeaiur medi- cina Justitiae, nec quisquam ita carcal propriis» ut alter utaiur alicnis; quum si, ut 89<) S. HOKMISDAE PAPAE I (a. 519.) et quod nou parvam eoruin abjectio apostolieae sedis taiigit iujumm: ne^) Cliristiauitatis vestrac .sinceritas^ qua et niagnum patrocinium veteribus constitutis impenditis et sedis apostolieae principatum acta noviter veneratione sancitis, in uno inexpugnabilem relinquat posteris negotio quaestionem.