Letter 200

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Justinian/Justin, Nicostratus) 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 Jastinianain comitem. ^^Sepit 4. lUiua siudiwn erga ecclesiasticam pacem laudat. Ut Eliae, Thomae et Nicostrati patrocinium suscipiat, enixe precatur. Hormisda Justiniano illustri^). 1. Studium vestrum erga ecclesiasticam pacem et damnatos haereticae contentionis errores ipsis rerum effectibus approbamus; cujus vos operis magna immensaque sine dubio merces exspectat. Hinc est, quod quidquid pro canonum firmitate et pro apostolicae sedis reverentia necessarium duxerimus, magnitudini vestrae secura • peragendum protinus praesumptione mandamus, quia cum magno V08 gaudio pro causis talibus sperata suscipere, multiplicia hujus- modi exempla testantur. Quare omissis in longa circuitione princi- piis ad rem ipsam praeseutis paginae verba convertimus. 2. Moeret Ecclesia^ et in magno votivae unitatis exordio frui praestita non potest pro unius causae afflictione laetitia: hanc ut nobis sollicitudinem beneficia vestra submoveant, non parvis precibus exoramus. Angit nos enim et praesens dolor et futurorum occasio procurata certaminum, per quam et venerabilium patrum regulae neghguntur; et apostolicae sedis putatur auctoritas.posse contemni. Nam quum divino clementissimique principis beneficio sed et vestro simul adnixu hi soli credantur esse pontifices et jure ecclesias con- tinere, qui ad communionem nostram damnatis erroribus redire con- sentiimt: Eliae, Thomati atque Nicostrato fratribus et coepiscopis nostris, qui bonum causae etiam sub adverso imperatore dedere prin- cipium, non solum nihil ad provectum bona studia profuerunt, verum etiam coUatae sibi a Domino obtinere nequeunt officia dignitatis, et extorres a commissis sibi gregibus subire coguntur miserias damna- torum. Quapropter quaesuraus et per divinam vos misericordiam obtestamur, ut eorum causae, quae justa est, smnmum patrocinium et probatae vivacitatis impendatis affectum, piissimi principis hae- rendo^) vestigiis: quatenus eos tandem suis ecclesiis et pietatis in- tuitu et justitiae contemplatione restituat, quia in illorum contu- melia^) ab inimicis asseritur optatum nostrae communionis disph- cuisse consortium. 95 ^) Ed. viro Ulustri; vox viro constanter abest a G^ ') Hoc est demiese ac suppliciter eum exorando.