Letter 204

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.]

seu Exemplum epistolae Justiniani ad Hormisdam papam. lArlct) 4. Num dicendum sit, unum de Trinitate fuisse crucifixum. Vt Scythas monachos remiiiat. Ut plenissima fidei perfectio doctrina beatitudinis vestrae nobis proveniat, iterum Eulogium vinim strenuum agentem inrebusjuxta alias^) causas etiaiji hacpropter direximus, per quem valde peti- mus, ut per omnia responso apostolatus vestri circumspecto et cau- tissimo in confessione catholicae fidei confirmetur. Post semel enim divina misericordia donatam Ecclesiae catholicae unitatem quidam asserunt Christum Filium Dei Dominum nostrum pro nostra salute carne crucifixmn unum de Trinitate debere praedicari : quod si susci- piendum sit, paterna provisione reverentia vestra cautissimo suo rescripto, quid sequi quidve super hoc evitare debeamus, nos certio- rare dignetur; quoniam verba videntur facere dissensionem , nam sensus^) inter catholicos omnes imus esse probatur. Imponite igitur vobis semel susceptum laborem, sancte ac venerabilis pater, etiam in hoc praedecessores vestros sequentes, quorum memoriam et am- plectimini et consortio pontificatus ornatis, et de hac intentione liberos nos properate reddere et securos. Hoc enim credimus esse catholiciun, quod vestro religioso responso nobis fuerit intimatum. Quia vero dictum est Sc}i;hicos monachos hac ratione ad sedem vestram accessisse, pro traditione patrum et ordine regularum prae- bito eis responso, nihil formidantes^) ad nos cum vestris litteris jubete remittere. Quarum etiam exemplaria consignata praedicto viro stre- nuo Eulogio dari praecipite. Haec enim omnia ideo petimus vos disponere cautius, ut ne locus mendacio vel insidiis detur: quoniam summo.cum desiderio fidem catholicam amplectentes, vestra doctrina unitatem universo orbi petimus condonari^). 99 *) Forte pro quibusdam negotiis apud Theodoricum regem tractandis: cujua rei cauaa Eulogium tribunum ac notarium anno 520 a sc in Italiam transmissum esse Justinus imperator infra epist. 126 significat. — Mox ed. hanc propter, SPI8T0LAE ROMAN. PONTIF. I. 57 898 8. HORMISDAE PAPAE