From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Juliana Anicia)
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.]
^^9 Jid.^' Julianae Aniciae ad Hormisdam papam.
«^^* X \ Pontificem salutans, ejus sedulitatem circa fidem laudat, et quomodo ipta studHs
17 oept.) . j .^
'^ ' ejus respondertt exponU.
Domino beatissimo atque apostolicae sedisproba-
tissimo pontifici Hormisdae papae patri Ju-
liana Anicia.
Quae prima sunt, tuae beatitudinis salutationis obsequia persol-
vimus, optantes, ut hanc paginam tuis venerandis obtutibus Divinitas
faciat recenseri, et pro suae Ecclesiae vigore augmenta salutaria vestRie
vitae suffragari dignetur, quatenus te pervigili possit contra adversos
et rabidos canes status Ecclesiae vindicari. Etenim, venerabilis pater,
quod de nostrae fidei integritate curam geris, vicariis gloriosi Petri
apostoli ista conveniunt, cui Dominus pascendarum ovium injuniit
officium. Cognoscat ergo tua pro nobis sancta soUicitudo, nos fir-
mius tenere rectae fidei firmitatem immobilem: pro qua ne ejusvio-
laretur sanctimonia, hactenus repugnavimus. Quod vero tuus apo-
cp. 85. stolatus pro tantae pietatis causa curam ferre praecepit, in quantum
potuimus, pro uostris viribus non desivimus spiritu lenitatis adversos
admonere, et Dei nobis gratia cooperante .... (deest reiiquwn.J
◆
From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Juliana Anicia)
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.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.