Letter 224

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (unknown) 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 legatos suos. a.52od. 10 Jul. De eorum salutCy rehus gestis ac mora suam eis soHicitudinem significat, Hormisda legatis^) suis. Ita nos incolumitatis et actuum vestrorum cura soUicitat, ut quamvis frequentibus occasionibus non praetermittamus hortari, cer- tiores nos'^) de his, quae circa vos aguntur, fieri litteris destinatis. Nam et quum per hominem illustris viri atque magnifici patricii filii nostri Agapiti desideriis nostris congruos miserimus affatus '), et nunc quoque anxietatis nostrae credidimus solatium, si ad vos praesentia scripta mitteremus: tantum est, ut de actibus atque sospitate vestra nec non et de mora, per quam vos detineri plurimum dolemus, rele- vetis nos alloquiis sub occasione idonea portitoris. Data VI Idus Ju- lias, Rustico viro clarissimo consule. est: omncs qui ab Acacio ipBuin Epiphanium praeceaserunt, Hormisdae jussu e diptychis sunt expuncti. ») a« de his. *°) Ita G' a^ b cc et Juhannc episcopis. Joliannem autem tacet Epipha- nius, quia illum cum aliis legatis regredi valetudo non sinebat. *') b cc secuti sunt. ") Ed. vobis, deinde G^ c' absenlibus, moxque ed. omitt. ac. 122 *) In G\ in quo epistolam 103 Germano et Johanni eppis et Blando prhro inscriptam haec excipit, hic legere est Hormisda quihus supra. ') Hi ad nos minime pervenerunt. Neque vero ullas habemus ab Hormisda ad legatos Utteras epistolis 103 et 104 d. 3. Dec. a. 519 datis recentiores, conf. not. epist. Horm. non exst. n. XXXI.