Letter 225

From: Unknown correspondent To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (Germanus, Dioscorus, bishops) 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.]

a 620 d. Hormisdae papae ad eosdem legatos. 15 Jul. Unde tanla fiat reditus illorum mora, et quaecunque circa ipsos agantur, quam primum rescire cupit. Hormisda Germano episcopo, Felici et Dioscoro diaconis et Blando presbytero. Animos nostros tam diutnmum dilectionis vestrae silentiiiin ut tantorum temporum contristat absentia, praecipue quum vir magni- ficus patricius Symmachus*) et vir illustris Romanus magister mib- tum filii nostri reditum apud nos caritatis vestrae sine dilatione pro- miserint, et ignoramus, utrum illic causarum qualitas an certe fraus aliqua simulata sub necessitate detineat; quia nobis sollicitudinem sine cessatione gerentibus et pene universos homines illamm partium percunctantibus diversa et dissimilia nuntiantur. Et ideo, quoniam vos causas tantae tarditatis melius deprehendere et intelligere potestis atque cognoscere, significare nobis ista, de quibus noster cruciatur animus, debuistis; vel si est causa dilationis idonea, sicut constitatum est, aliquem de vestris ad nos oportuerat destinari. Unde ne forsitan per versutias aut aliquam corfcinnationem vobis dilatio et impedimenta generentur, sub celeritate nobis scribite, ut sub rationabili ordina- tione pro vestra repetitione ad filium nostrum clementissimum impe- ratorem dirigamus. Ergo tam circa personas quam de causa fidei, pro qua diu moramini, quid geratur instruite, atque plenissime nobis universa rescribite: ut omnibus cognitis Deo nostro favente tracte- mus, quemadmodum personis vestris et causae ipsius ci\jus res agitur possit misericordia subvenire. Data Idibus Julii^ Rustico viro daris- simo consule.