From: Hormisdas, Pope of Rome
To: Illustrious men [unnamed high-ranking imperial officials]
Date: ~519 AD (January)
Context: A circular letter to senior officials at the imperial court, requesting their support for the papal legates — essentially the same request as the letter to Celer and Patricius, sent more broadly.
Hormisdas to the Illustrious men, jointly.
Although our concern for the ecclesiastical cause has never ceased, we have now been more promptly spurred by the sacred communications of the most serene Emperor, and we have sent legates with the favor of heavenly mercy — through whose office the good things we anticipate from the Emperor's mind may be accomplished.
And so, greeting Your Greatness with the respect and honor that is fitting, we ask that you lend your efforts to the restoration of the faith and not allow the prayers of the faithful to be delayed any longer after so many years. For there is no doubt that Your Excellencies will acquire the fruit of great praise if, through your agency, the things that all good men desire come to pass by the working of our God's mercy.
iLLUSTRiBus A PARi. Licet pro causa ecclesiastica numquam soUicitudo nostra cessauerit, tamen imperatoris serenissimi sacris affiatibus promptius incitati legatos cum caelestis mise- ricordiae fauore direximus, quorum oflficio bona, quae de prin- cipis mente praesumimus, impleantur. et ideo salutantes 2 amplitudinem uestram cultu et honore, quo dignum est, poscimus, ut pro redintegratione fidei uestrum commodetis studium nec tantis fidelium tardari uota temporibus permittatis, quia non est dubium celsitudinem uestram fructum tantae laudis acquirere, si per eam, quae ab omnibus bonis optantur, dei nostri misericordia operante proueniant.
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From:Hormisdas, Pope of Rome
To:Illustrious men [unnamed high-ranking imperial officials]
Date:~519 AD (January)
Context:A circular letter to senior officials at the imperial court, requesting their support for the papal legates — essentially the same request as the letter to Celer and Patricius, sent more broadly.
Hormisdas to the Illustrious men, jointly.
Although our concern for the ecclesiastical cause has never ceased, we have now been more promptly spurred by the sacred communications of the most serene Emperor, and we have sent legates with the favor of heavenly mercy — through whose office the good things we anticipate from the Emperor's mind may be accomplished.
And so, greeting Your Greatness with the respect and honor that is fitting, we ask that you lend your efforts to the restoration of the faith and not allow the prayers of the faithful to be delayed any longer after so many years. For there is no doubt that Your Excellencies will acquire the fruit of great praise if, through your agency, the things that all good men desire come to pass by the working of our God's mercy.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.