From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (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.]
lusTiNus AUGusTus HOBJQSDAE FAPAE. Quauto fiagramus 5 studio pro colligendis concordia sacratissimis ecclesiis iam- dudum planum fecisse dinoscimur, qui et ab ineunte nostro imperio sanctitudinem uestram admonendam duximus, quo certos dirigeret, ut interuentu eorum remedium aliquod his rebus inueniri possit, et, antequam aduenerint qui destinati lo sunt, cuncta praeparauimus, quo facilius transigerentur, quae
2 per hanc florentissimam urbem disponenda fuerant. uerum quoniam preces nostro numi<ni>porrectae sunt ex diuersis Eois prouinciis certa quaedam disserentibus pro fide catholica secretaque suae mentis declarantibus, quae apud se pro i& indiuidua trinitate constituta testantur quaeque firmiter sese retenturos ostendunt, hisque relectis Dioscorus aliqua asseruit non conuenienti ordine inserta fuisse : merito duximus aperienda
3 uobis ea, quae suraus edocti. non multo itaque post a nobis quidam destinabitur ad certiorem faciendam beatitudinem so tuam super omnibus et insinuandas uobis supplicationes, quae nobis oblatae sunt, et responsum pietatis uestrae referendum, quo possint resecari tandem dubitationes incongruae. securi igltur de nostro consilio sollicitis orationibus placare nobis
181. Bat (simul eum epp. 182 183 185) a. 520 die 19 lan.: per Eulogium. Edd. Car. P 529; Bar. ad a. 520, 3; CoUect. ConcU.; Thiel 908. 6 concordia F, corr. o 7 <nos^ planum Car. dinosci- tur F, correxi (cf. ep. 232 § 1) 9 interuentum F, corr. p ali- quid F, corr. o 11 transigentur F, corr. 13 numij F, corr. o
Epist. CLXXX 2 — CLXXXn 3.
637
diuinitatem summain dignemini. Data XIIII. Eal. Febr. Constantinopoli Uitaliano et Busticio conss.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (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.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.