Letter 66
Hormisdas→Unknown|hormisdas
From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To: Unknown recipient (Constantinople)
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.]
EXEMPLUM RELATIONIS lOHANNIS EPI8C0PI CONSTANTINOPOLITANI.
DOMINO MEO PER OMNIA AMABILI DEO SANCTISSIMOQUE FRATRI ET COMMINISTRATORI HORMISDAE lOHANNES IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
Paulinus uir honestus defensor, qui ueslram retulit epistolam 5 uestraeque sanetitatis uirtutes in se ostendens cum gaudio nobiscura conuersatus, suam solli< ci )tudinem communibus consiliis actibusque contulit. sed quoniam ad uos festinantem non oportebat eum prolixiore tempore remorari, ideoque reci- procis alloquentes uestram sanctitatem protegi praefatum lo uirum et uestri dignum amoris fidelem seruum subsistentem
2 commendamus. erit autem de his, quae a nobis gesta sunt pro uestro animo, et circa sanctas ecclesias soUicitudine, quam gerimus uigilanter, uobis dignus fidei enarrator. nam nos orationibus uestrae sanctitatis et naturalem bonitatem i& huius rei respicientes uigilantissimum habemus studium et deo cooperante in plurimis uerbum gratiae discurrens sine
3 aliqua obsistentia ad eifectum nostram ducit intentionera. sed quia difficultates aliquae accesserunt, gubematione utique et miti dispositione ea, quae hinc mouentur, oportet competenter 20 exponi, sicut et uestra cognoscit super omnia sanctitas, et, quemadmodum opoitet eos, qui greges dei pascere sortiti sunt, uniuersa ad gloriam dei et agere et moliri spem salutis
det Hormisdae epistulae cuidam deperditae datae fsimul cum epp. 175
et 227) die 3 I)ec. a. 519. Edd. Car. P 552; Collect. Concil; Thiel
985. 2 lohannis a: Epiphanii Car.; cf. ea, quae epistulae 183 sub-
notaui, et Beitrdge p. 41 sqq. 5 uir honestus scHpsi: un a, uestrae
c
sedis Car., uenerabilis Thiel 7 nobiscum] nob a fort. conuersatus <e8t> soUitudinem a, corr. communis a, corr. Car. 8 ad a
sed a in ras. 9 tpr a sed pr in ras. ideo Thiel 13 sollicitudine ras. ex sollicitudine a 14 uigilarev a, correxi: uigilare 0 nobis *> ennarrator a 16 habemus scripsi: habentem a 17 im a 19 guber- nacine a, corr. cod. Angelic. 20 mitti a, corr. Thiel: inuiti 0 hic
te
Car. copetur a, corr. 0 21 sanct^tatis o, corr. 0 22 quemamo- dura a
Epist. CLXXXIIII 1 - CLXXXV 3.
641
in eum habentes et sicut scriptum est: diligentibus deum omnia cooperantur in bonum. ea enim, quae uobis placeant, sicut dictum estt, sentire quoque et agere nitimur, sanctissime. omnem in Christo fraternitatem, quae 4 5 cum uestra est sanctitate, ego quoque et mei plurimum salutamus.
◆
From: Pope Hormisdas, Rome
To: Unknown recipient (Constantinople)
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.