From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (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.]
SUGGESTIO GERJrANI EPISCOPI FELICIS ET DIOSCORI DIACONORUM ET BLANDI PRESBYTERI.
10 Reuerenda uestri apostolatus alloquia per filios uestros Leonem atque Eulogium desiderabili hilaritate suscepimus. quorum prius praeceptum, cur quae Thessalonicae contigerunt non insinuauimus, arguebat. sed longe ante eius aduentum occasione comparata curauimus significare, quaecumque uel
15 rumore uenientium uel eorum, qui pertuierunt, scriptis (quorum exemplaria subter adiunximus) uel piissimi principis narratione comperimus. secuta est uindictae promissio, adeo 2 ut Dorotheus Thessalonicensis episcopus ad Heracliam deduce- retur ciuitatem, donec causa terminum reperiret. inter haec 3
w secundum ea, quae praecepistis, auctoritatem apostolatus uestri principi insinuare curauimus, ut ad percipiendam doctrinam catholicae puritatis Bomam praefatus Dorotheus una cum Aristide mitteretur. qui respondit causam non esse, pro qua Komam dirigerentur audiendi, ubi sine accusatorum
25 controuersia sese possent liberius excusare. sed repente, dum haec geruntur, ab Heracliensi, quantum agnouimus, in qua
1 Rom. 8, 28 1 diligetib; a 4 nititimur a, corr. o
185* Dat. fU ep. 161; respondet episiulae deperditae datae ab Hor- misda sub finem a. 519. Edd. Car. P 530; Bar. ad a. 519, 141; Collect. Concil.; Thiel 910. 8 SuggestioJ incipit rursus uetus scriptura codicis V DiAC V 11 hylaritate V 12 tliesalonice V 18 thesa- lonicensis V 19 repperiret V 22 romanam l\ corr. 23 aristi- dimitteretur F, corr. o 24 diligerentur V, corr, p^; delegarentur
41*
642
Indiculus directas a lofaanne uel Epiphanio
tenebatur, dimissus est ciuitate: quam ob causam uel qua
4 ratione aut conditione uel quibus agentibus, ignoramus. de paschali die uestra beatitudo cognoscat concordare Orientalium cum apostolica sede sententiam, ut XIII. Kal. Maiarum die festiuitas celebranda speretur, sicut lohannis quoque Constan-
5 tinopolitani antistitis relatione clarebit. superest, ut orationis beatitudinis uestrae adminiculo celeriter, sicut cupimus, uestris mereamur praesentari uestigiis.
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (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.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.