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.]
EXEMPLUM EPISTOLAE lUSTINIANI. PER FRATREM PR0EMPT0RI8.
Quicquid est cautius, quicquid firmius, ut pro sancta fide et concordia sacrarum ecclesiarum geratur, optamus. unde ad beatitudinem uestram et frater noster gloriosissimus Uitalianus per Paulinum u. s. defensorem uestrae ecclesiae rescripsit et nos per eundem significare curauimus illa debere beatitudinem uestram perficere, quae pacem et concordiam sanctis concedant
2 ecclesiis. subinde tamen, qui certius responsum ad sancti- tatem uesti-am referat, cum litteris piissimi nostri imperatoris destinauimus ; nam quanta quaestio in partibus nostris orta est, potest etiam antefatus uir religiosus defensor sanctitatem
3 uestram instruere. unde petimus ut, si est possibile, celerrimo dato responso et satisfactis religiosis monachis lohannem et Leontium ad nos remittatis. nisi enim precibus et diligentia uestra ista quaestio soluta fuerit, ueremur, ne non possit pax
4 sanctarum ecclesiarum prouenire. ergo cognoscentes, quia et
6 <ut> mentis uestrae Bar., <et/ meritis uestra 9 sollicitudinis F, corr. Bar. 10 euticharico F. corr. Bar.
191. Bat. a. 519 mense lulio ineunte, per fratrem Proemptoris. Edd. Car. P 525; Collect. Concil; Thiel 885. 12 per fratrem Pro- emptoris V man. 1 in marg. 14 sanctarura Thiel 18 concedat corr. edit. reg. 21 horta V 22 antelatus F, corr. Thiel 28 in- strueret F, corr, o 24 lohanni et Leontio F, corr. p 27 cogno- scente F, corr. o
Epist. CLXXXX 4 — CLXXXXII 3.
649
merces et periculum istius rei uobis seruatur, diligenter tractate et firmissimuin responsum per antefatos religiosos monachos, si est possibile, antequam legatus noster ad beati- tudinem uestram perueniat, nobis remittite; in hoc enim solo b omnis pendet intentio.
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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.