From: Unknown correspondent
To: Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.]
EXEMPLUII SACRAE lUSTINI AUGUSTI. lUSTINUS AUGUSTUS HORMISDAB PAPAE. Dum beatissimum 15
Germanum episcopum uel eos, qui cum eo a uobis fuerant destinati, de hac dimitteremus regia ciuitate, huiusmodi illis mandata tradidimus, quod capitula, quae ad perfectam unitatem ecclesiarum pertinebant, apostolatui uesti-o per reuerentissimum lohannem episcopum sequenter manifesta faceremus. quae 20 2 tamen ipsis hic praesentibus fuerant declarata. sed euenit praefatum lohannem antistitem longa aegritudine detineri. ne qua igitur uestram reuerentiam ingrediatur aduersa sententia quasi nobis promissa nostra desidia quadam ultronea minus ad eflectum perducentibus, necessarium esse perspeximus »5 dilationis causam uobis exponere per Eulogium u. s. tribunum et notarium, quem ad praecelsum regem Theodoricum super negotiis quibusdam transmisimus, hoc quoque adicientes quod,
5 cf loh. 21, 17
1 sufiFragari Car. 2 possit 5 iniuncxit V 8 uiolaretur o*
sanctimonia Fo, correxi 11 <et> dei inepte Car. subitmgens dtinde *dee8t reliquum'
Epist. CLXXXXVIII 2 — CC 3.
659
dum propitia domini et dei nostri maiestas eundem uiiaun religiosissimum lohannem pristinae uoluerit reddere sanitati, sicut semel promisei-amus, statim illum ad tuam sanctitatem transmittimus. superest, ut sanctitudo tua diuinum nobis 3 5 praesidium orationibus suis dignetur acquirere. Data pridie Kal. Septemb. Constantinopoli. Accepta Romae Kal. Octob. Kusticio u. c. cons.
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From:Unknown correspondent
To:Pope Hormisdas, Rome (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.