From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (Gratus)
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.]
5 HoiuiisDA lusTiNo AUGusTo. Gloriosis clementiae uestrae laboribus ecclesiasticae prima concordiae et orbis pacati uotiua tranquillitas generali praedicatione respondent, quae res nostri parcum red<d>it ac retinet ad agendas gratias sermonis ofQcium. illud tamen, quod pro uobis indesinenter domino nostro preces
10 effundimus, non tacemus : quia in uotis infinitus affectus est, finitum esse potest in praedicatione iudicium. uerum inter 2 liaec pietatis uestrae beneficia una nos, quae etiam uehementer affecit, cura non deserit, quod Heliam Tliomatem atque Nicostratum fratres et coepiscopos meos, qui primi ecclesia-
15 sticam festina secuti sunt deuotione concordiam, non solum magni frustratur palma principii uerum etiam mali miseria comitatur exempli. quare clementiam uestram mixto etiam 3 precibus fletu deposcimus, ne gaudia nostra, quae de haereti- corum cotidie conuersione praestatis, praefatorum abiectio
20 iotoleranda conturbet, quia non sola personanim nos causa sollicitat, quibus et boni facti simul sufficere gloria posset et meriti, sed quod uenerabilium constituta canonum contem- nuntur et quod non paruam eorum abiectio apostolicae sedis tangit iuiuriam: ne christianitatis uestrae sinceritas, qua et
ts magnum patrocinium ueteribus constitutis impenditis et sedis apostolicae principatum acta nouiter ueneratione sancitis, in uno inexplicabilem relinquat posteris negotio quaestionem.
202. Bat. (simul cum epp. 189 190 203 207 210 211) a. 519 die ^ Sept per Eulogium. Edd. Car, P 510; CoUect Concil; BTA I 433; Thiel 889; commemorat Bar. ad a. 519, 134. 6 prima V: palma edit reg. 8 redit F, corr. o 13 afficit Car. 19 conuer- satione V, corr. Car. 20 intolleranda
662
Uormisda Euphemiae; Hormisda Epiphanio
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From:Unknown sender
To:Unknown recipient (Gratus)
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.