From: Unknown sender
To: Unknown recipient (Epiphanius, Nicostratus, 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.]
HOWnSDA EPIPHANIO EPI8C0P0 C0N8TANTIN0P0LITAN0. OpOl-
tuerat quidem fraternitatem tuam diuini contemplatione iudicii atque caritatis nostrae respectu Heliam Thomam atque
5 Nicostratum fratres et coepiscopos nostros, postquam in consortium communionis nostrae recepimus, ad diuina tecum mjsteria incunctanter admittere atque ad ecclesias suas, a quibus eos discordiae error excluserat, pro pacis nostrae plenitudine reuocare, ut unitas, quam post annorum multa
10 cun*icula per totum orbem suis deus restaurauit ecclesiis, nulla uoluntatum nostrarum distantia laederetur. sed quia 2 rem tam gratam et patrum statutis uenerabilibus congruentem quibusdam tarditatibus contigit nunc usque differri, unde etiam ad decessorem fratemitatis tuaenos scripsissememinimus,
15 hoi-tamur ut laetitiam, quam de damnata praeterita dissen- sione percipimus, in nuUo iterum discrepantium animorum causa contristet. etenim nuUi uidetur uos nobiscum pleno communicare mentis affectu, si eos qui nobiscum communicant a uestro consortio segregetis. incassum certe uidentur pacem S
» recipere, qui pacis differunt praecepta complere. quicquid enim in iilorum suscipienda communione moramini, de nostra quodammodo reconciliatione detrahitis et prouidendum est, frater karissime, ne si ecclesiarum nostrarum tandem desuper indulta concordia ab his exordium sumat exemplis, et religi-
s5 onis ueneranda regula et apostolicae sedis auctoritas imminuta, quod absit, per Orientem potius quam restituta uideatur.
204. Bat a, 521 post diem 26 Mart Edd. Car. P 541; Bar. ad a. 520, 65; Collect Concil; BTA I 444; Thiel 982. 6 rcci- pimas F, corr. cod. Angelic. 15 damnata praeterita dissensione scripsi: damnato praeteritae dissensione F, damnato praeteritae dissentionis errore Car. 16 nulla F, corr. Bar. 17 uobiscum F, corr. 19 segre- getis ex segregatis corr. V: segregatis o 20 qui leui rasura ex quia eorr. V
664
HonniBda Epiphanio; Hormisda lustiniano
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.