Letter 121: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Editorial heading:] Of the Emperor Anastasius to Hormisdas. 16 July. He sends Theopompus, count of the domestics, and Severianus, count of the sacred consistory, as envoys to the pontiff, to render the duty of greeting and to procure peace. Anastasius Augustus to Pope Hormisdas, through Theopompus and Severianus, most illustrious men. All things that the kindness of men's hearts has conceived are carried forward with a sweet eagerness and a praiseworthy haste; nor do men think that any rest has been granted them until they have brought their longed-for objects to their most wholesome fulfillment: and then a certain rest from that very haste comes about, when the hope of one's prayers has been attained. This in the present matter we have borne with a sure reasoning, until the heavenly favor grants both an access to our petition and the serene effect of your promise. Therefore, since either the very great length of the journey, or a wintry harshness beyond the customary measure, has made what we were hoping for uncertain to us, in the meantime we have repressed our longed-for desires within our own hearts, seizing upon the divine benefits, which we recognize fall out by their own intervention to the good outcome of the matter. And so, since His mercy has bestowed upon us the first favor, that the embassy which was sent might return happily to your Beatitude, we have proceeded to the second, that the promised embassy might be directed by you, through which there might also be made a commemoration of those things which [...] [Editorial footnotes interrupt here: regarding the editor's view that the emperor's effort to draw the pope away from communion with Acacius is here obliquely blamed and reproved; and a textual note on the reading "of your men," which the editor judges supported by neither authority nor reason, doubting that Anastasius would entrust his secret counsels to the apostolic legates whom he was dismissing with the business unfinished, and arguing it is more probable, if not certain, that he is speaking of the embassy which he now promises he will send, which he deferred to the following year, as the subsequent letter will confirm; with a further textual note that "there" is placed as though the benefits of God had been mentioned before; and a note that he did not even stand by his promises in this matter, as Hormisdas' letter 23, section 2 [shows].] [The letter resumes:] ...we have conferred with the most holy men in long deliberation, and thence, God looking on, may both our petition and your favor shine forth serene to the full, and may the longed-for joys be granted to the whole world. And so, in place of a commemoration and rendering the honor of greeting, we have directed to your holiness Theopompus, an illustrious man, count of the domestics, conducting the school of our sacred palace, faithful to us both for his own character and for his native affection toward our province, and also Severianus, a most illustrious man, count of our sacred consistory, who, attesting the tenor of the letter with their own voice, may call forth to a swift fulfillment the things awaited, which we believe to have pleased the heavenly mercy as well. Given on the 17th day before the Kalends of August at Constantinople, in the consulship of Petrus, most illustrious consul.

^^i^^^ Auastasii imperatoris ad Hormisdam. 16 Jul. * Theopompum comitem domesticot um et Severianum comitem sacri cojuistorii Itgatu p- ponlifici ad sahttationis officium et pacem conciliandam mittit. Anastasius Augustus Hormisdae papae per Theo- pomjium et Severianum viros clarissimos. Omnia, quae benignitas conceperit animorum, dulci ambitu et festinatione laudabili propagantur; nec sibi requiem putant jHisse praestari, donec ad affectum saluberrimum desiderata perduxerint: et tunc quaedam ipsius festinationis fit requies, dum eontigerit spes votorum. Quod in praesenti nos certa ratione pertulimus, donec eoelestis favor et uostrae petitioni aditimi') et vestrae promissionis serenum donet effectum. Ergo quia vel maxima itiueris lougitudo vel ultra solitum niorem hiemalis asperitas, quod optabamus^), nobis fecit incertum, interim intra animos nostros desiderata compressi- mus, beneficia divina captantes, quae b<mae^) exitus rei sua inter- positione decidunt agnoscentes. Igitur, quod ejus pietas primam no])is gratiam condonavit, ut missa^) legatio ad beatitudinem tuam feliciter remearet, ad secundam processimus, ut dirigeretur a uobb promissa^) legatio, per quam et commemoratio fieret eorum, quae nim conatuB, ut ipsum ab Acacii commuiiiouc dimovcrent, oblique culpat ac reprobat. *<) b vestrorum: quod nulla vel auctoritatc vel ratione fulcitur. Quis f«!«— 8i])i in animum inducat, Anastasium legatis apostolicis, quos re infecta dimitte- bat, arcana consilia sua crcdituruni fuissc? Longe est probabiliua nc dicaB certum, cuni dc legatione loqui, quam se missunim ipse nunc promisii, quftmqve in annum sequentcm distulit, ut scquens cpistola fidem faciet. 11 •) b cc auditum, moxque et uUra. Ibi ejus ponitur, quasi antea Dei heneficia dictum esset. '•') Neque etiam promissis hac iu re stetit. Ut enim Hormisda epiit. 23. n. 2 EPISTOLAE 10 — 12. 765 lum sauctissimis viris longa deliberatione contulimus, et inde Deoa. 516. aspice tam nostrae petitionis quam vestrae gratiae ad integrum IX serena resplendeat, et toti orbi gaudia exspectata donentur. oinmemorationis itaque loco et salutationis honorem reddendo, Theo- ompum virum illustrem, comitera domesticorum, agentem saeri Dsi^ri palatii scholam, fidelem nobis vel pro suis raoribus vel pro sa affectione genitali nostrae provinciae, sed et Severianum viruni airissimum comitera sacri nostri consistorii ad vestram direximus ctitatem, qui ordinem litterarum propria voce testantes, ad cele- tem exspectata**) provocent, quae etiam coelesti misericordiae edimus placuisse. Data XVU Cal. Augustas Constantinopoli, Petro ro clarissimo consule.