Letter 81: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Hormisdas to Justin Augustus. The first ecclesiastical concord and the longed-for tranquility of a world at peace correspond, through universal proclamation, to the glorious labors of your clemency; and this matter makes our discourse sparing in rendering thanks and holds it back from that office. Yet this we do not pass over in silence: that we pour out prayers unceasingly to our Lord on your behalf; for while in our vows the affection is unbounded, the judgment expressed in proclamation can be limited. But amid these benefits of your piety, one care, which has also affected us most keenly, does not leave us: that Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, my brothers and fellow bishops, who were the first to follow ecclesiastical concord with eager devotion, are not only cheated of the palm of so great a beginning, but are even accompanied by the wretchedness of a bad example. Wherefore we beseech your clemency, with weeping mingled also with our prayers, that the intolerable casting-out of the aforesaid men may not disturb our joys, which you furnish daily by the conversion of heretics; for it is not the cause of these persons alone that troubles us-men for whom the glory of a good deed and of merit could in itself suffice-but that the established rules of the venerable canons are despised, and that their being cast out touches the apostolic see with no small injury: lest the sincerity of your Christian faith, by which you both extend great patronage to the old constitutions and confirm the primacy of the apostolic see by acts of newly shown veneration, should in this one matter leave to posterity an inextricable question. [The accompanying editorial apparatus records: Letter 202 in Baronius. Sent together with letters 189, 190, 203, 207, 210, 211, in the year 519, on the [...] day of September, by Eulogius. Editions: Carafa, page 510; Collectio Conciliorum; BTA I 433; Thiel 889; Baronius mentions it at the year 519, section 134. Textual notes: at line 6, manuscript V reads "prima," the royal edition reads "palma"; line 8, "redit" in F, corrected to "reddit"; line 13, Carafa reads "afficit"; line 19, V reads "conuersatione," corrected by Carafa to "conuersione"; line 20, "intolleranda." (Page 662.) Hormisdas to Euphemia; Hormisdas to Epiphanius.]

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