Letter 82: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Hormisdas to Euphemia Augusta [empress]. It is not a desire for your prayers that invites us to pray and, together with the assembly of catholic bishops, to discharge our vows to our God without ceasing for your well-being; rather, it is a purpose devoted and persisting in ecclesiastical reconciliation that spurs us on. For who, separated from the heretical conspiracy, would hold himself back, who would employ other first principles in his own supplication, than that for you and for your most serene consort the prince [the emperor] life may be longer and, by divine grace, ever nearer to the increase of prosperity—you who have consecrated the beginnings of a happy reign by punishing the abominations of error with curses, and who, with a peace-loving intent, have driven out the discord that is a friend to the devil? Whence it now befits you to press on with these praiseworthy undertakings and to scatter the perfect medicine throughout the whole world, since a greater number of the flock offered to Christ confidently demands a more generous reward. Among these things let it be your care that no wound afflict those persons long since healed, but that the unity of communion be a great support toward the obtaining of justice. For we ask that at last, concerning our venerable brothers and fellow bishops Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, what the authority of the most sacred canons prescribes may be fulfilled by your decree, lest those who were the first to hasten to the unity of the apostolic see should seem, as though they were the authors of some evil, alone to have deserved to be struck down amid the common joy of all, and lest in a praiseworthy deed justice should seem to have yielded, overcome by personal hatred. Therefore join your entreaties to our prayers before the most merciful Augustus [emperor], so that hostile evasion may not be able to take away the fruit which the rules of the fathers command to be granted and preserved to them.

HORMiSDA EUFiMiAE AUGUSTAE. Orare no8 et pro uestra incolo- mitate deo nostro uota persoluere cum catholicorum etiam coetu sine cessatione pontificum non uestrae studium exorati- onis inuitat sed deuotum atque persistens in ecclesiastica 2 stimulat conciliatione propositum. quis enim ab haeretica segregatus conspiratione se teneat, ' quis aliis in sua utatur deprecatione principiis, nisi ut uobis serenissimoque principi iugali uestro et uita sit longior et ad prosperitatis augmentum gratia diuina proximior, qui ini<ti>a felicis imperii plectendi execrationibus consecrastis erroris et amicam diabolo pacifica 3 expulistis intentione discordiam? unde nunc decet uos laudabilibus coeptis insistere et per totum orbem perfectam spargere medicinam, quia Christo maior numerus gregis oblatus mercedem confidenter exigit largiorem. inter quae curae uestrae sit, ut nuUum sanatas iamdudum personas uulnus afficiat sed communionis unitas magnum sit iustitiae im- 4 petrandae suffragium. quaesumus namque, ut tandem de uenerabilibus fratribus et coepiscopis nostris Helia Thomate atque Nicostrato, quod sacrissimorum canonum dictat aucto- ritas, uobis decementibus impleatur, ne uideantur ut auctores alicuius mali, quod primi ad unitatem sedis apostolicae festinarunt, in communi omnium gaudio soli meruisse percelli et in facto laudabili uictam personali odio cessisse iustitiam. 5 nostris ergo precibus apud clementissimum Augustum uestras adiungite, ut fructum, quem illis pati-um regulae tribui et conseruari praecipiunt, inimica tergiuersatio aufeire non possit. 208. Dat ut ep. 202. Edd. Car. P 511; Collect. ^oncil ; BTA I 434; Thiel 890; commemorat Bar. ad a. 519, 134. 2 adq V 5 inuite F, corr. o2 6 reconciliatione Car. 7 segragatus F, corr. a 10 initia o': inia V 11 consecratis V, corr. Car. 16 Satanas iamdudum prostratus uulnus afficiat (efficiat edit. reg.) Car. 17 imperandf F, corr. 20 sacratissimorum ot 23 commoni V Epist. ccni 1 — ccmi 8. 66S