Letter 113: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Victor Anastasius, pious, fortunate, renowned, triumphant, ever Augustus, to Hormisdas, most holy and most religious archbishop and patriarch. 1. We do not think it unknown to Your Beatitude that, according to the character of the time, there is a duty of speaking and of keeping silent, a matter arranged even by the prudent admonition of divine Scripture. The expired period of silence has therefore granted us incitements to speak, and for that reason we have judged it most opportune to commit to your hearing those things which among us are being stirred up under the appearance of religion. For before this, the harshness of those to whom the episcopate which you now hold had been entrusted in their charge made us restrain ourselves from sending letters. But now the pleasant report current concerning you has brought to our memory the goodness of fatherly affection, so that we may seek again those things which God and our Savior taught the holy apostles by his divine word, and most especially the blessed Peter, in whom he established the strength of his Church. 2. With these foregoing beginnings, therefore, we exhort that, with regard to those matters which have been stirred up from the regions of Scythia, on account of which we have also perceived it fitting that a council be held, Your Apostolate make itself a mediator, so that, the contentions being cut away, unity may be restored to the holy Church. And to us all things desired are afforded, if in your prayers and by the frequent address of your pages you shall be mindful of us. Given on the day before the Ides of January at Constantinople, and received in the fifth [day] before the Kalends of April, Anthemius and Florentius, most distinguished men, being consuls, by the hand of Patricius.

%^Jan Anastasii imperatoris ad Hormisdam papam. Cur pristinum sHentium nunc intermittat praefatus (n. 1), Hormisdam rogat, td p.t9l.j ad ea , quae in Scythia mota sunt et propter quae condUum celebramdim dfzif, se mediatorem faciat, |^ Victor Anastasius, pius, felix, inclitus, trium- phator, semper Augustus, Hormisdae sanctis- simo ac religiosissimo archiepiscopo etpatri- archae. 1. Beatitudini vestrae non putamus ignotum, quod pro tem- poris qualitate loquendum atque tacendum, etiam divinae Scriptone provida est admonitione dispositum. Exactum proinde silentii tem- pus incitamenta nobis loquendi concessit, atque ideo opportQnimi esse perspeximus, quae apud nos sub religioilis specie commoventur, auditui vestro committere. Ante hoc siquidem duritia *) eonun, qoi- bus episcopatus, quem nunc geritis, erat sollicitudo commissa, tem- perare nos a transmittendis faciebat epistolis. Nunc autem currens de vobis suavis opinio ad memoriam nostram bonitatem patemae affectionis adduxit, ut illa requiramus, quae Deus et Salvator noster sanctos apostolos divino sermone docuit ac maxime beatum Petrum, in quo fortitudinem Ecclesiae suae constituit. 2. His igitur praefatis initiis hortamur, ut ad ea, quae de Scythiae partibus mota sunt, unde et concilium fieri convenire perspeximus, mcdiatorem se apostolatus vester faciat, ut contentionibus amputatb unitas sanctae restituatur Ecclesiae. Nobis autem onmia optata praestantur, si orationibus vestris et frequenti paginarum allocutione nostri memores fueritis. Data pridie Idus Januarii Constantinopoliy et accepta Anthemio et Florentio viris clarissimis consulibus V Cal. Aprilis per Patricium.