Letter 80: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Copy of the letter of Justinian. To the most blessed and apostolic lord and father Hormisdas, Pope of the city of Rome, Justinian. With how great reverence we venerate your Beatitude you have learned from many letters, ever since the most serene emperor your son began to reign. At the present time also, greeting your Holiness with due deference, we make this request more earnestly: that with unremitting prayers and most frequent supplications you labor for the concord of the venerable churches, and that for us—as we have also written through your own legates, after everything else—your Apostolate may deign to send back, by Eulogius, most excellent [vir spectabilis] tribune and notary, a complete and unhesitating reply, both concerning the formula by which the controversy is being turned and concerning the names of the bishops who died under Acacius; with all the matters, namely, that have been arranged in the presence of your legates remaining firmly established in perpetuity. For the religious man John the bishop, who is to come to Rome, is being detained by a bodily illness. Nothing indeed prevents concord from coming about even before his arrival, once doubt of religion has been removed (and yet we are sending him on shortly, by the favor of the Divinity, since he is already better), seeing that the things which have fallen into ambiguity are not difficult, nor is it expedient that the cause of life everlasting be drawn out any longer, lest in the postponement of time something more uncertain arise. Therefore let your Holiness, not unmindful of the supernal eternity and of the dread judgment, make haste to commit to effect the things that have been entrusted to it, so that all may understand that you have rightly obtained the primacy of the Apostolic See. These things, then, which are written to you by your sons, command with fatherly affection to be fulfilled as quickly as possible. For you know how admirable would be the glory if the errors of so many years were rooted out and abolished in the time of your pontificate.

EXEMPLUM EPISTOLAE lUSTINIANI. DOmNO BEATISSIMO ATQUE APOSTOLICO PATRI HORMISI)AE PAPAE URBI3 ROMAE lusTiNiANus. Quanta reuereutia uestram beati- tudinem ueneremur, multis epistolis, ex quo serenissimus imperator filius uester regnauit, cognoscitis. in praesenti 2 quoque debito pudore salutantes tuam sanctitatem postulamus ^ eniiius, ut assiduis precibus et frequentissimis orationibus pro concordia laboretis ecclesiarum uenerandarum nobisque, sicut per legatos etiam uestros post omnia scripsimus, tam de sermone, quo uertitur controuersia, quam de nominibus episcoporum sub Acacio defunctorum per Eulogium u. s. 80 tribunum et notarium dignetur apostolatus uester integrum indubitatumque destinare responsum, omnibus uidelicet, quae praesentibus legatis uestris ordinata sunt, in perpetuo firmiter duraturis. uir namque religiosus lohannes episcopus, qui uenturus est Bomam, detinetur aegritudine corporali. nihil 3 e enim prohibet ante eius quoque aduentum concordiam proue- nire sublata dubitatione re<Ii>gionis (et eum tamen mox dimit- timus fauente diuinitate, quia iam melius habet), quoniam nec difiQcilia sunt, quae ceciderunt in ambiguitatem, nec expedit diutius causam uitae protrahi sempiternae, ne dilatis 4 transmittemus 6 roma V octub V 200. Data et aceepta ut ep. 199. Edd. Car. P 553; Bar. ad a. 520, 40; Collect. Concil; Thiel 939. 18 <de> quo Bar., at rf. ep. 243 § 25 concordia F, corr. 26 regionis F, corr. Car. dirait- temuB Car. 660 Horraisda lastino; Hormisda lustino 4 temporibus aliquid nascatur incertius. aeternitatis igitur supemae tremendique iudicii non immemor sanctitas uestra, quae sibi commissa sunt, efficaciae tradi deproperet, ut intel- legant cuncti recte uos apostolicae sedis esse primatum sortitos. haec igitur, quae uobis scribuntur a filiis, afFectu paterno iubete quantocius adimpleri. scitis namque, quam sit admirabilis gloria tantorum errores annorum uestri pontificatus tempore stirpitus aboleri.