Hormisdas

Pope Hormisdas (c. 450–523) served as Bishop of Rome from 20 July 514 to his death on 6 August 523. He is best remembered for ending the Acacian Schism — a thirty-five-year rupture between the churches of Rome and Constantinople that had persisted since 484. The schism had begun when Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople endorsed the 'Henotikon,' Emperor Zeno's compromise formula designed to reconcile Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian parties, but which effectively sidelined the Council of Chalcedon's Christological definition. Rome rejected this compromise, and mutual excommunications followed. Zeno's Miaphysite-leaning successor, Anastasius, continued the policy. The first opening came under Anastasius himself, who was pressured partly by the general Vitalian, whose Balkan revolt had brought an army to the gates of Constantinople. Anastasius invited Hormisdas to a synod in 514, but two successive papal embassies — each pressing the emperor to condemn Acacius publicly and accept the Chalcedonian formula — ended in failure. Anastasius broke off negotiations entirely in July 517, less than a year before his death. His Catholic successor, Justin I, reversed course immediately. He granted all of Hormisdas's demands: the names of Acacius, Anastasius, and Zeno were struck from the church diptychs, and Patriarch John II of Constantinople accepted the Formula of Hormisdas. On 28 March 519, in a solemn ceremony at the cathedral of Constantinople before a large crowd, the schism was formally ended. The Formula of Hormisdas affirmed the authority of the Apostolic See and the Chalcedonian definition of faith. It remains one of the most significant Eastern acknowledgments of Roman doctrinal authority and is still cited in discussions of papal primacy. Before his death Hormisdas also reconciled the last Laurentian partisans still in schism within Rome, quietly finishing work his predecessor Symmachus had left undone. He was buried in Old St. Peter's Basilica; his tomb was destroyed when the new basilica was constructed. His son Silverius later became pope.