Editing Pope Hormisdas (section)

== Family and early career==
Hormisdas was born in [[Frosinone|Frusino]] in the moribund era of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. His [[Middle Persian|Persian]] name was probably given in honour of an exiled Persian noble, [[Hormizd (Constantinople)|Hormizd]], "celebrated in the [[Roman martyrology]] (8 August) but not so honoured in the East." The names of his father and son suggest he had an otherwise "straightforward Italian pedigree."<ref>Richards, ''The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages'' (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), p. 242</ref> However, according to ''[[Iranica]]'' he was probably related to Hormizd.<ref>[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hormozd-ormisdas ''Hormozod''], A. Shapur Shahbazi, ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'' (March 23, 2012).</ref>

Before becoming a [[deacon]], Hormisdas was married and had a son, [[Pope Silverius|Silverius]], who later became [[pope]]. During the [[Antipope Laurentius|Laurentian schism]], Hormisdas was one of the most prominent clerical partisans of [[Pope Symmachus]]. He was notary at the synod held at [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's]] in 502.<ref>John Moorhead, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3164729 "The Laurentian Schism: East and West in the Roman Church," ''Church History''] '''47''' (1978), p. 131</ref> Two letters of [[Magnus Felix Ennodius]], bishop of Pavia, survive addressed to him, written when the latter tried to regain horses and money he had lent the Pope.<ref>Ennodius, ''Epistulae'' 5.13; 6.33</ref>