Hormisda to Theodosius, Archdeacon of Constantinople, and all Catholics there

We offer fitting thanks to the divine mercy, which has not allowed your faith to suffer for long: indeed, the time has come for the Catholic Church to recover its loyal soldiers. What greater joy can fill your hearts than the removal of past evils? Let the present joy compensate for the hardships of affliction because our God, who has provided a remedy, did not allow your charity to be overwhelmed by adversity but rather to be tested.

For if you compare the troubles of the past with the present reward, which is undoubtedly divine, who can doubt that you will receive greater rewards than any adversity could have caused? And although our concern for the state of the Catholic faith has never ceased, we have been urged by the sacred breath of our most serene prince to send legates, through whose service, with God as our guide, we do not doubt the fulfillment of what we have so often commanded will follow.

Therefore, exert yourselves appropriately to offer these legates to the Catholic Church as a special gift of your liberation, so that, with all things that have harmed you thus far now repelled, we may rejoice together in the one communion we have always desired and offer unceasing praise to our God.