To the most blessed and Apostolic Father Hormisdas, Pope of the City of Rome, from Justinian.

You know, from the many letters we have sent since your most serene son, the Emperor, began to reign, with what reverence we venerate your blessedness. At present, too, with all due respect, we greet your holiness and earnestly request that you labor with constant prayers and most frequent supplications for the concord of your Churches, and that you be pleased to send us, through Eulogius, the distinguished tribune and notary, a full and undoubted answer concerning both the discussion which is in controversy and the names of the deceased bishops under Acacius, as we wrote even through your legates after everything.

All things arranged by your legates now present must endure firmly in perpetuity. The religious man, Bishop John, who is to come to Rome, is detained by bodily illness; for there is nothing to prevent the concord from being anticipated before his arrival, removing doubt regarding religion. We will send him immediately with the favor of Divinity, as he is already feeling better. For the things which have fallen into ambiguity are neither difficult nor is it expedient to prolong the cause of eternal life any longer, lest something more uncertain arise over time.

May your holiness, mindful of the judgment of eternal and supreme dread, hasten to deliver with effectiveness what has been committed to you, so that all may rightly understand that you have been chosen for the primacy of the Apostolic See. Therefore, command that these things we write out of paternal affection be fulfilled as quickly as possible. For you know how marvelous it would be that the errors of so many years be utterly abolished during the time of your pontificate.