Hormisdas to the most illustrious Germanus.

When you remain watchful with a commendable purpose for ecclesiastical peace and burn with such zeal for the faith, an expression of gratitude alone does not suffice, for you are not motivated by the prerogative of human praise, but rather you are inflamed by the expectation of divine reward. Therefore, we fulfill what we especially owe, and we pray daily to our God, on whose behalf you labor, for your safety, asking that your zeal for the love of ecclesiastical unity may be so fervent in every part that no opportunity for good may remain where the support of your defense is not present according to the rules of our Fathers.

However, the cause of our brothers and fellow bishops, Helias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, moves us most of all, for they were the first to pursue the necessary concord in this world, but they have been struck down by the deprivation of their Churches, suffering with the contempt of the venerable canons. The glory of their own reconciliation has become a cause of difficulty for them, as if they themselves had resisted with a more stubborn mind, and while others returned to unity with the Apostolic See, they seemed rather to tear the Church’s members apart. How hard this is for us and how unworthy it is of the times of the most merciful emperor, your prudence should rightly judge, and finally provide a remedy, so that their efforts may remove our sadness with comforting joy.

(In the Avellana collection, another letter follows this one, first published by the Ballerini in the works of St. Leo, Vol. III, p. 167.)

Justin the Emperor to Hormisdas.

We have received with grateful hearts the illustrious Bishop of Rome, not only for the honor due to priests but also for the affection of your holiness. For anyone approved by your judgment is also considered most worthy in our eyes. However, concerning the efforts and support that should be given to the holy churches, it will be more appropriate to decide when the legates whom we recently sent to the magnificent King Thrasamund are returned and, by the favor of Divinity, bring us their response. May your blessedness deign to provide us with supreme protection through your unceasing prayers. Given on the fifteenth day before the Calends of December at Constantinople by our lord Justin, perpetual Augustus. Received on the eleventh day before the Calends of June, under the consulship of Rusticus.