The example of the sacred Anastasius Augustus to Pope Hormisdas through Ennodius and Fortunatus, bishops, Venantius, presbyter, Vitalis, deacon, and Hilarius, notary.

We give thanks to Almighty God that your holiness, instructed in heavenly disciplines, as we have requested, sent legates of faith, the venerable bishops Ennodius and Fortunatus, and also the religious men Venantius, presbyter, Vitalis, deacon, and Hilarius, notary, as the sublimity of the cause demanded; men who could fulfill the magnitude of the matter with the light of ecclesiastical speech, and who, working with God, diligently investigated all that pertains to the right and true faith of Christians, and they themselves, as was fitting, declared, and we, as was proper, recognized: that there is one Church of God, everywhere established by apostolic teachings. Therefore, who dares to feel otherwise about the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ than the very truth itself holds, unless to confess the Son, equal and consubstantial with the Father, made man for the sake of our salvation, according to the announcement of the archangel, in the womb of the virgin, by assuming flesh from her? And as the Apostle says, in the form of a servant, that he might bear the cross for us in the flesh. Of whom blessed Apostle Peter says to the Jews: “You asked for a murderer to be released to you, but you killed the author of life.” And it is also read in Apostle Paul: “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

We confess that the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, bore God our Savior to us in true flesh and with a rational and intelligible soul, whom we believe and profess to have been begotten, homousious with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, from before the ages, and also homousious with us for our sins at the end of times, as the prophet David says: “From the womb before the dawn, I have begotten you” (Psalm 110:3). This was so assumed without defect or confusion of our substance, that in the same flesh the Son of God will come to judge the world, presenting to the eyes of all the signs of wounds and nails, as it is written: “And they will look on him whom they have pierced” (Revelation 1:7). Together with all the orthodox, we avoid and abhor the most impious Nestorius and Eutyches. Condemning and anathematizing their persons and dogmas, comparable to detestable sacrileges, who either refused to know or blasphemed the divine dispensation and remedies of human weakness.

Thus, about the faith, our clemency’s purpose was instilled by the supreme God from the beginning of life into our senses: from which we also believe our empire is preserved. However, we wonder why you wanted to write to us about the most blessed Fathers who convened at Chalcedon, while what was established by them is shown to be confirmed by the multiple decrees of our predecessors. And since no other synod was made by which what was arranged by that one would be rendered weak, nor has a law proceeded from us, by the novelty of which the decrees of the aforementioned episcopal council would be dissolved, especially since the synod itself said that those who wish to teach or change any faith other than that established by the three hundred and eighteen venerable Fathers at Nicaea should be anathematized, to which they also condemned those whom we have previously included, that is, Nestorius and Eutyches, whom we also condemn. For this reason, the divine letters to Alexandria also attest to us, sent not once but many times. Through them, we rebuked them, asking why they did not consider sufficient the direct doctrine of faith, departing from the anathema of the Council of Chalcedon or of the venerable memory of Bishop Leo. Hence, no small effort and intent currently endures with us, so that we might remove them from the superfluous anathema and join them to the universal holy Church.

As for the only chapter that seems to remain, our will might have agreed with your petition for the unity of the Churches, had we not believed that other scandals would be removed from the venerable Churches by this. Now, consider all that needs to be done, for our clemency judges it grave that, for the sake of the dead, the living are expelled from the venerable Church, and we know that what you write about this cannot be arranged without much human bloodshed: yet hoping in God for all things, you will be able to act better through a council than from those men who, running through provinces for their errors, wish to be hostile to the holy Gospels and Churches with discord. Therefore, to be pleasing to the supreme majesty, provide for the unity of the Churches: for we are unaware of what hinders us in the things we have mentioned, if we are rightly accused. However, you will be able to learn about the purity of our will from the narration of our legates. We ask that your apostleship deigns to pray for us: which we will be able to know most especially that you do willingly if God, disposing through you, deigns to grant us perfect unity of the Churches: for the voice of God has commanded and given great blessing to those who love Him, which He declared: “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you” (John 14:27).