To the most beloved brother John, from Hormisdas.

Your affection has done something most fitting for charity and faith by informing us of your arrival in Italy through the letters you sent, showing the depth of your religious devotion. Would that we had had the joy of your presence to fully satisfy our longing, so that we might rejoice in enjoying both your conversation and presence, which we have already embraced through your writings.

However, beloved brother, you have shown with what devotion you honor the Christian faith by wishing to observe everything pertaining to the rules of the Fathers and the mandates of the Catholic Church without any transgression. You hoped, by sending forth general decrees to the Churches of Spain, that we might establish alignment with ecclesiastical discipline in those areas where things are done either carelessly or irreverently; this desire we have eagerly embraced.

What could be sweeter to us than to speak with the faithful, or more pleasing to God than to call back those who have gone astray from error? Therefore, greeting the love with which we are united, we inform you through your deacon Cassianus that we have issued general decrees, in which we have clearly instructed either those things that should be observed according to the canons, or how caution ought to be taken concerning those who come from the Greek clergy.

The order and instruction of this matter will be abundantly taught to you by the ecclesiastical decrees, so that, understanding both the transgression of the impious and the care of the Apostolic See in vigilance for the rules of the Fathers, you may show that you utterly reject the company of the condemned and love that of the faithful.

And since through the information from your affection this course of prudence has been made known to us, we reward your diligence, and while preserving the privileges of metropolitans, we delegate to you the responsibilities of the Apostolic See, to the extent that, with these matters considered—whether they pertain to the canons or have recently been commanded by us—those things which relate to ecclesiastical matters and your revelation may be presented to us under your direction.

It will be a mark of your commitment and diligence that you show yourself in these tasks in such a way as to imitate the faith and integrity of Him whose care you have taken upon yourself.

Given on the fourth of the Nones of April, during the consulship of Agapitus, a distinguished man (Era DLV, year of Christ 517 in the manuscript).