To the most holy and blessed lord, brother, and co-minister Hormisdas, Epiphanius, Bishop, sends greetings in the Lord.

God, who dwells on high and regards the humble (Psalm 112), and who abundantly provides all things for the salvation of humanity, in His goodness and mercy has looked upon my lowliness. After the death of John, of blessed memory, the former Archbishop and Patriarch, He has deemed me worthy to occupy the episcopal seat of the holy Catholic Church of the royal city, by the decision and election of our most Christian and just prince Justin, and the most pious Empress, who shares his divine zeal in all matters. This decision was also supported by those who conduct themselves with good character, the highest-ranking dignitaries, the priests, monks, and the faithful laity.

Therefore, I considered it necessary to make this first announcement in my letters to show my intention towards your Apostolic See. My desire, most blessed one, is greatly to be united with you and to embrace the divine doctrines handed down to the holy Church of your See, which were especially entrusted to it by the blessed and holy disciples and apostles of God, particularly the supreme Apostle Peter. I esteem nothing more precious than these. I do not, in fact, ignore the statutes of the holy Church that have come from elsewhere, but by the will of God, I have been nourished from my infancy in the holy Catholic Church, and have always obeyed the most holy bishops and patriarchs.

For I have often been set over those who, through the most sacred and ineffable baptism, put away their sins, and I have taught the true faith in the one essence of the Trinity, which, as I have already said, all the gatherings of both clergy and laity, proceeding from the disciples of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, accept and embrace. Indeed, I adore and proclaim the divine, holy, and God-given creed of the 318 holy Fathers who were gathered at Nicaea, and I declare it to be the manifest judgment of Christian splendor. Likewise, I venerate and accept the holy synod of the 150 and the council of 200 God-loving Fathers assembled in Ephesus, and the synod of 630 most reverend Fathers and bishops convened in Chalcedon as one (true) and consistent with and aligned to the aforementioned holy councils, as I have learned and taught others to understand.

In these four holy and sacred synods, the great mystery of piety and the salvation of all mankind is contained. I receive and embrace all those who hold and confess the same faith, and I love to be united with them. On the other hand, I consider those who, apart from these, hold or preach different views, or who have attempted to do so in the past, to be excluded from the assembly of the orthodox. Similarly, I embrace and accept the correct and truly religious letters written by the venerable Pope Leo for the true faith.

Let your blessed brotherhood thus have this opinion concerning me. For I have made it clear to you, and I proclaim these things to the churches under my care, hastening in all respects to unite them with myself and your blessedness in the bond of charity, which ought entirely to be one and inviolable, and to preserve one body of the common Apostolic Church perpetually. Let your venerable brotherhood weigh the great love I bear toward you in all things, for those whom your Apostolic See has condemned and ordered not to be recited in the sacred diptychs, I do not allow to be named in the sacred mysteries either.

This is also known to those most reverend men who have been sent by us, that is, the most holy bishops Germanus and John, the deacons Felix and Dioscorus, and the presbyter Blandus, who have faithfully carried out what was commanded to them by you. May your holiness pray both for me and for my subordinate priests, that we may always be preserved, holding the true confession of God; likewise, pray for our most serene prince and the most Christian Empress, for their safety will be a firm foundation for the benefit of the holy Churches everywhere. Therefore, having this intention towards you, it shall no longer be allowed for the holy Church of God to be torn apart by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercessions of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. All of us also send many greetings to your fraternity in Christ. In another hand: May you remain unharmed in the Lord, most holy brother and lover of God. Received on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, in the consulship of the illustrious Rusticus (year of our Lord 520).