Letter 40: Hormisdas to John, Bishop of Constantinople.

Hormisdas to John, Bishop of Constantinople. Those things which your Charity [i.e. Your Charity, an honorific for the bishop] indicated in the letter you sent, we have acknowledged, and we rejoice that the tokens of your faith have reached our awareness, hoping that our God may deign to grant a full result, with respect to the peace of the Church, to your intention, which we desire to be upright. We have taken up the hope of this in our spirit from the heavenly Majesty, because we judge that the most serene Emperor has been chosen for this purpose by divine providence, so that through him the restoration of the churches, so long desired in such times, may come about. Wherefore, although the things which must be done for the unity of the faith cannot lie hidden from the knowledge of your Charity, we have nevertheless dispatched legates, such as the nature of the matter demanded, so that, at their urging, both the things which were long ago indicated by us and the things which have recently been repeated may, with our Lord [i.e. God] as their author, come to fulfillment.

HORMISDA lOHANNI EPISCOPO CONSTANTINOPOLITANO. Ea, qUEG caritas tua destinatis litteris significauit, agnouimus et gratu- lamur ad conscientiam nostram fidei tuae indicia peruenisse, optantes, ut intentioni tuae, quam rectam esse cupimus, 5 plenum deus noster circa ecclesiasticam pacem concedere dignotur eflfectum. cuius spem animo supernae maiestatis assumpsimus, quia imperatorem serenissimum ad hoc proui- dentia diuina iudicamus electum, ut per eum ecclesiarum 2 redintegratio tantis temporibus desiderata proueniat. quapropter 10 licet, quae pro fidei unitate facienda sunt, tuae caritatis notitiam latere non possit, legatos tamen direximus, quos ratio causae poscebat, quibus hortantibus et quae iam pridem a nobis significata et quae nuper itera<ta> sunt, ad effectum domino nostro auctore perueniant. 1»