Letter 43: Hormisdas to Justinian, the Illustrious.

Hormisdas to the illustrious Justinian. We have received with love the letter of Your Greatness, full of holy faith, in which you announced to us that an opportunity has come to you from God for advancing among you the firmness of apostolic preaching. For this we give thanks to our Lord, though insufficiently, who has granted you both the time and the resolve for such illustrious remedies. And we indeed recognize that these things are ordained from above, since the divine majesty has bestowed the empire upon him who judges himself appointed for the settling of the peace of the churches. It remains, therefore, that all the bishops of the Eastern part bear witness that they have arrived at the effect of correction in accordance with the terms of the document. The way of concord lies open to the venerable [see]; the remedies of the longed-for soundness have been marked out: let the priests who desire the catholic peace not refuse the catholic profession. For there is no need that the error be corrected in part, but that it be cut away at the root. Press on, therefore, as you have begun, so that your reward with God, which has its beginning in the inception of a good work, may attain its full effect through completion. Indeed, the words sent to us bear witness that your disposition is such that you have no great need of exhortation toward the fullness of a good purpose; nevertheless that same reasoning which gave us hope kindles all the more the ardor of our desire, and we long the more eagerly that the joys be fulfilled which we judge already, by God's will, to be at hand. Hence it is that we daily beseech the blessed apostle Peter in supplication that, through you - through whom holy Church now hopes that her members will be made whole again - God may grant both a swift accomplishment and a more lasting welfare. We indeed, complying with our own desires, have directed men to make firm the concord under the ordering of the apostolic disposition: it is for you, just as we were unwilling to fail the good intention, so to cause them to bring back to us the longed-for result. The venerable sanctuaries have received your gift: but you will render it more acceptable to the blessed apostle Peter if through you they receive the longed-for unity of the Church.

HORiiiSDA IU8TIMAN0 iLLusTRi. Magnitudiuis uestrae litteras sanctae fidei plenas amore suscepimus, quibus ad eiercendam apud uos praedicationis apostolicae firmitatem oportunitatem nobis prouenisse diuinitus nuntiastis. unde insufficienter domino nostro agimus gratias, qui ad tam praeclara remedia et tempus uobis et animum dedit. et nos quidem ista desuper agno- 2 scimus ordinari, postquam ei detulit diuina maiestas imperium, qui se ad componendam ecclesiarum pacem iudicat ordinatum. ergo restat, ut uniuersi episcopi partis Orientalis iuxta libelli 158, Dat ut ep. 148. Edd. Car. P 488; Bar. ad a. 519,^0; Colle^. Concil; BTA I 420. Thiel 847. 4 prabp praet thkssalox V 5 PARi V 15 misericordiae F, eorr. 602 Hormisda TheoJosio; Honnisda Euphemiae seriem <ad> correctionis peruenisse se testentur effectum. 3 patet uenerandae uia concordiae, notata sunt optatae remedia sanitatis: sacerdotes, qui catholicam pacem desiderant, profes- sionem catholicam non recusent. non enim opus est partibus errorem comgi sed radicitus amputari. insistite igitur, sicut 5 coepistis, ut merces apud deum uestra, quae de boni operis inchoatione habet initium, de perfectione consequatur effectum. 4 animum quidem uestrum talem missa ad nos testantur alloquia, ut ad plenitudinem boni propositi non multum indigeatis hortatu: nostri tamen desiderii ea, quae spem dedit, ratio lo amplius accendit ardorem et auidius gaudia impleri cupimus, quae instare iam diuinitus arbitramur. hinc <est>, quod beatum Petrum apostolum cotidie suppliciter obsecramus, ut uobis, per quos integrari membra sua sancta iam sperat ecclesia, 5 et effectum deus celerem et salutem tribuat longiorem. nos is quidem nestris animis obsequentes uiros direximus ad soli- dandam sub apostolicae dispositionis ordinatione concordiam: uestrum est, ut sicut nos bonae intentioni deesse noluimus, 6 ita eos ad nos optatum referre faciatis effectum. munus uestrum ueneranda sacraria susceperunt: quod amplius beato 20 Petro apostolo facietis acceptius, si per uos optatam ecclesiae receperint unitatem.