Letter 9: Honorius, bishop, to the most excellent Theudelinda.

Honorius, bishop, to the most excellent Theudelinda. Your letter reached me and I read it with great respect for the person who wrote it. To have known Gregory is a gift; to have worked as faithfully as you have, and for as long, in the service of Catholic unity among the Lombard people, is an even greater one. The Three Chapters controversy is deeply painful to me, as it is to you. The north Italian churches that remain in schism over this matter are not wrong to care about what they care about — the principle that councils' decisions should be respected, and that the dead cannot be condemned by a later tribunal when they had no chance to defend themselves. These are serious concerns. What I am working toward is a reconciliation that does not require the schismatic bishops to simply capitulate, but that gives them a formula within which they can return to communion without feeling that everything they have stood for is repudiated. I will not pretend that this is easy, or that I have found the formula yet. But I want you to know that your letter has strengthened my determination to pursue it. Pray for the unity of the church, as you have always done. Honorius, bishop of Rome