Letter 14

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Prince Sigismund Date: ~505 AD Context: Avitus reports on a theological debate at King Gundobad's court, revealing the tense atmosphere of Arian-Catholic disputation in the Burgundian kingdom. Bishop Avitus to the lord Sigismund. You reproach me for not having reported to you about the royal conference. I had been saving it for my next visit, since the length and complexity of the disputation really cannot be conveyed adequately by letter. But as far as I can judge the mind of my lord your father, a conflict is raging in his heart — disguised behind a facade of calm. What we thought had been set aside with passions cooled and silence imposed turns out to have been not ended by the recent truce but merely hidden. The matter was not seeking the quiet of peace but the opportunity of ambush. So intense was the debate that not even the brevity of the intermission could conceal it. [The letter provides a rare glimpse into the theological debates at the Burgundian court between Catholic and Arian clergy. King Gundobad, himself an Arian, was clearly intellectually engaged with the theological questions and hosted formal disputations. Avitus, the leading Catholic voice, reports to Sigismund — Gundobad's son, who had already converted to Catholicism — on the state of these discussions, reading the king's interior disposition with the shrewdness of a man who has spent years as a courtier-bishop.]

Avitus episcopus domno Sigismundo. Quod me de collocutione regali ad notitiam vestram non detulisse culpatis, occursu meo exacta festivitate servaveram; quia revera indicari vobis litterario famulatu cuncta per ordinem disceptationis prolixitas perplexitasque non patitur. Nam quantum in animis domini mei, patris vestri, sensisse me puto, fervet in eius studio confictum otii fronte certamen. Nam quod credebamus animositate deposita, silentio temperante subitam opportunitatem potius quam quietem requirens non cessavit praeterita inducia- rum brevitate, sed latuit: adeo ut nec ipsa contentionis arma, quae quasi iam in nostra defecerant, poscantur extrinsecus vel usque ad reditum legatorum suorum fervor meditationem expectet. Redeunti igitur mibi de eo, quod nostis, itinere nec aliquid interim de huiusmodi propositionibus opinanti, vel quicquid per implicatissimos quae- stionum mordacium nodos longa satisfactio et sagax industria potuit parare, commotum est. Fervet validius prolixa disputatione tractatus, placidus tamen nec aliquid super- cilio dominandi turbulentae commotionis interserens. Sed curavit necessarii opportunitas provisa secreti, ut, quicumque contentionis fuisset eventus, nec superiorem tumere nec superatum pateretur erubescere. Quid multis? sine iactantia vobis libere dico, ad proposita, quantum mihi videtur, quod si audissetis potuit placere suggestum est. Quod sane vereor ac . . . audientis plus iudicio satis facere quam studio placuisse. Cum praesentiam vestram deo largiente meruero, per me seriem totius altercationis exponam. Interim sermonis cursum de fine colligite et ex eo, quod discedenti mihi praecepit, utrum ad responsa motus fuerit, aestimate. Iussit namque, ut, quodcumque de scripturis nostris testimonium ad interrogata protuleram, seu si forte occurrisset et aliud, ad singula quae tempore collocutionis aptaveram, subnotatum ei ordinatumque transmitterem. Quod cum sibi ex maxima parte pronuntiaret incognitum, adiecit sim- pliciter: si scriptum misissem, sacerdotibus, immo magis seductoribus et, ut adhuc verius dicamus, sectatoribus suis se velle proponere. Vnde conicere pietas vestra potest, quamquam intento contradictori, tamen arbitro sapienti non invalida vel absque viribus visa, quibus intentionem suorum etsi non optat corrigi, desiderat fatigari. Ego autem, licet sciens, quantum potestatibus divino quoque iussu frequenter et regibus pro veritate non ceditur, utrum parerem diu dubius fluctuavi, sciens et amoris animo timens non tam me per haec illi serviturum, quam hostibus arma ministraturum, et non minus a cive quam ab hoste dissidente impetendum, dum adversas acies odia privata publica obsidione circumdant. Quo deo praestante polletis fastigio culminis, studio religionis, privilegio auctoritatis, vallatam muris discordiam propulsate et furen- tia in castris velut per campos Emathiae plus quam civilia bella dispergite. Quia cum iamdudum pondere duplicato clamantum querimoniae non audientum duri- tiam fatigant, aequum est, si dignamini, vestram quoque severitatem aut illic casti- gandis consulere aut hic erubescentibus condolere.