Letter 16

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: The Bishop of Jerusalem Date: ~507 AD Context: Avitus thanks the bishop of Jerusalem for relics and acknowledges the primacy of the Jerusalem see. Bishop Avitus to the Bishop of Jerusalem. Your Apostolic Authority exercises the primacy granted by God and demonstrates that the preeminent position you hold in the universal Church of God rests not on privilege alone but on merit. Your chair adorns our faith, and the person adorns the chair. Bound by gratitude for your generosity, I offer my thanks through the very person who delivered your gifts to me — gifts to be measured not by their material value but by their value for salvation. For you have enriched us with the riches of sanctification.

Avitus episcopus papae Hierosolymitano. Exercet apostolatus vester concessos a divinitate primatus et quod principem locum in universali ecclesia dei teneat, non privilegiis solum studet monstrare, sed meritis. Ornat pariter legem nostram cathedra vestra, cathedra cum persona. Vnde obligatus dignationi vestrae debito largitatis per ipsum dependo gratiarum vota, per quem ad me munera pervenerunt non quantitatis pretiis, sed salutis praemiis aesti- manda. Ditastis namque sanctificationis opibus pauperiem orbis extremi et obscuritatem solis occidui participato nobiscum fulgidi ortus lumine contigistis. Tersit a provinciis nostris torpentis religionis rubiginem claritas doni, quae boni supercurrentis irriguo fidem nostram contemplatione munerata est, cum patefactis in aetate vestra penetra- libus caelestium thesaurorum quicquid catholici credere iubemur, inspeximus. Orate, quod superest, ut dignis talia miseritis: commendate nos mysteriis, quae nobis com- mittenda duxistis. Aedificetur his devotio nostra, regio defendatur, ut indulto nobis pignore salutari, quos terrestris Hierosolymae consortio non censuistis indignos, super- nae ac caelestis habitaculo reddatis idoneos.