Letter 2005: Avitus, bishop, to the deacon Helpidius.

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Helpidius, a deacon Date: ~505 AD Context: Avitus writes to his friend the deacon Helpidius, who serves at the Burgundian court, apologizing for a lost letter and expressing joy at the safe return of a family member — mentioning Prince Sigismund's diplomatic mission. Avitus, bishop, to the deacon Helpidius. I received the divine gift of news of your safety through certain clerics of the other confession [Arian clergy]. The character of the bearers does not diminish the grace of the sender, just as the food sent from heaven to our Elijah [1 Kings 17:6] was not cheapened by the rough beaks of the birds that carried it. Yet the sweetness of your letter — for which I am quite hungry — was sprinkled with a bit of bitter roughness, because you deny that the letter I previously sent reached you. For through the steward of your household, who had found your master — my lord Sigismund [the Burgundian prince] — in the city of Vienne, sent by his father on a diplomatic mission, I was glad to receive your letters and in turn discharged the duties of my most lavish affection through the same messenger, cultivating with a devoted letter the attachment to you that I had conceived in my heart. Why it did not reach your hands, the steward I mentioned cannot be unaware. I took this hard, and I was glad that it troubled you too — that in so perfect an opportunity the exchange of a single letter was lost to the desires of two people. But when both sides are secure in the purpose of the love they have established, we must sometimes forgive the accidents that steal our conversations rather than our wishes. What happens to our letters can damage our correspondence but not our love. For there can be no time of negligence — whether opportunities are denied or found — when my eagerness to keep up with your well-being grows cold among whatever other business I may have. I consider what is most precious in the hearts of friends to be precisely what chance has no power over: what is neither scattered by the length of a journey nor cheated by the abuse of forgetfulness.

Avitus episcopus Helpidio diacono. Per quosdam clericos legis alienae divinum munus in nuntio tuae incolumitatis accepi. Nec minuit dirigentis gratiam qualitas portitorum, sicut nec Heliae nostro transmissi caelitus cibi inter horrida volatilium baiulorum rostra viluerunt. Ipsam tamen, cuius satis avidus sum, tuarum dulcedinem litterarum illud aliquantulae amaritudinis asperitate respersit, quod ad te scripta, quae prius reddidi, abnegas pervenisse. Nam per maiorem domus tuae, qui mandatorem tuum, domnum meum Sigismundum, a patre suo in legatione directum in Viennensium civitate repererat, epistulas tuas me accepisse laetatus per ipsum rursus officia profusissimae caritatis exsolvi et affectum tui, quem corde conceperam, studio paginae famulantis excolui. Quae quo eventu in manus tuas perlata non fuerit, maior, quem supra dixi, non potest ignorare. Haec ego quidem moleste tuli et tibi molestum fuisse gavisus sum, in tam idonea opportuni- tate desideriis duorum unius officii perisse commercium. Verumtamen cum de insti- tutae dilectionis proposito pars alterna secura est, nonnumquam casibus oportet ignosci, quibus colloquia nostra potius quam vota furatis sollicitudini damnum potest contingere, non amori. Neque enim potest, seu negatis occasionibus seu repertis, ullum esse neglegentiae tempus, quo apud me inter quaslibet alias actiones frequentandae sospi- tatis tepescat ambitio. Illud igitur in mentibus amicorum censeo esse pretiosius, in quo constat fortuitis nihil licere; quod nec itineris dissipat longitudo nec oblivionis frustratur abusio. Compenso tamen in praesenti caritatis verbum, si pro damno digna- tus es putare silentium. Simul et specialius adulescentem, si dignaris, insinuo, filium scilicet viri illustris Cereti, qui post deum ut unicae subolis vitam incipiat operiri, tu facies. Nam ita lacrimabili pignoris infirmitate constringitur, ut incertus optandi, cuius quasi mortem timere compellatur, vitam quasi orbatus deflere cogatur. Qua propter opitulaturae divinitati iunge tua, quantum conicimus de peritia singulari. Vestrum promisisse iam ex parte fecisse est. Tribuat Christus, ut exultando atque impensius laudando in hac cura magisterio tuo simul tibi et Italia medicinae opinionem et Gallia pueri debeat sanitatem.