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

Bishop Avitus to the deacon Helpidius. Through certain clerics of a foreign faith I received a divine gift in the report of your good health. Nor did the quality of the bearers lessen the favor of the one who sent it, just as the food sent from heaven to our Elijah was not cheapened by passing between the rough beaks of its winged carriers. Yet that very sweetness of your letter, of which I am greedy enough, was sprinkled by the harshness of a slight bitterness, in that you deny that the writings which I previously delivered to you ever reached you. For when I learned, through the steward of your household, who had found my lord Sigismund, your patron, in the city of Vienne while he had been sent by his father on an embassy, that I had received your letters, I once again through that same man discharged the duties of a most abundant affection, and I cultivated the regard for you, which I had conceived in my heart, by the diligence of the page that serves it. By what mischance it was not brought into your hands, the steward whom I mentioned above cannot be ignorant. This indeed I took grievously, and I rejoiced that it had been grievous to you, that in so suitable an opportunity the exchange of a single service of the desires of two men had perished. Nevertheless, since one of the two parties is secure regarding the purpose of the affection that has been established, sometimes accidents ought to be pardoned, by which damage can befall our conversations rather than our prayers, when they have been stolen by an anxiety, and not damage to our love. For there cannot be, whether occasions are denied or found, any time for negligence in which, amid whatever other activities, the eagerness to keep up your well-being should grow cold with me. This therefore I judge to be more precious in the minds of friends, that in which it is established that chance is permitted nothing; which neither the length of the journey disperses nor the abuse of forgetfulness frustrates. Yet in the present I make compensation for the word of affection, if you have deigned to count silence in place of a loss. And at the same time, more particularly, if you deign, I commend a young man, namely the son of the illustrious man Ceretius, who, after God, you will cause to begin to await the life of his only offspring. For he is so constrained by the lamentable weakness of his child that, uncertain in his wishing, he is compelled both to fear as it were the death of the one whose life he is forced to bewail as if already bereaved. Wherefore join your aid to the divinity that will give help, as far as we conjecture from your singular skill. For you to have promised is already in part to have done. May Christ grant that, by our rejoicing and by our praising more lavishly, in this case Italy may owe to your mastery the reputation of your medicine, and Gaul the health of the boy.

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.