Letter 2007: Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to Peter, bishop of Ravenna.

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Peter, bishop of Ravenna Date: ~516 AD Context: A significant diplomatic letter in which Avitus confesses the ignorance of the Gallic bishops about what is happening between Rome and Constantinople, asks Peter of Ravenna for news, and offers to send Gallic clerics all the way to Rome if necessary — showing the isolation of Gaul from the centers of ecclesiastical power. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to Peter, bishop of Ravenna. Even if there were no other reason for my devotion to seek out Your Beatitude with a letter of service, it would be right for you to be honored by everyone — you who, through holy reputation, plant desire for yourself in all hearts. It is fitting that you are sought out no less than the see of Rome, because you shine no less in love than that see does in power. With the greeting due to that reverence now offered, I confess to Your Apostleship — with some embarrassment — the ignorance of the Gauls. I think it is better for someone to admit that he does not know something and learn, than to pretend he does. We do not know from any authoritative source what is happening between the Roman and Constantinopolitan churches — we can only piece things together from rumors and the conflicting reports of messengers. And so, lest we be thought as negligent as we are provincial, the holy Pope and Your Beatitude are now being consulted through Viennese clerics on behalf of the whole province, so that you might explain in a salutary reply what terms have been settled with the Eastern party regarding the state of the faith. For though it is proper for teachers to extend their instruction unsolicited even to those far away, care must be taken for the health of the body that its members always know the condition of their head. If my servants, your sons, whom I have sent for this purpose, are granted the opportunity to travel on to Rome, then through both heads of the church there will be more than enough instruction for the Gauls. But if by chance those we sent return from your see, the trustworthy response of Your Apostleship will serve us as the full measure of all the instruction that needs to reach everyone.

Avitus episcopus Viennensis Petro episcopo Ravennati. Etiamsi alia causa non esset, qua beatitudinem vestram litterario famulatu oc- cursus meae devotionis expeteret, iustum esset vos ab omnibus excoli, qui opinione sancta desiderium vestri omnibus intimatis. Dignum quippe est vos expeti non mi- nus sede Romana, quia non magis potestate illa quam vos caritate fulgetis. Cuius reverentiae, ut debitum est, salutatione praemissa fateor apostolatui vestro, etsi cum verecundia, ignorantiam Gallicanam. Nec melius esse puto quemquam simulare, quod sciat, quam didicisse, si nesciat. Quae inter Romanam vel Constantinopolitanam ec- clesiam res agantur, non quacumque auctoritate cognoscimus, sed de rumoribus ma- gis ac nuntiorum varietate captamus. Et ideo, ne forte quam rustici tam neglegentes credamur, sanctum papam et beatitudinem vestram per Viennenses clericos provincia tota nunc consulit, ut quae vobis de statu fidei cum Orientis parte definita sint, re- scripta salubri lumine declaretis. Quia cum magistris etiam procul positis ultro de- ceat praerogare doctrinam, curandum est soliditati corporis, ut semper prosperitatem capitis sui membra cognoscant. Quocirca si servis vestris, filiis meis, quos in id ipsum direxi, tribuatur accedendi usque ad Romam facultas, per duos ecclesiae prin- cipes abundabit Gallias erudiri. Quod si forsitan a sede vestra, quos misimus, rever- tentur, vestri apostolatus fida responsio fiet nobis totius instructionis, quae ad cunctos perveniat, plenitudo. Domino sancto, meritis praecellentissimo, in Christo gloriosissimo et apostolica