Letter 2007: Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to Peter, bishop of Ravenna.
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.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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
Related Letters
By information received from Romanus the guardian (defensore) I have learned that the monastery of handmaidens of God which is on the farm of Monotheus has suffered wrong from our church of Villa Nova with respect to a farm belonging to the latter, which is said to have been leased to the said monastery. If this is so, let your Experience restor...
Joseph, a Jew, the bearer of these presents, has informed us that, the Jews dwelling in the camp of Terracina having been accustomed to assemble in a certain place for celebrating their festivities, your Fraternity had expelled them thence, and that they had migrated, and this with your knowledge and consent, to another place for in like manner ...
Our brother and fellow bishop Paul has often requested us to allow him to return to his own church. And, having perceived this to be reasonable, we have thought it needful to accede to his petition. Consequently let your Experience convene the clergy of the Neapolitan church, to the end that they may choose two or three of their number, and not ...
Being exceedingly desirous of observing the festivals of saints, we have thought it needful to address this our letter of direction to your Experience, informing you that we have arranged for the dedication with all solemnity, with the help of the Lord, in the month of August, of the Oratory of the Blessed Mary lately built in the cell of brethr...
You have learned from a former letter that we have desired our brethren and fellow bishops dwelling in the island of Sicily to assemble here for the anniversary of the blessed Peter the apostle. But, seeing that their suit with the magnificent Justin the ex-prætor has meanwhile hindered them, and that there is not now sufficient time for comin...