Letter 2010: That I sent the servant who was needed for questioning from the basilica of Vienne to that of Lyon under guard —...

Bishop Avitus to the lord King Gundobad. That I dispatched, under guard, the slave who was believed necessary for the inquiry, from the basilica of Vienne to that of Lyon, has been made plain to be an act of fear and obedience. For just as here I did not presume to hand him over unexcused [without due process], so there I took care that he should be made near to the interrogations which the hearing demanded. But since the rule is everywhere one and the same, and the same impossibility or capacity remains upon us for the observance of our common ministry, I dealt not with the proprietary right of the basilica of Lyon and of Vienne, but with the reverence due to both churches: whence the bishop who is present might more easily plead an intercession to be suggested from close at hand, a matter which could touch both of us. For indeed in all holy places, just as our ministry exercises the same charity, so your dominion and power likewise extend. Not to mention that the slave himself, having departed from his lord's address [audience], ought not — in order to stir up offense against me — to have sought out Vienne, since, placed there, he could have kept himself within the church of Lyon. But as to the case in which, before the examination of your Highness, the cunning denier of a deposit is accused: my conscience in this is such as is shown to God and to you in my every act and manner of life. And yet, even were I silent, the simplicity of the man who lodges the complaint — which, that you pious lords may speak it, has not hesitated to disavow the deed by his own act [confession] — could, if it considers Christ, declare what I intended for his consolation. This too some have learned, by present testimony, from your slaves, my fellow citizens. But Pulsatis [the informant] is said to be, in his every reply, a troublesome man beyond his station and in all things hardly stable. Whether he reports anything certain about me, let God and the truth make plain to you; he who, having been rebuked by me, grows angry perhaps with that same spirit of falsehood by which he lies against an honest man concerning the disowning of the deposit — though, God and you being favorable, with his fabrication availing little for his own defense, while he says that he was warned by me not to return [the deposit], he cannot deny that he received it. And this his own admission, even if you should judge that it ought to weigh against me, cannot relieve him. I, however, await the command of your Piety. Whatever my little church possesses — indeed, whatever all our churches possess — is yours, out of the substance which you have either preserved hitherto or bestowed. Whatever you shall command, by God's inspiration, I will strive to obey, insofar as my strength shall be able. For the rest, since the gaze of the divine Majesty perceives that I have, after offending Him, ever feared nothing so much as offending you, I beg this in supplication: that that wretched man — for whose accusation it is enough that he excuses himself — may not, in the judgment of your justice, make me a partner in his disloyalty, even though he sees himself punished on account of your displeasure.

Avitus episcopus domno Gundobado regi. Quod servum, qui discussioni necessarius credebatur, de Viennensi ad Lugdunen- sem basilicam sub custodia destinavi, timoris et oboedientiae fuisse manifestum est. Nam sicut eum hic inexeusatum tradere non praesumpsi, ita illic interrogationibus, quas audientia postulabat, vicinum fieri procuravi. Cum vero et regula ubique una sit et eadem seu impossibilitas seu facultas pro communis ministerii observatione nos maneat, non ego proprietatem Lugdunensis et Viennensis basilicae, sed reverentiam ecclesiae utriusque tractavi: unde intercessionem facilius de proximo suggerendam, quod utrumque nostrum tangere poterat, praesens episcopus allegaret. Si quidem in omnibus locis sanctis sicut ministerio nostro eadem caritas, ita imperium vestrum at- que potestas est. Vt taceam, quod servus ipse a domini allocutione digressus non debuit pro concitanda mihi offensa Viennensem expetere, qui illic positus intra Lug- dunensem se potuit ecclesiam continere. De causa vero, in qua coram examine celsi- tudinis vestrae callidus depositi negator arguitur, talis conscientia mea est, qualis deo et vobis in omni actu meo et conversatione monstratur. Quamquam etiam me tacente interpellantis simplicitas, quae, ut pii domni dicatis non dubitarit operatione diffiteri, quid in eius consolatione voluerim, si Christum cogitat, poterit profiteri. Quod etiam testificatione praesenti de servis vestris, civibus meis, aliqui cognoverunt. Pul- satis autem, qui laboriosus extra ordinem suum in omni parum stabilis dicitur esse responso. Vtrum de me certa suggerat, deus vobis declaret et veritas; qui castigatus a me eo forte spiritu falsitatis irascitur, quo contra simplicem de depositi infitiatione mentitur; licet deo vobisque propitiis parum ad defensionem suam proficiente com- mento, dum se a me dicit admonitum, ne redderet, diffiteri non potest, quod accepit. Quae professio sua, etiamsi censeatis, quod gravare me debeat, illum non potest sub- levare. Ego tamen praeceptum vestrae pietatis operior. Quicquid habet ecclesiola mea, immo omnes ecclesiae nostrae, vestrum est de substantia, quam vel servastis hactenus vel donastis. Quod inspirante deo praeceperitis, in quantum habuerint vires, parere conabor. Ceterum cum divinae maiestatis adspectus nil ita post offensam suam quam vestram semper timuisse me cernat, hoc suppliciter quaeso, ut infelix ille, ad cuius accusationem satis sufficit, quod excusat, apud iustitiae vestrae animos non me faciat suae infidelitatis socium, etiamsi viderit pro vestra commotione multatum.