Letter 21

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Prince Sigismund Date: ~513 AD Context: A feast-day letter acknowledging Sigismund's efforts against Arian heretics while celebrating Catholic worship. Bishop Avitus to the lord Sigismund. I recognize that every day of my life leaves me indebted to the duty of service, but all the more so on the present feast — which occupies your solicitude no less with investigating the efforts of the heretics than with celebrating the worship of our own side. For through a kind of annual contagion, when the opposing forces assemble, your attentive labor must ensure under Christ's guidance that the cunning of alien trickery does not sprout again — though by God's name your celebrated courage has already cut it down. How much more does Christ deserve our faith when he fights for his own cause!

Avitus episcopus domno Sigismundo. Omni quidem vitae meae tempore debitorem me offerendi officii factum agnosco, sed impensius festivitate praesenti, quae sollicitudinem vestram non minus explorandis haereticorum conatibus quam nostrae partis occupat cultibus celebrandis. Si quidem per annuum quoddam contagium congregatis adversis attento vobis labore curandum est, ne alienae calliditatis fraude pullulet. quod in dei nomine iam vestra victoria celebrabili virtute succidit, quamlibet Christo propitio praesentibus vobis absistat. Hinc illa sollicitudine priscior constipatio Genavensis, quae in morem originis primae virilibus animis virus anguis sibilo feminei sermonis insonuit. Vnde illud, si mereor, quamprimum scire desidero, utrum in domno clementiae vestrae patre mentio illius ordinationis acciderit, quae Bonosiacorum pestem ab infernalibus latebris excitatam catholicis Arrianisque certantibus intromisit; vel si servatur adhuc credulitatis, immo simulationis illius dolor, quem non impressum animis, sed chartulis exaratum paulatim in antiquam sui dogmatis credulitatem revocat litterata promissio. Quae certe si adhuc, ut coeperat, societatis Arrianae communioni inmixta est, claret gloriosior sub principatu vestro noster triumphus, cum duabus haeresibus in unam redactis non minus adquiren- tibus quam convincentibus nobis et scismaticorum numerus decrescit et scismatum. Hinc ergo servitium curiositatis meae dignanter adspicite et de peculiaris patroni vestri apostoli festis expectationi nostrae properatis et compellationis vestrae munera duplicate.