Letter 3015: As far as it concerns this poor little body of mine, I am getting by with some small reserves of strength — though...

Avitus the bishop to Bishop Maximus. As far as concerns the netherworld and my end, I am thriving with some small reserves of my poor little body's strength; yet I am anxious, because I learn nothing about my lord your son or the conclusion of his hearing, since I was not in a place where I could have found out. For, occupied with the monasteries of Grigny [Grinescensia], I have now for some time been absent from my dwelling in the city. Indeed the delicacies which you sent with your customary kindness came upon me on the road, while I was still placed rather far from the city. And these things—which I marvel at on many counts—your servant Leonianus brought across, groaning greatly, eating very little, with an eager but empty stomach: you would have thought that your blessings [eulogiae] were being held out by the grasping beak of the ravens, with their little talons, for Elijah's feeding [the ravens that fed the prophet Elijah, 1 Kings 17]; so much so that, to stir up my reproach against you all the more justly, he sent them while himself going hungry, since, though he craved them, he could not devour them. I should like now to know what good it does, if you are so attentive to the gullet of your own particular servant—a servant on whose account, lest either his appetite or his very spirit snatch from my mouth the feasts given by God and by you, the welcome occasion of being away snatches me off. But as for the fresh provisions, since you so direct, I both yield my own portion and multiply his. Let him use the capacity of broad bowls in place of casks; let him wear down with his lips the drinking-cups, which he may wrap round with a thick layer of patches in place of bands [hoops]. For I too shall take care—since I know this is what he wants—that, when I have dug out something similar from your blessing, then, with a view to multiplying the fresh provisions for his hot gullet, if no measure can be devised in the cups, it may be set down in the fish.

Avitus episcopus Maximo episcopo. Quantum ad infernum spectat et finem, aliquantulis corpusculi viribus vigeo, anxius tamen, quod de domno filio vestro vel absolutione colloquii nil agnosco, quia nec eo loco fuerim, ut cognoscere potuissem. Nam monasteriis Grinescensibus occu- patus aliquamdiu iam habitaculo civitatis absento. Siquidem deliciae, quas dignatione solita direxistis, in itinere me et adhuc ab urbe remotius positum repererunt. Quas- que, quod multipliciter miror, servus vester Leonianus multum gemens, minimum sumens, avido quidem, sed vacuo ventre transmisit: putasses eulogias vestras tenaci corvorum rostro ad Heliae pastum parvulis unguibus exhiberi; adeo ob insultationem meam in vos iustius excitandam misit esuriens, quod vorare non potuit concupiscens. Vellem nunc scire, quid prosit, gulae peculiaris famuli si studetis, cui ne datas a deo vobisque epulas de ore vel animus raperet, optabilis absentandi causa me rapit. Ceterum de recentibus quia praecipitis, et meas partes cedo et multiplico suas. Vtatur paterarum capacitate pro cupis; atterat labris fialas, quas circumdet pittaciorum densitate pro circulis. Nam curabo ego quoque, quod eum velle cognosco, quo, cum simile aliquid de vestra benedictione eruero, ad multiplicandas recentes gulae calenti si non excogitatur modus in calicibus, ponatur in piscibus.