Letter 3016: The matter you reported in your letter had already reached me through faint rumor before your account.

Bishop Avitus to Bishop Victorius. The matter you reported in your letter had already reached me through faint rumor before your account. When I learned its full bitterness through your holy archdeacon, I was — if you will believe me — no less distressed than you. It is a seriously troubling precedent when episcopal ordination is said to be governed by popular demand, since the reason the people are given a role in the election of bishops is only so that the elect may then be authorized to make further appointments — as though by a kind of delegated mandate.

Avitus episcopus Victorio episcopo. Factum, quod litteris indicastis, levi ad me ante affatum vestrum rumore per- venit. Cuius per sanctum archidiaconum acerbitate comperta, si credere dignamini, non minus quam vos dolorem vestrae commotionis ingemui. Siquidem satis gravis exempli est, ut nunc sacerdotalis ordinatio a populis regenda dicatur: cum idcirco tan- tum in consecrandis episcopis plebibus servetur electio, ut ad succiduas constitutiones velut per quoddam mandatum electis liceat legere, quod videtur. Non autem vos pro novo debetis accipere, quod tribulandis nobis valeat comminisci clericalis nequitiae fulta subsidio insolentia saecularis. Puto sane districtioni ecclesiasticae filiorum vestro- rum expeti debere consensum propter illos, quorum abusione consuetudinaria parum de excommunicationibus curare decretum est. Litteras quoque, quas ad presbyterum illicita praesumentem non minus pie quam regulariter direxistis, inspexi. In quibus vere plus, quam persona meruit, patientiae reservastis. Qua propter, licet satis diabolo in tam horribili rebellione licuerit, vos tamen sine aliqua animi perturbatione dei ac vestram iniuriam castigate et ne quid in posterum similis ausus arripiat, impensa districtione perspicite.