From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne
To: Victorius, bishop
Date: ~499 AD
Context: Avitus responds to a case involving a dissolute old man named Vincomalus, offering characteristically frank moral assessment alongside pastoral advice.
Bishop Avitus to Bishop Victorius.
You satisfy both prudence and charity by honoring me — and burdening me — with your questions. But I say with simple honesty: you are right to judge, if not my expertise, at least my friendship. I will never suggest anything in my response that I would not want the church of Vienne itself to observe.
Now, as you report, Vincomalus has been pursuing our son the deacon. God grant that this man may overcome evil with good — because I saw a thoroughly crude individual whose wretchedness hardly anyone could pity. Young in his vices, old in his years, he deceives himself: cold in age, he burns with adultery. The case requires firm discipline. A man who will not restrain even his legitimate appetites at his advanced age could hardly be expected to abandon criminal ones after so many years.
Avitus episcopus Victorio episcopo.
Cautelae et caritati satisfacitis, dum me aliquid interrogando non minus honorare
quam onerare dignamini. Sed cum veritate simpliciter dico recte vos, si non de peri-
tia mea, saltem de amicitia iudicare nec aliquid vobis umquam responsione mea
suggeri, nisi quod volo a Viennensi ecclesia custodiri. Secutus est ergo, ut indicastis,
filium nostrum diaconem Vincomalus, quem deus tribuat ut in bono vincat malum.
Vidi hominem nimie crudum, cuius miseriae constat vix quemquam posse misereri.
Iuvenis vitiis, senex annis se decipit: aevo friget, adulterio calet. Quid multis? op-
tandum est, ut pro voluptate desperabili nec quamlibet perire aetatem liceat. Nam
cum adhortatorie plus quam aspere pro incestus facinore culparetur, severitatem nostram
sola praescriptione tarditatis accusans, sero non licitae coniugationis tricennale consor-
tium damnasse causatus est. Ad hunc locum cessi fateor imputando, quod scilicet
sua dilectione sententiam differentes maluissemus correctionem viri conpunctioni ipsius
voluntatique servare; ac perinde iustum esse, ut post spatia tot annorum vel criminalia
restringeret, qui refrenare iam longaevitatis accessu etiam legitima debuisset. Ad
haec, ut sentire me credidi, non conpunctus sed confusus ingemuit, promittere ali-
quantisper adgressus mulierem cohabitationis indignae ab accessu aspectuque suo pro-
tinus cohercendam. Suasi respondens, ut vobis ista promitteret et facti paenitens ab
eo se solvi, quo ligatus fuerat, postularet. Tamen, quia iussistis, ut quicquid sensui
meo videatur aperiam, sufficiat censurae vestrae separatio personarum. Scindatur in-
felix coniugium innocentiore divortio. Sufficiat districtionis fructui terminus mali. Nec
sane promissio eius fidelis putetur, cuius vita extitit infidelis. Ipsis fideiussoribus
emendatio secutura credatur, quibus intercedentibus prior culpa laxabitur. De cetero
autem, quod ad paenitentiam spectat, moneatur interim agere, accipere non cogatur.
Sufficiant infelici crimina sua, nec ingeratur laborioso, cum respuit, quod tam intesta-
bili animo vix committi debuerat, si petisset. Cesset a fragilitate perfidia nec subeat
in carnalitatis cumulum rebellionis augmentum. Si iubetis, breviter ad ultimum
suggero: Excussus ab scelere suscipiatur ad veniam; patiatur paenitentiam, cum perdit
peccandi occasionem; profiteatur, cum amiserit voluntatem.
◆
From:Avitus, bishop of Vienne
To:Victorius, bishop
Date:~499 AD
Context:Avitus responds to a case involving a dissolute old man named Vincomalus, offering characteristically frank moral assessment alongside pastoral advice.
Bishop Avitus to Bishop Victorius.
You satisfy both prudence and charity by honoring me — and burdening me — with your questions. But I say with simple honesty: you are right to judge, if not my expertise, at least my friendship. I will never suggest anything in my response that I would not want the church of Vienne itself to observe.
Now, as you report, Vincomalus has been pursuing our son the deacon. God grant that this man may overcome evil with good — because I saw a thoroughly crude individual whose wretchedness hardly anyone could pity. Young in his vices, old in his years, he deceives himself: cold in age, he burns with adultery. The case requires firm discipline. A man who will not restrain even his legitimate appetites at his advanced age could hardly be expected to abandon criminal ones after so many years.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.