Letter 10034: If we owe honor even to priests we have never met, how much more to those we have known and revered with affection!

34. KING WITIGIS TO HIS BISHOPS. [1] If we owe honor even to priests unknown to us, how much more to those whom we have beheld with loving reverence! For we seek out the known in one manner, and we address the unknown in another. The affection for those we have seen is always greater, since one who is joined to us by constant and pleasant conversation is most gratefully kept in memory. And therefore, through the bearers of this letter, our envoys, whom we have dispatched to the most serene prince [the emperor], we present to your holiness the homage of the veneration that is owed, hoping that you may deign to pray on our behalf and, where need shall require it, that they may find your comfort, since it is necessary that you should wish well to those whom you know to be joined to you by religion.

XXXIIII. EPISCOPIS SUIS VVITIGIS REX. [1] Si sacerdotibus etiam ignotis honorem debemus, quanto magis illis quos amabili veneratione conspeximus! aliter enim requirimus notum et aliter appellamus incognitum. visorum maior semper affectus est, dum gratissime retinetur qui assiduo et suavi sermone coniungitur. et ideo per harum portitores legatos nostros, quos ad serenissimum principem destinavimus, sanctitati vestrae praesentamus debitae venerationis obsequium, sperantes, ut pro nobis orare dignemini et, ubi usus exegerit, solacia vestra reperiant, quia necesse est, ut bene velitis quos vobis religione iunctos esse cognoscitis.