Letter 7001: The word is that the Goths have moved their forces onto Roman soil.

Sidonius to his lord, Bishop Mamertus [of Vienne]. The word is that the Goths have moved their forces onto Roman soil. And as always, we wretched Arverni [people of Clermont] are the gateway to this invasion. We are a particular target for their hatred, because the only thing preventing them from extending their borders from the Atlantic to the Rhone along the channel of the Loire — under Christ's protection alone — is the obstacle we present. The relentless pressure of their menacing kingdom has long since devoured the surrounding regions in every direction. But for our courage — reckless and dangerous as it is — we put no trust in the scorched faces of our walls, the rotting wattle of our palisades, or the battlements worn smooth by the chests of our sentinels. Our only comfort now is the aid of the Rogation prayers [three days of penitential litanies before Ascension Day] that you yourself instituted. The people of Clermont have begun to adopt these rites — matching your devotion in spirit, if not yet in results — and for that reason they have not yet turned their backs on the terrors closing in around them. For it has not escaped our notice that in the early days when you first established these prayers of supplication, the city entrusted to you by heaven was being emptied by every kind of terrifying portent. The walls of public buildings shook with repeated earthquakes. Fires flaming with sulfur buried the crumbling ridges of rooftops under heaping mounds of ash. Herds of deer, astonishingly bold yet terrifyingly tame, took up residence in the forum. When the leading citizens fled and the general population drained away, you alone — swift to act — ran to follow the ancient example of the Ninevites [who repented at Jonah's preaching and were spared], so that God's warning would not be answered by your despair. And truly, after the miracles you had already witnessed, it would have been a sin for you to lose faith in God. For on one occasion, when the city began to burn, your faith blazed hotter than the fire itself. In full view of the terrified populace, you placed nothing but your own body in the fire's path — and the flames, beaten back, twisted away in retreating curves. By a terrifying, unprecedented miracle, the fire yielded out of reverence for a man it could not have perceived by nature. And so you first commanded — to the leading men of your diocese, and to a small number of them — fasts, forbade vices, proclaimed punishments, and promised remedies. You laid it all before them: that neither destruction nor deliverance was far off. You taught them that the threats of the announced desolation must be turned aside by the frequency of prayer. You warned them that the relentless blaze could be quenched by tears from their eyes rather than by water from rivers, and that the menacing clash of earthquakes must be steadied by the firmness of their faith. The humble crowd that followed your counsel soon became an inspiration even to their social superiors, who had not been ashamed to flee but were not ashamed to return. Pleased by this devotion, God, the inspector of hearts, made your prayers a source of salvation for you, an example for others, and a bulwark for both. From that day forward, there were no more losses from calamity and no more terrors from portents. Knowing all this — that these things once befell your people of Vienne and then ceased entirely — our people in Clermont embrace the pattern of your sacred institution. They earnestly ask that Your Beatitude send the reinforcement of your prayers, since you have already sent us your example. And since you alone, in the memory of our forefathers, have been granted — after the Confessor Ambrose [of Milan], discoverer of two martyrs — the privilege of a complete translation of the martyr Ferreolus's relics in the western world, with the addition of the head of our own Julian [of Brioude], which the bloody hand of a persecutor's executioner once carried away from here: it is not unjust that we ask for a share of your heavenly patronage in return, since a portion of our patron saint has come back to you. Please remember me in your prayers, my lord bishop.

EPISTULA I Sidonius domino papae Mamerto salutem. 1. Rumor est Gothos in Romanum solum castra movisse: huic semper irruptioni nos miseri Arverni ianua sumus. namque odiis inimicorum hinc peculiaria fomenta subministramus, quia, quod necdum terminos suos ab Oceano in Rhodanum Ligeris alveo limitaverunt, solam sub ope Christi moram de nostra tantum obice patiuntur. circumiectarum vero spatia tractumque regionum iam pridem regni minacis importuna devoravit impressio. 2. sed animositati nostrae tam temerariae tamque periculosae non nos aut ambustam murorum faciem aut putrem sudium cratem, aut propugnacula vigilum trita pectoribus confidimus opitulatura; solo iam invectarum te auctore rogationum palpamur auxilio, quibus inchoandis instituendisque populus Arvernus, etsi non effectu pari, affectu certe non impari coepit initiari, et ob hoc circumfusis necdum dat terga terroribus. 3. non enim latet nostram sciscitationem, <quod> primis temporibus harumce supplicationum institutarum civitas caelitus tibi credita per cuiusque modi prodigiorum terriculamenta vacuabatur. nam modo scaenae moenium publicorum crebris terrae motibus concutiebantur; nunc ignes sulpure flammati caducas culminum cristas superiecto favillarum monte tumulabant; nunc stupenda foro cubilia collocabat audacium pavenda mansuetudo cervorum: cum tu inter ista discessu primorum populariumque statu urbis exinanito ad nova celer veterum Ninivitarum exempla decurristi, ne divinae admonitioni tua quoque desperatio conviciaretur. 4. et vere iam de deo tu minime poteras absque peccato post virtutum experimenta diffidere. nam cum vice quadam civitas conflagrare coepisset, fides tua in illo ardore plus caluit; et cum in conspectu pavidae plebis obiectu solo corporis tui ignis recussus in tergum fugitivis flexibus sinuaretur, miraculo terribili novo invisitato affuit flammae cedere per reverentiam, cui sentire defuit per naturam. 5. igitur primum nostri ordinis viris et his paucis indicis ieiunia interdicis flagitia, supplicia praedicis remedia promittis; exponis omnibus nec poenam longinquam esse nec veniam; doces denuntiatae solitudinis minas orationum frequentia esse amoliendas; mones assiduitatem furentis incendii aqua potius oculorum quam fluminum posse restingui; mones minacem terrae motuum conflictationem fidei stabilitate firmandam. 6. cuius confestim sequax humilis turba consilii maioribus quoque suis fuit incitamento, quos cum non piguisset fugere, redire non puduit. qua devotione placatus inspector pectorum deus fecit esse obsecrationem vestram vobis saluti, ceteris imitationi, utrisque praesidio. denique illic deinceps non fuere vel damna calamitati vel ostenta formidini. quae omnia sciens populus iste Viennensibus tuis et accidisse prius et non accessisse posterius vestigia tam sacrosanctae informationis amplectitur, sedulo petens, ut conscientiae tuae beatitudo mittat orationum suarum suffragia quibus exempla transmisit. 7. et quia tibi soli concessa est post avorum memoriam vel confessorem Ambrosium, duorum martyrum repertorem, in partibus orbis occidui, martyris Ferreoli solida translatio adiecto nostri capite Iuliani, quod istinc turbulento quondam persecutori manus rettulit cruenta carnificis, non iniurium est, quod pro compensatione deposcimus, ut nobis inde veniat pars patrocinii, quia vobis hinc rediit pars patroni. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.