From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne
To: Eustorgius, bishop
Date: ~492 AD
Context: Avitus thanks Eustorgius for a second letter and for entrusting him with the task of ransoming captives — a vivid window into the role bishops played in freeing people captured in the warfare between Burgundians, Franks, and other groups in late fifth-century Gaul.
Avitus, bishop, to Bishop Eustorgius.
With the arrival of the present bearers, the gifts of your longed-for and revered affection have reached me now for the second time — though they would bring even greater happiness if they came more often. Indeed, your letters gave me a double reason for rejoicing. First, because you show that the good will toward me that existed in the hearts of your predecessors lives on in your own, demonstrated through an inherited affection. Second, because you have commanded me to serve in a task through which, while you work to protect and restore the liberty of captives, you have judged even me not unworthy of such a ministry.
Your Beatitude's holy and spiritual command has therefore been carried out. You have added to your reward through your intercession: the ransom you sent was made more precious by your involvement. Through the reverence owed to you, the cruelty of barbarian harshness was overcome by humility, savagery by intercession, greed by payment.
We can only imagine how you tame harder hearts through your preaching there, when even in your absence, through the power of your intercession, you break stones in this way. Your work visits the misery of our regions: and the abundance that flows from your treasury of generosity, having watered Italy, sprinkles Gaul as well.
Therefore, having paid the tribute of an honorable greeting, I commend myself to your intercession and favor with prayers of heartfelt supplication — hoping especially in these particular matters for your letters, in which may the fruit of your works reach me through my obedience just as it reaches you through mercy.
Avitus episcopus Eustorgio episcopo.
Adventu praesentium portitorum ecce iam secundo ad me desiderandi reverendi-
que affectus vestri dona venerunt: quae tamen plus fierent prosperitate secunda, si
fierent numerositate copiosa. Revera duplex in litteris vestris materia gratulationis
accessit. Primum quod salvam mihi gratiam sic etiam in vestro, sicut in vestrorum
extitit animo decessorum, hereditario monstratis affectu; deinde quod in eo me famu-
lari negotio praecepistis, quo dum tuendae vel reparandae libertatis curam geritis,
etiam me non indignum tali ministerio censuistis. Impletum est igitur beatitudinis
vestrae sanctum ac spiritale praeceptum. Cumulastis oratione mercedem: interventu
vestro pretiosius factum est pretium, quod misistis; victa est per reverentiam vestri in
rigore barbarico humilitate immanitas, intercessione crudelitas. inlatione cupiditas.
Conicimus, qualiter illic praedicationibus duriores animos edomatis, cum etiam inter-
veniendi viribus absentia vobis saxa sic frangitis. Visitatur opere vestro nostrarum
aerumna regionum: et emanans ex largiendi thesauro irrigui fontis ubertas, cum Ita-
liam rigaverit, respergit et Galliam. Quapropter depenso salutationis honorificae famu-
latu me utique vestro intercessu vel favori votis profusae supplicationis insinuo: optans
licet in cunctis, in his tamen specialius causis litteras vestras: in quibus sic vobis
per misericordiam competat, ut etiam me per oboedientiam vestrorum operum fructus
attingat.
◆
From:Avitus, bishop of Vienne
To:Eustorgius, bishop
Date:~492 AD
Context:Avitus thanks Eustorgius for a second letter and for entrusting him with the task of ransoming captives — a vivid window into the role bishops played in freeing people captured in the warfare between Burgundians, Franks, and other groups in late fifth-century Gaul.
Avitus, bishop, to Bishop Eustorgius.
With the arrival of the present bearers, the gifts of your longed-for and revered affection have reached me now for the second time — though they would bring even greater happiness if they came more often. Indeed, your letters gave me a double reason for rejoicing. First, because you show that the good will toward me that existed in the hearts of your predecessors lives on in your own, demonstrated through an inherited affection. Second, because you have commanded me to serve in a task through which, while you work to protect and restore the liberty of captives, you have judged even me not unworthy of such a ministry.
Your Beatitude's holy and spiritual command has therefore been carried out. You have added to your reward through your intercession: the ransom you sent was made more precious by your involvement. Through the reverence owed to you, the cruelty of barbarian harshness was overcome by humility, savagery by intercession, greed by payment.
We can only imagine how you tame harder hearts through your preaching there, when even in your absence, through the power of your intercession, you break stones in this way. Your work visits the misery of our regions: and the abundance that flows from your treasury of generosity, having watered Italy, sprinkles Gaul as well.
Therefore, having paid the tribute of an honorable greeting, I commend myself to your intercession and favor with prayers of heartfelt supplication — hoping especially in these particular matters for your letters, in which may the fruit of your works reach me through my obedience just as it reaches you through mercy.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.