Letter 1001: You asked — or rather commanded, dearest brother — that I write to Your Beatitude and explain whether heretics'...

Bishop Avitus to Bishop Victorius. You asked - or rather commanded, most devout brother - that I send a letter to Your Beatitude declaring whether the oratories or basilicas of heretics can be adapted to the uses of our religion, now that their builders have crossed over to the Catholic law by correcting their error. A worthy matter indeed for you to seek counsel on, if only you had found someone fit to answer it. But since you have ordered it, I will disclose in what follows what I think consistent - and not, of course, with such a definitive ruling that I leave no room for others to give their own judgment, provided only that they confirm what they believe ought to be established either by clear reasoning or by authority brought forward from the canonical volumes. This question you have asked about private oratories or small basilicas is, just like the question of their churches, difficult to settle. For what must be urged upon Catholic kings is whatever has been laid down concerning their subjects. Hence I ask first: if the bishops of his own dominion are consulted by the prince of our region - whose agreement in the true religion God has granted to us - can we answer that buildings established for heretics by his father ought to be applied to the Catholic side? But if either we should urge this or he should consent to it, the heretics will not without grounds plead that a persecution has been stirred up against them, since it better befits Catholic gentleness to endure the slanders of heretics and pagans than to commit them. For what is so harsh as that those who perish in open perversity should flatter themselves with confession or martyrdom? And because, after the death of our own king too - on whom may God bestow the most blessed long life - if indeed nothing should be believed unchangeable amid the passage of time, perhaps some heretic or other may be able to reign, whatever persecution he stirs up against places and persons will be said to have been done not out of zeal for his sect but in repayment of the reversal; and to us also, to be burdened even after death, whatever posterity suffers will be reckoned as sin. And perhaps the divine compassion will add this, that the offspring of the prince of whom we speak may, through the received fullness of the faith, follow their Catholic founder. Yet what if now some one of the living kings of another law should likewise wish to avenge in his own region what he has grieved to see inflicted here upon his own priests? Or if someone, laughing at a fear of this kind, should burst out into these words: 'Let me enjoy the glory of my own time; let the age that follows look out for its own state!' - if anyone reasons thus with himself, let him for a little while render back to me the account I ask: namely, that the heretics, having received the truth along with us, should be received. The way of salvation is utterly clear, for, as it is written, I believed, and therefore I have spoken. Faith goes before speech, and confession follows belief; and through the laying on of the priest's hand the fullness of faith is restored where depravity has been lost. But as for the insensible object, which is polluted as soon as it has been newly dedicated, I confess I do not know by what subsequent sanctification it may afterward be purged. I say at all events: if an altar polluted by heretics can be consecrated, then the bread also that is placed upon it can be transferred to our sacrifices. This is at first granted to heretics: a person has made the crossing over to the divine promise, rejoicing in liberty; he leaves Egypt, migrating by a happy change to the right faith; he abandons evils rather than draws them after him. But when something not lawful is brought into contact with an unpurgeable horror, the polluted things rather burden what touches them than receive a remedy from the one who touches. Hence also in the prophet Haggai: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests the law, saying: If a man takes consecrated flesh and touches with the edge of it bread, or anything else, shall it be sanctified? And the priests answering said: No. And Haggai said: If one polluted touches any of these things, shall it be defiled? - that is, that bread which had a little before been holy. And the priests said: It shall be defiled. Wherefore one must infer that, if that bread can be consecrated upon these altars which, when consecrated bread touches it, is rendered unclean. The prophet Malachi too speaks thus: If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame, is it not evil? And a little later he says: Cursed is the deceitful man, who has in his flock a male, and making a vow sacrifices a feeble one to the Lord. What is purer than this judgment? What is plainer than such authority? The building which you desire to take up by a repeated re-dedication - if it is sound, why is it blessed? If it is sickly, why is it offered? However much you may desire to turn gifts offered by the wicked to good, lame things will not be able to follow you to holiness. The Apostle says that he has betrothed her to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ - that is, the Church. But the church which belonged to heretics, even though she may marry again to a better husband, was not a virgin. Why then should a priest seek what is unlawful, when he is altogether forbidden contact with one repudiated and widowed? Hereafter such a late union leads to ruin. He who is joined, he says, to a harlot becomes one body with her. Shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? See whether a harlot can be made whole again by being joined to the members of Christ, into whose body the members of Christ - that is, of a Christian - are turned through pollution. Hence in another place too the Apostle says that he wishes for such a Church, one that has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Could this in any way be said of the buildings of heretics? The blessing which is bestowed on things lacking faith and polluted neither cleanses the spot nor smooths out the wrinkle. Rather, if we look a little more closely, that is free of spot which is single in its newness; that, on the other hand, is wrinkled which has been doubled by repetition. Holy sincerity therefore rejects such a wrinkle, and, putting off the old Adam, what is offered is likened to the new man. This newness the authority of the New Testament commends to us by the voice of the Gospels. Hence the Lord himself commanded that a colt be saddled for him on which no one had ever sat before, one which - free from all worldly use - blows not laid upon it would make happily subject, but holy beginnings would make gentle. And so that the very mystery of the Lord's death too might not lack the honor of newness, we read that our redeeming flesh of the Lord rested in a new tomb, hewn out of the rock. Who then would try to persuade me that a sepulchre can be cleansed after the horrors of corpses? Although, when the moisture of decay has dried up and the flesh has been consumed, the now-white bones are taken up from the mound, uncleanness still remains in the memory, even if it is thought absent from sight. You have indeed cast out the carrion of an alien doctrine, and like bones devoid of honor you have flung its dead strength out of its own sepulchre; but I think that the members of the sacred Body ought not to be laid among the leavings of long-standing stench. And perhaps you will say that the heretics, if power were given them, would defile our altars. It is true, and I do not deny it. They do indeed rage, when they can, those invaders of others' buildings, with their foul talons. But to direct violence, to invade places, to seize altars does not belong to the dove. More particularly, therefore, let me flee what the heretic thinks permitted to him by example. It is more fitting to avoid what the enemy embraces. Nor is it any wonder that those who repeat baptisms should dare to double dedications. Wherefore I will briefly indicate not what I would decree, but what I would wish. I would not want the places of heretical worship to be invaded; I would wish them to be passed over after the manner of prisons that have fallen out of use. It is always to be wished, not that, being changed, they should pass over to us, but that, left unfrequented, they should grow numb. By the wholesome correction of the peoples, let an eternal widowhood remain upon these deserted places; and let what is repudiated by its own people through zeal for conversion never be received by ours. Concerning the vessels of heretics - which, made by them, are judged abominable by us, that is, the patens and chalices - since you have ordered me to write back what I think: a powerful example for observation is what is read in the Heptateuch about the censers of the sinners, who, presuming to take fire by an unlawful burning, were consumed by a temporal blaze that signifies the eternal Gehenna. For the vessels we have spoken of lay mingled with ash and embers, for the judgment of the dead and the terror of the living, and, though accustomed to the fragrances of incense, they had contracted an abominable uncleanness through the stench of perverse use. Then the divine word commanded the law-giving leader who consulted it that he should pour these into furnaces and, beaten out into plates, affix them to the adornments of the sacred altar. You see, therefore, that there too we are taught alike that the execrable use of metals cannot be transferred to good unless it pass through fire: so much does fire confer upon metals, in respect to the Catholic comparison, as faith confers upon the senses. Hence the prophet too in the psalm: Burn my reins and my heart. Let anyone, to be sure, find fault, according to the discernment of his own judgment, with what I think. I confess that I take no delight at all in those vessels which have come captive into the churches of our law in the regions of upper Gaul: for, presenting nothing voluntary, nothing innocent, if they are seized from the grieving, they will not be able to profit those who offer them. Why should Victor say to me: 'What I present at your altars has become mine by whatever procedure,' if it is commanded: Honor the Lord from your just labors? It is too little to do so from labors, unless from your own; it is too little from your own, unless from just ones. Let me never call those things 'offered' which were 'taken away' before they were offered. But let me always rejoice that such gifts are laid upon the holy altars as those with which the most religious prince of our homeland adorns the churches of his own region. Indeed, not only of his own region - since wherever the Catholic Church is, it seems to be his - when, bringing forth from his treasures every choicest thing for the Lord's outlays, he takes care that, in those things which pertain to the holy ministry, costliness may please no more than newness. What remains to be prayed for is that, for a long time master of his desires, possessing the wealth entrusted to him by God not in hidden heaps but in public gifts, he may always have, together with the people subject to him, rejoicing in sacred uses, that which he has given. [The remainder of the source field contains a partially OCR-garbled papyrus copy of the closing of this same letter, followed by the opening of a separate letter of Avitus to the Patriarch of Constantinople; per the standard for concatenated sources, only the letter to Victorius is translated here.]

Avitus episcopus Victorio episcopo. Petisti, immo potius praecepisti, frater piissime, ut datis ad beatitudinem tuam litteris indicarem, utrum haereticorum oratoria sive basilicae ad usus possent nostrae religionis aptari, cum conditores earum ad catholicam se legem erroris correctione transtulerint. Digna profecto res, de qua tu consuleres, si ad respondendum idoneum repperisses. Quia iussisti tamen, reserabo in subditis, quid consequens putem. Nec ea scilicet definitione, ut locum censendi aliis non reservem, si modo id, quod statuen- dum crediderint, vel ratione perspicua vel prolata de canonicis voluminibus auctoritate confirment. Istud quod de oratoriis vel basiliculis privatis interrogasti, perinde ut de ecclesiis eorum difficile definitur. Hoc namque suadendum est catholicis regibus, quod de subiectis eorum fuerit constitutum. Vnde primum quaeso, si a principe regionis nostrae, cuius nobis deus praestitit in vera religione consensum, sortis suae antistites consulantur, utrum respondere possimus fabricas a patre suo haereticis institutas catho- licis debere partibus adplicari. Quod si aut nos suadeamus aut ille consentiat, per- secutionem in se commotam haeretici non inmerito causabuntur, cum catholicam man- suetudinem calumnias haereticorum atque gentilium plus deceat sustinere quam facere. Quid enim tam durum, quam si illi, qui aperta perversitate pereunt, de confessione sibi aut martyrio blandiantur? Et quia post nostri quoque regis obitum. cui deus tri- buat felicissimam longaevitatem, si quidem nihil de processu temporum immutabile credi debet, poterit forsitan haereticus quicumque regnare, quicquid persecutionis locis personisque commoverit, non sectae suae studio, sed ex vicissitudinis retributione fecisse dicetur, et nobis etiam post mortem gravandis ad peccatum reputabitur, quicquid fuerit perpessa posteritas. Et forsitan adiciet divina miseratio, ut proles principis, de quo loquimur, per receptam fidei plenitudinem catholicum sequatur auctorem. Quid tamen, si nunc quisquam de vivis regibus legis alienae ulcisci in regione sua similiter velit, quod hic sacerdotibus suis doluerit inrogari? Aut si quis buiusmodi metum ridens in haec verba prorumpat: 'utar gloria temporis mei: prospiciat statui suo subsequens aetas!' – si qui talia secum tractat, paulisper mihi redhibeat quam postulo rationem: ut haeretici nobiscum veritatem receperint, recipiantur. Lucidissima salus est, quia, sicut scriptum est, credidi, propter quod locutus sum. Praecedit fides locu- tionem et sequitur confessio credulitatem; et per inpositionem manus sacerdotalis pravitatis amissio fidei redditur plenitudo. Res autem insensibilis, quae primum inno- vata polluitur, ignorare me fateor, qua deinceps sanctificatione purgetur. Dico certe, si potest pollutum ab haereticis altare sacrari, posse et panem, qui super illo positus est, ad sacrificia nostra transferri. Id primitus haereticis conceditur: fecit transitum ad repromissionem divinam libertate gaudens; dimittit Aegyptum ad fidem rectam felici mutatione transmigrans; reliquit potius mala, quam attrahat . Cum aliquid non legi- timum inpurgabili confertur horrori, gravant magis polluta contactum, quam capiant a tangente remedium. Vnde et in Aggaeo propheta: Haec dicit dominus exerci- tuum: Interroga sacerdotes legem dicens: Si sustulerit homo carnem sanctificatam et tetigerit de summitate eius panem aut quodcumque aliquid, numquid sanctificabitur? Respondentes autem sacerdotes dixerunt: Non. Et dixit Aggaeus: Si tetigerit pollutus ex omnibus his, numquid contaminabitur? Id est ille panis, qui dudum sanctus extiterat. Et dixerunt sacerdotes: Contaminabitur. Qua propter coniciendum est, si potest ille panis in his altaribus consecrari, quem si consecratus panis tetigerit, redditur inquinatus. Malachias quoque propheta sic dicit: Si offeratis caecum ad immolandum, nonne malum est? Et si offeratis claudum, nonne malum est? Et paulo post: Maledictus, inquit, dolosus, qui habet in grege suo masculum, et votum faciens immolat debile domino. Quid boc iudi- cio sincerius? quid tali auctoritate manifestius? Fabrica, quam iterata cupis innovatione praesumere, si Sana est, quid benedicitur? si languida, cur offertur? Quantumcumque munera a malis oblata in bonum trahere concupiscas, sequi te ad sanctitatem clauda non poterunt. Dicit apostolus despondisse se uni viro virginem castam ex- hibere Christo, id est ecclesiam. Ecclesia porro quae haereticorum fuit, etsi licet meliori renubere, non erat virgo. Cur ergo appetat sacerdos illicita, qui prorsus a contactu repudiatae et viduae prohibetur? Post hinc in exitia sera coniunctio est. Qui sociatur, inquit, meretrici, unum corpus efficitur. Nec tollam membra Christi et faciam membra meretricis. Vide si possit iunctis sibi Christi mem- bris meretrix adintegrari, in cuius corpus unita Christi, id est Christiani, per pollu- tionem membra vertuntur. Vnde et alio loco apostolus dicit talem se ecclesiam velle, quae non habeat maculam aut rugam aut aliquid huiusmodi. Numquid ullo pacto poterit istud de haereticorum fabricis dici? Benedictio, quae rebus fide carentibus ac pollutis inpenditur, nec purgat maculam nec explicat rugam. Immo magis, si paulo attentius intuemur, caret macula, quod simplum est novitate; rugosum porro, quod iteratione duplicatum est. Rugam igitur talem negat sancta sinceritas et Adam veterem exuens novo quod offertur homini conparatur. Quam novitatem nobis auctoritas testamenti novi evangeliorum voce commendat. Vnde etiam ipsum sibi dominus sterni pullum praecepit, cui ante ipsum nullus insederat, quem totius saecu- laris usus expertem feliciter redderent non inposita flagella subditum, sed exordia sancta mansuetum. Et ut ipsum quoque dominicae mortis mysterium novitatis honore non careat, in monumento novo, quod in petra excisum est, redemptricem nostram dominicam carnem legimus quievisse. Quis ergo mihi persuadere conetur post horrores funeribus sepulchrum posse mundari? Quamvis putredinis humore siccato consumptis alba iam carnibus tumuli ossa tollantur, remanet inmunditia recordationi, etiamsi abesse putetur adspectus. Expulisti quidem morticinum dogmatis alieni et fortitudinem eius emortuo de sepulchro suo quasi ossa honore carentia proiecisti; sed puto, quod poni in faetoris diuturni reliquiis sacri corporis membra non debeant. Et dices forsitan haereticos, si eis potestas detur, altaria nostra temerare. Verum est nec refello. Saeviunt quidem, cum possunt, foedis unguibus alienarum aedium per- vasores. Sed vim intendere, loca pervadere, altaria commutare non pertinet ad colum- bam. Specialius ergo fugiam, quod licere sibi haereticus putat ab exemplo. Magis vitare convenit, quod hostis amplectitur. Nec mirum est, ut dedicationes geminare audeaut, qui baptismata confrequentant. Quocirca non quid statuam, sed quid optem, breviter indicabo. Haeretici cultus loca pervadi nollem, cuperem praetermitti in mo- rem ergastulorum, quae usu careant. Semper optandum est, non ut mutata trans- eant, sed infrequentata torpescant. Salubri populorum correctione desertis maneat aeterna viduitas: nec umquam recipiatur a nostris, quod conversionis studio repudiatur a propriis. De ministeriis haereticorum, quae ab illis facta a nobis execrabilia iudicantur, id est patenis paterisque, quia quid censeam rescribere me iussisti, validae quidem obser- vationis exemplum est, quod legitur in heptatycho de turabulis peccatorum, qui ignem inlicito praesumentes incendio temporalis gehennae aeterna signante consumpti sunt. Iacebant namque cineri prunisque permixta ad mortuorum iudicium terroremque viven- tium vasa, quae diximus, et odoribus turis adsueta abominabilem immunditiam perversi usus faetore contraxerant. Tunc duci legifero consulenti praecipit sermo divinus, ut haec infusa fornacibus et distenta per lamminas ornatibus sacri altaris adfigeret. Vides ergo, quod illic pariter erudimur usum execrabilem metallorum ad bonum, si ignibus careat, non posse transferri: adeo ad catholicam comparationem hoc praestat metallis ignis, quod sensibus fides. Vnde et in psalmo propheta: Vre renes meos et cor meum. Reprehendat certe quisipiam pro sensus sui discretione, quod sentio. Fateor ministeriis illis minime delectari, quae in superioris Galliae partibus ad ecclesias legis nostrae captiva venerunt: quaeque nil voluntarium, nil innocens praeferentia, si dolen- tibus rapiuntur. offerentibus prodesse non poterunt. Cur mihi dicat Victor: quod alta- ribus tuis exhibeo, quoquo libet ordine meum factum est, si iubetur: Honora domi- num de tuis iustis laboribus? Parum est de laboribus, nisi de tuis; parum est de tuis, nisi de iustis. Numquam oblata pronuntiem, quae antequam offerrentur ablata sunt. Sed talia semper munera gratuler sanctis altaribus superponi, qualibus religio- sissimus princeps patriae nostrae ecclesias propriae regionis exornat. Plane non solum propriae, quia ei sua videtur, ubicumque catholica est, cum de thesauris suis lectis- sima quaeque producens in domini impendia curat, ut in his, quae ad sanctum mini- sterium pertinebunt, non magis pretiositas possit placere quam novitas. Orandum quod restat est, ut longo tempore conpos votorum, opes sibi a deo creditas non in se- cretis molibus, sed in publicis muneribus possessurus, cum populo sibi subdito gaudens usibus sacris semper habeat, quod donavit. . . diu dogmata tenebrarum et mysteriorum orientalium ferociam barbarorum corda secluserant. Si quod autem vel in Romanorum cordibus culpa cuiuscumque scismatis offendere possit et ... sic diversarum terribiles animos nationum aut haeresis Arriana maculaverat aut naturalis immanitas possidebat; at postquam princeps prae- fatus, in catholicam vestram de pristino errore conmigrans, velut Christianorum signifer portanda coram populo veritatis vexilla suscepit, omnes adhortatione inliciens, nullum potestate conpellens suam gentem proprio, extraneas autem suae adquirit exemplo. Nec vobis ingeri dignum est, quam vim veritas habet; catervatim quidem populi ad caularum quas regitis saepta concurrunt: sed adhuc de regibus solus est, quem in bonum transisse non pudeat. Sic quoque illos, quos adhuc provocatione non corrigens, iam tamen admiratione conpescens, si nondum saluti potuit adponere, saltem praestitit eta persecutione cessare. Servate, quod superest, oratu adsiduo his partibus soli reli- gioso unicum pignus et inpetrate a deo aliis regionibus tribui, qaicquid nobis petimus custodiri. De cetero veraciter ignorare me fateor, utrum memoratus filius vester scripto aut verbo votum suae obligationis aperuerit; basilicam legis nostrae in urbe, quae regni sui caput est, quantum ad externam paupertatem pertinet, magno sumptu, quod- que de potentibus rarum est, maximo construxit affectu et benedico munere vestro ... pars quae desideratur adhuc, precibus illius au Exemplum Papyri Parisinae f. 10 (Bignon. f. 71). . . duidcccmata tenebrarum et mistiriorum [orien]tali[um] cer. um barbarorum corda secluserat. si quod autem [ue]l in romanorum d culpa cuiuscumque scismatis offendere possit et sic diuersa terribilis animǒs nationum. aut aeresis arriana macolauerat aut natural[is tas possedebat; ad postquam princeps praefatus in catholicam uestram d errore conmegrans uelut christianorum signefer portanda coram populo u]eritatis uixilla suscepit omnes adortatione inliciens nullum potestate conpellens suam gentem proprio extraneas autem suae adquirit exemplo, nec uobis l ge]ri dignum est quam uerita[s] habet cateruatem quidem populi ad caularum geretis septa concurrunt sed adhuc de regebus solus est quem in bonum trans gon pǒdeat. sic quoque illos quos adhuc prouocatione non corregens iam ta[m]en admiratione conpescens; si non dum saluti potuit adponere! saltim praestitit et a persecutione cessare; seruate quod superest oratu adseduo hiis partibus sole reliegioso unicum pignus et inpetrate adeo aliis regionibus tribui qu... d nobis petemus custodiri; de cetero ueraceter ignorare me fateor utrum memoratus filius uester scribto. aut uerbo uotum suae oblegationis aperi. t; l cam legis nostrae in urbe quae regni sui capud est quantum ad Nam paupertatem pertenit magnosum .... quod quae de poten . e . rum est maxemo construxit affectu et benedico munere uestr pars quae disiderat . . r adeÞraet . l illius au Exemplum Papyri Parisinae f. 10 (Bignon. f. 78 et 71). intellegete verum totis welle tribuere quod a uobis poterit optenere petitionis suae uos quantum talis persona meriri uidetur adicite; ceterum ille piissima humilitate decemit quod cum omnes ciuitas uestra recte una dicatur eclesia iuste pro caelo habetur quicquid se sacro terrae uel puluere miseretis EXPL’ Auitus ep̅s /// /// /// /// papae Constantinopoletano dum domnus meus filius uester patricius segismundus gloriosissimum princepem offio legationis expetiit nobis quoque deferendi ad uos famolatus aditum dupleciter sancta oportunitate prospexit Cum enim ut praecipuum sacerdotem iusto uos disiderio sitiremus adiciit uir inŁ laurentius honorem uestri animis nostris indecans apecibus suis omne nubilum quod quietem orientalium populorum ambiguo caligante fuscauer[at] redintegratae pacis serenetate detersum et eam cum romano antestete uos habere concordiam quam uelut geminus apostolorum princepes mundo adsignare conueniat; quis enim qui uel catholecus dici potest de tantarum hac talium eclesiarum pace non gaudeat quas uelut in caelo positum regionis signum pro gemino sidere mundus expetat; Quis non merito dilec tetur infirmantium reditu incolomium statu cum aliis ouibus intra claustra saluatis illa quae uitio errantes arbitrio fuerat euagata caelestibus caulis l[aetitia] plaudente reuocatur. Custodite igitur quasi patres traditam uobis etiam su [per no]s eclesiae disciplinam. Concordia uestra tantum opus est magisterio quantum [oportet exemplo qua]m caretatem populis suadebimus si hanc in nostris ricto [ribus nesciamus quid in corpore firmum uideri poterit] intellegite virum totis velle tribuere, quod a vobis poterit optinere petitionis suae. Vos quantum talis persona mereri videtur, adicite. Ceterum ille piissima humilitate decernet, quod, cum omnis civitas vestra recte una dicatur ecclesia, iuste pro caelo habetur, quicquid de sacro terrae vel pulvere miseritis.