Letter 1002: Avitus, bishop, to the Pope of Constantinople.

Bishop Avitus to the pope [patriarch] of Constantinople. While my lord, your son, the patrician Sigismund, sought out the most glorious prince [emperor] by the office of an embassy, that holy occasion provided us also, in a twofold way, an opening for offering our service to you. For when, with just longing, we were thirsting for you as a preeminent priest, the illustrious man Laurentius added to our minds an honoring of you, by indicating in his letters that all the cloud which had darkened the peace of the Eastern peoples with a wavering murk had been wiped away by the serenity of peace made whole again, and that you hold with the Roman bishop that concord which it is fitting to assign to the world as it were as twin chiefs of the apostles. For who, that can even be called catholic, would not rejoice at the peace of churches so great and of such a kind, which the world beholds, as a sign of religion set in heaven, in place of a twin star? Who would not be deservedly delighted by the return of the sick and the standing-firm of the unharmed, when, with the other sheep saved within the enclosures, that one which by the fault of an erring judgment had strayed away is, with rejoicing applauding, called back to the heavenly sheepfolds? Guard, therefore, like fathers, the discipline of the church handed down to you, even over us. Your concord is as much a work of teaching as it ought to be of example. What charity shall we urge upon the peoples, if we do not know it in our own rulers? What in the body will be able to seem firm, which totters at the head? Grant therefore an abundance of unanimity to those returning; provide by preaching, lest anyone perish through the strain, lest the thieving beast plunder the assigned watchtower, if Rome should leap apart from the unity of your understanding. Our grief, if the sun should set upon your dissension, is a loss to the East. Since we have received, through a most faithful man, that most prosperous message which I mentioned above, confirm it to our knowledge by your written reply: so that the Western church, awaiting in your discourses the gift of the heavenly oracle, which it rejoices to have received through a fellow-disciple, may rejoice that it is multiplied for itself through the master.

Avitus episcopus papae Constantinopolitano. Dum domnus meus filius vester patricius Sigismundus gloriosissimum principem officio legationis expetiit, nobis quoque deferendi ad vos famulatus aditum dupliciter sancta opportunitate prospexit. Cum enim ut praecipuum sacerdotem iusto vos desi- derio sitiremus, adiecit vir inlustris Laurentius honorem vestri animis nostris, indicans apicibus suis omne nubilum, quod quietem orientalium populorum ambiguo caligante fuscaverat, redintegratae pacis serenitate detersum et eam cum Romano antistite vos habere concordiam, quam velut geminos apostolorum principes mundo adsignare con- veniat. Quis enim, qui vel catholicus dici potest, de tantarum ac talium ecclesiarum pace non gaudeat, quas velut in caelo positum religionis signum pro gemino sidere mundus spectat? Quis non merito delectetur infirmantium reditu, incolumium statu, cum aliis ovibus intra claustra salvatis illa. quae vitio errantis arbitri fuerat evagata, caelestibus caulis laetitia plaudente revocatur? Custodite igitur quasi patres traditam vobis etiam super nos ecclesiae disciplinam. Concordia vestra tantum opus est magi- sterio, quantum oportet exemplo. Quam caritatem populis suadebimus, si hanc in nostris rectoribus nesciamus? Quid in corpore firmum videri poterit, quod nutat in vertice? Vnanimi ergo copiam redeuntibus date; ne quis intentione pereat, praedica- tione prospicite, ne speculam adsignatam furax bestia populetur, si ab unitate sensus vestri Roma dissultet. Maeror noster, si super dissensionem vestram sol occidat, dam- num orientis est. Quia nos prosperrimum, quem supra dixi, nuntium per fidelissimum virum accepimus, ad notitiam nostram vestro firmate rescripto: ut expectans occiden- talis ecclesia in sermonibus vestris donum caelestis oraculi, quod se laetatur accepisse per condiscipulum, multiplicari sibi gaudeat per magistrum.