Letter 1009: You satisfy both prudence and charity by honoring me — and burdening me — with your questions.

Bishop Avitus to Bishop Victorius. You satisfy both caution and charity in that you deign to honor me no less than to burden me by asking my opinion on something. But in truth I say plainly that you do rightly if you judge me, if not by my skill, then at least by my friendship, and that nothing is ever suggested to you by my reply except what I would wish to be kept by the church of Vienne. Vincomalus, then, as you indicated, has followed our son the deacon — may God grant that he overcome evil with good [a play on his name, Vincomalus, "conquer-evil"]. I have seen a man exceedingly raw, of whose wretchedness it is plain that scarcely anyone could have pity. Young in his vices, old in his years, he deceives himself: he is chilled by age, he burns with adultery. What need of many words? One could only wish that, for a pleasure beyond hope, he might not be allowed to ruin a life of whatever age. For when he was being blamed — more by way of exhortation than harshly — for the crime of incest, accusing our severity solely on the plea of its lateness, he pleaded that we had condemned too late a thirty-year partnership of an unlawful union. At this point I yielded, I confess, granting that we had, out of love for him, preferred to defer the sentence so as to reserve the man's correction for his own compunction and will; and that it was accordingly just that after the space of so many years he should restrain even his criminal acts — he who, with the advance of old age now upon him, ought already to have bridled even his lawful ones. To this, as I believed I perceived, he groaned, not pricked in conscience but confounded, and began for a little while to promise that the woman of his unworthy cohabitation would forthwith be kept from his company and from his sight. In reply I urged that he make these promises to you, and that, repenting of the deed, he ask to be released by you from that by which he had been bound. Nevertheless, since you have ordered me to disclose whatever seems good to my judgment: let the separation of the persons suffice for your censure. Let the unhappy union be severed by a more innocent divorce. Let an end of the evil suffice as the fruit of strict discipline. Nor indeed should the promise of one whose life has proved faithless be thought faithful. Let the amendment that is to follow be entrusted to the very guarantors by whose intercession his prior fault will be loosed. As for the rest, in what concerns penance, let him be admonished meanwhile to undertake it, but let him not be compelled to receive it. Let his own crimes suffice for the wretched man, and let it not be forced upon one already burdened — since he spurns it — what with so unspeakable a disposition ought scarcely to have been entrusted to him even had he sought it. Let his treachery cease from its frailty, and let no increase of rebellion be added to the heap of his carnality. If you so command, I briefly suggest at the last: when he has been shaken free from his crime, let him be received to pardon; let him undergo penance, since he is losing the occasion of sinning; let him profess it, once he has lost the will.

Avitus episcopus Victorio episcopo. Cautelae et caritati satisfacitis, dum me aliquid interrogando non minus honorare quam onerare dignamini. Sed cum veritate simpliciter dico recte vos, si non de peri- tia mea, saltem de amicitia iudicare nec aliquid vobis umquam responsione mea suggeri, nisi quod volo a Viennensi ecclesia custodiri. Secutus est ergo, ut indicastis, filium nostrum diaconem Vincomalus, quem deus tribuat ut in bono vincat malum. Vidi hominem nimie crudum, cuius miseriae constat vix quemquam posse misereri. Iuvenis vitiis, senex annis se decipit: aevo friget, adulterio calet. Quid multis? op- tandum est, ut pro voluptate desperabili nec quamlibet perire aetatem liceat. Nam cum adhortatorie plus quam aspere pro incestus facinore culparetur, severitatem nostram sola praescriptione tarditatis accusans, sero non licitae coniugationis tricennale consor- tium damnasse causatus est. Ad hunc locum cessi fateor imputando, quod scilicet sua dilectione sententiam differentes maluissemus correctionem viri conpunctioni ipsius voluntatique servare; ac perinde iustum esse, ut post spatia tot annorum vel criminalia restringeret, qui refrenare iam longaevitatis accessu etiam legitima debuisset. Ad haec, ut sentire me credidi, non conpunctus sed confusus ingemuit, promittere ali- quantisper adgressus mulierem cohabitationis indignae ab accessu aspectuque suo pro- tinus cohercendam. Suasi respondens, ut vobis ista promitteret et facti paenitens ab eo se solvi, quo ligatus fuerat, postularet. Tamen, quia iussistis, ut quicquid sensui meo videatur aperiam, sufficiat censurae vestrae separatio personarum. Scindatur in- felix coniugium innocentiore divortio. Sufficiat districtionis fructui terminus mali. Nec sane promissio eius fidelis putetur, cuius vita extitit infidelis. Ipsis fideiussoribus emendatio secutura credatur, quibus intercedentibus prior culpa laxabitur. De cetero autem, quod ad paenitentiam spectat, moneatur interim agere, accipere non cogatur. Sufficiant infelici crimina sua, nec ingeratur laborioso, cum respuit, quod tam intesta- bili animo vix committi debuerat, si petisset. Cesset a fragilitate perfidia nec subeat in carnalitatis cumulum rebellionis augmentum. Si iubetis, breviter ad ultimum suggero: Excussus ab scelere suscipiatur ad veniam; patiatur paenitentiam, cum perdit peccandi occasionem; profiteatur, cum amiserit voluntatem.