Letter 2015: I know with what devoted affection you wished me to come to our shared feast.

Bishop Avitus to the most illustrious Arigius. I know indeed with what devoted affection you wished me to come to the shared festivities; yet you ought to have believed that I would be only one to rejoice together with you, not one who would be of any profit. For since bishops both great in merit and many in number came to you worthily and eagerly, I alone am struck with loss, who do not deserve to share in the joys of so singular a patron. Had my presence come to them according to my desire, as I had wished, I would have heard from every man of worthy speech words in praise of so great a work — men who, after inspecting all the members of the lofty fabric, could fittingly ascribe to its builder elegance in the quality of its design, lavishness in the profusion of expense, harmony in the proportion of its dimensions, spaciousness in its extent, loftiness in its summits, firmness amid its lowness; could polish with their praises the dignity of the marbles, whose claim to the name of gems is denied only by the envy of their great size; could tell how the daylight, gathered as it were and enclosed by skill, is quickened by the gleam of shining metals; and how, amid all this splendor, relics of which the world is unworthy are worthily brought in. These things, then, I had rightly conceded should be exalted by better men. Yet my own speech would have claimed a particular reward for itself, recalling above all that time when, amid the most savage storms of disturbances, you — like unconquered helmsmen, with the perils of shipwreck shrieking around you on every side — brought the firm solidity of the completed work safe into the harbor of its dedication, while I, as you recall from our common distress, paid out tears instead of joys. To that work I urge that, with the ardor of premature invocation and the pleading of causes duly weighed, one should heap up no less than lament; for it was not as with a bride to be joined in any fashion whatever to such a bridegroom, to whom she had been pledged — even though the instruments of worship were sufficiently desired — but rather the weapons of plunderers had to be feared the more. Therefore, when all these things had been weighed with riper counsel, you, brave men, changed the kind of your steadfastness, and, laying aside the boldness of secular leadership in which you so excel, you conquered by fear whatever of peril had pressed upon you from the adverse side. And so let everyone who shall see the gladness now set before him praise the haste that is past. Security snatched from adversity befits your arrangements. It was fitting that what so pleased to be adorned should first be wept over by us. But as to why I do not now enjoy the sight of these things, and what cause brings it about, you — noble patrons and equal judges — perceive even if it be left unspoken. For the festival of the Apostles comes round, among the yearly martyrdoms, as a day of particular devotion for your people of Vienne. I have a presence bound to the time on which the dedication of the little fabric you know of seems to fall on the day of that passion. But because there is nothing to which your affection could not direct my mind, I would, in excusing my absence to the little congregation, set singular obligation before custom — were it not, as you know, that among our very penitents a zeal reaching for vice would breed a neighboring hatred and an uproar, since of our own people ambition would draw some, anxiety others, and gluttony, ever more swelling, would draw many. I feared that perhaps at the same time the few who might be present — some declining other people's affairs — might gather to their own festival a zeal of indulgence, and that in some the mind, as is its way, would be stirred by such disturbance, as though through my absence on that day the course of our devotion were thought to be omitted, on the very day on which the rival parties seemed to be established. Hence I deserve to be excused. If you have rightly understood the reason, forgive me; recognize a shared festival in the remembrance of things past and in the fullness of things present. Celebrate it with the duties of the absent as much as of those present. I trust in the mercy of our God that, whenever it shall be more opportune, He will grant me also an opening for His word in this place, to which He has granted the more adorned effect of a twofold consecration.

Avitus episcopus viro illustrissimo Arigio. Scio quidem, quantae devotionis affectu ire me ad festa communia voluistis; verumtamen ita ut quemquem gavisurum tantum modo vobiscum, non aliquid pro- futurum credere debueritis. Nam cum vobis sacerdotes et magni merito et multi nu- mero digne atque ambienter occurrerint, ego solus damno percellor, qui singularis pa- troni gaudiis interesse non mereor. Quibus si praesentia mea secundum desiderium provenisset, sicut optaveram, de laude tanti operis quoscumque digni sermonis audi- rem, qui omnibus membris fabricae sublimis inspectis congruenter possent adscribere conditori in dispositionum qualitate elegantiam, in expensarum profusione iacturam, in dimensionum ratione concordiam, in spatiis diffusionem, in culminibus celsitudinem, in humilitate firmitatem: expolire praeconiis marmorum dignitatem, quibus gemmarum nomen sola magnitudinis tollat invidia, collectum quodam modo atque inclusum in- dustria diem emolumento metallorum splendentium luce vegetari, hisque omnibus pom- pis digne inferri reliquias, quibus mundus indignus est. Haec igitur exaggeranda melioribus iure concesseram. Verumtamen peculiarem sibi mercedem suam sermo meus fuerat vindicaturus recolens utique tempus illud, quo inter saevissimas pertur- bationum procellas confecti operis firmam soliditatem quasi gubernatores invicti ad de- dicationis portum, circumstridentibus undique naufragiorum casibus, impune duxistis, me, ut ex communi necessitate recolitis, pro gaudiis lacrimas dependente: cui tum ipsum praematurae invocationis ardore, causarum actione librata, non minus congerere suadeo, quam plangere: quia non ut nuptae tali sponso, cui pacta fuerat, qualiter- cumque iungendae, etsi satis desiderabantur strumenta cultuum, plus tamen formidari oportuit tela raptorum. Quocirca his omnibus consilio maturiore pensatis mutastis viri fortes constantiae genus et deponentes, quo adprime floretis, saecularis ducatus audaciam, quicquid ab adversa parte discriminis incubuerat, timore vicistis. Qua- propter omnis, qui viderit coram positam iucunditatem, laudet praeteritam festinatio- nem. Convenit dispositionibus vestris rapta de adversitate securitas. Ante decuit nostrum fleri, quod taliter libuerat ornari. Ego autem ut horum modo visione non perfruar et quae causa faciat, et nobiles patroni et aequales arbitri, etiam si taceatur, advertitis. Apostolorum namque festivitas Viennensibus quidem vestris inter annuum martyrium dies peculiari studio subit. Habeo praesentiam tempori, quo diei passionis fabriculae, quam nostis, videtur iniuncta esse dedicatio. Verum quia nihil est, ad quod animum meum vester destinare non possit affectus, excusans plebeculae absentiam meam antepouerem consuetudini singularitatem, nisi, ut nostis, in ipsis paenitentibus nostris fervor appetens vitium vicinum odium formaret atque strepitum, cum e nostris ambitio aliquos, alios sollicitudo, at gliscentior multos gula tractura sit. Veritus sum, ne forte simul paucos, qui forent, aliquos aliena declinantes suae magis festivitati studium mansuetudinis adgregaret, apud aliquos animus, ut solet, tali turbatione motus esset, quasi per absentiam meam eo die cursus nostrae devotionis putaretur omitti, quo diversae partes videbantur institui. Vnde excusationem meremur. Si rationem rite agnovistis, ignoscite; communem festivitatem praeteritorum recordatione, praesen- tium plenitudine cognoscite. Tam absentium eam quam praesentium officiis celebrate. Confido de misericordia dei nostri, quod etiam mihi in hoc loco, quandocumque oppor- tunius, verbi praestabit aditum, quibus geminatae consecrationis ornatiorem concessit effectum.