Letter 3013: Necessity prevented me from attending the feast; your kindness made the feast come to me.

Bishop Avitus to Bishop Apollinaris. Necessity stood in the way of my attending the feast; your kindness contrived that the feast should come to me. You write, then, that you have avenged my lack of devotion with supplies from the sea. A worthy kind of punishment, to be sure—so long as it does not pick a quarrel with the appetite's craving! I should be glad enough to present myself to you, were it not that you punish the absent in such a way. Would that the penalty of your censure against the offender might never cease! Nothing do I dread more than your bidding me to fear nothing hereafter. Grant indulgence to the man who has asked for it; pardon the one toward whom you have chosen to be sparing. For the rest, it is plain that I, having tasted the quality of your strictness, long for your displeasure rather than for your pardon. As for what remains, may our God grant, through your prayers, that I—who this present year took part in this feast's offices as in its delights—you may in time to come present by your prayers with no like effect, and, when I have returned, may you believe that I have been kept away by a like severity. Somewhat stirred, yet not returning evil for evil in full measure, I have sent eight scraps from the marsh [marsh-fish] and two pairs of soles [solea, both a flatfish and a sandal] for you to soften between your teeth.

Avitus episcopus Apollinari episcopo. Ne festivitati occurrerem, necessitas obstitit: ut mihi festivitas occurreret, humani- tas procuravit Scribitis ergo indevotionem meam marinis vos copiis ultum isse. Dignum scilicet genus supplicii, quod ne faciat cum desiderio gulae conflictum! Satis vobis praesentari cuperem, si non taliter puniretis absentes. Vtinam censurae vestrae in contumacem poena non desinat. Nihil magis timeo, quam quod me iubetis in posterum nil vereri; indulgentiam illi, qui rogaverit, date; cui avari esse volueritis, ignoscite; ceterum me qualitatem districtionis expertam offensam magis vestram con- stat desiderare quam veniam. De cetero orationibus vestris tribuat deus noster, ut, qui festivitatis huius praesenti anno officiis qua deliciis adfui, in tempore futuro vestris me orationibus effectu non simili praesentetis et, cum rediero, severitate simili ab- sentasse credatis. Octo palustres quisquilias et duo paria solearum, quae dentibus maceretis, aliquatenus commotus, non tamen ex integro malum pro malo reddens direxi.