Letter 1014: You reproach me for not having reported to you about the royal conference.

Bishop Avitus to the lord Sigismund. As for your blaming me for not having reported the royal conference to you, I had been reserving it for our meeting once the festival was over; for in truth the length and intricacy of the dispute do not permit everything to be set forth to you in order through the service of a letter. For so far as I think I perceived in the mind of my lord, your father, a struggle, disguised under the appearance of leisure, seethes within his pursuit of it. For what we believed had been laid aside, with animosity set down and silence imposing restraint, did not cease during the recent brevity of the truce but lay hidden, seeking rather a sudden opportunity than repose. So much so that not even the very weapons of contention, which had as it were already failed on our side, are now sought from outside, and his ardor awaits its deliberation even until the return of his envoys. And so, as I was returning by that journey of which you know, and was meanwhile supposing nothing of propositions of this kind, whatever long argumentation and shrewd diligence had been able to prepare through the most tangled knots of biting questions was set in motion. The discussion seethes the more violently with prolonged debate, yet he remained calm, introducing nothing of turbulent agitation out of any haughty desire to dominate. But the foreseen opportunity of a necessary privacy took care that, whatever the outcome of the contention might be, it should let neither the victor swell with pride nor the vanquished blush with shame. Why say more? Without boasting I tell you freely: as far as it seems to me, what was put forward could, if you had heard it, have pleased — with respect to the matters proposed. Yet I do indeed fear that . . . [text uncertain] it satisfied the listener's judgment more than it pleased his inclination. When, by God's bounty, I shall have earned your presence, I will lay out for you in person the whole sequence of the altercation. In the meantime, gather the course of the discourse from its end, and from what he commanded me as I was departing, judge whether he was moved to make a response. For he ordered that whatever testimony from our Scriptures I had brought forward in answer to his questions, and also if anything else had perhaps come up, regarding each of the points I had fitted to the occasion of the conference, I should send it to him noted down and set in order. And since he declared the greater part of it unknown to him, he added plainly: that if I sent the writing, he wished to set it before his priests, or rather his seducers, and — to speak still more truly — his followers. From which Your Piety can infer that, although the opponent is set in his purpose, nevertheless to a wise judge the arguments did not appear weak or without force — arguments by which, even if he does not wish the purpose of his own people to be corrected, he does desire it to be wearied. But I, although I know how often, even by divine command, one does not yield to the powers and to kings for the sake of truth, long wavered in doubt whether I should comply, knowing — and in the affection of my heart fearing — that by these things I would not so much serve him as supply weapons to his enemies, and that I would be assailed no less by a fellow citizen than by an enemy at variance, while private hatreds surround the opposing battle lines with a public siege. By that height of eminence in which, by God's granting, you are strong, by your zeal for religion, by the privilege of your authority, drive away the discord walled about with ramparts, and scatter the wars raging in the camps — more than civil wars, as it were across the plains of Emathia. For since for a long time now the complaints of those crying out, with their weight redoubled, wear down the hardness of those who will not listen, it is fitting, if you deign, that your severity too should either there take thought for chastising the guilty, or here show compassion for those who blush with shame.

Avitus episcopus domno Sigismundo. Quod me de collocutione regali ad notitiam vestram non detulisse culpatis, occursu meo exacta festivitate servaveram; quia revera indicari vobis litterario famulatu cuncta per ordinem disceptationis prolixitas perplexitasque non patitur. Nam quantum in animis domini mei, patris vestri, sensisse me puto, fervet in eius studio confictum otii fronte certamen. Nam quod credebamus animositate deposita, silentio temperante subitam opportunitatem potius quam quietem requirens non cessavit praeterita inducia- rum brevitate, sed latuit: adeo ut nec ipsa contentionis arma, quae quasi iam in nostra defecerant, poscantur extrinsecus vel usque ad reditum legatorum suorum fervor meditationem expectet. Redeunti igitur mibi de eo, quod nostis, itinere nec aliquid interim de huiusmodi propositionibus opinanti, vel quicquid per implicatissimos quae- stionum mordacium nodos longa satisfactio et sagax industria potuit parare, commotum est. Fervet validius prolixa disputatione tractatus, placidus tamen nec aliquid super- cilio dominandi turbulentae commotionis interserens. Sed curavit necessarii opportunitas provisa secreti, ut, quicumque contentionis fuisset eventus, nec superiorem tumere nec superatum pateretur erubescere. Quid multis? sine iactantia vobis libere dico, ad proposita, quantum mihi videtur, quod si audissetis potuit placere suggestum est. Quod sane vereor ac . . . audientis plus iudicio satis facere quam studio placuisse. Cum praesentiam vestram deo largiente meruero, per me seriem totius altercationis exponam. Interim sermonis cursum de fine colligite et ex eo, quod discedenti mihi praecepit, utrum ad responsa motus fuerit, aestimate. Iussit namque, ut, quodcumque de scripturis nostris testimonium ad interrogata protuleram, seu si forte occurrisset et aliud, ad singula quae tempore collocutionis aptaveram, subnotatum ei ordinatumque transmitterem. Quod cum sibi ex maxima parte pronuntiaret incognitum, adiecit sim- pliciter: si scriptum misissem, sacerdotibus, immo magis seductoribus et, ut adhuc verius dicamus, sectatoribus suis se velle proponere. Vnde conicere pietas vestra potest, quamquam intento contradictori, tamen arbitro sapienti non invalida vel absque viribus visa, quibus intentionem suorum etsi non optat corrigi, desiderat fatigari. Ego autem, licet sciens, quantum potestatibus divino quoque iussu frequenter et regibus pro veritate non ceditur, utrum parerem diu dubius fluctuavi, sciens et amoris animo timens non tam me per haec illi serviturum, quam hostibus arma ministraturum, et non minus a cive quam ab hoste dissidente impetendum, dum adversas acies odia privata publica obsidione circumdant. Quo deo praestante polletis fastigio culminis, studio religionis, privilegio auctoritatis, vallatam muris discordiam propulsate et furen- tia in castris velut per campos Emathiae plus quam civilia bella dispergite. Quia cum iamdudum pondere duplicato clamantum querimoniae non audientum duri- tiam fatigant, aequum est, si dignamini, vestram quoque severitatem aut illic casti- gandis consulere aut hic erubescentibus condolere.