Bishop Montanus to Toribius, excellent Lord and distinguished worshipper of Christ.

 

We know and we are convinced that you were the disciple of the holy Catholic faith and the friend of the holy religion even while you were living among worldly things. Indeed, when it was still flourishing in the world, the life of Your Brightness manifested that you did not refuse to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and you rendered to God what is God’s with devout mind. Therefore I will name you justly as the founder of the divine cult especially in this province. Have you ever thought how great reward from God awaits for you who have made with your ingenuity and industriousness the error of idolatry to go away and the detestable and shameful sect of Priscillianists to waste away? [How much greater it will be] if they cease to honour the name of the one whose works, as they know, collapsed by your admonition. What then I will say about the faith of the temporal lords? You devoted to it so much effort that you have led the ferocious souls of those who live with you to the salutary rule and norm of regular discipline. The divine mercy will help you, because you accomplished by prayers and supplications what you have undertaken with great effort. Therefore I inform you about those things that came to us from the Palencian convent so that this impious insolence would be easily stopped for the future by your objurgation. Some presbyters (as I was told) boldly dare to consecrate, or rather violate, sacred things, and they assume without any doubts the right to chrism consecration (on what grounds, or rather by what kind of folly, I do not know), which the people of their rank [sui ordinis hominibus] never had from the beginning of the Catholic faith, but it was always a duty of the bishop [summis pontificibus debitum]. It does not escape your conscience how sacrilegious it is, I believe, and thus I hope that you will use the authority of a most severe priest [seuerissimi sacerdotis auctoritate] to weaken those excesses and that you will reprimand harshly those violators. If they presume to continue to act impiously after the admonition, let their contumacy be duly sentenced.

From the same relation we have learnt that our brothers, the bishops of other sorts, are invited to those places because of the necessity to consecrate churches. Although there is in the whole world only one bed of the bride of Christ, and her bishops (antistites) are united by the same bond of love and the same unity of faith, but what was in a privilege that your chorbishop gave to our predecessor and to our brothers, the bishops of Carpetania and Celtiberia, we send to your Love in a copy, so you can know what effect an impious request can have. And certainly we grant the municipalities of Segovia, Brittablo, and Cauca, to him [Toribius's chorbishop] not even according to the law, but rather beacuse of the dignity of position, so that the [episcopal] benediction being attached to the vagant person would not become worthless. Thus we will ensure that you do not permit by any means the practice of the former custom. If you do not accept our admonition, it will be necessary for us to inform our lord about it, and also our son Ergo, and a precept of his highness or a sentence of the judge will punish this audacity not without harm to you. Thanks to God his piety is so great that he does not let anything change that is guarded by the ancient law. May the divine Trinity protect you. Amen.

 

(trans. M. Szada)