The zeal of St. Paulinus was not less successful in the conversion of
infidels than in the extinction of this heresy. Burning with zeal for
the salvation of souls, and a vehement desire of laying down his life
for Christ, he preached the gospel to the idolaters, who had remained to
that time obstinately attached to their superstition among the Carantani
in Carinthia and Stiria; in which provinces also St. Severinus the
abbot, who died in 481, and afterwards St. Virgilius, bishop of
Saltzburg, who died in 785, planted several numerous churches. Whence a
contest arising between Arno, St. Virgilius's successor, and Ursus, the
successor of Paulinus, to which see Carinthia ought to be annexed, it
was settled in 811, that the churches which are situated on the south of
the Drave should be subject of the patriarchate of Aquileia, and those
on the north to the archbishopric of Saltzburg.[9] The Avares, a
barbarous nation of Huns, who were settled in part of Pannonia, and were
twice subdued by Charlemagne, received the faith by the preaching of St.
Paulinus, and of certain missionaries sent by the archbishops of
Saltzburg.[10] Henry, a virtuous nobleman, being appointed by
Charlemagne Duke of Friuli, and governor of that country which he had
lately conquered, St. Paulinus wrote for his use an excellent book Of
Exhortation, in which he strongly invites him to aspire with his whole
heart after Christian perfection, and lays down the most important rules
on the practice of compunction and penance: on the remedies against
different vices, especially pride, without which he shows that no sin
ever was, or will be committed, this being the beginning, end, and cause
of all sin:[11] on an earnest desire and study to please God with all
our strength in all our actions:[12] on assiduous prayer and its
essential dispositions: on the holy communion, of the preparation to
which after sin he shows confession and penance to be an essential
part:[13] on shunning bad company, &c. He closes the book with a most
useful prayer; and in the beginning promises his prayers for the
salvation of the good duke. By tears and prayers he ceased not to draw
down the blessings of the divine mercy on the souls committed to his
charge. Alcuin earnestly besought him as often as bathed in tears he
offered the spotless victim to the divine Majesty, to implore the divine
mercy in his behalf.[14] In 802, St. Paulinus assembled a council at
Altino, a city near the Adriat