Letter 11007: What is demanded through annual obligation is most justly required, since what is paid under general law is...

VII. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to all the judges of the provinces. [1] Most justly is that demanded which is rendered by yearly devotion, since it is established that what is paid under the general law is brought in with a certain gladness. For it is a payment which makes the subject be called munificent and receives the name of an offerer, who recognizes that he owes what is paid out. How splendid it is to stand undaunted in the forum, not to fear the public authority, and to be placed among the devoted as one praiseworthy, who is not allowed to have the shame of one compelled. [2] For everything that is forced is without honor and does not have the favor of an offerer, since he is led to the tributes by his own losses: how worthy is it, on the contrary, for a free man to owe nothing to the collectors! That field alone is delightful to its master in which the exactor is not feared to come upon it. Deservedly, therefore, the proof of payment is called security, by which not only the mind but also one's substance is fortified. [3] And therefore, that it may be said with good fortune, in the twelfth indiction, throughout the diocese of your jurisdiction, with the solemn moderation preserved, we command you to admonish both the landholder and your office, so that, devoted by a threefold delivery, he may complete his obligation at the appointed times, in such a way that there cease that venal delay which is known to have been sought out not for the advantage of the taxpayers but by an aim of fraud. For those who say they are relieving burdens of this kind rather impose another weight of abominable trafficking. [4] Far be from our times a detestable and a craft to be shunned. Let the landholder pay out nothing other than what is owed to the public: for they rather work their own losses who under us strive to defraud in any matter. Wherefore, just as we wish the fiscal burdens to be aggravated on no occasion, so we command the appointed deliveries to be completed at the fixed times, with God's help, so that both the most welcome devotion of the landholders may become known to their masters and the entangled confusion of delay may be removed from our accounts. Wherefore at each several time transmit to our bureaus the registers made in the solemn manner, as both the ancient authority of the laws and the present authority of our command seem to admonish you, lest, if you should judge any of these things to be neglected, you make the danger to be absolutely your own. [5] Nevertheless, that the effect of these most just instructions may be more diligently procured, we have ordered such a one and such a one, proven by their preceding merits, to press upon you and your office, so that negligence can do no harm where a doubled solicitude is applied. Wherefore act continuously, if you desire rather to extend your advancement. Let impious gains be in every way foreign to you: you render the landholder devoted if he is not weighed down by fraudulent inconveniences. Profit is made rather from equity than from rapacity. Unjust presumption is always afraid: for what is thought to be acquired where a good conscience is lost? Or in what part can a man profit, if he be found to have lost his innocence when proven? [6] Do not believe to be without reward those things which seem to pertain to a good conscience. They will have us as helpers, in what we can, when they act well. For I promise that I am a rewarder to him whom I shall have learned to have conducted himself with some honesty. Act, therefore: let your praises rather than your complaints reach me. Seek no greater advantage than if you sell nothing. Those gains alone are to be pursued which the glad man can offer and the soldier, solemnly secure, can receive. I desire to be your praiser, not your censor. Beware, therefore, lest he be rendered hostile who wishes to be beneficent to you: for he always grows more grievously angry who is stirred against his own purpose.

VII. UNIVERSIS IUDICIBUS PROVINCIARUM SENATOR PPO. [1] Iustissime quaeritur quod annua devotione praestatur, quando sub quodam gaudio constat inferri, quod solvitur lege generali. stipendium namque est, quod subiectum facit munificum dici et offerentis nomen accipit, qui se quod penditur debere cognoscit. quam lautum est intrepidum foro assistere, publicum non timere et inter devotos laudabilem collocari, qui pudorem non sinitur habere compulsi. [2] Inhonorum est enim omne quod cogitur nec offerentis habet gratiam, qui damnis suis perducitur ad tributa: contra quam libero dignum est compulsoribus nil debere! ille solus delectabilis ager est domino, in quo supervenire non timetur exactor. merito ergo testimonium solutionis securitas dicitur, de qua non solum animus, sed substantia communitur. [3] Et ideo, quod feliciter dictum sit, indictione duodecima per dioecesin dicationis tuae sollemni moderamine custodito possessorem te officiumque tuum praecipimus ammonere, ut trina illatione devotus constitutis temporibus suam compleat functionem, ita ut cesset venalis illa dilatio, quae non ad tributariorum compendia, sed fraudis ambitu cognoscitur exquisita. nam qui se huiusmodi onera sublevare dicunt, aliud magis pondus abominabilis nundinationis imponunt. [4] Absit a nostris temporibus detestabilis et fugienda versutia. possessor nihil aliud, nisi quod publico debetur, exolvat: nam sua damna potius agunt, qui sub nobis aliqua fraudare contendunt. quapropter sicut fiscalia onera nulla occasione volumus aggravari, ita constitutis temporibus praefinitas illationes praecipimus deo iuvante compleri, quatenus et possessorum devotio gratissima dominis innotescat et tarditatis involuta confusio nostris rationibus auferatur. unde singulis quibusque temporibus sollemni more factos breves ad scrinia nostra transmittite, sicut te et prisca legum et nostrae iussionis praesens commonere videtur auctoritas, ne, si aliquid horum aestimaveris neglegendum, tu tibi absolute facias esse periculum. [5] Verumtamen ut iustissimarum praeceptionum diligentior procuretur effectus, illum atque illum praecedentibus meritis comprobatos tibi officioque tuo iussimus imminere, ut nihil possit nocere neglegentia, ubi adhibetur sollicitudo geminata. unde continenter agite, si provectum vestrum magis desideratis extendere. impia lucra sint a vobis omnimodis aliena: vos possessorem devotum redditis, si fraudulentis non gravetur incommodis. de aequitate potius quam de rapacitate proficitur. semper metuit iniusta praesumptio: quid enim adquiri putatur, ubi bona conscientia perditur? aut in qua parte possit homo proficere, si innocentiam probatus fuerit amisisse? [6] Nolite sine praemio credere, quae videntur ad bonam conscientiam pertinere. habebunt nos bene agentes, in quo possumus, adiutores. remuneratorem enim illi me esse promitto, quem se aliqua honestate tractasse cognovero. agite ergo: laudes ad me potius vestri perveniant quam querellae. maius commodum non quaeratis, quam si nihil venditis. illa tantum sequenda sunt lucra, quae potest laetus offerre et miles sollemniter securus accipere. non censor, sed laudator vester esse desidero. cavete ergo, ne reddatur infestus qui vobis cupit esse beneficus: nam gravius semper irascitur, qui contra propositum commovetur.