Letter 12027: The cooperation between the church and the civil administration is one of the foundations of good government in our...

27. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to Datius, Bishop of Milan. [1] It profits little to command a good thing, unless we are willing to accomplish it through the most holy of men. For the upright will of just men augments a benefit, and whatever is done without fraud is truly credited to the merits of the one who bestows it. For it is fitting that priestly purity should carry out the prince's munificence. For he whose zeal it is to do good from his own resources can fulfill another's wishes in a praiseworthy manner. [2] And therefore we ask your Holiness, whose purpose it is to serve the divine commands, that from the granaries of Ticinum [Pavia] and Dertona [Tortona] you cause a third portion of the supply of millet, as has been ordered by the prince, to be sold off under your direction to the hungry people at twenty-five measures [modii] for a solidus, lest through anyone's profiteering it reach those who appear able to manage from their own means. Let him who has too little receive the prince's indulgence. It has been ordered that the needy, not the rich, be relieved. He rather pours out who pours into what is full, for that is rather hoarded away which is gathered into empty vessels. [3] Wherefore let your Holiness not think the duties of compassion an injury to you: for everything is worthy of you where piety is found, since indeed to carry out faithfully the desires of another is to have perfected one's own goods. To procure this matter, with God's help, we have taken care to appoint such-and-such a man and such-and-such, who, obeying the directions of your Holiness, may do nothing of their own initiative, but strive only to obey you. But as for the solidi, however many can be gathered from the aforesaid quantity of millet, make this known to us by your report, so that, stored away with the treasury official [arcarius], they may be reserved, with God's aid, for future times to replenish the aforesaid supply: after the manner of a garment renewed, whose union is unraveled into threads, that it may be woven into a new appearance with a more splendid grace.

XXVII. DATIO EPISCOPO MEDIOLANENSI SENATOR PPO. [1] Minus prodest bonum iubere, nisi hoc per viros sanctissimos velimus efficere. auget enim beneficium voluntas recta iustorum et quicquid sine fraude geritur, hoc vere donantis meritis applicatur. decet enim, ut munificentiam principalem sacerdotalis puritas exequatur. nam cui est studium bonum de proprio facere, laudabiliter potest aliena vota complere. [2] Et ideo sanctitatem vestram petimus, cuius propositi est divinis inservire mandatis, ut de horreis Ticinensibus et Dertonensibus panici speciem, sicut a principe iussum est, tertiam portionem esurienti populo ad viginti quinque modios per solidum distrahi sub vestra ordinatione faciatis, ne cuiusquam venalitate ad illos perveniat, qui se de proprio videntur posse transigere. accipiat minus habens indulgentiam principalem. egentibus iussum est, non divitibus, subveniri. fundit potius, qui mittit in plenum, nam illud potius reconditur, quod vasis vacuis congregatur. [3] Quapropter sanctitas vestra miserationis officia non putet iniuriam: quia totum vobis dignum est, ubi pietas invenitur, siquidem aliena desideria fideliter gerere hoc est bona propria perfecisse. ad quam rem deo iuvante procurandam illum atque illum curavimus destinare, qui sanctitatis vestrae ordinationibus obsecuti nihil ex se faciant, sed tantummodo vobis oboedire contendant. solidi vero, quanti ex supra dicta quantitate panici potuerint congregari, vestra nobis relatione declarate, ut apud arcarium reconditi ad supra memoratam speciem reparandam futuris reserventur deo auxiliante temporibus: more vestis redivivae, cuius adunatio per fila resolvitur, ut in novam faciem splendido potius decore texatur.