Letter 2027: Just as we willingly grant consent to lawful petitions, we do not approve of our generosity being used to circumvent...

27. King Theoderic to all the Jews dwelling at Genua. [1] Just as we desire, when petitioned, to grant our just consent, so we do not love that through our benefactions frauds be perpetrated against the laws, especially in that matter in which we believe the reverence due to the divine to be at stake. Let not the haughty, then, deprived of the grace of divinity, seem to insult. Therefore by the present authority we decree only that you may place a covering upon the old walls of your synagogue, granting license to your petitions only to the extent that the imperial enactments have permitted. And let it not be lawful to add anything of ornament, or to range abroad in enlarging the building. [2] And you shall know that you will by no means escape the severity of the ancient sanction, if you do not abstain from unlawful things. But in the very covering or shoring up of those walls we grant license only on condition that the thirty-year prescription cannot stand against you. Why do you seek after the things from which you ought to flee? We grant indeed our permission, but we laudably disapprove the wish of those who err: we cannot command religion, since no one is compelled to believe against his will.

XXVII. UNIVERSIS IUDAEIS GENUA CONSISTENTIBUS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Sicut exorati iustum cupimus praebere consensum, ita per nostra beneficia fraudes fieri legibus non amamus, in ea parte praecipue, in qua divinae reverentiae credimus interesse. non ergo insultare videantur elati, divinitatis gratia destituti. quapropter tegumen tantum vetustis parietibus superimponere synagogae vestrae praesenti vos auctoritate censemus, petitionibus vestris eatenus licentiam commodantes, quatenus constituta divalia permiserunt. nec aliquid ornatus fas sit adicere vel in ampliandis aedibus evagari. [2] Et noveritis vos severitatem minime defugere veteris sanctionis, si rebus non abstineatis illicitis. in ipsis vero parietibus cooperiendis vel fulciendis tantum licentiam damus, si vobis tricennalis non potest obesse praescriptio. quid appetitis, quae refugere deberetis? damus quidem permissum, sed errantium votum laudabiliter improbamus: religionem imperare non possumus, quia nemo cogitur ut credat invitus.