Letter 4010: King Theodoric to John, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable], Governor [Consularis] of Campania.

King Theoderic to John, Vir Spectabilis [Man of Respectable Rank], Consular of Campania. [1] It is a shameful thing, amid the laws that govern public affairs, to grant license to private hatreds; nor is the ill-considered heat of men's passions to be avenged at one's own discretion. For what gives pleasure to an angry man is altogether too unjust. Men in a fury do not perceive what is just, because, while in their agitation they rage toward vengeance, they do not seek out moderation in their dealings. Hence it is that the sacred reverence of the laws was devised, so that nothing should be done by one's own hand, nothing by one's own impulse. For how will tranquil peace differ from the confusion of war, if disputes are settled by force? [2] We have therefore learned, from the petition of the provincials of Campania and Samnium, that certain persons, neglecting the discipline of the times, have turned themselves to the pursuit of seizing pledges, and that, as though an edict had been issued among the common people, the license of vices has grown. To these things they join much harsher matters: that some are dragged to make payment for the debts of others, and that the only cause deemed plausible is whether some bond of neighborhood could link them to the debtor. O the unjust error of such a conviction! Cases are divided among kinsmen: a son is stripped of his father's obligations if he is not the heir; a wife is not held to her husband's debts except through the bonds of succession; and yet audacity drags outsiders to make payment, when the laws absolve those who are joined by ties. Perhaps our ignorance has thus far allowed this to be done; now it is necessary that it have a remedy from the laws, since it has been able to come to our notice. [3] Accordingly, once the tenor of this edictal proclamation has been made known, let Your Respectability cause it to come to the notice of all, so that whoever has perhaps, in his zeal for seizing pledges, encroached upon what he ought to have reclaimed through process, shall lose it by the voice of the law; nor shall it be permitted to anyone of his own accord to carry off a pledge, unless it be one that has perhaps been pledged as security. But if anyone shall have chosen to take one man's pledge for another's debt -- which is wickedness even to speak of -- let him restore double of what he has plundered to the man against whom he used force, because losses restrain crimes more, and those who have made shipwreck of their honor consider only their material losses. But as for the man whom the disgraceful patronage of poverty excuses from this restitution, let him be punished with the penalty of the cudgel, according to the quality of the crime committed. For we do not allow to go unpunished that which we are unwilling to have permitted.

X. IOHANNI V. S. CONSULARI CAMPANIAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Foedum est inter iura publica privatis odiis licentiam dare nec ad arbitrium proprium vindicandus est inconsultus fervor animorum. iniquum quippo nimis est quod delectat iratum. furentes iusta non sentiunt, quia dum commoti in vindictam saeviunt, rerum temperantiam non requirunt. hinc est quod legum reperta est sacra reverentia, ut nihil manu, nihil proprio ageretur impulsu. quid enim a bellica confusione pax tranquilla distabit, si per vim litigia terminentur? [2] Provincialium igitur Campaniae atque Samnii suggestione comperimus nonnullos neglecta temporum disciplina ad pignorandi se studia transtulisse et quasi edicto misso per vulgus licentiam crevisse vitiorum. his multo acerbiora iungentes: alienis debitis ad solutionem alios trahi solamque causam probabilem videri, si aliqua debitori potuit vicinitate coniungi. o iniquum persuasionis errorem! dividuntur causae germanis: filius obligationibus paternis, si non sit heres, exuitur: uxor maritalibus debitis nisi per successionis vincula non tenetur: et audacia ad solutionem trahit extraneos, cum absolvant iura coniunctos. hoc hactenus fieri nostri ignorantia fortasse pertulerit: nunc necesse est remedium de legibus habeat, quod nostram potuit intrare notitiam. [3] Proinde edictalis programmatis tenore comperto spectabilitas vestra in cunctorum faciat notitiam pervenire, ut quisquis quod repetere debuisset pignorandi studio fortassis invaserit, voce iuris amittat nec liceat cuiquam sua sponte nisi obligatum forsitan pignus auferre. si vero alterum pro altero, quod nefas dictu est, pignorare maluerit, in duplum cui vim fecit direpta restituat, quia scelera damna plus cohibent et sola detrimenta cogitant qui pudoris fecere iacturam. quem vero ab hac redhibitione foedum patrocinium tenuitatis excusat, pro admissi qualitate facinoris in eum fustuario supplicio vindicetur. non enim patimur impunitum quod nolumus esse permissum.