Letter 1026: VARIAE, BOOK 1, LETTER 26

King Theoderic to Faustus, Praetorian Prefect. [1] It is wrong that the trust earned by an earlier favor should be diminished in the case of those to whom it befits us to grant other benefits more frequently by our generosity. But just as the things we have once approved do not deserve to be rescinded forever, so those who have obtained our liberality by moderate petitions ought not, with immoderate presumption, to overstep the limits of what we have granted. [2] Hence, since we are admonished by reverence for religious devotion that what we long ago granted to the church of the venerable man Unscila the bishop we should decree to remain valid forever, we have now also thought it right to admonish your illustrious magnificence, to the end that the aforesaid church may not feel, in the matter of supplementary assessments, the burden of those registered charges in that same sum at which it was discharged from payment down to the times of the magnificent man, the patrician Cassiodorus, whom we have found to be of pure faith and integrity toward us. [3] But as for that declared property which, since the time of the favor, has been transferred to our church by certain persons, let it acknowledge the common burden of payment shared with all proprietors, and let it be subject to the public obligation of him whose rights of ownership it has acquired. Otherwise, increases cannot be welcome to us which advance to the detriment of the treasury. Let the saving on the tax be enough for the proprietor: the tributes are owed upon the purple, not upon the cloak; profit attended by ill will is a danger. How much better to conduct all things in moderation, which no one may dare to accuse!

XXVI. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Nefas est apud eos fidem beneficii prioris imminui, quibus alia convenit nostra saepius largitate praestari. sed sicut quae semel annuimus rescindi in perpetuum non merentur, sic qui largitatem nostram moderatis precibus impetrarunt, nostrorum terminos praestitorum inmodica non debent praesumptione transcendere. [2] Unde quia religiosi studii reverentia commonemur, ut quae dudum ecclesiae viri venerabilis Unscilae antistitis praestitimus, valere in perpetuum censeamus, nunc quoque illustrem magnificentiam tuam duximus admonendam, quatenus superindicticiorum onera titulorum praefata ecclesia in ea summa non sentiat, qua usque a magnifici viri patricii Cassiodori, pura nobis fide et integritate comperti, temporibus est soluta. [3] Ea vero quae a tempore beneficii ad ecclesiam nostram ab aliquibus est translata professio, commune cum universis possessoribus onus solutionis agnoscat et illius subiaceat functioni, cuius nacta est iura dominii. alioquin grata nobis augmenta eius esse non possunt, qui fisci damno proficit. sufficiat possessori compendium pensionis: tributa sunt purpurae, non lacernae, lucrum cum invidia periculum est: quanto melius omnia moderata gerere, quae nullus audeat accusare!