Letter 2010: VARIAE, BOOK 2, LETTER 10

[1] It is the royal purpose to come to the aid of those burdened by injustice, so that the punishment of wrongdoing makes justice all the more beloved. Nor can any offense be ignored, consistent with the common good, when the injury of one threatens the security of all. For the law that fails to protect the weakest citizen offers no real protection to anyone — since the powerful, seeing impunity, will only grow bolder, and the weak, seeing abandonment, will lose all faith in the state. [2] Therefore, we direct that the matter brought to our attention be investigated with the thoroughness it deserves, and that the guilty be punished without regard to rank or connection. Justice must be seen to be done — not whispered about in the corridors of power, but proclaimed in the open, where every citizen can witness that the king's word is as good as his sword.

X. SPECIOSO VIRO DEVOTO COMITIACO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Propositum regale est gravatis per iniuriam subvenire, ut coercitio pravi iustitiam faciat plus amari. nec dissimulari potest salva communione qua vivitur, ut sollicitatores publicos habeat genialis tori reverenda societas et illud humani generis procreabile sacramentum scelerata temeritate profanetur. [2] Agapitae igitur spectabilis feminae supplicatione commoti, quae ab universis temptatum asserit suum secretum, ut etiam promitterent de nece mariti, a quo iuste potius merentur extingui, praesenti iussione decernimus, ut a tempore, quo iugalem copulam animo vitiata dereliquit, omni contractu, qui levitatis errore firmus esse non potest, legum ratione cassato, quicquid a retentatoribus constiterit possideri, sine ulla facies dilatione restitui, nec scelerati ad irrisionem iustitiae fraudum suarum valeant compendia vindicare. nimis enim absurdum est ut, quos poena meruit consumere, etiam lucra sibi valeant vindicare.