Letter 2018: The venerable authority of ancient laws dictates that a man born a curial [member of the city council, responsible...

XVIII. KING THEODERIC TO GUDILA THE BISHOP. [1] The venerable authority of the ancient laws prescribes that one who is a curial [town councilor] by birth can in no way be exempted from the obligations of his origin, nor be drawn off into any other public service, since he has been forestalled by such a lot of birth. But if the laws have forbidden such men even to pass over to public honors, how contrary it seems for a curio of the commonwealth, with his liberty shamefully lost, to be a slave and to have sunk to the lowest condition - he whom antiquity called the lesser senate! [2] Let your reverence therefore know that the municipal councilors of Sarsina have asserted that your church wishes unreasonably to claim their colleagues for itself. Wherefore, let your prudence, in accordance with your purpose of integrity, having examined the truth, weigh the matters that come into complaint; and if the desires of the petitioners rest upon truth, let it permit them to return to their own curia for the fulfilling of their duties. [3] But if you believe that something can reasonably be argued in their favor on behalf of your clergy, by all means send an instructed person to our court, one who may meet the contentions of the adversaries. But if you are in doubt about the nature of the case, it befits priestly principles that you yourself should rather recognize justice before the controversy than withdraw defeated from the judgment. For such a man ought not to be publicly overcome, who ought to be found a lover of equity.

XVIII. GUDILAE EPISCOPO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Priscarum legum reverenda dictat auctoritas, ut nascendo curialis nullo modo possit ab originis suae muniis discrepare nec in aliud rei publicae officium trahi, qui tali praeventus fuerit sorte nascendi. quod si eos vel ad honores transire iura vetuerunt, quam videtur esse contrarium curionem rei publicae amissa turpiter libertate servire et usque ad condicionem pervenisse postremam, quem vocavit antiquitas minorem senatum? [2] Noverit itaque reverentia vestra Sarsenates municipes collegas suos asseruisse ecclesiam vestram irrationabiliter sibi velle defendere. unde prudentia vestra pro integritatis suae proposito examinata veritate discutiat quae veniunt in querelam et, si desideria petitorum veritate subsistunt, pro implendis muniis eos ad curiam suam remeare permittat. [3] Sin vero clero vestro creditis in eis aliquid rationabiliter suffragari, ad nostrum comitatum instructam personam modis omnibus destinate, quae adversariorum debeat intentionibus obviare. quod si de negotii qualitate dubitatis, convenit sacerdotalibus institutis, ut ante controversiam iustitiam magis ipse cognoscas, quam de iudicio victus abscedas. talem siquidem non oportet publice superari, quem amatorem aequitatis convenit inveniri.