Letter 3046: The wrongdoing of the guilty provides a ruler with the opportunity for glory -- without occasions for fault,...

46. KING THEODERIC TO ADEODATUS. [1] The guilt of the offender is the material of a ruler's glory; for unless occasions of fault arose, mercy would have no place. For what wholesome regulation could a ruler exercise, if uprightness of character set all things in order? Parched dryness longs for the benefit of drenching rain. It is only failing health that has need of the healing hands of physicians. Thus, while one succumbs to infirmity, remedies are fittingly bestowed. Therefore, in harsh cases, governance must be furnished under the praise of justice, so that we neither allow vengeance to overpass the sins nor suffer guilt to mock the laws unpunished. [2] And so, in the petition you have submitted, you have alleged that, being crushed by the bitterness of the hatred of the respectable man Venantius, governor of Lucania and Bruttium, and worn down by the long squalor of imprisonment, you were compelled into a confession that you had carried off the grown girl Valeriana, so that it was more welcome to you to seek the hope of a swift death than to endure the cruelty of torments. For amid the supreme straits of a man gasping for breath the wish is to perish rather than to live, because the detestable feeling of punishments shuts out the longing for the sweetest safety. You add also that which justice would by no means permit: that the patronage of advocates was repeatedly withdrawn from you, though you often requested it, while your adversaries, flourishing in cleverness, could entangle even an innocent man in the snares of the laws. [3] When this supplication had effectively entered the mind of Our Piety and was little by little bending it toward the claims of mercy, there came a report sent by the governor of Bruttium, which by the voice of its own tragedy suppressed your private allegation, denying that one petitioning deceitfully against the public faith should be believed. [4] Therefore we soften the harshness of the penalty with our leniency, decreeing that from the day this oracle is issued you shall undergo six months of exile, in such a way that to no one, after our enactments, under any interpretation whatsoever, shall it be permitted to charge you with the crime of infamy, since it is lawful for a ruler to wipe away the stained marks of a damaged reputation; but when this time has been completed, restored to your country and to all your goods, your right shall be free in everything that it was at the first, because we judge that you should groan under no scorching brand of disgrace, you whom we wish to be held only by a temporary exile: nonetheless threatening a penalty of three pounds of gold, if anyone, either by opposing or by interpreting otherwise, shall attempt to violate this present enactment of ours. [5] But since we do not wish these statutes to be extended even to the innocent, lest his ignorance should seem to have profited each person not at all, by the present authority we free from fear those who, being as it were unaware, shall be shown to have been present in this same case in any place or at any time. For he seems like one absent who has no knowledge of the criminal deed.

XLVI. ADEODATO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Materia est gloriae principalis delinquentis reatus, qua nisi culparum occasiones esnergerent, locum pietas non haberet. quid enim salubris ordinatio gerat, si morum probitas cuncta componat? arida siccitas beneficium madentis pluviae exoptat. salutiferis medentium manibus nisi infirma valitudo non indiget. sic dum imbecillitati succumbitur, convenienter remedia tribuuntur. quapropter casibus asperis praestandum est sub iustitiae laude moderamen, ut nec vindictam sinamus superare peccata nec culpam insultare patiamur legibus impunitam. [2] Datis itaque precibus allegasti viri spectabilis Venantii Lucaniae at Bruttiorum praesulis odiorum te acerbitate compressum, custodiae longo situ laborantem, in confessionem raptus adultae puellae Valerianae fuisse compulsum, ut gratius fuerit spem citae mortis expetere quam tormentorum crudelia sustinere. inter supremas enim angustias anhelantis votum est perire quam vivere, quia detestabilis sensus poenarum excludit dulcissimae salutis affectum. illud etiam, quod minime iustitia pateretur, adiciens defensorum tibi patrocinia saepius postulanti fuisse subtracta, cum adversarii florentes ingenio etiam innocentem te possent legum laqueis obligare. [3] Quae supplicatio cum efficaciter animum nostrae pietatis intraret paulatimque ad misericordiae iura deflecteret, occurrit Bruttiorum praesulis missa relatio, quae privatam allegationem tragoediae suae voce compressit, negando credi contra fidem publicam fallaciter supplicanti. [4] Ideoque asperitatem poenae nostra lenitate mollimus, statuentes ut ex die prolati oraculi sex mensium patiaris exilium, ita ut nulli post constituta nostra sub qualibet interpretatione tibi liceat obicere crimen infamiae, quando fas est principi maculosas notas vitiatae opinionis abstergere, sed hoc exacto tempore patriae rebusque omnibus reformatus, ius tibi sit liberum omne quod primitus, quia nulla te ingemiscere probri adustione censemus, quem temporali volumus exilio detineri: poenam trium librarum auri nihilominus comminantes, si quis aut obviando aut aliter intellegendo praesens nostrum violare temptaverit constitutum. [5] Sed quoniam haec statuta ad innocentes nolumus usque protendi, ne sua cuique minime videatur ignorantia profuisse, praesenti auctoritate eos a formidine liberamus, quos utpote nescientes in eadem causa quolibet loco vel tempore interfuisse constiterit. similis enim videtur absentis, qui conscientiam non habet criminosi.