King Theodoric to John, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable], Governor [Consularis] of Campania.
It is disgraceful to give private hatreds free rein within the public legal system, and the reckless fury of angry men must not be left to settle matters on their own authority. What pleases an angry man is almost always unjust. People in a rage cannot perceive what is right, because in their frenzy for revenge they lose all sense of proportion. This is precisely why the sacred authority of law was devised -- so that nothing would be done by force, nothing by personal impulse. For what would distinguish the peace of civilization from the chaos of war, if disputes were resolved by violence?
I have learned from a petition by the landowners of Campania and Samnium that certain people, disregarding the rule of law, have taken to seizing property as pledges [pignoratio -- the illegal practice of taking someone's property as security for a debt without court authorization]. This lawlessness has spread through the population as if by public decree. Worse still, they report that people are being dragged into paying debts they do not owe, with the only justification being that the victim happens to live near the actual debtor. What outrageous logic! The law separates the liabilities even of brothers. A son is not bound by his father's debts unless he is the heir. A wife is not liable for her husband's debts except through succession. Yet brazen presumption drags strangers into paying, while the law releases those who are actually related.
Our ignorance of this may have allowed it to continue until now, but now that it has come to our attention, the law must provide the remedy. Therefore, upon learning the terms of this edict, Your Spectability is to bring it to everyone's notice: whoever has seized property by way of illegal pledging, when he should have pursued his claim through the courts, shall forfeit his legal right to that claim. No one may seize a pledge on his own initiative unless the property in question was already formally pledged to him. If anyone has seized one person's property for another person's debt -- which is an abomination -- he shall restore double the value to the person he wronged. Crimes are better restrained by financial penalties, and those who have thrown away all shame respond only to losses. If poverty prevents a man from paying this restitution, he shall be punished with a beating proportionate to his offense. We do not allow what we have forbidden to go unpunished.
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.
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King Theodoric to John, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable], Governor [Consularis] of Campania.
It is disgraceful to give private hatreds free rein within the public legal system, and the reckless fury of angry men must not be left to settle matters on their own authority. What pleases an angry man is almost always unjust. People in a rage cannot perceive what is right, because in their frenzy for revenge they lose all sense of proportion. This is precisely why the sacred authority of law was devised -- so that nothing would be done by force, nothing by personal impulse. For what would distinguish the peace of civilization from the chaos of war, if disputes were resolved by violence?
I have learned from a petition by the landowners of Campania and Samnium that certain people, disregarding the rule of law, have taken to seizing property as pledges [pignoratio -- the illegal practice of taking someone's property as security for a debt without court authorization]. This lawlessness has spread through the population as if by public decree. Worse still, they report that people are being dragged into paying debts they do not owe, with the only justification being that the victim happens to live near the actual debtor. What outrageous logic! The law separates the liabilities even of brothers. A son is not bound by his father's debts unless he is the heir. A wife is not liable for her husband's debts except through succession. Yet brazen presumption drags strangers into paying, while the law releases those who are actually related.
Our ignorance of this may have allowed it to continue until now, but now that it has come to our attention, the law must provide the remedy. Therefore, upon learning the terms of this edict, Your Spectability is to bring it to everyone's notice: whoever has seized property by way of illegal pledging, when he should have pursued his claim through the courts, shall forfeit his legal right to that claim. No one may seize a pledge on his own initiative unless the property in question was already formally pledged to him. If anyone has seized one person's property for another person's debt -- which is an abomination -- he shall restore double the value to the person he wronged. Crimes are better restrained by financial penalties, and those who have thrown away all shame respond only to losses. If poverty prevents a man from paying this restitution, he shall be punished with a beating proportionate to his offense. We do not allow what we have forbidden to go unpunished.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.