Letter 4033: King Theodoric to All the Jews Residing in Genoa.

King Theodoric to All the Jews Residing in Genoa. The observance of law is the mark of civilization, and reverence for the decisions of earlier rulers is a testament to our own devotion. What could be better than for a people to live willingly under the rule of justice, so that an assembly of many becomes a union of disciplined wills? This is what gathered peoples from a wild existence into the order of civilized life. This is the reason that set them apart from savagery, so that those whom the divine will intended to be governed by counsel would not wander at the mercy of chance. In your petition you request that the privileges due to you under Jewish law, which the foresight of ancient legislation established, be preserved. We gladly grant this, since we wish to uphold the rights of the ancients as a mark of our own reverence. By this present authority we decree that whatever the provisions of the laws have established concerning you shall be maintained without violation -- so that what was devised for the purposes of civilized order may be held in lasting observance.

XXXIII. UNIVERSIS IUDAEIS GENUA CONSTITUTIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Custodia legum civilitatis est indicium et reverentia priorum principum nostrae quoque testatur devotionis exemplum. quid enim melius quam plebem sub praecepto degere velle iustitiae, ut conventus multorum disciplinabilium sit adunatio voluntatum? hoc enim populos ab agresti vita in humanae conversationis regulam congregavit. haec ratio a feritate divisit, ne arbitrio casuali vagarentur, quos regi consilio divina voluerunt. [2] Oblata itaque supplicatione deposcitis privilegia vobis debere servari, quae Iudaicis institutis legum provida decrevit antiquitas: quod nos libenter annuimus, qui iura veterum ad nostram cupimus reverentiam custodiri. atque ideo praesenti auctoritate censemus, ut quaecumque legum statuta moverunt, circa vos illibata serventur, quatenus quod ad civilitatis usum constat esse repertum, perpeti devotione teneatur.