Letter 4035: King Theodoric to the Agents of Albinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].
Cassiodorus→Agents of|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
illnessimperial politics
King Theodoric to the Agents of Albinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].
Ancient foresight wisely decreed that minors should not be bound by their contracts, so that the traps of the unscrupulous would be frustrated and the slippery years of youth might be given a second chance. Innocence would be overwhelmed if recklessness were given free rein, and fraud would be everyone's pursuit if deception could keep its ill-gotten gains.
In your petition you state that your patron, while still a minor, added losses to his estate rather than gains -- since inexperienced youth does the opposite of what it intends to be beneficial. He has now reached the age at which we can remedy mistakes made through ignorance, and you request that what the law provides, our authority should also confirm.
If your petition is truthful, and your patron is still within the period for which the most sacred laws grant this remedy, and nothing is validly objected to the contrary, our authority likewise permits your patron, after due hearing, to be formally restored to his former legal position [in integrum restitutio -- a legal remedy that reversed transactions made during minority]. This must, however, be carried out in accordance with justice and the law, since we wish to help petitioners without unjustly burdening their opponents.
XXXV. ACTORIBUS ALBINI V. I. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Consulto provida decrevit antiquitas minores contractus liberos non habere, ut et insidiantium laquei frustrarentur et lapsis aetas lubrica subveniret. obrueretur quippe innocentia, si relaxaretur audacia, essetque cunctis fallendi studium, si fraus subrepticium lucraretur effectum. [2] Et ideo priscae consuetudinis supplicatione porrecta suggeritis patronum vestrum in annis minoribus constitutum facultatibus suis potius aggregasse dispendia, dum ignara pueritia contraria gerit, quae profutura putaverit, et nunc id tempus aetatis agere, quo lapsui possimus per ignorantiam subvenire, allegantes, ut quod iura tribuerunt, nostra quoque beneficia largiantur. [3] Atque ideo, si petitio vestra a veritate non deviat et intra annorum spatia deget, quibus hoc beneficium leges sacratissimae praestiterunt, nihilque est quod iure contra referatur, patronum vestrum sollemniter causa cognita in integrum restitui nostra quoque permittit auctoritas, ita tamen, ut omnia secundum iustitiam legesque peragantur, quia sic supplicantibus consulere volumus, ut eorum adversarios per iniustitiam non gravemus.
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King Theodoric to the Agents of Albinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].
Ancient foresight wisely decreed that minors should not be bound by their contracts, so that the traps of the unscrupulous would be frustrated and the slippery years of youth might be given a second chance. Innocence would be overwhelmed if recklessness were given free rein, and fraud would be everyone's pursuit if deception could keep its ill-gotten gains.
In your petition you state that your patron, while still a minor, added losses to his estate rather than gains -- since inexperienced youth does the opposite of what it intends to be beneficial. He has now reached the age at which we can remedy mistakes made through ignorance, and you request that what the law provides, our authority should also confirm.
If your petition is truthful, and your patron is still within the period for which the most sacred laws grant this remedy, and nothing is validly objected to the contrary, our authority likewise permits your patron, after due hearing, to be formally restored to his former legal position [in integrum restitutio -- a legal remedy that reversed transactions made during minority]. This must, however, be carried out in accordance with justice and the law, since we wish to help petitioners without unjustly burdening their opponents.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.