Letter 5009: King Theodoric to the Landowners of Feltre [Feltria, in the Veneto foothills].

King Theodoric to the Landowners of Feltre [Feltria, in the Veneto foothills]. A public necessity must be carried out through the devotion of many, since it is not right for a few to bear what is clearly beneficial to all. If royal commands are assigned to those too weak to carry them out, they will grow slack and lose their force. In the territory of Trent, then, our authority has ordered a fortification to be built. But since the limited resources of that territory cannot sustain so great a work, our foresight has determined that, upon receiving fair payment, all of you who are joined by proximity shall share the labor of building the walls -- so that the task may be completed more securely with combined effort, a task that might prove impossible for the few alone. This condition is firmly established: no one shall be excused from these duties, since not even the imperial estates are exempt.

VIIII. POSSESSORIBUS FELTRINIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Necessitas publica multorum debet devotione compleri, quia non decet paucos suscipere quod constat plurimis expedire, ne regia iussa tepefacta lentescant, dum res utilis delegatur infirmis. in Tridentina igitur regione civitatem construi nostra praecepit auctoritas. [2] Sed quia territorii parvitas magnitudinem operis non potest sustinere, hoc sollicitudo nostra prospexit, ut acceptis mercedibus competentibus pedaturam murorum omnes in commune subeatis qui vicinitate iungimini, quatenus accommodato solacio securius impleatur, quod paucis inexplicabile fortasse cognoscitur: hac scilicet condicione definita, ut nullus ab his oneribus excusetur, unde nec divina domus excipitur.