Letter 5015: King Theodoric to All Landowners Residing in the Province of Savia.

King Theodoric to All Landowners Residing in the Province of Savia. Although our court, with God's help, grants justice to all who seek it, and remedies flow from it to the rest of the kingdom as from a living spring, we have been moved by your frequent petitions to devise an ingenious solution: we shall both grant you fairness and spare you the exhaustion of a long journey -- since benefits are sweeter when they are obtained without hardship. We have therefore sent the illustrious and magnificent Severinus, trained in our principles, to carry out among you what he has always known pleases us. He has seen how honorably a just man is regarded at our court, and how our serenity smiles upon good conduct. He will certainly practice what he believes we will gratefully accept -- for a ruler who takes no bribes will never approve of rapacity in others. Let the aggrieved therefore approach him boldly. Let anyone crushed by any injustice hope for relief. We remove the difficulty of making your complaint by ensuring that crimes are cut down at their very origin. Let the man burdened by another's tax cry out without any fear -- he shall receive the remedy the law provides. We are confident that through those shaped by our principles, no harm will come to the innocent. As for the specific measures we have decreed for your peace and the equalization of your taxes, the orders we have issued to the above-named illustrious Severinus, once published, will make them clear -- so that each of you may know precisely what to petition for.

XV. UNIVERSIS POSSESSORIBUS IN SAVIA PROVINCIA CONSTITUTIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Licet cunctis laborantibus comitatus noster concedat deo auxiliante iustitiam et hinc remedia subiectis ad reliquas regni partes quasi a vivo fonte descendant, tamen frequenti aditione permoti ingeniosa pietate repperimus et aequitatem vobis concedere et fatigationem longi itineris abrogare, quia dulciora sunt beneficia, quae nullis difficultatibus obtinentur. [2] Misimus itaque illustrem et magnificum Severinum nostris institutionibus eruditum, ut hoc apud vos gereret quod nobis semper placuisse cognovit. vidit enim quam honorabilis apud nos iustus habeatur, quemadmodum bonis actibus clementia nostrae serenitatis arrideat. exercet profecto quod nos aestimat gratanter accipere: nec potest amari rapacitas continenti principi nulla redemptione placitura. praesumenter ergo conveniat ad eum laesorum tumultus: speret remedium qualibet pressus iniuria. [3] Difficultatem vobis querelae summovemus, dum in ipsis cunabulis scelera commissa resecantur: sine aliqua formidine alieni tributi sarcina gravatus exclamet, accepturus remedium quod de legibus habet. sic enim confidimus, quia per eos, quos instituta nostra componunt, innocentibus detrimenta non veniant. qualia vero pro quiete vestra vel aequalitate tributorum disponenda censuimus, oracula nostra, quae dedimus ad supradictum virum illustrem Severinum, vulgata declarabunt, ut unusquisque unde supplicare debeat, evidenter agnoscat.