Letter 6007: Formula of the Count of the Sacred Largesses.

Formula of the Count of the Sacred Largesses. [The Comes Sacrarum Largitionum managed the royal treasury, the mints, state gifts, the salt monopoly, silk trade regulation, and customs duties.] Names that immediately indicate their functions are altogether welcome, since all ambiguity is removed from the listener when the title itself tells what is being done. The words "Count of the Sacred Largesses" testify by their very meaning that this officer presides over royal gifts. How truly elegant, how thoroughly considered it was to create a separate office for the distribution of royal gifts, and to name another man's honor after what we ourselves are known to confer! An innocent function, a duty of compassion -- always delivering what can enhance the prince's reputation. It is surely a great happiness to serve the royal gifts and to derive one's dignity from public generosity. Other judges serve the remaining virtues of the ruler; this one alone serves only the occasions of his compassion. Nothing harsh is done through him, nothing severe is decreed; he is called to duty only when prayers are offered on our behalf. Through you we raise the fortunes of petitioners. On the first of January we bestow gifts in abundance, and the public joy is your military service. But you adorn this generosity of ours with another service: you ensure that the likeness of our face is stamped upon the metals of common use. You cause the coinage to remind future ages of our times. What a magnificent invention of the wise! What praiseworthy institutions of our ancestors! -- that the image of princes should seem to nourish their subjects through commerce, princes whose deliberations never cease to watch over the welfare of all. To this gift-giving office -- this herald of our generosity, this badge of the public happiness -- we also attach the office of Primicerius [Chief of Staff], so that through you we may bestow honors just as through you we distribute the largesses of our treasury. Rightly so, since both are given with a similar grace and ought to be managed by the same judge, as they are seen to be joined in equal praise. It is not a small thing that provincial judges are subject to your authority. You also confirm the documents of the highest officials, since nothing is considered complete until it has been finalized by you according to proper procedure. The care of the sacred vestments has also been entrusted to you from ancient times, so that nothing pertaining to royal splendor would fail to obey your arrangements. You also manage the revenues of the coastline, with foresight for incoming profit. Merchants -- acknowledged as necessary to human life -- are manifestly subject to this authority. Whatever ambition can find precious in clothing, bronze, silver, or gems obeys your ordinances, and those who have come from the farthest parts of the world converge on your tribunal. Antiquity has also not improperly assigned to you the commerce in salt -- alongside silks and the most precious pearls -- to demonstrate your wisdom clearly, since so valuable a commodity has been placed in your service. We therefore confer upon you, for the coming indiction, the dignities of both the Count of the Sacred Largesses and the Primicerius, so that you may be adorned with many praises, since you are girded with a multiplicity of honors. Use your titles in accordance with custom; and if long usage has stripped away any of your ancient privileges, it has certainly left a great deal that you ought to reclaim -- for the guardianship of two offices is glorious but also laborious, and they will bring you an abundant harvest of honor if they are cultivated with upright character.

VII. FORMULA COMITIVAE SACRARUM LARGITIONUM. [1] Grata sunt omnino nomina quae designant protinus actiones, quando tota ambiguitas audienti tollitur, ubi in vocabulo concluditur quid geratur. donis enim praesidere regalibus comitivam sacrarum largitionum indicia rerum verba testantur. quod vere decorum, vere fuit omnimodis exquisitum in donorum regalium parte sequestratam facere dignitatem et alterius honorem dicere, dum nos constet dona conferre. actus innocens, pietatis officium illud semper ingerere, unde se fama principis possit augere. [2] Regalibus magna profecto felicitas militare donis et dignitatem habere de publica largitate. alii iudices optemperant residuis virtutibus regnatoris: haec sola est, quae tantummodo serviat ad momenta pietatis. nihil enim per ipsam districtum geritur, nil severum forte censetur, sed tunc obsequitur, quando pro nobis vota funduntur. supplicum per te fortunas erigimus, kal. Ianuariis affatim dona largimur et laetitia publica militia tua est. [3] Verum hanc liberalitatem nostram alio decoras obsequio, ut figura vultus nostri metallis usualibus inprimatur, monetamque facis de nostris temporibus futura saecula commonere. o magna inventa prudentium! o laudabilia instituta malorum! ut et imago principum subiectos videretur pascere per commercium, quorum consilia invigilare non desinunt pro salute cunctorum. [4] Sed huic, ut ita dixerim, munerariae dignitati praeconem largitatis nostrae, publicae felicitatis indicium, locum quoque primiceriatus adiungimus, ut per te demus honores, per quem et nostrae pecuniae conferimus largitates: merito, quando et simili gratia utraque praestantur et ab uno debuerunt iudice geri, quae parili videntur laude coniungi. [5] Parum est autem, quod provinciarum iudices tuae subiacent dignitati: ipsis quoque proceribus chartarum confirmas, dum perfectum non creditur nisi a te fuerit pro sollemnitate completum. [6] Vestis quoque sacra tibi antiquitus noscitur fuisse commissa, ne quid quod ad splendorem regium pertinet tuis minus ordinationibus oboediret. [7] Curas quoque litorum adventicia lucri provisione committis. negotiatores, quos humanae vitae constat necessarios, huic potestati manifestum est esse subiectos. nam quicquid in vestibus, quicquid in aere, quicquid in argento, quicquid in gemmis ambitio humana potest habere pretiosum, tuis ordinationibus obsecundant et ad iudicium tuum confluunt qui de extremis mundi partibus advenerunt. [8] Salis quoque commercium inter vestes sericas et pretiosissimam margaritam non inepte tibi deputavit antiquitas, ut sapientiam tuam evidenter ostenderet, cui talis species deputata serviret. [9] Quapropter per illam indictionem comitivae sacrarum et primiceriatus tibi conferimus dignitates, ut multis laudibus decorari possis, qui honorum numerositate praecingeris. utere igitur sollemniter titulis tuis et si quid tibi de antiquo privilegio usus abstulit, plurima certe quae vindicare debeas dereliquit, quando duarum dignitatum gloriosa quidem cura, sed et laboriosa custodia est, quae tibi copiosum fructum decoris afferunt, si probis moribus excoluntur.