Letter 9020: When we provide you to our provinces by annual appointment, with God's help, and there is no shortage of courts...

When we provide you to our provinces by annual appointment, with God's help, and there is no shortage of courts distributed across every corner of Italy, we understand that the flood of lawsuits arises from a shortage of justice. It is proof of your negligence every time people are forced to petition us for the benefits of the law. Who would choose to seek so far away what they could see arriving at their own doorstep? But to strip you of clever excuses and to relieve the provincials of cruel hardships, we have decreed by the terms of an edict certain measures concerning cases that have until now been neglected through the worst kind of inertia. This should increase your confidence in judging rightly and gradually reduce criminal daring. In the customary fashion, see that this is publicly posted at assemblies for thirty days...

XX. AD UNIVERSOS IUDICES PROVINCIARUM ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Cum vos provinciis nostris iuvante deo annua reparatione praestemus nec desint iudicia per universos fines Italiae distributa, intellegimus de inopia iustitiae copiam venire causarum. culpa siquidem vestrae probatur esse neglegentiae, quotiens a nobis coguntur homines legum beneficia postulare. nam quis eligeret tam longe petere, quod in suis videret sedibus advenisse? [2] Sed ut vobis versutas excusationes et duras necessitates provincialibus tolleremus, de aliquibus casibus hactenus pessimo torpore neglectis edictalis programmatis definitione censuimus, ut et vobis cresceret confidentia recte iudicandi et paulatim audacia maligna possit inminui. quod more sollemni per conventus publicos triginta dierum facite proponi editione, ut iure condemnatus habeatur qui post haec remedia manere praesumpserit desperatus.