Letter 3037: If your blessedness is called upon in other people's cases to settle quarrels, how much more should a matter be...
XXXVII. KING THEODERIC TO BISHOP PETER.
[1] If it is fitting that your Beatitude be called upon in the affairs of others, so that through you the clamor of those who quarrel may be put to rest, how much more ought that to be referred back to you which concerns you yourselves as the parties responsible? And therefore let your Holiness know that we have been approached by Germanus with a tearful plea; he asserts that he is the lawful son of the late Thomas, saying that a portion of his father's property, which belongs to him by law, is being withheld by you. [2] If this petition is upheld by the truth, and you find that his father's substance rightly belongs to the petitioner, then, with regard had to that justice which you yourselves enjoin, let what is owed be granted without the loss of long delay; for since the character of your cases ought to be settled by you as judges, it is from you rather than upon you that justice is to be expected to be imposed. But if your judgment by no means determines this case under fairness, know that the suppliant's complaint must be brought to our hearing. For you teach that the voices of the poor ought not to be neglected, voices which justice can accompany.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XXXVII. PETRO EPISCOPO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Si in alienis causis beatitudinem tuam convenit adhiberi, ut per vos iurgantium strepitus conquiescat, quanto magis ad vos remitti debet quod vos spectat auctores? atque ideo sanctitas vestra a Germano nos aditos flebili allegatione cognoscat, qui se filium legitimum asserit quondam Thomatis, dicens partem facultatis patris sui a vobis detineri sibimet legibus competentem. [2] Quae petitio si veritate fulcitur et genitoris eius substantiam probatis iure competere supplicanti, considerata iustitia, quam monetis, sine observationis longae dispendio debita tribuantur, quoniam causarum vestrarum qualitas vobis debet iudicibus terminari, a quo expectanda est magis quam vobis. imponenda iustitia. quod si hanc causam sub aequitate vestrum minime definit arbitrium, noveritis supplicis querelam ad nostram audientiam perducendam. vos enim docetis voces pauperum non debere neglegi, quas potest iustitia comitari.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern cassiodorus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cassiodorus/varia3.shtml
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