Variae & Works 12 part 2/4

But such things are granted to you for your outstanding merits, since he must be believed to surpass all in diligence and fidelity whom we are agreed to have chosen. For no one approves a follower except one whom praiseworthy virtue associates with himself, since it is blameworthy to raise up an inferior unless he be seen to excel others by his merits. This laudable prerogative, then, this gracious sentence, this household service from the twelfth indiction the office of the cancellarii confers upon you as an honor, so that you may guard the secrets of our consistory with faithful integrity; through you let one to be presented draw near; through you let the desire of a suppliant become known to our ears; may you dispatch our orders without any zeal for venality, and may you so conduct all things that you may be able to commend our justice.

For your deeds are the reputation of the judge, and just as the inner part of a house may fittingly be understood from its doors, so the mind of the chief is proved to be recognized from you—and not unjustly, since each man is seen to choose for his responses such a one as he has resolved to esteem all to be. The very garments which are applied to our bodies, can they not disfigure us, if they grow filthy with some defilement? But with how great grace do they seem to adorn us, when they have gleamed with praiseworthy purity! Thus a soldier admitted to the secrets of the judge either adorns or stains the reputation of his chief. Indeed those sin against us who burden others, and while the spoil of a suppliant is coveted, the good name of the presiding one is stripped away.

Consider whether we ought to neglect that whereby we know we can be blamed. He is beyond all the insane who does not seek to avenge one whom he has caught raging to his own dishonor. Look at the name by which you are called. What you do among the screens cannot be hidden. For you hold bright doors, open barriers, latticed gates, and however carefully you close them, it is necessary that you open yourself to all. For if you stand outside, you are not corrected by my gaze; if you go within, you cannot avoid the sight of those watching. See where antiquity wished you to be placed: you are beheld on every side, you who dwell in that brightness. Therefore turn your ears and mind to our admonitions; fix in your mind all that we command;

let not my words pass through you as through an empty pipe, which is seen to be full only so long as waters are known to be able to flow into it. Be rather a receptacle, that you may guard what you have heard, that you may not pour out what you have received; for it will profit nothing if things destined to pass through merely please your ears and do not all fix themselves in the recesses of your heart. Most justly is that sought which is furnished by yearly devotion, since it is established that it is brought in with a certain joy, being paid by general law. For it is a stipend that makes the subject be called munificent, and he receives the name of an offerer who acknowledges that he owes what is paid. How splendid it is to stand undismayed in the forum, not to fear the public official, and to be reckoned praiseworthy among the devoted, who is not suffered to have the shame of one compelled.

For everything that is compelled is dishonorable, nor has it the favor of an offerer, who is led to tribute by his own losses; on the contrary, it is worthy of a free man to owe nothing to those who compel! That field alone is delightful to its lord in which an exactor is not feared to come upon him. Deservedly, then, is the receipt of payment called a security, by which not only the mind but also one's substance is fortified.

And therefore—what may be said with good fortune—in the twelfth indiction, throughout the diocese of your jurisdiction, with the solemn rule preserved, we order you to admonish the landholder and your office, that the devout man may complete his function at the appointed times by a threefold payment, so that there may cease that venal delay which is recognized to have been devised not for the relief of the taxpayers but in pursuit of fraud. For those who say they relieve such burdens rather impose another weight of abominable trafficking. Far from our times be a detestable and shameful cunning. Let the landholder pay nothing else but what is owed to the public; for they rather work their own losses who strive to defraud anyone under us.

Wherefore, just as we wish the fiscal burdens to be aggravated on no occasion, so we order that, with God's help, the prescribed payments be completed at the appointed times, so that both the devotion of the landholders may become most pleasing to our lords, and the entangled confusion of delay may be removed from our accounts. Whence transmit to our chancery the registers drawn up in solemn fashion at each several time, just as both the ancient authority of the laws and the present one of our command seem to admonish you—lest, if you judge any of these things to be neglected, you make the peril to be absolutely your own.

Nevertheless, that the effect of these most just precepts may be procured more diligently, we have ordered such-and-such men, approved by preceding merits, to attend upon you and your office, so that negligence can do no harm where a doubled solicitude is applied. Whence act continently, if you the more desire to extend your advancement. Let impious gains be in every way foreign to you; you render the landholder devout if he be not burdened with fraudulent injuries. Profit comes rather from equity than from rapacity. Unjust presumption always fears; for what is thought to be gained where a good conscience is lost? Or in what respect can a man profit, if he be proved to have lost his innocence?

Do not believe that those things are without reward which seem to pertain to a good conscience. They will have us, where we can be, as helpers of those who do well. For I promise to be a rewarder to him whom I shall have learned to have conducted himself with some honesty. Act, then: let praises of you rather reach me than complaints. Seek no greater advantage than if you sell nothing. Those gains alone are to be pursued which one can joyfully offer and a soldier solemnly and securely accept. I desire to be not your censor but your praiser. Beware, then, lest he be rendered hostile who desires to be beneficent to you; for he always grows angry the more grievously who is provoked against his own resolve.

It was the custom of the ancients to decree new laws, so that they might add to the succeeding people something which seemed to have been omitted; but now it is quite sufficient for conscience to keep the decrees of the ancients. Formerly the race of men was anxious under this novelty, while they perceived the rule of their life to hang upon another's will; but now each one knows it to be fixed, which he does not doubt to have been most fully established by the ancients. Sufficient, therefore, are the laws for you, if there be no lack of an excellent will. Why do you sustain with erect ears the voices of heralds, the perilous sentences of presiding officers? He sets a measure to his own life who understands himself appointed a judge over himself. Be all of you zealous in good deeds, and you will not know things to be feared. Do not be inflamed toward unlawful presumptions;

love to live quietly; pass your days ever harmless. Why do you confound honorable things with lawsuits? Why do you do what you may soon have to fear? If you seek gains, avoid rather ruinous litigation. Yet if any civil dispute should arise, be content with the laws of your country: let no one rise up to sedition, let no one flee to violence. It is a kind of madness, in a peaceful age, to be zealous for a turbulent purpose. But since concerning us judges there arises a fear which, though not true, is yet reasonable—since untried power draws rather toward dread—so far as pertains to my own resolve, with God's help and the lords of affairs reigning, promise yourselves all things just, all things moderate. First, what most dishonors a judge, foul trafficking shall not be known in me.

For my words are not sold suspended in the manner of garments. Only the lack of provisions, not malicious venality, will make anything be hoped for from you. Yet where there shall be a moderate precept that mitigates the time, we do not impose what is to be bought, nor do we drag to a price things that are not held necessary. Be only solicitous for accustomed things, secure concerning novelty, because we have judged this alone to be our advantage, if with the Lord's help we keep you unharmed. No one of the soldiers shall shake you down according to his own will; no exactor shall burden you with added inconveniences; we shall keep harmless not only our own hands but those of the office also. Otherwise it is a useless good not to take a judge, and to have offered to many the license of taking.

For they do not so go forth from us that the things they have suffered may seem deservedly to have been done by them to others. For by your love the gratuities have been diminished, which hitherto grew to the detriment of all. We have shown continence in ourselves, with God's help, so that we may be able without shame to command it to the soldiers. For a discourse cannot have authority which is not aided by example, since it is iniquitous to enjoin good things and not to have done such things oneself. Our ordering, therefore, will look only to the public utility, not to private thefts. We know what wishes you poured forth for us, with what anxiety you were in suspense. It is unbecoming for us to do such things that you should be able to rejoice the less in your exultation.

By God's favor our ears shall lie open to receive the desires of suppliants; the conductor of a cause shall see us with his own eyes in freedom; he shall speak with his own tongue, not a purchased one. For neither shall servitude command us, nor shall venerable nobility be wearied by us. Lastly, no base act shall enter our praetorium; no one returns from us less wealthy than he had come. He has not known the domestic chamber to differ from the benches. Observing me, he will find me a judge, wherever he shall have looked. Mindful of modesty, with God's help we desire so to act as we have received the mandates from the lords of affairs.

Be you devoted to all just things, that you may make me to be a father of the provinces rather than a judge, since again he grows the more grievously angry who is least esteemed for any action of depravities. For if you have furnished compliance to injuries, what ought you to render to him whom you know to strive greatly on your behalf? Let not the solemn emoluments of our See be denied to the laboring soldiers, because he himself furnishes the way of excess who does not allow just dues to be paid in full. Render obedience to our precepts also with even-handed moderation. Let your own mind reasonably constrain you, lest an armed terror urge you on. He stirs up hatred against himself who resists just commands. Him whom I shall already have compelled, I will not love.

For we wish all things that are to be done to be unfolded in such a way that we may make you to be diminished by no compeller. We desire that the benefits formerly granted by the lords be preserved to you, torn away by no abominable presumption. We desire that you feel our honor only by congratulation, and that you seek good things for the reigning ones who are seen to have furnished your desires. Live now, rejoicing in security obtained. Him whom it was not lawful to compel, you have been able to bind by voluntary undertakings. For he who doubts to promise just things under confidence in God wishes to have it free to change what he has not pledged. Hold, therefore, a fit surety of my will, a mirror of my heart, an image of my desire, so that to those to whom I am not known by face, I may become recognized by the quality of my character.

Behold me rather in that part wherein those present lie hidden. The absence of me is no loss to you: it is more useful to know a judge by mind than by body. Knowing that the contrary could be believed by those who had been diminished by preceding evils—since the human mind easily suspects of anyone those things which it has endured—we have promised the resolve of our purpose by the form of an edict, lest, with God's help, we should burden with that very anxiety those whom we wish to be secure. For it is no small torment to dread something to come, since what is feared is always thought to emerge more grievously. Far from our times be even the least belief of injury.

He who is thought wicked is already near to a defendant, because something is then persuaded to the mind when a fitting suspicion has entered the breast. Wherefore let your jurisdiction cause the appointed things to be set forth throughout the most frequented places. For it is fitting that the commands be learned by those whom we have decreed to be admonished. Let the love of all now be roused toward our happy lords, so that, just as we have wished to keep no one in suspense by a contrary thought, so they too ought to show themselves devoted to the dutifully reigning ones. But you make our pledges true, if you preside over the provincials with even hand. Love justice, which both makes you lovable and grants a glorious advantage by its participation. Know that the offices attend you as witnesses, as it were, of your deeds.

And therefore, how great a thing it is, in the sight of so many, to do what the mouths of all may proclaim! Know that judgment (iudicium) is so called as if it were the saying of law (iuridicium). It does not befit a presiding officer to do what another may accuse. What should a defendant fear, when he shall have seen the crime established among the magistrates' fasces? The only torments for the wicked are these, if they perceive the public wishes to be contrary to their own ways. For it cannot be called discipline when it itself must be corrected. Strive, then, with us, that good morals may be given to the provincials, but that destitution be removed. Let there be dealing rather with remedies than with injury. It is a grievous evil for anyone to be appointed to bestow the benefits of the law and to be found mixed with injuries. So act that, when proved justice is sought, your year may seem brief.

Let honors rather be offered to you. For you will lose the necessity of ambition, if you join to yourselves the wishes of the provincials. We make none to be guardians of your deeds, nor do we bend the judge's character under a private discretion; but conduct all things in such a way that what we now believe to be most base may not become necessary. You bear the likeness of our dignity, if you handle yourselves with purity of conscience. Confront the wicked, but cherish nonetheless the innocent.

If, however, there be any man who rises up against your authority with reckless audacity, so that you cannot enforce what is just, then either send the petitioner on at once with a report from you, or, if he lacks the strength to come, let the matter be set forth by a report dispatched to us; for you have received the public posting-warrants, and it is welcome to us to hear of such cases. And thus every excuse has been removed from you, since either through your own office you can administer what is right, or at the least you can report to us what is necessary.

When the clemency of the Lord of all things took thought for the welfare of his servant Danus—whose desire it is to rejoice in the safety of all men—he commanded him to seek the remedies of Mount Lactarius, so that one whom human medicine had nothing availed might be relieved by the renowned benefit of that place. For he, racked with constant coughing, had wasted the members of his panting breast, while the offices of nature, weakened by excessive convulsion, could not unfold their powers unto health. For when the body does not properly digest the foods supplied for the aid of the human frame, it renders them useless; nor does it matter to such men whether they take food or endure fasting. Day by day the living substance fails, and like a cracked cask flowing little by little, it is spent away until it be emptied.

To this most savage affliction, therefore, the divine powers have granted the benefit of that mountain, where the wholesomeness of the air, agreeing with the fertility of a rich soil, brings forth grasses seasoned with a most sweet quality; fed upon which, the throng of cows, fattened, produces milk of such healthfulness that what so many counsels of physicians know not how to benefit, that drink alone seems to bestow, restoring to its former order the force of nature undone by maladies. It fills the emptied members, renews the exhausted strength, and by a certain restorative nourishment so succours the sick as sleep succours those worn out with toil.

And so it is a marvel to behold these herds wasted away amid pasture so abundant, in that the milky moisture, which is proved to restore the injured bodies of mortals, does not avail its own origin; and in a wondrous manner the beasts do not thrive on the grasses whereby the limbs of men grow fat. They run lean through the thickets of the mountains; they appear gaunt and bear the likeness of that very affliction which they heal. Yet the milk is so rich that it clings to the fingers when it is pressed out into the vessels. Wherefore, supply the allotted provisions and the necessary transport to him who is coming, that, wholesomely fed in the aforesaid place with the juice of the herds, his youth may be restored by the same nourishment whereby infancy is reared. Rise up, you souls labouring under such an affliction:

You shall no longer dread a most sweet life as though it were a bitter antidote. Drink with delight what you find most wholesome. It is a kind of felicity to be healed from that whereby a sick man can gladly be sated in spirit. The selling of victual goods ought to be subject to the reckoning of the times, so that neither in cheapness is dearness sought nor in dearness cheapness, but, equity being weighed out, both the grumbling of buyers and the burden upon complaining merchants may be removed. And therefore, all things having been weighed in the balance and the prices of the several commodities gathered by clear calculation, we have set them down below, so that, all ambiguity being removed, a fixed safeguard of the appointed matters may abide.

But if any of the sellers shall not observe what the tenor of the present edict declares, let him know that for each transgression a fine of six solidi is to be exacted from him, and that he is liable to the punishment of the cudgel, so that both the fear of loss may terrify him and the aforesaid penalty grievously afflict him. If the idle populace of the several cities is maintained under the justice of fixed prices, how much more ought relief to be given to those who labour, lest the welfare of travellers be wounded by the hazard of chance circumstances! And therefore the receiving of those who pass through ought to be a respite from cares, lest what is established to have been devised for relief should rather inflict a detestable burden. Let the guest be received at the prices appointed:

Let him who is invited to a kindness not suffer greedy iniquity, since it is a shameful entrapment to terrify with the enormity of the price and then to flatter by the act of receiving. He is like a robber who under an unjust will desires to despoil; for it is plain that both wish to plunder what belongs to another and have no regard for the consideration of justice. Do you not know how much you might gain by being moderate? Of their own accord they come to your advantage, who recognize that you can act with restraint. Let no man, therefore, suppose himself defended by the forgetfulness of distance—a thing ever familiar to the absent—since they who suffer your wares come daily to us. Rather beware the harms of fines, you who crave the greediness of gains.

For let him know that he must bear the loss of six solidi and be afflicted with the laceration of his body, if any man shall think that he ought to sell otherwise than as our soldier, sent for the purpose, shall have determined the prices in deliberation held with the citizens and the bishops of the places. For honest gains from the citizens ought to suffice all men, lest the roads should rather seem to be beset by robbers. It seems exceedingly honourable and necessary that a business be undertaken to entreat the pious prince for the security of the Roman commonwealth, since it is fitting that there be sought from you that which may profit our liberty. For among the other goods which the divine powers have singularly bestowed upon you, nothing is proved to accrue more gloriously than that which you know yourselves able everywhere to provide.

We ask, therefore, most clement emperor, and from the bosom of the curia we stretch out suppliant hands, that you grant your most firm peace to our king, and not suffer us to become abominable, who have always seemed welcome on account of your concord. For you commend the Roman name if you grant kindly things to our lords. Your favour raises us up and protects us, and we recognize that we merit this which is felt of your mind. Let your treaties therefore compose the peace of Italy, for then we can be loved, if through you the longed-for affection be joined. And if our prayers seem as yet unable to suffice for this matter, imagine our fatherland bursting forth into these words of entreaty:

'If I was ever pleasing to you, love, most pious of princes, my defenders. Those who rule over me ought to be in concord with you, lest they begin to do such things against me as they shall have known to be at variance with your wishes. Be not to me the cause of cruel ruin, you who have ever bestowed the joys of life. Behold, under your peace I have doubled my nurslings; behold, adorned with citizens I have shone again. If you suffer me to be harmed, where now do you show forth the name of your piety? For what more would you strive to do on my behalf, whose religion, which is yours, is known thus to flourish? My senate grows in honours, is unceasingly increased in resources. Be not willing to scatter through discord what you ought to defend through wars. I have had many kings, but none so lettered as this:

I have had prudent men, but none so mighty in learning and piety. I love the Amal nursed at my own breasts, a brave man formed by my converse, dear to the Romans for his prudence, to be revered by the nations for his valour. Nay rather, join your wishes, share your counsels, that it may profit your glory if any prosperity accrue to me. Do not so seek me that you cannot find me. I am yours none the less by affection, if you make no one to lacerate my members. For if Libya deserved to receive liberty through you, it is cruel for me to lose what I have always seemed to possess. Govern the motions of your wrath, O illustrious triumpher.

That which is sought by the general voice is of more weight than if your mind should be overcome by the offence of any man's ingratitude.' Thus speaks Rome, while through her senators she makes supplication to you. But if even this be too little, let the most holy petition of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul be called to mind. For they who are proved often to have defended Roman security from its enemies—what shall there be that your sovereignty would not grant to their merits? But that all things may seem to befit your reverence, we have judged that our prayers should be presented through that venerable man, the legate of our most pious king dispatched to your clemency: so that they may avail to accomplish things so many, which even singly were able to prevail with pious minds.

Since the city of Comum is sought by many roads, its inhabitants represent that they are so wearied by the unremitting demand for post-horses that they are themselves rather worn down by the excessive running of the horses. To these, by royal indulgence, we command that the benefit be perpetually preserved, lest that city, of its own situation gladly habitable, grow thin of dwellers through the frequency of injury. For it is, beyond the trackless ways of the mountains and the vast expanse of a most pure lake, like a wall of level Liguria. And though it is proved to be a barrier-fortress of the province, yet it is brought to such beauty that it might seem to have been established for delights alone. Behind it, it sends on cultivated plains, fit for pleasant rides and indulgently suited to abundant provisions:

In front, for sixty miles it enjoys the loveliness of a most sweet expanse of water, so that the spirit is sated with refreshing delight and the abundance of fish is withdrawn by no storms; rightly therefore did it receive the name of Comum, decked as it is with such great gifts. Here indeed is a lake received into the depth of an exceedingly broad valley, which, fittingly imitating the shapes of shells, is painted with the whiteness of a foaming shore. Around it the loveliest summits of lofty mountains come together into the likeness of a crown; its margins, becomingly adorned with the lights of villas, are girt about, as with a certain belt, by the perpetual verdure of a Palladian wood. Above this the leafy vineyards climb the flank of the mountain.

The peak itself, as though curled with certain locks of hair by the density of chestnut-trees, is painted by adorning nature. From here streams, gleaming with snowy whiteness, descend in headlong height into the basin of the lake. Into its bosom, coming from the south, the river Addua is received with open jaws. It received such a name because, formed of two springs, it rolls down as into its own sea; and it strikes the waves of that vast expanse with such force that, retaining its name and colour, it is generated towards the north in the fuller belly of the channel: you would think a certain darker line had been drawn in the white waters, and in a wondrous manner the discoloured nature of the inflowing stream is beheld, which is felt to be capable of mingling with the like liquid.

This indeed happens also in the sea-waves through the inundation of rivers; but the reason of it is commonly evident, that headlong torrents, fouled with muddy dregs, are different in colour from the glassy expanse. But this will rightly be thought astonishing, that you should see an element like in such qualities go most swiftly through a sluggish pool, so that you would think a river was running down through solid fields—a river which you do not see able to mingle in colour with the foreign waters. Wherefore the inhabitants of these regions are rightly spared, since all delightful things are tender to toils and easily feel the burden of affliction—they who have been accustomed to enjoy sweet delights. Let them therefore enjoy the royal gift in perpetuity, so that, as they rejoice in their native feasts, so the princely munificence may make them exult.

A royal gift obtained ought to be the joy of all, that you may provoke men to better things, when you shall have proved that the things granted by us are most acceptable. For if to succour is ever the mark of one who loves, of what sort do you understand yourselves to be esteemed, you who feel yourselves to have been relieved?

But lest we delay your gladness with long prefaces—since the swiftest acknowledgement of good things is always desired—our most glorious lords, taking thought for the necessities of devoted Liguria, have with their wonted piety dispatched a hundred pounds of gold through such and such men from their own privy chamber, so that, by your judgement (to whom the cause is most fully known), each man may rejoice in so great a participation of this gift as he is recognized to be burdened with necessity; lest the unharmed should usurp what is given to the afflicted, but rather that those may rise again with restored strength who had fallen beneath the pressing load of losses.

But the city of Hasta, which above the rest is reported to be burdened, let it be especially relieved by the justice of your disposition, so that according to the measure of its loss it may enjoy the advantage of the benefit. Receive the stipend of piety, you taxpayers, and esteem the clemency of your lords, who—the condition being changed—now see yourselves receive from the treasury what you had been accustomed to pay in. But that the benefits of your lords may be increased with the inconveniences of exactions withdrawn, let your report instruct us more speedily as to what you judge ought to be remitted to each man out of this sum, so that we may cause to be suspended from the first levy as much as the notice directed to us shall have made known.