It is the practice of princely clemency to take careful and provident thought for the needs of the provincials and of all the peoples subject to it, and for their peace to set down in written statute, drawn up under fixed headings, whatever is to be justly observed; and the more justice and integrity is bestowed upon these things, so much the more readily does the love of devotion incline toward them. Therefore, commanding by this general authority, we order that in all cases the standard of the ancient law be preserved, and that no sentence from any of the judges obtain the force of validity which exceeds the measure of law and equity. In the inheritances of parents, then, let whatever is decreed by the laws be observed, with all license of obtaining anything to the contrary withdrawn:
and if any such thing be obtained or procured by any procedure, let it be rejected by the judges and held to be empty and void. If anyone be accused in any rank, let him by no means be condemned unheard; but if he be accused of a crime and, after an examination is held, should perhaps be convicted, let him receive the sentence of punishment according to the measure of the crime. Among Romans we command that the business of lawsuits be concluded by Roman laws. If anyone surreptitiously draws forth our authority against the law by deceiving the prince, it shall have no force. If a judge unjustly condemns anyone against the law, let him in our absence be chastised by the bishops; so that what he wrongly judged he may take care to amend, after a better examination has been held.
Let no one presume, by our authority, to seek in marriage a widow or a maiden without their own consent; nor let them be unjustly seized through surreptitious suggestions. Let no one dare to join consecrated virgins to himself in wedlock. By the present constitution we grant that authorizations issued with justice and competent law have firm stability in all things, and not be voided by subsequent authorizations drawn forth against the law; and that the oblations of the deceased assigned to the churches be taken away by no one's claims. We concede to the church, out of devotion to our faith, the dues of land, of pasture, and the tithes of swine;
so that no agent or tithe-collector come upon the property of the church, and that public officials require no levy from the churches or clergy, who have earned the immunity of our grandfather, or father, or brother. Whatever has been conferred upon churches or clergy, or upon any persons, by the bounty of the munificence of the aforesaid princes of glorious memory, let it endure with full firmness. Whatever the church, the clergy, or our provincials are proved to have possessed by an unshaken right for thirty years, provided there was a just beginning of possession, let the possessed property remain under their dominion;
nor let any action, buried by such long spans of time, henceforth rise up contrary to the order of the laws under any reclamation, the possession remaining without doubt in the possessor's right. Let the diligence of all the judges therefore provide that they keep this precept with all observance; and let them not presume with any rashness to do or judge anything other than what this precept contains according to the sequence of the Roman laws, or than the manner in which the sexes of certain peoples are known to have once lived according to the constitution of the ancient law.