Letter 4018: King Theodoric to Anna, Vir Spectabilis [Most Respectable], Count.

XVIII. KING THEODERIC TO ANNA, MAN OF THE PERFECTION [vir spectabilis], A COUNT. [1] It is the custom of our clemency to commit matters to be handled to those of proven loyalty, so that, when we delegate to judges endowed with mature deliberation, fraudulent deception may find no foothold. For some time ago it reached us, by the report of many, that the presbyter Laurentius, having dug up the ashes, searched out ill-omened riches among the corpses of men and inflicted extortion upon the dead -- a man whose duty it was to proclaim quiet things to the living. He is alleged not to have kept hands consecrated to pious dedications from so cruel a contamination: he is said to have sought gold with execrable longing, he whom it would have befitted to give his own substance to the needy, or what he had gathered even under the rule of equity. [2] We instruct you to investigate this by diligent examination, so that, if you perceive that what has been said accords with the truth, you may confine the man's grasping to this end alone, that he may not be able to conceal what he was not permitted to find. For the crime which we, out of regard for his sacerdotal honor, leave unpunished, we believe must be avenged with the greater weight.

XVIII. ANNAE V. S. COMITI THEODERICUS REX. [1] Consuetudo est nostrae clementiae probatae nobis fidei agenda committere, ut cum iudices delegamus praeditos tractatu maturo, locum prava nequeat invenire surreptio. dudum siquidem ad nos multorum suggestione pervenit Laurentium presbyterum effossis cineribus funestas divitias inter hominum cadavera perscrutatum concussionemque mortuis intulisse, quem oportet viventibus quieta praedicare. non abstinuisse perhibetur tam crudeli contagio piis dicatas consecrationibus manus: aurum exsecrabili quaesisse fertur affectu, quem suam decuisset egentibus dare substantiam vel sub aequitate collectam. [2] Quod te diligenti examinatione praecipimus indagare, ut, si veritati dicta perspexeris convenire, hominis ambitum eo tantum fine concludas, ne possit supprimere quod eum non licuit invenire. scelus enim, quod nos pro sacerdotali honore relinquimus impunitum, maiore pondere credimus vindicandum.