Letter 4035: King Theodoric to the Agents of Albinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].

XXXV. KING THEODERIC TO THE AGENTS OF ALBINUS, MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK. [1] With deliberate foresight antiquity decreed that the contracts of minors should not be binding, so that both the snares of those who lie in wait might be thwarted and a precarious age might come to the aid of those who have stumbled. For innocence would be overwhelmed if recklessness were given free rein, and everyone would be bent on deceiving if fraud could win a furtively gained result. [2] And therefore, presenting a petition in accordance with ancient custom, you suggest that your patron, while established in his minor years, has rather heaped up losses upon his own resources, since unknowing boyhood does the opposite of what it had supposed would be to its advantage; and that he is now passing through that period of life in which we are able through his ignorance to come to the aid of his lapse; alleging this, so that what the laws have granted, our benefactions too may bestow. [3] And therefore, if your petition does not deviate from the truth, and he lives within the span of years for which the most sacred laws have furnished this benefit, and there is nothing that may by law be alleged to the contrary, our authority too permits that your patron, after the case has been duly examined, be restored to his former standing in full; yet in such a way that all things be carried out according to justice and the laws, since we wish to take counsel for petitioners in such a manner that we do not unjustly burden their adversaries.

XXXV. ACTORIBUS ALBINI V. I. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Consulto provida decrevit antiquitas minores contractus liberos non habere, ut et insidiantium laquei frustrarentur et lapsis aetas lubrica subveniret. obrueretur quippe innocentia, si relaxaretur audacia, essetque cunctis fallendi studium, si fraus subrepticium lucraretur effectum. [2] Et ideo priscae consuetudinis supplicatione porrecta suggeritis patronum vestrum in annis minoribus constitutum facultatibus suis potius aggregasse dispendia, dum ignara pueritia contraria gerit, quae profutura putaverit, et nunc id tempus aetatis agere, quo lapsui possimus per ignorantiam subvenire, allegantes, ut quod iura tribuerunt, nostra quoque beneficia largiantur. [3] Atque ideo, si petitio vestra a veritate non deviat et intra annorum spatia deget, quibus hoc beneficium leges sacratissimae praestiterunt, nihilque est quod iure contra referatur, patronum vestrum sollemniter causa cognita in integrum restitui nostra quoque permittit auctoritas, ita tamen, ut omnia secundum iustitiam legesque peragantur, quia sic supplicantibus consulere volumus, ut eorum adversarios per iniustitiam non gravemus.