Letter 6002: Formula of the Patriciate.

II. FORMULA OF THE PATRICIATE. [1] If we examine the order of antiquity in the origin of the dignities, the family of the patricians is known to have been dedicated to Jupiter, so that, as they supposed, it might hold the foremost place in the worship of the highest god. But because it was fitting that you should possess something exceptional, and the very name joined itself to the Fathers [senators] by a close kinship, having abandoned that superstition it passed over to your company [the senate] on the most excellent terms, since the credit of a pontifical conscience could rightly suit the senate. [2] Thus you read that even kings were established out of the augural family, and not without reason, since it was fitting that one who could manage the public laws should come from such a calling. Hence it is that this very office is girded, even when it is vacant, having no jurisdiction and yet not laying aside the belt of one who judges. In this a perpetual felicity is born, since the ambition of a successor is not feared: for as soon as it has been granted, it becomes coeval with the man for the rest of his life-span; an ornament that cannot be parted from him, a faithful belt, which he does not know how to abandon before it befalls men to depart from the world. [3] I believe the matter was shaped after the likeness of the pontificate, whence it had come: those who do not lay down the priesthood except when they relinquish the duties of life. It is added that the laws have conferred so great a reverence upon them that one placed among sacred things, when he has been girded with this honor, is released from the bonds of paternal power, unless it be specially provided otherwise against this by the prince. This is established, it is agreed, by a probable reasoning, that one who had received the most ample spirit of precious liberty should not hold the most lowly condition along with the subject. [4] He takes precedence over men of prefectorial and other dignities, yielding only to one splendor, which it is agreed is at times assumed even by us. Therefore understand of necessity that the dignity has been praised, lest either we should seem to have given too little, or you should treat it too negligently, if you should think you had received something middling. Wherefore, raised up by our gift from that indiction, ascend the summit of the patriciate, which some of the jurists have wished to be said to derive from the Fathers, intending to do all things that befit so great a reverence. For although our clemency has conferred great things, you still have something to seek after, if you strive to conduct yourself in a praiseworthy manner.

II. FORMULA PATRICIATUS. [1] Si antiquitatis ordinem perscrutemur origine dignitatum, patriciorum familia Iovi noscitur fuisse dicata, ut summi dei, sicut putavere, cultura locum primarium possideret. sed quia vos aliquid habere decebat eximium et nomen ipsum patribus magna se vicinitate iungebat, superstitione derelicta ad vestrum coetum optima condicione migravit, quia pontificalis laus conscientiae senatui recte poterat convenire. [2] Sic ex augurali familia reges quoque legitis institutos, non iniuria, quia decuit a tali proposito venire qui publica poterat iura tractare. hinc est quod et honor ipse cinctus est, cum vacaret, nihil iurisdictionis habens et iudicantis cingulum non deponens. in quo felicitas perpetua nascitur, dum successoris ambitio non timetur: nam mox ut datus fuerit, in vitae tempus reliquum homini fit coaevus: ornatus individuus, cingulum fidele, quod nescit ante deserere quam de mundo homines contingat exire. [3] Credo ad similitudinem pontificatus, unde venerat, rem fuisse formatam: qui sacerdotium non deponunt, nisi cum vitae munera derelinquunt. additur quod leges tantam illis reverentiam detulerunt, ut in sacris positus, cum hoc fuerit honore praecinctus, paternae potestatis nexibus exuatur, nisi contra specialiter a principe caveatur. quod constat ratione probabili constitutum, ut qui amplissimum genium pretiosae libertatis acceperat, vilissimam condicionem cum subditis non haberet. [4] Praefectorios et aliarum dignitatum viros praecedit, uni tantum cedens fulgori, quem interdum etiam a nobis constat assumi. proinde necessario laudatam intellege dignitatem, ne aut nos parum dedisse videamur aut tu neglegentius tractes, si te aliquid mediocre suscepisse putaveris. quapropter ab illa indictione nostro munere sublevatus patriciatus culmen ascende, quod quidam iuridicorum a patribus dictum esse voluerunt, facturus omnia quae tantam reverentiam decent. nam quamvis magna contulerit nostra clementia, habes adhuc quod expetas, si te probabiliter tractare contendas.