Letter 6007: Formula of the Count of the Sacred Largesses.

VII. FORMULA OF THE COUNTSHIP OF THE SACRED LARGESSES [Count of the Sacred Largesses, the chief financial officer over imperial gifts and treasury]. [1] Wholly pleasing are titles that at once designate their functions, since for the hearer all ambiguity is removed when it is settled within the very word what is to be carried out. For these words testify by the very evidence of the matters that the Countship of the Sacred Largesses presides over the royal gifts. It was a thing truly fitting, truly in every way well devised, to set apart a dignity over the portion of royal gifts and to call it another man's honor, while it is established that we ourselves bestow the gifts. It is an innocent office, a service of devotion, ever to press forward that by which the renown of the prince can be increased. [2] To serve in the royal gifts is assuredly a great felicity, and to hold a dignity that comes from public largesse. The other judges obey the remaining virtues of the ruler: this office alone is one that serves only the impulses of devotion. For through it nothing strict is carried out, nothing severe is by chance decreed; rather it renders its service then, when vows are poured forth on our behalf. Through you we raise up the fortunes of suppliants; on the Kalends of January we bestow gifts abundantly, and the public rejoicing is your military service. [3] But you adorn this our liberality with yet another service, in that the likeness of our countenance is stamped upon the common metals, and you make the coinage call our times to the remembrance of ages to come. O great inventions of the prudent! O praiseworthy institutions of our forefathers! that the image of princes should be seen to feed their subjects through commerce, men whose counsels do not cease to keep watch for the welfare of all. [4] But to this, if I may so call it, gift-bestowing dignity, the herald of our largesse, the token of public felicity, we join also the place of the primiceriate [the office of chief recorder, head of the bureau], so that through you we may grant honors, through whom we also confer the largesses of our money: rightly so, since both are bestowed with like favor and ought to have been administered by one judge, things that are seen to be joined together with equal praise. [5] Moreover it is a small thing that the judges of the provinces are subject to your dignity: you confirm by your charters even the nobles themselves, since nothing is held to be complete unless it has been finished by you according to due form. [6] The sacred vesture also is known to have been entrusted to you from of old, lest anything that pertains to the royal splendor should obey your arrangements less than it ought. [7] The care of the shores too you administer, with provision for incidental revenue. The merchants, who are agreed to be necessary to human life, are manifestly subject to this authority. For whatever in garments, whatever in bronze, whatever in silver, whatever in gems human ambition can hold as precious, they comply with your ordinances, and those who have come from the farthest parts of the world flow together to your judgment. [8] The trade in salt also, between silken garments and the most precious pearl, antiquity not unfittingly assigned to you, so as to show plainly your wisdom, to which an article of such a kind was assigned to be subservient. [9] Therefore through that indiction we confer upon you the dignities of the Countship of the Sacred Largesses and of the primiceriate, that you may be adorned with many praises, you who are girded about with a multitude of honors. Make use, then, in due solemnity of your titles; and if use has taken away from you anything of the ancient privilege, it has certainly left very many things that you ought to claim, since the care of the two dignities is indeed glorious, but also the keeping of them is laborious, things that bring you abundant fruit of honor, if they are cultivated with upright character.

VII. FORMULA COMITIVAE SACRARUM LARGITIONUM. [1] Grata sunt omnino nomina quae designant protinus actiones, quando tota ambiguitas audienti tollitur, ubi in vocabulo concluditur quid geratur. donis enim praesidere regalibus comitivam sacrarum largitionum indicia rerum verba testantur. quod vere decorum, vere fuit omnimodis exquisitum in donorum regalium parte sequestratam facere dignitatem et alterius honorem dicere, dum nos constet dona conferre. actus innocens, pietatis officium illud semper ingerere, unde se fama principis possit augere. [2] Regalibus magna profecto felicitas militare donis et dignitatem habere de publica largitate. alii iudices optemperant residuis virtutibus regnatoris: haec sola est, quae tantummodo serviat ad momenta pietatis. nihil enim per ipsam districtum geritur, nil severum forte censetur, sed tunc obsequitur, quando pro nobis vota funduntur. supplicum per te fortunas erigimus, kal. Ianuariis affatim dona largimur et laetitia publica militia tua est. [3] Verum hanc liberalitatem nostram alio decoras obsequio, ut figura vultus nostri metallis usualibus inprimatur, monetamque facis de nostris temporibus futura saecula commonere. o magna inventa prudentium! o laudabilia instituta malorum! ut et imago principum subiectos videretur pascere per commercium, quorum consilia invigilare non desinunt pro salute cunctorum. [4] Sed huic, ut ita dixerim, munerariae dignitati praeconem largitatis nostrae, publicae felicitatis indicium, locum quoque primiceriatus adiungimus, ut per te demus honores, per quem et nostrae pecuniae conferimus largitates: merito, quando et simili gratia utraque praestantur et ab uno debuerunt iudice geri, quae parili videntur laude coniungi. [5] Parum est autem, quod provinciarum iudices tuae subiacent dignitati: ipsis quoque proceribus chartarum confirmas, dum perfectum non creditur nisi a te fuerit pro sollemnitate completum. [6] Vestis quoque sacra tibi antiquitus noscitur fuisse commissa, ne quid quod ad splendorem regium pertinet tuis minus ordinationibus oboediret. [7] Curas quoque litorum adventicia lucri provisione committis. negotiatores, quos humanae vitae constat necessarios, huic potestati manifestum est esse subiectos. nam quicquid in vestibus, quicquid in aere, quicquid in argento, quicquid in gemmis ambitio humana potest habere pretiosum, tuis ordinationibus obsecundant et ad iudicium tuum confluunt qui de extremis mundi partibus advenerunt. [8] Salis quoque commercium inter vestes sericas et pretiosissimam margaritam non inepte tibi deputavit antiquitas, ut sapientiam tuam evidenter ostenderet, cui talis species deputata serviret. [9] Quapropter per illam indictionem comitivae sacrarum et primiceriatus tibi conferimus dignitates, ut multis laudibus decorari possis, qui honorum numerositate praecingeris. utere igitur sollemniter titulis tuis et si quid tibi de antiquo privilegio usus abstulit, plurima certe quae vindicare debeas dereliquit, quando duarum dignitatum gloriosa quidem cura, sed et laboriosa custodia est, quae tibi copiosum fructum decoris afferunt, si probis moribus excoluntur.