Letter 7041: It is a glorious petition that seeks a dispensation from youth -- when one professes to receive from character the...

41. FORMULA FOR THE GRANT OF [LEGAL] AGE. [1] Glorious is the petition which seeks an indulgence in the matter of age: when one professes to receive from his character a gravity which the maturity of life has not yet permitted him to bring forward. Younger by birth, you desire to be aged in judgment. Thus, in a thing that is most audacious among human affairs, you disdain the benefit of years as a help against error. For this reason, by the petition you have presented, you make it known that, since you possess a firm capacity of prudence, your actions may not be left in doubt, so that what cannot waver in usefulness may not be undermined in law. This we, who have at heart the fulfilling of good desires, gladly accept, because whoever steadfastly strives to enter into valid contracts professes that he wishes to lay no snares. [2] And therefore, if it is established that the time has elapsed which the laws have willed for approaching this indulgence, we too do not deny permission to your commendable desires, so that in the proper court those things which the antiquity of the laws prescribes as to be revered in cases of this kind may be solemnly transacted, in such a way that, in the alienating of rural or urban estates, the authority of the constitutions be preserved: lest, while we wish to grant something to reputation, we should seem to harm the petitioner's interest. Take, therefore, by our benefit an age greater than your years, and what you ask of the oracle [the royal decree], display in your conduct. For the profession of premature maturity denies a place to a harsh action, since the fault is much graver which the authority of one's own promise assails.

XLI. FORMULA AETATIS VENIAE. [1] Gloriosa est supplicatio, quae veniam quaerit aetatis: quando se gravitatem de moribus profitetur accipere, quam maturitatem vitae adhuc non contingit intulisse. minor nascendo grandaevus cupis esse consilio. ita quod in humanis rebus audacissimum est, ad erroris auxilium beneficium contemnis annorum. quapropter oblata supplicatione depromis, ut, cum tibi sit ratio firma prudentiae, actiones tuae non relinquantur ambiguae, ne infirmetur iure quod non potest utilitate titubare. hoc nos, quibus cordi est bona desideria perficere, libenter accipimus, quia nullas se captare velle profitetur insidias, quisquis habere liberos contractus constanter affectat. [2] Atque ideo, si id tempus constat elapsum, quo ad hanc veniam accedi iura voluerunt, nos quoque probabilibus desideriis licentiam non negamus, ut in competenti foro ea quae in his causis reverenda legum dictat antiquitas, sollemniter actitentur, ita ut alienandis rusticis vel urbanis praediis constitutionum servetur auctoritas: ne cum opinioni praestare volumus, utilitatem supplicis laedere videamur. cape igitur nostro beneficio potiorem annis aetatem et quod petis ab oraculo, moribus exhibeto. nam professio maturitatis acerbae locum denegat actionis, quando multo gravior est culpa, quam suae promissionis impugnat auctoritas.