Letter 8024: We owe all the more to God the greater the gifts we receive beyond other mortals.

24. KING ATHALARIC TO THE CLERGY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. [1] We owe the more to the Divinity in proportion as we receive greater things than the rest of mortals: for what comparable return can he render to God who possesses imperial power? But although for so great a gift nothing can be suitably repaid, nevertheless thanks are rendered to Him Himself, while He is honored in those who serve Him. [2] And so in a tearful petition you complain that it had been the established practice of long custom that, if anyone believed that a servant of the most sacred Roman Church ought to be pursued by some legal action, he should present himself to the bishop of the aforesaid city in order to state his case, lest your clergy, profaned by litigation in the law courts, be occupied rather with secular duties: adding that even your deacon was driven, to the insult of religion, with such harshness of legal execution that the sheriff [saio] thought he should be consigned to his own custody. [3] You assert moreover that a presbyter of the Roman Church was criminally prosecuted for trivial causes. We profess that this has displeased us, on account of the inborn reverence which we owe to our Author, that those who had previously deserved to serve at the sacred mysteries, being irreverently exposed to litigation, should lie subject to wicked injuries. But the deceitful imposition of others, which deserves punishment, has brought us the outcome of fullest praise, since there has arisen an occasion for granting that which may commend us to the aids of heaven. [4] And therefore, considering both the honor of the Apostolic See and consulting the desire of the petitioners, by the present authority we determine, with measured procedure, that if anyone shall believe that some person belonging to the Roman clergy ought to be pursued in any plausible cause by legal action, he shall first come to the judgment of the most blessed pope to be heard, so that either the pope himself, after the manner of his holiness, may take cognizance between the two parties, or may delegate the case to be concluded with zeal for equity; and if perchance, which it is impious to believe, the lawful desire of the plaintiff shall have been frustrated, then let him come to the secular courts to plead, since he will have proved that his petitions were scorned by the prelate of the aforesaid See. [5] But if anyone shall prove so wicked a litigant, and condemned in the judgment of all with a sacrilegious mind, who scorns to show reverence to so great a See and believes that something is to be obtained from our pronouncements, before the effect of any litigation let him be struck with the loss of ten pounds of gold, which, exacted forthwith by the palatine officials of the sacred largesses, are to be distributed to the poor through the hands of the oft-mentioned bishop, and let him, deprived of what he sought, be fined also with the loss of his very case. For he deserves to be struck with a double penalty who has violated both divine reverence and our commands. [6] But you likewise, whom our judgments venerate, live by the ecclesiastical constitutions. It is a great crime that men should commit a fault who ought not even to keep secular conversation: your profession is a heavenly life. Do not descend to the errors and lowly desires of mortals. Let the worldly be restrained by human law; do you obey holy ways of life.

XXIIII. CLERO ECCLESIAE ROMANAE ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Tanto divinitati plurima debemus, quanto a ceteris mortalibus maiora suscipimus: nam quid simile rependat deo, qui potitur imperio? sed licet pro tanto munere nihil compensari possit idonee, ipsi tamen gratia redditur, dum in servientibus honoratur. [2] Itaque flebili aditione causamini hoc fuisse longae consuetudinis institutum, ut, si quis sacrosanctae Romanae ecclesiae servientem aliqua crederet actione pulsandum, ad supra dictae civitatis antistitem negotium suum dicturus occurreret, ne clerus vester forensibus litibus profanatus, officiis potius saecularibus occupetur: addentes diaconum quoque vestrum ad contumeliam religionis tanta executionis acerbitate compulsum, ut saius eum propriae custodiae crederet mancipandum. [3] Presbyterum quin etiam ecclesiae Romanae pro levibus causis asseritis criminaliter impetitum. quod nobis pro ingenita reverentia, quam nostro debemus auctori, displicuisse profitemur, ut, qui pridem sacris meruerant inservire mysteriis, conventionibus inreverenter expositi nefariis iniuriis subiacerent. sed aliorum plectenda subreptio nobis contulit plenissimae laudis eventum, ut causa contingeret praestandi, quae nos caelestibus commendaret auxiliis. [4] Atque ideo considerantes et apostolicae sedis honorem et consulentes desiderio supplicantum praesenti auctoritate moderato ordine definimus, ut, si quispiam ad Romanum clerum aliquem pertinentem in qualibet causa probabili crediderit actione pulsandum, ad beatissimi papae iudicium prius conveniat audiendus, ut aut ipse inter utrosque more suae sanctitatis cognoscat aut causam deleget aequitatis studio terminandam, et si forte, quod credi nefas est, competens desiderium fuerit petitoris elusum, tunc ad saecularia fora iurgaturus occurrat, quando suas petitiones probaverit a supra dictae sedis praesule fuisse contemptas. [5] Quod si quis extiterit tam improbus litigator atque omnium iudicio sacrilega mente damnatus, qui reverentiam tantae sedi exhibere contemnat et aliquid de nostris affatibus crediderit promerendum, ante alicuius conventionis effectum decem librarum auri dispendio feriatur, quae a palatinis sacrarum largitionum protinus exactae per manus saepe memorati antistitis pauperibus erogentur, carensque impetratis negotii quoque sui amissione multetur. dignus est enim duplici poena percelli, qui et divinam reverentiam et nostra iussa temeravit. [6] Sed item vos, quos iudicia nostra venerantur, ecclesiasticis vivite constitutis. magnum scelus est crimen admittere, quos nec conversationem decet habere saecularem: professio vestra vita caelestis est. nolite ad mortalium errores et humilia vota descendere. mundani coerceantur humano iure, vos sanctis moribus oboedite.