IX. KING THEODERIC TO EUSTORGIUS, THE VENERABLE BISHOP OF MILAN.
[1] The condition of subjects is secure when they live under the equity of their rulers, and it does not befit one from whom unchangeable decisions should proceed to be swayed by uncertain rumor. We gather the truth of matters from reason, which is never hidden from those who seek it if they follow its proper traces. [2] Therefore — as we trust will be most welcome to Your Beatitude — we declare by the present letter that the Bishop of Augusta has been accused of betraying his homeland by false charges. Having been restored by you to his former honor, let him hold every right of his episcopate that he formerly possessed. For nothing in such an office should be rashly presumed by reckless imagining, since if the bishop's purpose is trusted, he is excused from offenses even by his silence. Open crimes can scarcely win credence against such men, and whatever is alleged out of envy is not regarded as truth. [3] We wished to strike his attackers with lawful punishment. But since they too bore the name of the clergy, we have referred the entire matter to the judgment of Your Holiness for settlement — whose task it is both to impose integrity of morals upon such characters and to uphold ecclesiastical discipline.
VIIII. EUSTORGIO VIRO VENERABILI MEDIOLANENSI EPISCOPO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Tuta est condicio subiectorum, ubi vivitur sub aequitate regnantium: nec dubio decet rumore trahi, a quo debent non mutanda constitui. fidem siquidem rerum a ratione colligimus, quae numquam desiderantibus absconditur, si suis vestigiis perquiratur. [2] Atque ideo, quod beatitudini vestrae gratissimum esse confidimus, praesenti tenore declaramus Augustanae civitatis episcopum proditionis patriae falsis criminationibus accusatum: qui a vobis honori pristino restitutus ius habeat episcopatus omne quod habuit. nihil enim in tali honore temeraria cogitatione praesumendum est, ubi, si proposito creditor, etiam tacitus ab excessibus excusatur. manifesta proinde crimina in talibus vix capiunt fidem: quicquid autem ex invidia dicitur, veritas non putatur. [3] Volumus enim inpugnatores eius legitima poena percellere: sed quoniam et ipsi clericatus nomine fungebantur, ad sanctitatis vestrae iudicium cuncta transmisimus ordinanda, cuius est et probitatem moribus talibus imponere et districtionem ecclesiasticam custodire.
◆
IX. KING THEODERIC TO EUSTORGIUS, THE VENERABLE BISHOP OF MILAN.
[1] The condition of subjects is secure when they live under the equity of their rulers, and it does not befit one from whom unchangeable decisions should proceed to be swayed by uncertain rumor. We gather the truth of matters from reason, which is never hidden from those who seek it if they follow its proper traces. [2] Therefore — as we trust will be most welcome to Your Beatitude — we declare by the present letter that the Bishop of Augusta has been accused of betraying his homeland by false charges. Having been restored by you to his former honor, let him hold every right of his episcopate that he formerly possessed. For nothing in such an office should be rashly presumed by reckless imagining, since if the bishop's purpose is trusted, he is excused from offenses even by his silence. Open crimes can scarcely win credence against such men, and whatever is alleged out of envy is not regarded as truth. [3] We wished to strike his attackers with lawful punishment. But since they too bore the name of the clergy, we have referred the entire matter to the judgment of Your Holiness for settlement — whose task it is both to impose integrity of morals upon such characters and to uphold ecclesiastical discipline.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.