11. King Theodoric to Provinus (Probinus?), Illustris and Patrician.

Gift obtained from Agapita under undue influence.

[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The petition of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good reason quitted her own home. Her own petition confirms this; and she states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church, she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has brought the poor woman to destitution. Alienation of property should be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband causelessly.

'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in complying.'

[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores' referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly identify him with them.]