ought to be pleased to have received this same just and proper measure.
In accordance with the rules stablished by Cæsar Justinian, you have got
your due. Your condemnation is just, and therefore a pleasant and a good
thing. But, were it unjust and tainted and contaminated with ignorance
and iniquity (which God forbid), still it would be incumbent on you to
approve the same.

"For an unjust sentence, when it is pronounced in the prescribed forms
of law, participates in the virtue of the said forms and through them
continues august, efficacious and of high merit. What it contains of
wrong is temporary and of little consequence, and concerns only the
particular instance, whereas the good in it derives from the fixity and
permanence of the organization of the laws, and therefore is it
agreeable to the general dictates of justice. Wherefore Papinian
declares it is better to give false judgment than none at all, seeing
how men without justice are no better than wild beasts in the woods,
whereas by justice is made manifest their nobleness and dignity, as is
seen by the example of the Judges of the Areopagus, who were held in
special honour among the Athenians. So, seeing it is necessary and
profitable to give judgment, and that it is not possible to do so
without fault or mistake, it follows that mistake and faultiness are
comprised in the excellence of Justice and participate in the said
excellence. Accordingly, supposing you deemed your sentence unfair, you
should find satisfaction in this unfairness, inasmuch as it is united
and amalgamated with fairness, just as tin and copper are fused together
to make bronze, which is a precious metal and employed for very noble
purposes, in the fashion Pliny describes in his Histories."

The learned Doctor then proceeded to enumerate the conveniencies and
advantages which flow from expiation and wash away sin, as the maids