EARLY GERMANIC

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• LAWS

LAWS  . Of those Germanic laws of the early middle ages which are known as leges barbarorum, we here deal with the principal examples other than Frankish, viz . (1) Leges Wisigothorum, (2) Lex Burgundionum, (3) Pactus Alamannorum and Lex Alamannorum, (4) Lex Bajuvariorum, (5) Le:- Saxonum, (6) Lex Frisionum, (7) Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum, and (8) Leges Langobardorum . All these laws may in general be described as codes of procedure and tariffs of compositions . They present somewhat similar features with the Salic law, but often differ from it in the date of compilation, the amount of fines, the number and nature of the crimes, the number, rank, duties and titles of the officers, &c . For the Salic law and other Frankish laws, see SA11e LAW, and for the edict of Theodoric I., which was applicable to the Ostrogoths and Romans, see ROMAN LAW . For the whole body of the Germanic laws see P . Canciani, Barbarorum leges antiquae (Venice, 1781—1789) ; F . Walter, .Corpus juris germanici antiqui (Berlin, 1824) ; Monumenta Germaniae historica, Leges . For further information on the codes in general, see H . M . Zopfl, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (4th ed., Heidelberg, 1871—1876) ; J .

E . O . Stobbe, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsquellen (

Brunswick, 186o-1864) ; Paul Viollet, Histoire du droit civil francais (2nd ed., Paris, 1893); H . Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906) . 1 . Leges Wisigothorum.—Karl Zeumer's edition of these laws in the 4to series of the Mon . Germ . Hist. throws new light on all questions relating to their date and composition . It is now certain that the earliest written code of the Visigoths dates back to King Euric (466-485) . Besides his own constitutions, Euric included in this collection constitutions of his predecessors, Theodoric I . (419-451), Thorismund (451-453), andTheodoric II . (453-466), and he arranged the whole in a logical order .

Of this code fragments of chapters cclxxvi. to cccxxxvi.1 have been discovered in a

palimpsest MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (Latin coll., No . 12161), a fact which proves that the code ran over a large area . Euric's code was used for all cases between Goths, and between them and Romans; in cases between Romans, Roman law was used . At the instance of Euric's son, Alaric II., an examination was made of the Roman laws in use among Romans in his dominions, and the resulting compilation was approved in 506 at an assembly at Aire, in Gascony, and is known as the Breviary of Alaric, and sometimes as the Liber Aniani, from the fact that the authentic copies bear the signature of the referendarius Anian . Euric's code remained in force among the Visigoths of Spain until the reign of Leovigild (568-586), who made a new one, improving upon that of his predecessor . This work is lost, and we have no direct knowledge of any fragment of it . In the 3rd codification, however, many provisions have been taken from the 2nd, and these are designated by the word " antique; by means of these " antiqua " we are enabled in a certain measure to reconstruct the work of Leovigild . After the reign of Leovigild the legislation of the Visigoths underwent a transformation . The new laws made by the kings were declared to be applicable to all the subjects in the kingdom, of whatever race—in other words, they became territorial; and this principle of territoriality was gradually extended to the ancient code . Moreover, the conversion of Reccared I . (586-601) to orthodoxy effaced the religious differences among his subjects, and all subjects, qua Christians, had to submit to the canons of the councils, which were made obligatory by the kings . After this change had been accepted, Recceswinth (649-672) made a new code, which was applicable to Visigoths and Romans alike .

This code, known as the Liber judiciorum, is ' The lacunae in these fragments have been filled in by the aid of recognize the Frankish

suzerainty . About the same period, too, the church of Bavaria was organized by St Boniface, and the country divided into several bishoprics; and we find frequent references to these bishops (in the plural) in the law of the Bavarians . On the other hand, we know that the law is anterior to the reign of Duke Tassilo III . (749-788) . The date of compilation must, therefore, be placed between 743 and 749 . There is an edition of the Lex Bajuvariorum by J . Merkel in the Mon . Germ. hist., Leges, iii . 183, and another was undertaken by E. von Schwind for the 4to series of the same collection . Cf. von Schwind's article in the Neues Archiv, vol. xxxi . 5 . Lex Saxonum.—Germany comprised two other duchies, Saxony and Frisia, of each of which we possess a text of law .

The Lex Saxonum has come down to us in two

MSS. and two old editions (those of B . J . Herold and du Tillet), and the text has been edited by Karl von Richthofen in the Mon . Germ. hist., Leges, v . The law contains ancient customary enactments of Saxony, and, in the form in which it has reached us, is later than the conquest of Saxony by Charlemagne . It is preceded by two capitularies of Charlemagne for Saxony—the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae (A . Boretius i . 68), which dates undoubtedly from 782, and is characterized by great severity, death being the penalty for every offence against the Christian religion; and the Capitulare Saxonicum (A . Boretius i . 71), of the 28th of October 797, in which Charlemagne shows less brutality and pronounces simple compositions for misdeeds which formerly entailed death . The Lex Saxonum apparently dates from 803, since it contains provisions which are in the Capitulare legi Ribuariae additum of that year . The law established the ancient customs, at the same time eliminating anything that was contrary to the spirit of Christianity; it proclaimed the peace of the churches, whose possessions it guaranteed and whose right of asylum it recognized .

6 . Lex Frisionum.—This consists of a medley of documents of the most heterogeneous

character . Some of its enactments are purely pagan—thus one paragraph allows the mother to kill her new-born child, and another prescribes the immolation to the gods of the defiler of their temple; others are purely Christian, such as those which prohibit incestuous marriages and working on Sunday . The law abounds in contradictions and repetitions, and the compositions are calculated in different moneys . From this it would appear that the documents were merely materials collected from various sources and possibly with a view to the compilation of a homogeneous law . These materials were apparently brought together at the beginning of the 9th century, at a time of intense legislative activity at the court of Charlemagne . There are no MSS. of the document extant; our knowledge of it is based upon B . J . Herold's edition (Originum ac Germanicarum antiquitatum libri, Basel, 1557), which has been reproduced by Karl von Richthofen in the Mon . Germ. hist., Leges, 631 . 7 . Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum.—In early times there dwelt in Thuringia, south of the river Unstrut, the Angli, who gave their name to the pagus Engili, and to the east, between the Saale and the Elster, the Warni (Werini, or Varini), whose name is seen in Werenofeld .

In the 9th century, however, this region (then called Werenofeld) was occupied by the Sorabi, and the Warni and Angli either coalesced with the Thuringi or sought an asylum in the

north of Germany . A collection of laws has come down to us bearing the name of these two peoples, the Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum . This text is a collection of local customs arranged in the same order as the law of the Ripuarians . Parts of it are based on the Capitulare legi Ribuariae additum of 803, and it seems to have been drawn up in the same conditions and circumstances as the law of the Saxons . There is an edition of this code by Karl von Richthofen in the Mon . Germ. hist., Leges, v . 103 . The old opinion that the law originated in south Holland is entirely without foundation . 8 . Leges Langobardorum.—We possess a fair amount of information on the origin of the last barbarian code, the laws of the Lombards . The first part, consisting of 388 chapters, is known as the Edictus Langobardorum, and was promulgated by King Rothar at a diet held at Pavia on the 22nd of November 643 . This work, composed at one time and arranged on asystematic plan, is very remarkable .

The compilers knew Roman law, but

drew upon it only for their method of presentation and for their terminology; and the document presents Germanic law in its purity . Rothar's edict was augmented by his successors: Grimoald (668) added nine chapters; Liutprand (713-735), fifteen volumes, containing a great number of ecclesiastical enactments; Ratchis (746), eight chapters; and Aistulf (755), thirteen chapters . After the union of the Lombards to the Frankish kingdom, the capitularies made for the entire kingdom were applicable to Italy . There were also special capitularies for Italy, called Capitula Italica, some of which were appended to the edict of Rothar . At an early date compilations were formed in Italy for the use of legal practitioners and jurists . Eberhard, duke and margrave of Rhaetia and Friuli, arranged the contents of the edict with its successive additamenta into a Concordia de singulis causis (829-832) . In the loth century a collection was made of the capitularies in use in Italy, and this was known as the Capitulare Langobardorum . Then appeared, under the influence of the school of law at Pavia, the Liber legis Langobardorum, also called Liber Papiensis (beginning of rrth century), and the Lombarda (end of xlth century) in two forms—that given in a Monte Cassino MS. and known as the Lombarda Casinensis, and the Lombarda Vulgata . There are editions of the Edictus, the Concordia, and the Liber Papiensis by F . Bluhme and A . Boretius in the Mon . Germ. hist., Leges, iv .

Bluhme also gives the rubrics of the Lombardae, which were published by F . Lindenberg in his Codex legum antiquarum in 1613 . For further information on the laws of the Lombards see J . Merkel, Geschichte

des Langobardenrechts (185o); A . Boretius, Die Kapitularien im Langobardenreich (1864); and C . Kier, Edictus Rotari (Copenhagen, 1898) . Cf . R . Dareste in the Nouvelle Revue historique de droit francais el etranger (1900, p . 143) . (C .