Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/233

Rh SALIC LAW 213 rnistakable evidence of a connexion betAveen the Sigambri and the Salii l that the latter are by some regarded as the descendants of the Sigambri whom Tiberius removed in 8 B.C. from their home on the right bank of the Rhine ; and it is argued that he did not transform them into the Gugerni, nor place them on the Merwede, a stream and locality near Dordrecht and Zwijndrecht, but transplanted them into the region noAv called the Veluwe, betAveen the Utrecht Vecht and the Eastern Yssel, AA'here the Romans probably made of them what the Batavi had been for years past their allies perhaps on the same condition as the latter, who merely furnished the Romans Avith men and arms. This accounts for the Sigambrian cohort in the Thracian War in 26 A.D. Some think, however, that the Salians Avere a separate tribe of the Franks who merely coalesced Avith the Sigambri (comp. Watterich, Die Ger- manen des RJieins; Waitz, Verfass., ii. 24). In 431 the Frankish (Salic) king Chlodio (Chlojo, Chlogio), said to have been a son (or the father) of Merovech, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty (Greg. Tur., ii. 9), took Cam- brai and advanced his dominion as far as the Somme (Greg., ib. ; Sid. Apoll., v. 211 sq.), though still acknow- ledging Roman supremacy. Childerich reigned from 457 to 481, and resided at Tournai, where his grave was dis- covered in 1653. His son Clovis (Chlovis, Chlodovech) in 486 extended his empire to the Seine (Greg. Tur., ii. 43, 27). For an account of him, see vol. ix. pp. 528, 529. We have very few means of ascertaining when the Salic LaAV 2 was compiled, and how long it remained in force. Our knoAvledge of the code is derived (i.) from ten texts, preserved in a comparatively large number of manuscripts, chiefly Avritten in the 8th and 9th centuries ; (ii.) from allusions to a Salic LaAV in various charters and other documents. But the Latin texts do not contain the original Salic Law. This is clear (a) from the allusions Ave find in them to a "Lex Salica" and "Antiqua Lex," which can hardly be anything but references to another and earlier Lex Salica ; (b) from a certain peculiarity and awkwardness in the construction of the Latin, which, though it is so-called Merovingian, and therefore very corrupt, Avould have been different if the texts Avere original compilations ; (c) from a number of Avords, found in nearly every paragraph of certain groups of the MSS., and noAv knoAvn as " Malberg glosses," which are evidently the re- mains of a vernacular Salic Law, and appear to have been retained in the Latin versions, in some cases because the translators seemed doubtful as to whether their Latin terms correctly rendered the meaning of the original, in other cases because these words had become legal terms, and indicated a certain fine. We do not know AA'hether the original Frankish laAv-book AA-as ever reduced to writing, or merely retained in, and handed doAvn to posterity from, the memory of some persons charged with the preservation of the laAv. All that Ave know of such an original is con- tained in a couple of prologues (apparently later than the texts themselves) found in certain MSS. of the existing 1 "Detonsus Vachalirn [the river Waal] bibat Sicamber" (Sid. Apoll., Carm., xiii. 31). " Ut Salius jam rura colat flexosque Sicambri In falcem curvent gladios" (Claudian, De Laude Stilic., i. 222). According to the Gesta Franc., c. 1, the Franks at one time inhabited the town of Sicambria. The earliest Frankish kings, who were undoubtedly kings of the Salian Franks, are often called Sigambri, and always with the object of honouring them. St Remigins, when he baptized Clovis, exhorted him, "Mitis depone colla Sicamber" (Greg. Tur., ii. 31). Venantius Fortunatus (vi. 4) says to King Chari- bert, "Cum sis progenitus clara de gente Sygamber." For further evidence, comp. Waitz, Verfass., ii. 22 sq. 2 The origin of the name Salicus, Salius, is uncertain. It is not improbable that it was derived from the river Yssel, called in the Middle Ages Isloa, Hisloa, Isla, Isela, Isalia. The region about Deveuter, in the east of Holland, is still called Salland, though it is nowhere expressly said that the Saliaus ever lived there. Latin versions. One of them states that four men " in villis quae ultra Renum sunt per tres mallos (judicial as- semblies) convenientes, omnes causarum origines sollicite discutiendo tractantes, judicium decreverunt," which must refer to a period before 358, as in that year the Salian Franks had already crossed the Rhine and occupied the Batavian island and Toxandria. Another prologue says that the Salic Law was compiled (dictare) while the Franks were still heathens (therefore before 496), and afterwards emended by Clovis, Childebert, and Chlotar. Nor can it be stated with certainty when the Latin translations which we now possess were made, but it must have been after Clovis had extended his power as far as the Loire (486-507), as in chapter 47 the boundaries of the Frankish empire are stated to be the Carbonaria Silva (in southern Belgium between Tournai and Li6ge) and the Loire. 3 There exist five Latin recensions, more or less different, (i.) The earliest of the code (handed down in four MSS. with little difference, and very likely compiled shortly after Clovis extended his empire to the Loire) consists of sixty- five chapters (with the Malberg glosses). In the course of the 6th century a considerable number of chapters appear to have been added (under the title of "edicts" or " decrees "), some of which are ascribed to Clovis, and the remainder to his successors before the end of the cen- tury. One of them (chap. 78) may with some certainty be ascribed to Hilperic (c. 574). Some others seem to have originated Avith Childebert I. and Chlotar I. (whose joint reign lasted from 511 to 558), and are known collectively as "Pactus Childeberti et Chlotharii." From internal evi- dence we may infer that this first version dates from a time when Christianity had not yet become general among the Franks, (ii.) Two MSS. contain a second recension, having the same sixty-five chapters (with the Malberg glosses) as the first, but with numerous interpolations and additions, which point to a later period. Especially may this be said of the paragraph (in chap. 13) which pronounces fines on marriages between near relatives, and which is presumed to have been embodied in the Lex Salica from an edict of Childebert II. issued in 596. In chapter 55 paragraphs six and seven speak of a " basilica," of a " basilica sancti- ficata," and of a " basilica ubi requiescunt reliquiae," but it is more than doubtful whether we have here any evi- dences of Christianity, though a later recension (the fourth) altered "basilica" into "ecclesia," the "reliquiae" into " reliquiae sanctorum," and thereby gave a decidedly Chris- tian aspect to the clause, (iii.) A third recension is con- tained in a group of nine MSS. (divided into two classes), three of which have the same text (with the Malberg glosses) as the MSS. of the first and second recensions, divided, however, systematically into ninety-nine chapters, while the other six MSS. have the same ninety-nine chapters, with very little difference, but without the Mal- berg glosses. This text seems to have been arranged in Pippin's or Charlemagne's reign (c. 765-779). The clause on marriages between near relatives mentioned above is not found in this recension. On the other hand, Ave find in chapter 55 ( = 77) fines pronounced on the murder of a presbyter and deacon (no bishop yet mentioned), Avhile the six MSS. of the second class do not contain chapter 99 ("De Chrenecruda "), but merely say that the symbolism described in that chapter had been observed in heathen times, and was to be no longer in force, (iv.) The fourth version (handed doAvn in a great number of MSS., and embodying in seventy chapters substantially the whole of the previous versions) is usually called Lex Salica Emen- data, as the text bears traces of having been emended (by Charlemagne), Avhich operation seems to have consisted in 3 Some explain Ligeris to be the river Leye, a branch of the Scheldt, in which case the compilation would fall between c. 453 and 486.