Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/235

Rh SALIC LAW 215 (3) With the Ripuarian Law the Lex Francorum Chamavorum is intimately connected. The two MSS. in which it is preserved call it " Notitia vel comraemoratio de ilia ewa (law) qute se ad Amorem habet." Amor is the district called Hamarlant, Hamalant, Ham- melant, Hamuland, in the 9th century. This name was derived from the Chamavi, a German state mentioned by Tacitus (Ann., xiii. 55 ; Germ., c. 33, 34), which afterwards constituted a part of the Prankish empire. In the 9th century Hamalant was a part of the Pagus Ribuariorum. The whole code consists of only forty- eight short paragraphs, which are apparently nothing but state- ments made in answer to the ' ' missi doniinici " whom Charlemagne despatched to the various nations of his empire to inquire into their condition and to codify their respective laws. It may therefore be ascribed to the beginning of the 9th century (802 or 803). Professor Sohm has published it as an appendix to the Lex Ripuaria (Mon. Germ. Hist., Legg., vol. v. part 2, p. 269). (4) The Lex Alamannorum was (according to the prologue men- tioned above) first compiled by the East-Frankish king Thierry (511-534), and afterwards improved and renewed by Childebert I. (511-558), Chlotar I. (558), and Dagobert I. (622-638). Although not much reliance can be placed on this statement, the researches of Professor Merkel, who edited the code from forty-eight MSS. (Mon. Germ. Hist., Legg., vol. iii. ), show that some kind of code called Pactus (of which he published three fragments) was com- piled for the Alamanni in the reign of Chlotar I. (537-561). Under Chlotar II. (613-622) a more complete code, consisting of seventy- five chapters, was compiled, which was revised under Dagobert (628) and augmented with chapters 76-97 ; it was again altered and augmented under the Alamannic duke Landfrid (d. 730), whose work Merkel calls Lex Alamannorum Lantfridana, and finally aug- mented in the Carolingian period (hence called Lex Alamannorum Karolina sive rcformata), perhaps early in the 9th century. The code consists of 97 (in some MSS. 98, 99, 105, and 107) chapters. (5) The Lex Bajuvariorum, or Pactus Bawarorum, had the same origin as the Lex Alamannorum, if we accept the somewhat un- reliable statement of the prologue spoken of above. It seems probable that some kind of code was compiled for the Bavarians during the reigns of Clovis's sons. Those paragraphs which treat of ecclesiastical affairs and the position of the Bavarian dukes to- wards the Frankish kings (tit. ii. chap. xx. 3) have clearly been inserted in Dagobert's time, if not later. There is a great similarity between certain provisions of the Bavarian and the Alamannic codes, and also some paragraphs of the former have been derived from the earliest recension of the Lex "Wisigothorum. Some addi- tions were made by Duke Thassilo II. (763-775), some by Charle- magne (803), some by King Louis (c. 906), and, finally, some by Duke Henry II. (end of 10th century). The emperor Henry III. is alleged to have granted the law of the Bavarians to the Hunga- rians in 1044. It consists of twenty-one chapters, each containing several paragraphs. Professor Merkel distinguishes three different recensions of the code and various additions, which he edited in 1863 from thirty-five MSS. for the Mon. Germ. Hist., Legg., iii. p. 183 sq. (6) For the Lex Frisionum, see vol. ix. p. 789. (7) The Lex Angliontm et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum, con- sists of seventeen chapters. Early editions of this code contained some legal decisions identical with those of Judge Wlemarus in the appendix to the Lex Frisionum (L. Angl. Jud. Wlem., 1, 2, 6, 7 = L. Fris., 22, 54, 55, 86 ; Addit, i. 18), from which circum- stance it was inferred that the compilation, or at least the revision, of both codes took place at one and the same time (802-803). But Richthofen, who edited the work in Mon. Germ. Hist. (Legg., v. p. 103), and who rejects these legal decisions of Wlemarus as not belonging to this code at all, is of opinion (p. 115) that the code was not written even at the end of the 9th century. Opinions have differed also as to the region where the law originated. Some ascribe it to the Angli and Werini, who inhabited the Holstein and Schleswig regions ; others attribute it to Thuringia proper ; and in more recent times it has been ascribed to Thuringia on the left bank of the Rhine ( = South Holland, Brabant, &c. ). It was also argued that the code must have originated in a region where Frisian and Frankish elements had become mixed, both in language and in law, and where the Frankish preponderated. That the code originated in South Holland was inferred from its agreement in some respects with the Lex Chamavorum, which originated in the region of the lower Rhine and the Yssel. And the law may have come to be in force among the allied tribes on the Elbe in northern Thuringia, even though it originated in South Holland. If it originated iu Thuringia, it must have been transplanted to the Holstein and Schleswig regions ; and it was used by the Danes, as is clear from Canute bringing it over to England when he con- quered the country in 1013. 1 But in England the code was simply called " Lex Werinorum, h.e., Thuringorum," but no longer "Anglorum," as the Danes called the whole Anglo-Saxon popula- 1 Comp. Canuti Constit. d Foresta, c. 33, ' Emendet secundum pretium liominis merliocris, quod secundum Legeni Werinorum, i.e., Thuringorum [ = L. Angl. and Werin., i. 2] est 200 sulidorum." tion which they had conquered "Angli," and the law which they found in force "Lex Auglorum" (Legg. Edw. Conf., c. 30). Hence it has been concluded that what was called in England Lex Danorum is nothing but the Lex Werinorum. When the Normans conquered England in 1066 they soon recognized that this Lex Danorum and the Law of the Norwegians (Lex Noricorum or Norwegeusium), who had migrated to England in earlier times, were practically one and the same. Hence William I., declaring that the population which he had brought over with him from Normandy were also originally Norwegians, resolved to abrogate the Anglo-Saxon laws and to leave only that of the Danes in force (Legg. Edw. Conf., c. 30), a plan which only the most persevering entreaties of the Anglo-Saxon barons could induce him to abandon. The latest edition of this code (1875) is by K. F. von Richthofen, who is decidedly against the South Holland origin of the law. (8) The Lex Saxonum consists of nineteen chapters or sixty-six articles or paragraphs, and appears to be composed of three essential parts, the oldest of which (arts. 1-23) seems to have existed before the later additions known as the Capitulare Paderbornense (de partibus Saxonise) of 785 (or 777) and the Capitulare Saxonicum of 797 (in which a "Lex Saxonum" and "Ewa Saxonum" are referred to ; comp. chaps. 33 and 7, 8, 10) ; the second part (arts. 24-60) must have been compiled after that date ; and the third (arts. 61-66) was probably added in 798; when Charlemagne had removed a part of the Saxon nobility as hostages from their own country ; while the whole was united into one code at the diet of Aix-la-Chapelle iu 802-803 (Merkel, Lex Saxonum, Berlin, 1853). The enactments of this code are far more severe than those of any other of the barbarian laws, and it often inflicts capital punish- ment for crimes which the other laws punish with mere pecuniary fines, as, for instance, theft and incendiarism. This rigour Charle- magne softened by reserving to himself the right of asylum and pardon, but it was expressly retained and granted anew by Conrad II. (1024-1039). The code w^as edited in 1875 by Von Richthofen in Mon. Germ. Hist., Legg., v. p. 1 sq. (9) The Leges Anglo-Saxonum are for a great part written in Anglo-Saxon, and as such may be reckoned among the most ancient monuments of the Teutonic language. They appeared mostly in the form of constitutions promulgated by the various kings (some- what like the Fraukish capitularies), with the co-operation of an assembly of leading men ("sapientes," Beda, H. E., ii. 5), and fre- quently also of the clergy (concilium, synodus). They may be divided into two classes, secular and ecclesiastical laws. Some- times they are mere judicial sentences (d6m) or treaties of peace (frid}. The earliest laws we have are those of jEthelbert, king of Kent (c. 561) ; then follow those of Hlotfhaer (c. 678) and Eadric (c. 685), Wihtraed (c. 691), Ine (after 688), Alfred (after 871), Eadward (after 901), Jlthelstan (after 924), Eadmund (after 941), Edgar (after 959), ^Ethelred II. (after 978), the Danish Canute (after 1017), William the Conqueror (after 1066). Then follow two collections of laws, the so-called " Leges Edwardi Confessoris " and "Leges Henrici I.," which, drawing from the Anglo-Saxon Law, represent the modifications which had been made in the earliest laws during the Norman period, and the introduction of new elements derived from the Salic and Ripuarian Laws. Besides these there are a good many canons and other ecclesiastical ordi- nances enacted under the archbishops Theodore and Ecgbert and King Edgar, &c. ; comp. ENGLAND, vol. viii. pp. 285, 303. There is an edition of these laws by B. Thorpe (fol., London, 1840), another by Dr Reinh. Schmid (Die Gesetze dcr Angel- Sachsen, 2d ed., 8vo, Leipsic, 1858). (10) The compilation of the Lex Burgundionum is usually as- cribed to Gundobald (d. 516), whence it is also called Lex Gundo- bada (corrupted Gombata, Fr. Lot Gombette). It consists, according to its first prologue, of i collection of constitutions enacted partly by the earlier kings of Burgundy, partly by Gundobald, and revised by a general Burgundian diet. This agrees with the statements contained in its second prologue, which itself may be regarded as an independent constitution or edict to the counts and judges re- garding the introduction of the law. In the rubric which it bears in the MSS. it is said that it was promulgated at Lyons on 29th March in the second year of Gundobald (some MSS. read Sigis- mund). As the year of Gundobald's accession is supposed to be 465, the promulgation must have taken place in 467, or, if we assume that the year is meant in which Gundobald became sole king of Burgundy (478), the date of the law would be 480, while it would be 517 if we adopt the reading " Sigisnmnd " of some of the MSS. But as the law in its present state contains decrees both of Gundobald and of Sigismund we can only regard the whole as a compilation effected by the latter. In early editions the law was divided into eighty-nine chapters, with two additamenta, the first of which (consisting of twenty chapters) was ascribed to Sigismund, the second (of thirteen chapters) to his brother and successor, the last king of the Burgundians, Godomar. But Professor Bluhme (who published the law in 1863, in Mon. Germ. Hist., Legg., iii. 497) places chap. i. (De causis itineribus et aliis servitutibus) and chap. xix. (De liberali causa) of the first additameutuna as chaps.