Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/470

 The Barbarian Codes. from the official countersignature of Anianus the referendary that was attached to each authentic copy — as the Lex Romana Visigothorum or as the Breviarium Alarici, and it is under the last name or rather its angli cized version, the Breviary of Alaric, that we best know this important code. Important because for centuries in western Europe it was the Roman Lavs', and when that law was cited the reference was to the Breviarium of Alaric and not to the Code of Thcodosius. Important because before the discovery 'of the palimpsest of Verona (1816) we know scarcely anything of the Institute of Gains or the Sentences of Paulus save from the Breviarium Alarici. This "Barbarian Code" contained by no means contracted abridgments of the Code ofTheodosius, the Novelles ofThcodosius and his successors, the Institutes of Gains, the Sentences of Paulus, Papinian, and other juris-consults. All these texts, save the In stitutes of Gains were accompanied by a com mentary styled the Interpretatio. Although the manuscripts of the RomanoVisigothic code antedate the purely Visigothic code, yet the laws contained by the latter were centuries older in usage among the Goths than the Roman laws. But the pres ervation of these early laws has been such that they have come to us in a series of frag ments concerning which unsettled contro versies still rage. These fragments have been attributed to the Kings Euric (466-483); Theudis (531-548); Alaric II (483-506); and to Leovigild (570-586). It is, however, that code attributed to Recceswinth (652—672) which is an enlarge ment and continuation of the code of Chindaswinth (644—652) that is of the greatest importance to our present inquiry. Chindaswinth and Recceswinth gave a decided forward impetus to the long process of amalgamation between the Goths and the Spanish or descendants of the Roman pro vincials, when they deprived the Spanish of their Visigotho-Roman law-book, the Bre

431

viarium Alarici, and substituted what was perhaps the first draft of the code known to the middle ages as the Liber Judicum or Forum Judicum. The Forum Judicum is by no means as purely Teutonic as the Lex Sálica or Lex Ribuariorum. It is strongly tinctured by the Roman Law although the Roman Law was formerly interdicted by it. By this inter diction a powerful blow was struck at the "personality" of law. In the middle ages the Forum Judicum was translated into Castilian and became the celebrated Fuero Juzgo, under which name it enjoyed a long success and high authority in Spain. The Burgundians were old neighbors and allies (fœderati) of the Romans. Indeed, they were called to the aid of Rome by Valentinian I (370), and later in the middle of the fifth century were sought by the GalloRomans. In short the Burgundians were friends and imitators of the Romans, and it is therefore natural that Roman Law should find a place of honor in the Burgundian code, or codes, for, as among the Visigoths, there were two codes. The first of these was the Burgundian code proper. This was known by various titles : Liber constitutionum; Lex inter Burgundiones et Roma nos; Liber legum Gundobati; Liber Gundobati and Lex Gundobada. Perhaps the most common citation was to the Lex Gundobada. Gondobad, King of the Burgundians, gathered the customary law and the edicts of his predecessors and promulgated two codes. That cited by his name is his second code, revised by his son Sigismond in 517. The Lex Gundobada is impregnated with Ro man Law. It differed from the Prankish codes in that it did not preserve the doctrine of " personality." It differed from the Gothic Liber Judicum, for by that law the strict "territoriality" of the law was enforced. The Lex Gundoba illustrated an intermediate stage of legal development in that it allowed the Burgundians in certain process to be judged by the Burgundo-Roman Law.