A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3Howard, George Elliott
History
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3
Howard, George Elliott
Families; Marriage -- History
Similar evidences of the sale-marriage are afforded by the South
German folk-laws.[853] Among the Salian Franks the bride-price
appears in form of the _arrha_, to be described presently, through
the payment to the guardian by the bridegroom of the "golden
shilling and the silver penny." In this form the _arrha_ was paid
by the representatives of Chlodwig, the Frankish king, at his
betrothal with Chlotilde, sister and ward of Gundobad, king of
the Burgundians.[854] Faint traces of wife-purchase survive in
the Bavarian[855] and Alamannian codes;[856] while in the _lex
saxonum_ marriage is simply described as _uxorem emere_, or "buying
a wife."[857] The sale-contract retains much of its primitive
character, in spite of ecclesiastical influences, in the West
Gothic, Burgundian, and Lombard codes. Among the West Goths the
betrothal was almost as binding as a marriage. The father or other
legal protector might contract his daughter or ward against her
will. If she disregards such a contract and marries another man,
both bride and bridegroom are "handed over to the power" of him
to whom she was betrothed by her father or guardian, "and any
relatives abetting the marriage shall pay a penalty of gold."[858]
The provisions of the other two codes last mentioned are conceived
in a similar spirit.[859] Moreover, even in the customs of the
Scandinavian North forms and phrases have survived which seem to
point unmistakably to the former existence of wife-purchase.[860]
[853] An exhaustive study of these laws is, of course, not
attempted. They are thoroughly exploited in the works of Sohm,
Brunner, Schroeder, Friedberg, Dargun, and others.
[854] "Legati offerentes solidum et denarium, ut mos erat
Francorum, eam partibus Chlodovei sponsant: placitum
ad praesens petentes, ut ipsam ad conjugium traderet
Chlodoveo."--FREDEGARIUS, _Greg. Turon. hist. epit._, c.
xviii: in GUADET AND TARANNE'S ed., IV, 172, 173; or in
GIESEBRECHT'S trans., II, 273-75. Compare SOHM,
_Eheschliessung_, 32 n. 21; SCHROEDER, _Güterrecht_, I,
55 n. 3, and authorities cited; MERIL, _Des formes_,
30; LEBER, _Des Coutumes_, 24; WEINHOLD,
_Deutsche Frauen_, I, 323; FRIEDBERG, _Eheschliessung_,
19 n. 7. The price of a maid is not fixed in the _lex salica_;
but in c. 44 the price of a widow is given (BEHREND,
58); and elsewhere the woman's _mund_ is fixed at 62-1/2 solidi.
FICKER, _Untersuchungen zur Rechtsgeschichte_, III, 400,
401, regards the _arrha_, not as a survival of the bride-price,
but as a symbol of mutual troth.
[855] SOHM, _op. cit._, 29 n. 15; FRIEDBERG,
_Eheschliessung_, 19. _Cf._, however, WEINHOLD, _op.
cit._, I, 323, who says that wife-purchase has disappeared
from the Bavarian and Alamannian laws. See PERTZ AND
BRUNNER'S ed., _Mon. germ. hist.: legum_, III, 183-496
(_Leges baiuwariorum_), 1-182 (_Leges alamannorum_).
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