In Thuringian law, land passes from father to son. Saxon law also recognises the right of private property; and authorises the sale and gift of land. The capitularies of the Merovingian kings, again, show that private property was the normal and regular state of things. An edict of Chilperic declares that land shall pass not only to the son according to the ancient rule, but also to the daughter, brother, or sister. In his treatment of this last point Maurer once more displays singular inaccuracy. From this law which declares the rule of hereditary succession, he draws the conclusion that before that time there had been community of property. The edict of Chilperic says that in no case shall the neighbours take possession of the land; this appears to him to mean that, up to the day this law was made, the neighbours were the real owners, and inherited before the son of the dead man. He does not notice that it is precisely in the case where a son survives that Chilperic contents himself with referring to the ancient rule of hereditary succession. The words _non vicini_ occur in the paragraph which deals with the case of the death of the owner without children. To say that if a man dies without children, the nearest heirs must be sought for, and the neighbours are not to take possession of the land, is not the same as saying that until that time the neighbours had had rights over the land. To exaggerate the meaning of a quotation to such a point as this is really to pervert it.[96] Not a single Frankish capitulary, not a single law, charter, or formula, mentions this imaginary “right of the neighbours” over the land. Not one of these documents even alludes to a village holding its land in common. The Carolinginian capitularies, which were drawn up for Germany as well as for Gaul, recognise two methods only of land-holding, the allodial, _i.e._, complete and heritable ownership; and beneficiary, _i.e._, land granted by its owner for a time and under certain conditions. They know nothing of community of ownership.