[175] Salic law, 33; Ripuarian law, 42. Cf. the anecdote told by Gregory of Tours, _Hist._, x. 10, which is the opposite of what Maurer here maintains. [176] Maurer, _Einleitung_, p. 164. [177] _Ibid._, pp. 165-166. [178] _Ibid._, p. 167. [179] _Lex Alamann._, xlv. Pertz, p. 60; edit. Lehmann, pp. 104-105. It is the word _pares_ which deceives him. He believes he sees in this word the “markgenossen”; but _pares_ means the companions, the friends, those who have adopted the cause of one or other of the adversaries. Similarly article 93 of the same law punishes the man who, while with the army, deserts _parem suum_, _i.e._, his comrade in the battle. [180] Maurer, p. 140.--Cf. _Lex Burgund._, xlix, 1: “locorum comites atque præpositi.” [181] Maurer, p. 140. Marculf, i, 7: “Consensus civium pro episcopatu. Piissimo ac precellentissimo domno illo rege (regi) vel, (remember that _vel_ meant _and_) seniori commune illo.” _Commune_ is for _communi_; and the meaning of the whole is, “To our most pious and excellent king, chief of all the land.” The words which follow show clearly that the letter is addressed to the king. “Principalis vestræ clementia novit ... etc., suppliciter postulamus ut instituere dignetis inlustrem virum illum cathedræ illius successorem.” [182] Documents of 1279 and 1290 in Wurdtwein, _Novia subsidia_, xii. 218 and 261: “pratum spectans ad Almeindam nostræ communitatis.” Document of 1231 in Guden, _Codex dipl._, iii. p. 1102: “contulerunt pascua communitatis quæ vulgariter Almeina vocantur.” [183] Karl Lamprecht, _Deutsches Wirthschaftsleben im Mittelalter_, Leipzig, 1886. [Summary in _Zeitsch. f.d. gesamte Staatswissenschaft_, XLVI., 527 seq.] [184] _Lex Ripuaria_, lx. 5; cf. lxxv. [185] _Edictum Chilperici_, 8. [186] K. Lamprecht, _Wirthschaft und Recht der Franken zur Zeit der Volksrechte_, in the _Historisches Taschenbuch_, 1883, p. 57. [187] _Edictum Chilperici_, art. 3: “Filii terram habeant sicut et lex salica habet; si filii defuncti fuerint, filia accipiat terras.... Et si moritur, frater terras accipiat, non vicini. Et si frater moriens non derelinquerit superstitem, tunc soror ad ipsa terra accedat possidenda.” [188] This is expressed by the words _super alterum_, which mean, “on another man’s land.” It is also expressed by the heading in more than half the MSS., _de eo qui villam alterius occupaverit_. [189] It is puerile to maintain that _si unus vel aliqui qui in villa consistunt_ means a village community. Where, then, is the word which does mean community? [190] Pertz, i. 226; Behrend, p. 115, art. 9. [191] “De eo qui villam alterius occupaverit.” [192] “Si infra 12 menses nullus testatus fuerit, securus sicut et alii vicini maneat.”