Under their system, the freedman had a right to transfer his allegiance to another patron; an act which caused the forfeiture to his former master, of at least half his property. Not only individuals, but churches, and municipal bodies, could exercise patronal rights. While the term client was generally applied by both nations to a manumitted slave, it had in fact, a much broader meaning; and denoted any person who voluntarily placed himself under the care or supervision of another of superior rank or power. This institution had more influence in preserving and perpetuating the distinctions of caste--that most pernicious and fatal of evils which cause the disintegration of nations and overthrow of governments--than any other arbitrary and oppressive regulation of ancient times. [27] Among the clients owing services to a patron, were the _buccelarii_, who derived their appellation from the _buccela_, or ration, furnished them. They may be designated “bailiffs,” as their duties resembled, in many respects, those of the Spanish _alguazil_. They formed part of the armed retinue of the patron, accompanied him to war, and guarded his property in times of revolution and disorder.--[ED.] [28] The irresponsible, and more than despotic authority vested by the Roman laws in the father over the son, was thoroughly repugnant to the Visigothic conception of justice and freedom, which had been transmitted through many generations of barbarian ancestors. The Roman father not only possessed the power of life and death over his children, but had the undisputed right to sell them into slavery. The parental and filial relation was hedged about with such restrictions that it was almost impossible to sever it during life. By the law of the Twelve Tables a son could not be free, unless he had been sold as a slave and manumitted, three times. His reduction to a condition of servitude carried with it many civil disabilities which could never be removed. The independence of a son of his father’s control rendered his inheritance of the parental estate impossible. These oppressive regulations were either greatly modified, or entirely abrogated, by the more equitable policy of Visigothic legislation. In the case of female children also, under the latter system, principles more consonant with ideas of justice prevailed. The emancipation of the sex from arbitrary restraint also made great progress, when it is remembered that a woman, no matter what her age or position, was always considered by the Romans to be in a condition of tutelage.--[ED.]