[Sidenote:  The written laws of the barbarians.]

We see, then, that by no means all of these barbarian nations had the same standards in regard to women.  Of written laws there were none as yet.  But contact with the civilisation of Rome had its effect; and when Goths, Burgundians, Franks, and Lombards had founded new states on the ruins of the western Roman Empire, the national laws of the Germanic tribes began to be collected and put into writing at the close of the fifth century.  Between the fifth and the ninth centuries we get the Visigothic, Burgundian, Salic, Ripuarian, Alemannic, Lombardian, Bavarian, Frisian, Saxon, and Thuringian law books.  They are written in medieval Latin and are not elaborated on a scientific basis.  Three distinct influences are to be seen in them:  (1) native race customs, ideals, and traditions; (2) Christianity; (3) the Roman civil law, which was felt more or less in all, but especially in the case of the Visigoths; as was natural, since this people had been brought into closest touch with Rome.  Inasmuch as the barbarians allowed all peoples conquered by them to be tried under their own laws, the old Roman civil law was still potent in all its strength in cases affecting a Roman.  Let us endeavour to glean what we can from the barbarian codes on the matter of women’s rights.

[Sidenote:  Guardianship.]

The woman was always to be under guardianship among the Germanic peoples and could never be independent under any conditions.  Perhaps we should rather call the power (mundium) wielded by father, brother, husband, or other male relative a protectorate; for in those early days among rude peoples any legal action might involve fighting to prove the merits of one’s case, and the woman would therefore constantly need a champion to assert her rights in the lists.  Thus the woman was under the perpetual guardianship of a male relative and must do nothing without his consent, under penalty of losing her property.[304] Her guardian arranged her marriage for her as he wished, provided only that he chose a free man for her husband[305]; if the woman, whether virgin or widow, married without his consent, she lost all power to inherit the goods of her relatives[306]; and her husband was forced to pay to her kin a recompense amounting to 600 solidi among the Saxons, 186 among the Burgundians.[307]

[Sidenote:  Marriage.]

The feeling of caste was very strong; a woman must not marry below her station.[308] By a law of the Visigoths she who tried to marry her own slave was to be burned alive[309]; if she attempted it with another’s bondman, she merited one hundred lashes.[310] The dowry was a fixed institution as among the Romans; but the bridegroom regularly paid a large sum to the father or guardian of the woman.  This wittemon was regarded as the price paid for the parental authority (mundium) and amounted among the Saxons to 300 solidi.[311] As a matter of fact this custom