The Barbarian Codes. We should bear in mind that the codes enjoying complete or partial authority among the Bavarians, Saxons, Lombards and the other tribes and peoples are by no means ex act analogues of such modern collections as the Code Napoléon or the typical American code, that of the State of New York. If ve were to institute a comparison be tween the Barbarian Codes and their modern successors, it would not be with them as a whole but with the division known as the Criminal Code. This for the reason that the ancient codes consist in great part of pre scriptions of Wehrgelds, and statements of punishments, for such codes were compiled when the office of the state was rather to determine the customary punishment for crime and thus to limit private vengeance than to punish the offender or to regulate civil controversies and dealings. A brilliant Frenchman speaking of the resemblance between barbarian and modern codes says, "Ils leur ressemblent comme les arrièrepetits-fils peuvent ressembler aux aïeux." However much the laws of the tribes differed among themselves, they possessed in the manner or extent of their application one common characteristic that sharply de marcated them from the Roman Law. The applicability of the law of the tribes was per sonal; that of the Romans was territorial. That is to say, during a Teutonic predomi nance each person subject to it was judged by the laws of the tribe or nation to which he be longed. For example: If a Roman, a Visi goth and a Burgundian lived in the terri tory of the Salian Franks, the Roman might be judged by the Roman Law, the Visigoth by the Liber Judicum, the Burgundian by the Lex Gondobada, and the Salian by the Lex Sálica. The principle of the personality of the law, however adapted to scantily settled districts Brunner, Deutsche Rechtgeschichte, T. 1.^.254-412. I lake pleasure in referring the reader to the bibliog raphies to lie found in the erudite work by M. Paul Viollet entitled Histoire du Droit Civil Français, Paris, 1893. I acknowledge my indebtedness to M. Viollet's research.
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and loosely organized peoples, was ill suited to the state of society that followed the solidification and centralization that pro duced the nations of the Middle Ages. " Per sonality " was succeeded, though not with out a long continued and bitterly contested struggle, by " territorially." Divergent customs coalesced and modern ized rules stood in the place of obsolete tra ditions. Thus the way was prepared for the next step in legal development. This was taken when all the inhabitants of the same territory submitted to the same rule. When this forward movement was accomplished, as in the Middle Ages, " personality " disap peared. The Barbarian Codes furnish a wide field of research. The scholar hesitates as to the point of attack. In this present inquiry we must decline the investigation of the AngloSaxon, Frisian, Thuringian codes, as well as others of importance. Yes, even the vast body of Lombard law that survived in por tions of Italy down to the sixteenth century must yield precedence to the legal collections of the Franks, Visigoths and Burgundians, for the codes of these peoples are peculiarly illustrative of the phase of legal development by which the distinguishing character of the Barbarian Codes was eliminated. Of the Prankish codes that known as Salic law or the law of the Salian Franks is perhaps the most familiar to the general body of scholars. This familiarity arises from in terest excited by the dynastic effect of that error in interpretation which has excluded females from royal succession in France as well as other so-called Salic lands. This error has given to the Salic law an importance in royal affairs that equals that of the Golden Bull or the Dispositio Achillea. Two other Prankish codes must be con sidered, that of the Ripuarian Franks and that styled by Gaupp, Solim, de Cotilange and others, Lex Francorum Chamavorum. The Salian Franks, even before the earliest date which scientific research has put upon
