CHAP. II.: That the laws of the Barbarians were all personal.

IT is a distinguishing character of these laws of the Barbarians, that they were not confined to a certain district; the Frank was tried by the law of the Franks, the Aleman by that of the Alemans, the Burgundian

by that of the Burgundians, and the Roman by the Roman law: nay, so far were the conquerors in those days from reducing their laws to an uniform system or body, that they did not even think of becoming legislators to the people they had conquered.

The original of this I find in the manners of the Germans. These people were parted asunder by marshes, lakes, and forests; and Cæsar De bello Gallice, lib. 6. ^†538 observes, they were fond of such separations. Their dread of the Romans brought about their reunion; and yet each individual among these mixt people was still to be tried by the established customs of his own nation. Each tribe apart was free and independent; and when they came to be intermixt, the independency still continued; the country was common, the government peculiar; the territory the same, and the nations different. The spirit of personal laws prevailed therefore among those people before ever they set out from their own homes, and they carried it with them into the conquered provinces.

We find this custom established in the formula’s of Marculfus Lib. i. formul. 8. ^†539, in the codes of the laws of the barbarians, but chiefly in the law of the Ripuarians Chap. 31. ^†540 and the decrees of the kings of the first race That of Clotarius in the year 560, in the edition of the Capitularies of Balufius, vol. i. art. 4. ib. in fine. ^†541, from whence the capitularies on that subject in the second Capitul. added to the law of the Lombards, lib. i. tit. 25. cap. 71. lib. 2. tit. 41. cap. 7. and tit. 56. cap. 1. and 2. ^†542 race were derived. The children Ibid. ^†543 followed the laws of their father, the wife Ibid. lib. vi. tit. 7. cap. 1. ^†544 that of her husband, the widow Ibid. cap. 2. ^†545 came back to her own original law, and the freedman Ibid. lib. ii. tit. 35. c. 2. ^†546 was under that of his patron. Besides,

every man could make choice of what laws he pleased; but the constitution of In the law of the Lombards, lib. ii. tit. 57. ^†547 Lotharius I. required this choice should be made public.