As regards the wergelds of the clergy in the Alamannic law the Church seems to claim triple penalties. The wergelds of the clergy are as follows, according to the Lex Hlotharii (XI. to XVII.):—
| Bishop as that of the Dux or Rex. | ||
| Priest, parochial | 600 | solidi |
| Deacon and monk | 300 | ” |
| Other clerics like the rest of their parentes. | ||
| Liber per cartam (the Ripuarian tabularius) | 80 | ” |
| The free colonus of the Church as other Alamanni. | ||
According to the Bavarian law (Tit. I. c. x.) a bishop’s death was to be paid for by the weight in gold of a leaden tunic as long as himself, or its value in cattle, slaves, land, or villas, if the slayer should have them; and he and his wife and children are to be in servitio to the Church till the debt is paid.
The lower clergy and monks were to be paid for according to their birth double; parochial priests threefold. (I. c. viii. and ix.)
The wife’s inheritance goes back to her kindred if no children born alive.
In the Liber secundus of the Alamannic law is an interesting clause which throws some light upon the position of married women.
(XCV.) If any woman who has a paternal inheritance of her own, after marriage and pregnancy, is delivered of a boy, and she herself dies in childbirth, and the child remains alive long enough, i.e. for an hour, or so that it can open its eyes and see the roof and four walls of the house, and afterwards dies, its maternal inheritance then belongs to its father.
This is natural, but it seems to show that if the child had been born dead and the wife had died without children her paternal inheritance would have gone back to her kindred and not to her husband.
In the absence of other evidence this is perhaps enough to show that in accordance with tribal custom the kindred of the wife had not lost all hold upon their kinswoman, and therefore that she by her marriage had not passed altogether out of her own kindred.
Traditional value of cattle stated in gold tremisses.