Much controversy has arisen upon the two extra payments ‘ruoda’ and ‘in premium;’ but whatever they may have been, they need not surprise us. Though we may not be able to identify them with the ‘halsfang’ or the ‘wites’ and ‘bots’ of Anglo-Saxon laws, they were probably payments of something of the same kind, additional to the wergeld.
It is more important to remark the absence altogether of any mention of the ordinary ‘liber’ or ‘ingenuus’ between the nobilis and the litus, especially as in the title on theft the three classes are all mentioned.
According to Clause 2 of the Tit. II. of the Lex, married women had the same wergelds as men. Those unmarried were to be paid for with a double wergeld. And by Clause 4 a servus slain by a nobilis was to be paid for with 36 solidi.
By Clause 5:
Litus si per jussum vel consilium domini sui hominem occiderit, ut puta nobilem, dominus compositionem persolvat vel faidam portet. Si autem absque conscientia domini hoc fecerit, dimittatur a domino, et vindicetur in illo et aliis septem consanguineis ejus a propinquis occisi, et dominus liti se in hoc conscium non esse cum undecim juret.
If a litus shall slay a man, e.g. a nobilis, by the order or counsel of his lord, the lord shall pay the composition or bear the feud. But if the litus shall do this without the knowledge of the lord, he shall be dismissed by the lord and avengement made on himself and seven others of his blood by the near kindred of the slain, and the lord of the litus shall swear with eleven [compurgators] that he had no knowledge of the deed.
Value of the ox 2 solidi.
Title IV. on Theft is interesting as, besides mentioning the liber, it fixes the value of the four-year-old ox at the date of the clause at 2 solidi, i.e. the old ox-unit.
VI. He who by night steals a four-year-old ox, which is worth 2 solidi, shall be punished by his head.