The payment for taking a wife, in all the divisions, was 300 solidi (Tit. VI.), to be paid to her parentes if with their consent. If with her consent, but not with theirs, the payment was doubled. If she were seized without the consent of either, she must be restored to her ‘parentes’ with 300 solidi to them and 240 to her. Tit. VIII., however, shows that with regard to dower the customs of the several districts varied. Among the Ostfali and the Angrarii, if a wife bore children, she, the mother, retained the dower received on marriage for her life and left it to her children. Should she survive her children her next heirs received it. If there were no children, the rule was dos ad dantem, i.e. it went to the husband, or, if he were not alive, to his heirs. Amongst the Westfali, after a woman had borne children she kept the dower till her death. After her death, dos ad dantem, it went to the husband or the husband’s next heirs. Further, Tit. IX. states that as regards what had been acquired by man and wife together, amongst the Westfali the wife received half, but amongst the Ostfali and Angrarii nothing: she had to be content with her dower.
The final clause of the laws, which describes the currency in which the payments were made, is important. According to the best manuscripts it was as follows:[165]—
Wergelds to be paid in solidi of two tremisses, i.e., value of the bullock.
Tit. XVIII. De Solidis.
(1) Solidus est duplex; unus habet duos tremisses, quod est bos anniculus duodecim mensium: vel ovis cum agno.
(1) The solidus is of two kinds; one has two tremisses, which is the one-year-old bullock, or a sheep with lamb.
(2) Alter solidus tres tremisses id est, bos 16 mensium.
(2) The other solidus, three tremisses: that is, the ox of sixteen months.
(3) Majori solido aliæ compositiones, minori homicidia componuntur.
(3) Other compositions are compounded for with the greater solidus, homicide with the lesser one.