According to this clause, in the absence of the parentes, their half share still has to be paid by the kindred of the slayer, but again the fisc gets control of the lapsed portion which the parentes would have taken had they been forthcoming.
Addition to the Lex by Childebert I. A.D. 515-551 in the interest of the widow (?) of the person slain.
Amongst some clauses said to be added to the Lex Salica by Childebert I. (A.D. 515 to 551) is a very important one, Tit. CI., De hominem ingenuo occiso, which seems to show that, at that date, composition was still encouraged by the law, but that some alteration was necessary in the division of the wergeld amongst the kindred of the slain.[100]
Si quis hominem ingenuum occiderit et ille qui occiderit probatum fuerit, ad parentibus debeat secundum legem componere; media compositione filius habere debet. Alia medietate exinde ei debet ut ad quarta de leude illa adveniat. Alia quarta pars parentibus propinquis debent. Id est, tres de generatione patris et tres de generatione matris. Si mater viva non fuerit, media parte de leudae illi parentes inter se dividant. Hoc est, tres de patre proximiores et tres de matre. Ita tamen qui proximiores fuerint parentes de prædictis conditionibus prendant.
If any one shall have killed a freeman and he who slew shall have been ascertained, he ought to make composition according to the law to the parentes. The son (Cod. 2 ‘sons’) ought to have half the composition. After that, of the other half it ought to be for her (? the mother), so that she (?) comes in for a quarter of that leuda (or wergeld). The other quarter ought to go to the near parentes, i.e. three [parentillæ] of the kindred of the father and three of the kindred of the mother. If the mother shall not be alive, the half leuda (wergeld) those parentes divide amongst themselves, i.e. the three proximiores [i.e. nearest parentes] of the father and three of the mother, but so that the nearest parentes under the aforesaid conditions shall take [two thirds].
Et tres partes illis duabus dividendam dimittat. Et nam et illis duabus ille qui proximior fuerit, illa tertia parte duas partes prendant, et tertia parte patre suo demittat.
Three parts again it leaves to be divided between the other two [parentillæ]. For also of those two the nearest [parentilla] takes two thirds and leaves one third for [the parentilla of] the previous ancestor.[101]
There must have been some special object in this addition to the Lex. Brunner, following the very plausible suggestion of Wilda and Boretius, points out that the ‘mother,’ who, if alive, is to share in the second half of the wergeld, may be the mother of the son who takes the first half, i.e. the widow of the person slain, otherwise why should the mother alone be mentioned, and not the father of the slain?[102] If this view may be accepted the object of the clause becomes at once apparent.
Under Tit. LXII. no share is given to the widow. And we have learned from the Cymric example the reason why tribal custom gave no part of the wergeld of the husband to the widow. It was simply because there was no blood relationship between them. The widow and her kindred would have taken no part in the feud, and so took no part of the galanas in composition for the feud.
The silence of Tit. LXII. and the force of the Cymric precedent warrant the inference that it may have been so also under ancient Salic custom. However this may be, the fact that an addition to the Lex was made, whether in favour of the widow or of the mother, seems to show that Roman and Christian influences had introduced other considerations than those of blood relationship, so breaking in upon tribal custom and necessitating special legislation.