[184] Lex Ripuaria, lx. 5; cf. lxxv.
[185] Edictum Chilperici, 8.
[186] K. Lamprecht, Wirthschaft und Recht der Franken zur Zeit der Volksrechte, in the Historisches Taschenbuch, 1883, p. 57.
[187] Edictum Chilperici, art. 3: “Filii terram habeant sicut et lex salica habet; si filii defuncti fuerint, filia accipiat terras.... Et si moritur, frater terras accipiat, non vicini. Et si frater moriens non derelinquerit superstitem, tunc soror ad ipsa terra accedat possidenda.”
[188] This is expressed by the words super alterum, which mean, “on another man’s land.” It is also expressed by the heading in more than half the MSS., de eo qui villam alterius occupaverit.
[189] It is puerile to maintain that si unus vel aliqui qui in villa consistunt means a village community. Where, then, is the word which does mean community?
[190] Pertz, i. 226; Behrend, p. 115, art. 9.
[191] “De eo qui villam alterius occupaverit.”
[192] “Si infra 12 menses nullus testatus fuerit, securus sicut et alii vicini maneat.”
[193] “De hoc capitulo judicaverunt ut nullus villam aut res alterius migrandi gratia per annos tenere possit, sed in quacumque die invasor illarum rerum interpellatus fuerit, aut easdem res quærenti reddat aut eas si potest juxta legem se defendendo sibi vindicet.”