[858] Lex wisigoth., lib. iii, tit. i, 2: Walter, Corpus juris germ., I, 466; Ludlow, in Dict. Christ. Ant., I, 203. The bride-money is here called pretium, elsewhere the betrothal is styled mercatio: Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte, I, 74 n. 23. The whole of liber iii, Walter, I, 465-91, relates to marriage and allied matters.
[859] Lex burgundionum, tits. 12, 34, 51, 52, 66, 69: Walter, I, 311, 320, 329, 330, 335, 336; for the Lombards, Edictum Rotharis, c. 178 ff.: Walter, I, 710 ff., especially c. 182, which contains the form of betrothal. Compare this with the later ritual given by Canciani, II, 476, summarized by Weinhold, I, 341; Ludlow, in Dict. Christ. Ant., I, 203. See also Liutprandi leges, lib. ii, c. 7 ff., 88, 93, 99, 102, 106, 112, 115, 119, etc.: Walter, I, 759 ff.
[860] Lehmann, Verlobung und Hochzeit, 1 ff., 78, 79; Weinhold, Altdeutsches Leben, 240. Schroeder, Rechtsgeschichte, 287, denies that there are any sure traces of wife-purchase in northern law.
[861] Schroeder, op. cit., 292; Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte, 75; Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 321 ff.; Sohm, Eheschliessung, 23, 24, who thinks the fixing of a legal price of great importance, the purchase of a maid being thus distinguished from that of a thing. The bride-money is thus the nominal price of an unschätzbares object; it admits no bargaining; but the explanation of Habicht, Altdeutsche Verlobung, 12, 13, given in the text, is simpler and more probable. Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 11 ff., in connection with each code, gives a mass of details relative to the violation of the mund by illegal marriage and the amount of the composition in each case. Cf. Laboulaye, Cond. des femmes, 113; Young, in Essays, 166; and Æthelberht, 31; Thorpe, I, 11, where the wergeld is mentioned.
[862] Latin arrha, arra, or arrhabo; Greek ἀρῥᾰβων; Lombard launichild, launegild, perhaps the same as the German Lohngeld. It means "earnest money," and was used by the Romans in connection with bargains; also in general with other real contracts. Cf. Smith, Dict. Greek and Roman Ant., I, 193; Bingham, Orig. Ecc., VII, 311; Schroeder, Rechtsgeschichte, 290, 295; idem, Güterrecht, I, 39, 55 ff.; Heusler, Institutionen, I, 80 ff.; Sohm, Eheschliessung, 28; Zoepfl, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, III, 8 ff., 12-14; Davoud-Oghlou, II, 59 n. 3; Ludlow, in Dict. Christ. Ant., I, 142-44. "Subarrare" is used in the ritual of the Greek church for disposing in marriage: see the ritual in Burn, Parish Registers, 141, 142.
[863] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 28-32, maintains this view against Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 39, 40, 55, and others, who regard the arrha as a symbolical payment—a Scheinpreis or symbolischer Muntschatz. Cf. Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 19; "Zur Gesch. der Eheschliessung," ZKR., I, 364 ff.
[864] Sohm, op. cit., 33.
[865] Ibid.
[866] Ibid., 34. But Friedberg, Verlobung und Trauung, 8-10, insists on the long survival of the sale-contract.
[867] Ine, 31: Liebermann, Gesetze, 103. The phrase "and sio (seo) gyft (gift) forth ne cume" was rendered by Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 51 n. 8, followed by Schmid, Gesetze, 34, 35, note, "if the purchase price be not paid"—a manifest error. Cf. Thorpe, Ancient Laws, I, 123.