[62] The law of the Lombards had a more elaborate system of fines for wounds than did the Salic code. For example, knocking out a man's front teeth was to be paid for at the rate of sixteen solidi per tooth; knocking out back teeth at the rate of eight solidi per tooth; fracturing an arm, sixteen solidi; cutting off a second finger, seventeen solidi; cutting off a great toe, six solidi; cutting off a little toe, two solidi; giving a blow with the fist, three solidi; with the palm of the hand, six solidi; and striking a person on the head so as to break bones, twelve solidi per bone. In the latter case the broken bones were to be counted "on this principle, that one bone shall be found large enough to make an audible sound when thrown against a shield at twelve feet distance on the road; the said feet to be measured from the foot of a man of moderate stature."
[63] The man who had "thrown away his shield" was the coward who had fled from the field of battle. How the Germans universally regarded such a person appears in the Germania of Tacitus, Chap. 6 (see [p. 25]). To impute this ignominy to a man was a serious matter.
[64] This was the so-called "triple wergeld." That is, the lives of men in the service of the king were rated three times as high as those of ordinary free persons.
[65] Here is an illustration of the personal character of Germanic law. There is one law for the Frank and another for the Roman, though both peoples were now living side by side in Gaul. The price put upon the life of the Frankish noble who was in the king's service was 600 solidi ([§3]), but that on the life of the Roman noble in the same service was but half that amount. The same proportion held for the ordinary freemen, as will be seen by comparing [§§1] and [6].
[66] A leet was such a person as we in modern times commonly designate as a serf—a man only partially free.
[67] This has been alleged to be the basis of the misnamed "Salic Law" by virtue of which no woman, in the days of the French monarchy, was permitted to inherit the throne. As a matter of fact, however, the exclusion of women from the French throne was due, not to this or to any other early Frankish principle, but to later circumstances which called for stronger monarchs in France than women have ordinarily been expected to be. The history of the modern "Salic Law" does not go back of the resolution of the French nobles in 1317 against the general political expediency of female sovereigns [see [p. 420]].
[68] The wergeld was the value put by the law upon every man's life. Its amount varied according to the rank of the person in question. The present section specifies how the wergeld paid by a murderer should be divided among the relatives of the slain man.
[69] That is, to the king's treasury.
[70] James H. Ramsay, The Foundations of England (London, 1898), I., p. 121.
[71] Bede has just been describing a plague which rendered the Britons at this time even more unable than usual to withstand the fierce invaders from the north; also lamenting the luxury and crime which a few years of relief from war had produced among his people.