(F. R. C.)
GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD OF NORTH AMERICA, a Protestant church dating from October 1840, and known, in its early years, as the German Evangelical Association of the West. It was formed by six German ministers who had been ordained in Prussia and were engaged in missionary and pioneer work in Missouri and Illinois. The original organization was strengthened in 1858 by amalgamation with the German Evangelical Church Association of Ohio, and later by the inclusion of the German United Evangelical Synod of the East (1860), the Evangelical Synod of the North-West (1872) and the United Evangelical Synod of the East (1872). The church bases its position on the Bible as interpreted by the symbols of the Lutheran and Reformed churches so far as they are in agreement, points of difference being left to “that liberty of conscience which, as a component part of the basis of man’s ultimate responsibility to God himself, is the inalienable privilege of every believer.” The church, which has (1909) 985 ministers and some 238,000 communicant members, is divided into seventeen districts, with officers responsible to the General Synod, which meets every four years. There are boards for home and foreign missions, the latter operating chiefly in the Central Provinces of India. The literature of the church is mainly in German, though English is rapidly gaining ground.
GERMANIC LAWS, EARLY. Of those Germanic laws of the early middle ages which are known as leges barbarorum, we here deal with the principal examples other than Frankish, viz. (1) Leges Wisigothorum, (2) Lex Burgundionum, (3) Pactus Alamannorum and Lex Alamannorum, (4) Lex Bajuvariorum, (5) Lex Saxonum, (6) Lex Frisionum, (7) Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum, and (8) Leges Langobardorum. All these laws may in general be described as codes of procedure and tariffs of compositions. They present somewhat similar features with the Salic law, but often differ from it in the date of compilation, the amount of fines, the number and nature of the crimes, the number, rank, duties and titles of the officers, &c. For the Salic law and other Frankish laws, see [Salic Law], and for the edict of Theodoric I., which was applicable to the Ostrogoths and Romans, see [Roman Law].
For the whole body of the Germanic laws see P. Canciani, Barbarorum leges antiquae (Venice, 1781-1789); F. Walter, Corpus juris germanici antiqui (Berlin, 1824); Monumenta Germaniae historica, Leges. For further information on the codes in general, see H.M. Zöpfl, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (4th ed., Heidelberg, 1871-1876); J.E.O. Stobbe, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsquellen (Brunswick, 1860-1864); Paul Viollet, Histoire du droit civil français (2nd ed., Paris, 1893); H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906).
1. Leges Wisigothorum.—Karl Zeumer’s edition of these laws in the 4to series of the Mon. Germ. Hist. throws new light on all questions relating to their date and composition. It is now certain that the earliest written code of the Visigoths dates back to King Euric (466-485). Besides his own constitutions, Euric included in this collection constitutions of his predecessors, Theodoric I. (419-451), Thorismund (451-453), and Theodoric II. (453-466), and he arranged the whole in a logical order. Of this code fragments of chapters cclxxvi. to cccxxxvi.[1] have been discovered in a palimpsest MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (Latin coll., No. 12161), a fact which proves that the code ran over a large area. Euric’s code was used for all cases between Goths, and between them and Romans; in cases between Romans, Roman law was used. At the instance of Euric’s son, Alaric II., an examination was made of the Roman laws in use among Romans in his dominions, and the resulting compilation was approved in 506 at an assembly at Aire, in Gascony, and is known as the Breviary of Alaric, and sometimes as the Liber Aniani, from the fact that the authentic copies bear the signature of the referendarius Anian.
Euric’s code remained in force among the Visigoths of Spain until the reign of Leovigild (568-586), who made a new one, improving upon that of his predecessor. This work is lost, and we have no direct knowledge of any fragment of it. In the 3rd codification, however, many provisions have been taken from the 2nd, and these are designated by the word “antiqua”; by means of these “antiqua” we are enabled in a certain measure to reconstruct the work of Leovigild.
After the reign of Leovigild the legislation of the Visigoths underwent a transformation. The new laws made by the kings were declared to be applicable to all the subjects in the kingdom, of whatever race—in other words, they became territorial; and this principle of territoriality was gradually extended to the ancient code. Moreover, the conversion of Reccared I. (586-601) to orthodoxy effaced the religious differences among his subjects, and all subjects, qua Christians, had to submit to the canons of the councils, which were made obligatory by the kings. After this change had been accepted, Recceswinth (649-672) made a new code, which was applicable to Visigoths and Romans alike. This code, known as the Liber judiciorum, is divided into 12 books, which are subdivided into tituli and chapters (aerae). It comprises 324 constitutions taken from Leovigild’s collection, a few of the laws of Reccared and Sisebut, 99 laws of Chindaswinth (642-653), and 87 of Recceswinth. A recension of this code of Recceswinth was made in 681 by King Erwig (680-687), and is known as the Lex Wisigothorum renovata; and, finally, some additamenta were made by Egica (687-702). In Zeumer’s edition of the Leges Wisigothorum the versions of Recceswinth and Erwig, where they differ from each other, are shown in parallel columns, and the laws later than Erwig are denoted by the sign “nov.”
For further information see the preface to Zeumer’s edition; H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906); Ureña y Smenyaud, La Legislacion Gotico-hispana (Madrid, 1905).