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TKITON1C NATIONS. 



TKl'TONIC NATIONS. 



ISO 



but the true character of their religion WM the worship of Nature in 

 her different manifestations. Thor, Hertha, and Frcya were personiti- 

 eatiuus of the power of heaven, of earth, and of lore and procreation. 



IXAVIAX llTTHOLOOr.J 



Such wan the moral, aoeial, and political state of the Teutonic 

 nation* when they began their wan with Rome. The Vallum Roma- 

 num prevented them from invading the Human empire during the Lit 

 anil -jinl ii utiiries. In the 3d century they often crowed it In the 

 4th t hey conquered a considerable part of the countries on the Danube ; 

 and in the 5th they invaded and conquered all the European provinces 

 uf the Koiuan empire. 



AUmanni. [ALIMAKSI, in the GKOU. Div., under which head the 

 political history will be found.] The Lu Altuanxarmu was reviaed in 

 the time of Dagobert, king of the Franks, and again by Lantfriod, the 

 Kr.iukUh duke of Alemauuia, in the beginning of the 8th century. 

 There is no trace ef the Roman law in it except in one single cage 

 (tit. 30). The Lex Aleinaunonim. aa well as all the other earlier code* 

 of the Teutonic nations, are contained in Ferdinand Walter's ' IVrjiu.-i 

 Juris Germauici.' Sichard published an edition of it in the ' Leges 

 Ripuariorum, Bajuvariorum, et Alemannorum,' 1530, Svo. Bosideg 

 these collections, the Teutonic laws are in the collections of Herold, 

 Lindenbrog, Eccard, Heiueccius, Qeorgish, Canciaui, and Baluzius. 



Uur>/ai<iMt. [Bi'RGuxwANs, Kixua OF THE, in Bioo. Oiv.] 

 The Burgtindioiu came from north-east Germany, and first 

 insisted the Alemanni against the Romans ; but they left Germany 

 as early as the beginning of the 5th century, penetra'.ed into 

 Gaul, and formed the ).... n'ul kingdom of Burgundy on both 

 Rides of the Jura, which was incorporated with the kingdom 

 of the Franks in 534. The collection of the Burgundian laws, Lex 

 Burgundionum, ' Qundobada,' ' Gundobarda,' ' Loi Gombette,' was 

 made towards the end of the 5th century, under king Gundobald, who 

 died in 516, and was augmented (517) by king Siegmund, who died in 

 523. The legislation of Gundobald goes as far as title 42. The 

 following titles, although they contain laws and regulations of Gundo- 

 bald, were added by Siegmund, who completed the code by two 

 " additamenta," containing his own laws. Charlemagne made a third 

 additamentum, without altering the code itself. The Lex Burgun- 

 dionum, which is written in much purer Latin than most of the other 

 Teutonic codes, contains several of the rules of the Roman law concerning 

 donations, and especially testaments (tit. 43 and 60). A separate 

 edition was published at Lyon in 1611. 



Fraiikt. [FRANCE, in the GEOG. Div., gives the political history of 

 the Franks.] In the very countries which the Romans traversed on 

 their way to the woods where Varus was slain, the Uaipetes, the 

 Tencteri, the Sicambri, the Bructeri, the Ansibarii, the Marsi, the 

 Tubantes, the Chamavi, and the Chatti all tribes belonging to the 

 northern, now Saxon branch (Ingaevones) of the Germain formed a 

 confederation and called themselves Franks, either because they were 

 particularly " free and bold," or on account of their " barbed lances " 

 (frameo!). The Franks were divided into Franci Salici, who lived in 

 the Low Countries between the Zuider Zee, the Maas, and the Somme ; 

 and Franci Itipuarii, who were settled along the Rhine between 

 Nymegen and Bonn. Each of them had their code. The Lex Salica 

 was written in very barbarous Latin, under Clovis, between 484 and 

 496, and was never revised, although it contains some laws by the sons 

 i i 'I'.vis, which begin with the 62nd (03rd) title. Except one rule in 

 title 14, about the rape of free persons, and another concerning 

 marriage within the prohibited degrees, this code contains no trace of 

 the Roman law. It is very important for the history of the laws of 

 the Teutonic nations. The ancient Lex Salica is often confounded 

 with the present Salic Law, which regulates the right of succession in 

 several sovereign and noble families in Europe. But this latter Salic 

 law is only a single rule of the Lex Salica, and originally concerned 

 the succession to the tax-free estates of free or noble Franks (terra 

 Salica), which belonged to the male issue, to the exclusion of females. 

 It is contained in title 62, ' De A lode,' 1. 6 : " De terra vero Salica 

 nulla portio haerediutu mulieri venial: sod ad virilem sexum tola 

 terrae haereditas perveniat" 



This law was not peculiar to the Franci Salici : it occurs in the 

 greater part of the other ancient Teutonic laws. (Wiarda, ' Geschichtc 

 und Auslegung des Salisohen Gusetzea; ' Heineccius, 'Ant. Germ.', i., 

 p. 265, 2S5 ; a separate edition of the Lex Salica was published by 

 rithi.il, Paris, 1602, Svo.) The Lex Ripuaria was collected by 

 Theodoric, the son of Clovia, between 511 and 534. It was several 

 times revised, especially by Dagobert. It resembles the Lex Salica, 

 and contains no traces of the Roman law. 



(lolhi. [GOTHS, GOTIII, GOTHONES, for the history.] The Code 

 of the Ostro-Gotha, ' the Ediutum Thcodorici,' which was composed 

 by order of Theodoric in 500, is a collection of Roman laws. This 

 king wished to form one people of the Romans and the Goths 

 (' Kdictum,' 30), and he therefore adopted the laws of the most 

 civilised of his subject*. Leaving the Gothic laws exclusively to the 

 memory of the people, he knew that they would soon fall into 

 oblivion without being formally abolished. In some cases, how- 

 supplanted Gothic customs by Roman laws. The Wehrgeld, or Wehre, 

 -that i, the fine for crimes, was entirely abolished, and in place of 

 it the punishment of death was introduced in many cases, an innovation 

 which seemed very hard to the Goth*, who, like all the other Teutonic 



nations, inflicted the punishment of death only for high treason and a 

 few such crimes. Pithou published a separate edition of the ' Ivi 

 Theudorici' (Paris, 15r. .uienUtio ad Kdictum 



It.*. Ostrogoth.', Halae, 1816, 4to. 



The Vui-itoiht settled in the southern part of Gaul in 412, and 

 invaded Spain in 414. This country was then in the hands of the 

 Suevi, the Alani, and the Vandals, who became subject to the Goths, 

 or were forced to emigrate. In 451 the Visi-Goths, together with the 

 Franks, defeated Attila and his 700,000 Huns, Goths, Qepidae, and 

 other vassals, in the plain of Chalons-sur-Marne. Their king, Alaric 

 II., lost Gaul, except the eastern part of Languedoc and Provence, in 

 the battle of Yougld against Clovis, king of the Franks, in 507. The 

 kingdom of the Visi-Qoths lasted for three centuries, when it wa 

 thrown by the Arabs in 7 1 J. 



Among all the Teutonic nations the Visi- Goths were the fir 

 had written laws. (Isidores Hispalenais, ' Chron. ad annum \. 

 504, A.D. 466.') A collection of them was made by their king Euric 

 (466-484), which is written in Latin and has the title of ' Lex Visigo- 

 thonim.' Its present form dates from king Egica, whose nev. 

 was translated into the Gothic language under King Receswiml. It 

 contains many traces of the Roman law, and is the only early Teutonic 

 law which may be considered as a code in the modem signification of 

 the word. The Lex Viaigothorum must not be confounded with the 

 Breviariutn Alarici (Alaric II., in 506), or the Code for the K< 

 who were subjects of the Visi-Goths, and continued to live under their 

 own laws until they were abolished by the kings Cliii.. 

 Receswind, who declared the revised Lex Visigothorum obligatory on 

 all the inhabitants of the kingdom of the Visi-Goths. 



The Goths, the most civilised among the Teutonic nations, were the 

 first who adopted the Christian religion. They had a literature 

 the time when Ulphilas translated the Bible. The Ostro-Goths soon 

 disappeared among the Longobards, while the Visi-Goths pn 

 their language and nationality till the invasion of the Arabs; and 

 another portion of them maintained their nationality until .-. 

 recent period. 



These were the Gotfii-Telraxiiac, who, after the emigration of their 

 brethren to the western countries, retired to the eastern part of the 

 Chersonesus Taurica, now the Crimea, and the opposite islaivl of 

 Tainan. There they lived for eleven centuries under the suc- 

 cessive dominion of Huns, Bulgarians, Greeks, Khnzars, Tan 

 Kiptshak, and Tartars of the Crimea, and, lastly, of Turks Oain.inli-<. 

 Their part of the Crimea was called Gothia during the middle ages. 

 Busbequius, who was the ambassador of the emperor Rudolph II. at 

 Constantinople, towards the end of the 16th century, is the last writer 

 who mentions them. It appears that they afterwards adopted the 

 language, the customs, and the religion of the Tartars. Russian 

 scholars have traced the Gothic language among the Tartars of the 

 Crimea. ( ' Journal de St Pctersbourg,' 1829.) 



Another part of the Goths invaded Sweden, and founded the 

 kingdom of Gothland (Gautland), which was afterwards dhided into 

 East Gothland and West Gothland (Eystra-Gautland and \ 

 Gautland). They mixed with the Scandinavians, and it became a 

 general opinion that they were originally the same people. But a 

 comparison of the Gothic of Ulphilaa and the old Scandinav i m 

 language shows that this opinion is unfounded. (Glaus Verelius, 

 ' Gothici et Rolfi Westrogothiae Regum Historia,' Upsalis, 1664; 

 Antonius, ' Bibl. Hi-].. Vet,.', i. ; Michael Geddes, 'Miscellaneous 

 Tracts,' vol. ii. digs. 1 ; vol. iii., diss. 1 ; ' Manso, ' Geschichte des 

 Oatgothiachcn Reich* in Italien ;' Mascov, cited below, it) 



Suevi. From the country east of the Black Forest, between tin- 

 Upper Danube and the Alps, the Suevi, by which name the Quadi and 

 the Hermunduri were perhaps likewise meant, spread over Gaul ami 

 forced their way into Spain (406-409). Their king Hermanoric or 

 Hermanrich became master of Portugal, Galicia, and the western |rts 

 of Asturias, and Leon : he resided at Bretonia, near the mouth m the 

 Miiio, now a small village named Bretaita. His successors wore in- 

 dependent lungs, but in 585 the Suevi became subjects of Leo\i-jil.l, 

 king of the Visi-Goths. Their laws have not been collected. They 

 were at first Catholics, but king Remismund (461) professed Arianism ; 



air (Ari.imir) returned to the Catholic faith in 561. 

 \'a*dali. This name, which waa known to Tacitus, com: 

 various tribes of Teutonic and also of Slavonian origin, who 1m .1 in 

 Eastern Prussia and Pouierania. The Slavonian tribes were subject to 

 the Teutonic Vandals, who are often confounded with the \\.ir! 

 (Venedi), who afterwards occupied the country of the Vandals. The 

 Vandals left their homes towards the end of the 4th century, and a 

 part of them, after a sojourn in Pannonia, traversed Germany and 

 Gaul, and founded the Vandal kingdom in Spain in 409. In 417 they 

 subjugated the Alani, who had also settled in Spain. In 129 they were 

 forced by the Visi-Goths to abandon this country, and they went over 

 to Africa. Their kinp; Genseric or Geiseric took Carthage (439), all 

 Mauritania, and the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, the Baleares, ami the 

 western part of Sieily. On the 12th July, 455, they plundered Rome, 

 and their name became proverbial as that of the most barbarous 

 among the barbarians. . Their kingdom lasted till 535, when it was 

 destroyed by Beliasrius, and became a part of the Byzantine empire. 

 All the names of the Vandal kings are Teutonic, and resemble 1 1 

 the Gothic kings, a fact which proves that however mum -roiis the 



