SALIC LAW. 
repetition of the words Si aliqua, at the beginning of the 
articles. The most probable opinion is that which derives 
the word from the ancient Franks, who were called Sali, 
Salici , and Salingi, on account of the Sala, a river of an¬ 
cient Germany. Bouteroue gives another plausible origin of 
the word: he says it comes from the word salich, which, in 
the old Teutonic language, signified salutary ; and that the 
French in this law imitated the policy of the ancient Ro¬ 
mans, who made salutary laws, which the magistrates were 
to have before them when they administered justice. This 
he confirms from a curious figure taken out of the Notitia 
Imperii, where the book is represented covered with gold, 
with this inscription, Leges salutares. 
Du Haitian, after a critical examination of the Salic law, 
declares it to have been an expedient of Philip the Long, 
in 1316, for the exclusion of the daughter of Louis Hutin 
from inheriting the crown. Father Daniel, on - the other 
hand, maintains, that it is quoted by authors much more 
ancient than Philip the Long; and that Clovis is the real 
author of it. The opinion of Du Haitian has been con¬ 
futed by Messrs. Vertot and de Foncemange, in the Mem. 
de l’Acad. des Inscript, tom. ii. p. 603, &c., and tom. viii. 
p. 490, &c., who trace the existence of the Salic laws to 
the kings of the first and second race. The style which is 
scarcely intelligible, and which is in a Latinized dialect, is 
a mark of its antiquity. 
After the Franks had quitted their country, says Montes¬ 
quieu, they made a compilement of the Salic laws, with the 
assistance of the sages of their own nation. According to 
M. Leibnitz, in his Treatise of the Origin of the Franks, the 
Salic law was made before the reign of Clovis; but it could 
not be before the Franks had quitted Germany, for they did 
not at that time understand the Latin tongue. 
Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most 
powerful tribe or nation of the Franks appointed four vene¬ 
rable chieftains to compose the Salic laws; and their labours 
were examined and approved in three successive assemblies 
of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed 
several articles that were incompatible with Christianity. 
The Salic law was again amended by his sons; and at length, 
under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and pro¬ 
mulgated in its actual force, 100 years after the establishment 
of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the 
customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and published ; 
and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and 
country, had accurately studied the two national laws, which 
still prevailed among the Franks : the former, or Salic law, 
extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire ; and the 
latter, or Ripuarian, might be obeyed from the same forest 
to the Rhine, 
Latin appears to have been the original language of the 
Salic law. It was probably composed in the beginning of 
the fifth century, before the era (A.D. 421.) of the real or 
fabulous Pharamond. 
The tribe of the Ripuarian Franks having joined itself, 
under Clovis, to that of the Salians, it preserved its own 
customs; and Theodoric, king of Austrasia, ordered them to 
be reduced to writing. He collected likewise the customs 
of those Bavarians and Germans who were dependant on 
his kingdom. The Thuringian code was given by the same 
Theodoric, for the Thuringians were his subjects. As the 
Frisians were subdued by Charles Martel and Pepin, their 
law cannot be prior to those princes. Charlemagne, the 
first that reduced the Saxons, gave them the law still extant. 
As soon as the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Lombards, 
had founded their respective kingdoms, they reduced their 
laws to writing, not with a view of obliging the vanquished 
nations to conform to their customs, but with a design of 
regulating their own conduct by them. In the Salic and 
Ripuarian laws, as well as in those of the Alemans, Bava¬ 
rians, Thuringians, and Frisians, there is an admirable sim¬ 
plicity : they breathe an originial rusticity, and a spirit which 
no other spirit had weakened. They received but very few 
alterations, because all those people, except the Franks, re¬ 
567 
mained in Germany; and even the Franks themselves laid 
there the foundation of a great part of their empire, so that 
they had none but German laws. The same observation is 
not applicable to the laws of the Visigoths, of the Lombards, 
and Burgundians; their character altered considerably, from 
the great change which happened in the character of those 
people, who had settled in their new habitations. The kings 
of the first race struck out of the Salic and Ripuarian laws 
whatever was absolutely inconsistent with Christianity, but 
left the chief part untouched; but this cannot be said of the 
laws of the Visigoths, which were new-moulded by their 
kings, and by the clergy. The laws of the Burgundians, 
and especially those of the Visigoths, admitted of corporal 
punishments; whereas these were not tolerated by the Salic 
and Ripuarian laws. They preserved their character much 
better. The bishops had an immense authority at the court 
of the Visigoth kings. All the maxims, principles, and views 
of the inquisition, afterwards established, are owing to the 
code of the Visigoths, and the monks only copied against 
the Jews the laws formerly enacted by bishops. The laws 
of the Burgundians and Visigoths were impartial; but this 
was not the case with the Salic law, for it established be¬ 
tween the Franks and Romans the most mortifying distinc¬ 
tions. When a Frank, a barbarian, or one living under the 
Salic law, happened to be killed, a composition of 200 sols 
was to be paid to his relations; only 100 upon the killing 
of a Roman professor, and no more than 42 for a Roman 
tributary. The composition for the murder of one of the 
king’s vassals, if a Frank, was 600 sols; of a Roman, though 
the king’s guest, only 300. Moreover, if a number of peo- 
le assembled together to assault a Frank in his house, and 
e happened to be killed, the Salic law ordained a composi¬ 
tion of 600 sols; but if a Roman, or a freedman was as¬ 
saulted, only half that composition. By the same law, if 
a Roman put a Frank in irons, he was liable to a composi¬ 
tion of 30 sols; but if a Frank had thus used a Roman, he 
paid only 15. A Frank stripped by a Roman was entitled 
to a composition of 621 sols, and a Roman stripped by a 
Frank received only 30. 
The country at this day called France was, under the first 
race, governed by the Roman law, or the Theodosian code, 
and by the different laws of the barbarians who settled in these 
parts. In the country of the domain of the Franks, the Salic 
law was established for the Franks, and the Theodosian code 
for the Romans. If it be asked, how comes it to pass that the 
Salic laws gained almost a general authority in the country 
of the Franks, and the Roman law gradually declined; while 
in the jurisdiction of the Visigoths, the Roman law spread it¬ 
self, and obtained at last a general sway ?—Baron Montesquieu 
replies, that the Roman law came to be disused among the 
Franks, on account of the great advantages accruing from 
being a Frank, a barbarian, or a person living under the Salic 
law ; every one, in that case, readily quitting the Roman to 
live under the Salic law. The clergy alone retained it, be¬ 
cause a change could be of no advantage to them. The Ro¬ 
man law inflicted no hardships upon them, and in other re¬ 
spects it was most proper for them, as it was the work of 
Christian emperors. On the other hand, in the patrimony 
of the Visigoths, as the Visigoth law gave no civil advantages 
to the Visigoth, over the Romans, the latter had no temp-- 
tation to discontinue living under their own law, in order 
to live under another. They retained, therefore, their own 
laws, without adopting those of the Visigoths. In Burgundy 
the Roman law was continued, in order to regulate the dis¬ 
putes of Romans among themselves. The latter had no in¬ 
ducement to quit their own law, as in the country of the 
Franks; and the rather as the Salic law was not established 
in Burgundy. The Roman and Gothic laws continued like¬ 
wise in the country of the establishment of the Goths, where 
the Salic law was never received. The Salic, the Ripuarian, 
Burgundian, and Visigoth laws, came by degrees to be dis¬ 
used among the French, because, when fiefs became here¬ 
ditary, and arriere-fiefs were extended, many usages were 
introduced, to which these laws were no longer applicable; 
and 
