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Visigothic Spain THE ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW Downloaded from NO. VL—APRIL 1887 Visigothic Spain http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ E foundation of the Visigothic state in Spain and southern rGaul is one of the most interesting and remarkable chapters in the history of the barbarian migrations; and it illustrates, in some ways with exceptional clearness, the Anglo-Saxon period of our own history. For the Visigoths, like our forefathers, were a people who, having at first raged exceedingly against the faith held throughout at Georgetown University on July 19, 2015 the Boman empire, were afterwards themselves won over to profess it, though the Visigoth's rancour was that of the Arian Christian, while the Saxon's was that of the unreclaimed heathen. Being thus brought into obedience to the law of the catholic church, Visigoth as well as Saxon distinguished him naif "by the abjectnesa of bin submission to his spiritual rulers. And perhaps partly in conse- quence of the prominent place thenceforward taken by ecclesiastics in the administration of the state, both Visigoth and Saxon were found wanting in virility and vigour when the day came for defend- ing their country against the heathen or the ^fnaHniman invader. In the following paper I propose to indicate some of the most important phases in the development of the Visigothic state, follow- ing chiefly the guidance of Professor Dahn, who in the sixth volume of bis ' Konige der Germanen' (lately republished in a second edition) has treated with thoroughness and patience all the more important questions connected with the constitutional history of the Visigoths. The strength of Professor Dahn's method lies essentially in its careful analysis; and his determination to investigate the history of each German race by itself, excluding all others for the time being from his field of vision, though it necessarily leads to some repetition, will, we believe, be found hereafter to have given the book its chief value. It is hardly necessary to say that of the M VoLJ 210 VISIGOTRIC SPAIN April races thus studied the two great Gothic nations occupy by far the largest portion of the book. For the Ostrogoths the ' Edictum Theodorici' and the 'Variffl' of Gassiodorus constitute the chief Quellen: for the Visigoths, the ' Breviarium' of Alaric II, the ' Inter- pretatio' of this document, and the ' Code of Yisigothic Laws.' For the history of Yisigothic legislation Dahn refers us to his very complete and careful ' Westgothische Studien.'l He has a perfect right to do so, considering how thoroughly he has there treated of the subject, and how inconveniently his already bulky volume would have been increased in size if anything like the whole Downloaded from of the ' Studien * had been incorporated with the ' Eonige der Germanen.' Still we think it would have been better and more considerate to his reader if he had in a few pages given a short summing up of the chief results as to the history of the Code to which bin researches have led Mm. http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ The ' Breviarium Alarici' put forth by command of Alaric II on the eve of his last and fatal encounter with Clovis, being merely a compilation of Roman law, could not be expected to throw much light on the specially Teutonic usages of the Gothic kingdom. But the ' Interpretatio' which accompanies the whole of this Code and Digest (except the excerpts from Gaius), although compiled probably by Eomans, does, from the object which it proposed to itself (an ex- planation of the Boman law for the benefit of the Romano-Gothic at Georgetown University on July 19, 2015 people), necessarily illustrate in various ways the changes which the irruption of the barbarians had wrought in Boman provincial life. Savigny, who pleadss for more respectful treatment than the' Inter- pretatio ' received before bis time, says: Here, too, Goths were not the compilers, and the introduction of prin- ciples of Gothic jurisprudence throughout was not the object in view, although not seldom the pha-"gn^ political constitution made a change in the text necessary. Of later time this ' Interpretation' has been much too scurvfly handled, since at every departure from the Boman text people have been ready at once to cry out about ' barbarism' and ' ignorance.' But certainly in most cases of this kind there was a real change of the law, for however little one may be inclined to attribute profound laming to the compilers, the work as a whole appears by no means either rough or thoughtlessly put together. After admitting the unfortunate attempts of the ' Interpretatio' to explain the history of certain laws (lex Papia and lex AqtiUia), Savigny notices how instructive and trustworthy it is for the con- stitution of its own time. Into the field of research thus indicated by Savigny, Dahn has zealously entered, and both his text and notes teem with compari- sons between the text of the Theodosian code preserved in the ' Bre- viarium,' and the commentary (for such in truth it is) furnished by 1 Kfinigsberg, 1374. ' GttcfrichU det rOmisehen BetJUs, vL 56. 1887 VISIGOTHIC SPAIN 211 the authors of the ' Interpretation Our only regret is that, for want of a page or two of explanation, some of this really valuable work will rather perplex than enlighten many of bin readers. As for the' Lex Visigothorum,' which forms the especial subject- matter of Professor Dahn's inquiries, and of which t.hiB sixth volume of the ' Konige ' might almost be considered as an analytical digest, it consists, as was long ago observed, of two parts, the ' Antiqua' and the edicts of the later Yisigothic kings from Gundemar to Egica (612-701). The ' Antiqua ' is, in Savigny's view, a general expression for all that, at the time of the formation of the Code, was incorporated therein from the old customary law of the Goths, Downloaded from from the edicts of forgotten kings, from the laws of other Germanic nations, or even from Roman law.* Dahn, on the other hand, con- siders (and this view seems now to be generally held by those who have studied the matter) that the ' Antiqua' was a regular code of early Visigothic law, the precursor of the present • Lex Yisigo- http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ thorum.' The formation of the latter he seems to be inclined to attribute, with Savigny, to Chindaswinth and Beceswinth (641- 672), who undeniably contributed to it a large number of edicts, though a few laws of later kings, reaching down, as has been already said, to Egica, have afterwards been added. But as for the compilation of the ' Antiqua,' he is very clear and unhesitating in assigning it to Becared, the first catholic IHng of the Visigoths (586- at Georgetown University on July 19, 2015 601); and he points out that it was precisely after so great a change had been made in all social and political relations as was involved in the acceptance by the Gothic intruders of the creed of the Boman provincials, that a new law book was likely to be compiled.4 Not yet, however, are the two races, the Gothic and the Boman, sufficiently fused to enable one law book to serve for both. Stall in the days of Becared (if he were its author) the ' Antiqua' was a law for men of Gothic extraction only, while the Boman provincials and the officers of the church continued to use the ' Breviarium Aland,' which was in fact a ' handy book' to the Theodosian code. The entire fusion of the two systems of jurisprudence and the proclama- tion of the legislative unity of the two nations who dwelt on the soil of Spain, was a task reserved for the venerable Chindaswinth, who at the age of seventy-nine mounted the throne of Toledo, and for his son and successor Beceswinth, the partner in all his designs. Chindas- winth clearly perceived that there could be but one end to the con- flict of laws which still existed in the kingdom. The Boman law, the law of the ecclesiastics, the citizens, the great mass of the agri- ' Antiqua htitst in dtm Gttiixbuch jadt SUIU, dit nicht tixtm nunJwi goOutchm KDttig, alt Ottttt AtntXbtn rugtscJtrubtn wtrdtn kOrtnU; alto aOtt, tea* mam out alttn gotkitehtn HtchttgtwohnhtiU*, out rOmitdum Bteht und vMticht attch aut d*m Btcht andertr germanuchtn Stanme auftiaukmt* gut find. L ii. 70. Dahn, Wtstgothisclie Shtdien, 7-11. 212 VISIGOTHIC SPAIN April cultural population, must in the end prevail if the old Gothic nobility were determined to cling to their separate and unmodified code. He therefore decided to infuse a large Boman element into the Gothic code, to proclaim that it was law for Goth and Boman alike, that henceforth there was to be but one people in the eye of the law dwelling in the Yisigothic kingdom, and to abolish the ' Breviarium' for ever.5 The words in which Chindaswinth, while permitting the study of Boman law as a part of a liberal education, prohibits its practical use in the tribunals, are curious enough to deserve quotation. Downloaded from Alitna gent is legibus ad exercitium utiUtatis imbui et permitUmus et optamus: ad negotiorumvero discutsionem et resvitamus etprokibemus. Quamvis enim eloquUs poUeant, tamen difficultatibus harent: adao cum sufficwt ad fiutitia plenitudinem, et prascrutatio rationum et ccnpe- tentium ordo verborum, qua codids hujus series agnoscitur contmere, http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ nolumus sive Romania legibus, sive oUenis institutionibus amodo amplius convexari.* We clearly have here an intention to make codids hujus series sole and supreme in all the law courts of Spain. And hence, what- ever may be the ultimate verdict of scholars as to the question of the origin of the ' Antiqua,' there is a general consent of opinion to regard Chindaswinth and his son Beceswinth7 as bearing the same relation to the existing ' Lex Visigothorum' which Justinian bears at Georgetown University on July 19, 2015 to the Code.
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