sation was in a state of flux, and immediate
practical convenience was the only guide. They were content to fix the
penalties for such outrages as murder, rape, insult, assault, and the
like in money; the Visigoths alone were more stringent in a case of
rape, adding 200 lashes and slavery to the ravisher of a free woman who
had accomplished his purpose.[350] Some enactments which may well strike
us as peculiar deserve notice. For example, among the Saxons the theft
of a horse or an ox or anything worth three _solidi_ merited death; but
murder was atoned for by pecuniary damages.[351] Among the Burgundians,
if a man stole horses or cattle and his wife did not at once disclose
the deed, she and her children who were over fourteen were bound over in
slavery to the outraged party "because it hath often been ascertained,
that these women are the confederates of their husbands in crime."[352]

The most minute regulations prevailed on the subject of injury to women.
Under the Salic law[353] for instance, if a free man struck a free women
on the fingers or hand, he had to pay fifteen _solidi_; if he struck her
arm, thirty _solidi_; if above her elbow, thirty-five _solidi_; if he
hit her breast, forty-five _solidi_. The penalties for murdering a free
woman were also elaborated on the basis of her value to the state as a
bearer of children. By the same Salic law[354] injury to a pregnant
woman resulting in her death merited a fine of seven hundred _solidi_;
but two hundred was deemed sufficient for murder of one after her time
for bearing children had passed. Similarly, for killing a free woman
after she had begun to have children the transgressor paid six hundred
_solidi_; but for murdering an unmarried freeborn girl only two hundred.
The murder of a free woman was punished usually by a fine (_wergeld_)
equal to twice the amount demanded for a free man "because," as the law
of the Bavarians has it,[355] "a woman can not defend herself with arms.
But if, in the boldness of her heart (per audaciam cordis sui), she
shall have resisted and fought like a man, there shall not be a double
penalty, but only the recompense usual for a man [160 _solidi_]." Fines
were not paid to the state, but to the injuried parties or, if these did
not survive, to the nearest kin. If the fine could not be paid, then
might death be meted to the guilty.[356]

Another peculiar feature of the Germanic law was the appeal to God to
decide a moot point by vari