Note 854 — Chapter VI · OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE
Reading edition
"Legati offerentes solidum et denarium, ut mos erat Francorum, eam partibus Chlodovei sponsant: placitum ad praesens petentes, ut ipsam ad conjugium traderet Chlodoveo."—Fredegarius, Greg. Turon. hist. epit., c. xviii: in Guadet and Taranne's ed., IV, 172, 173; or in Giesebrecht's trans., II, 273-75. Compare Sohm, Eheschliessung, 32 n. 21; Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 55 n. 3, and authorities cited; Meril, Des formes, 30; Leber, Des Coutumes, 24; Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 323; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 19 n. 7. The price of a maid is not fixed in the lex salica; but in c. 44 the price of a widow is given (Behrend, 58); and elsewhere the woman's mund is fixed at 621⁄2 solidi. Ficker, Untersuchungen zur Rechtsgeschichte, III, 400, 401, regards the arrha, not as a survival of the bride-price, but as a symbol of mutual troth.