Note 861 — Chapter VI · OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE

Schroeder, op. cit., 292; Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte, 75; Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 321 ff.; Sohm, Eheschliessung, 23, 24, who thinks the fixing of a legal price of great importance, the purchase of a maid being thus distinguished from that of a thing. The bride-money is thus the nominal price of an unschätzbares object; it admits no bargaining; but the explanation of Habicht, Altdeutsche Verlobung, 12, 13, given in the text, is simpler and more probable. Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 11 ff., in connection with each code, gives a mass of details relative to the violation of the mund by illegal marriage and the amount of the composition in each case. Cf. Laboulaye, Cond. des femmes, 113; Young, in Essays, 166; and Æthelberht, 31; Thorpe, I, 11, where the wergeld is mentioned.