Roman Laws of Burgundy

By King of Burgundy Gondomar II and D.P. Curtin

This is a collection of the forty-seven original statutes passed for the continuity of Roman law in the Burgundian realm. It has been attributed to the last king of the Burgundians, Gondomar. However, this identification is unclear given the composite nature of a document like this. In all likelihood, it is a composition of various Burgundian ru

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dalcassian Publishing Company
• Release date: Sep 15, 2006
• ISBN: 9798869282316

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1

English Translation

Title I: of the gift or generosity of the father or mother.

A gift which a father has written to a son or daughter of his own property, and has been alleged to have been done, if the father has not revoked it after being proven before the judge for reasons of injury, or the gift itself does not exceed a small amount, that is nine ounces, according to the law of Theodosian in the eighth book: on removing donations, to continue the firmest, promulgated to Philip the prefect.

Concerning maternal gifts also, all this, which is above, will be observed under a similar condition. Of course, if the mother, who made a donation to her son or daughter, has passed on to a second marriage, she will not have any permission to remove the donation she made, according to the law of Theodosian in the eighth book to Orfitus, the prefect of the city.

Concerning the gifts of lords, the property of the receivers is also established by law in regard to heirs and successors, that is, from the body of Theodosian, book 11, title 20, to Stradium, count of private property.

Title II: of murders.

A murderer, both innocent and slave, if found outside the church, is to be condemned to death.

If, however, it may be said that the murder was admitted by accident or by avoiding death, it is to be referred to the prince's notice by the report of the judge, and his decision is to be awaited, according to the law from the body of the novels of Theodosius and Valentinian given to the Grand Patriarch.

If, however, a servant guilty of murder happens to flee to the church, because the law of Theodosian, given in the ninth book to Antiochus, does not allow any unarmed person to be taken away from the church, his life shall be revoked, and he himself shall serve for him whom he has killed.

But he who tries to defend himself inside the church armed, according to the law itself, is taken away with the conscience of the bishop.

Of the innocent murderer being placed within the church, the price of the prince's slain is to be expected; and since the Roman law clearly does not establish anything about the prices of those killed, our Lord decrees that if an innocent person is killed by an innocent person, and the murderer flees to the church, he himself, who admitted the murder, shall be assigned to serve the heirs of the slain with half of his goods; the remaining half of his estate is left to the heirs of his murder.

But if the servant of any man be slain by an innocent man, and he himself summons