goths refused to allow one
party to break an engagement without the consent of the other; and if a
woman, being already engaged, went over to another man without her
parent's or fiance's leave, both she and the man who took her were
handed over as slaves to the original fiance.[313] The other barbarians
were content to inflict a money fine for breach of promise.[314]

[Sidenote: Power of the husband.]

The woman on marrying passed into the power of her husband "according to
the Sacred Scriptures," and the husband thereupon acquired the lordship
of all her property.[315] The law still protected the wife in some ways.
The Visigoths gave the father the right of demanding and preserving for
his daughter her dowry.[316] The Ripuarians ordained that whatever the
husband had given his wife by written agreement must remain
inviolate.[317] King Liutprand made the presence of two or three of the
woman's male relatives necessary at any sale involving her goods, to see
to it that her consent to the sale had not been forced.[318]

[Sidenote: Divorce.]

On the subject of divorce the regulations of the several peoples are
various; but the commands of the New Testament are alike strongly felt
in all; and we may expect to find divorce limited by severe
restrictions.[319] The Burgundians allowed it only for adultery or grave
crimes, such as violating tombs. If a wife presumed to dismiss her
husband for any other cause, she was put to death (_necetur in luto_);
to a husband who sent his wife a divorce without these specific reasons
existing the law was more indulgent, allowing him to preserve his life
by paying to his injured wife twice the amount that he had originally
given her parents for her, and twelve _solidi_ in addition; and in case
he attempted to prove her guilty of one of the charges mentioned above
and she was adjudged innocent, he forfeited all his goods to her and was
forced to leave his home.[320] The Visigoths were equally strict; the
husband who dismissed his wife on insufficient legal grounds lost all
power over her and must return all her goods; his own must be preserved
for the children; if there were none, the wife acquired his property. A
woman who married a divorced man while his first wife was living, was
condemned for adultery and accordingly handed over to the first wife to
be disposed of as the latter wished; exile, stripes, and slavery were
the lot of a man who took another wife while his first partner was s