Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

268 10. law in the western kingdoms
the same binding together of law and judicial verdict that was implied by
the Old English word dōm, but also its distinction between the individual
dōm and the collective æ – or riht, law in general. 38 Further hints are given by
the origin-legend of Frankish Law contained in the Shorter Prologue
(usually dated to the late sixth century). 39 Four wise men are said ‘to have
met together in three courts, malli, and to have earnestly discussed all the
starting-points of causae, and to have decreed a judgement about each, as
follows’ (and then begins the text). This tale elevates the wise men to the
exclusion of the king whom they might have counselled; but, again, it combines
decree and judgement in one: they decree a judgement. Apparently,
then, the individual Frankish judge is expected to follow the judgement
already decreed by the wise men – a conception which agrees with the disputant’s
demand that the rachinburgii declare a law (corresponding to Old
English dōm) in accordance with the Salic law (Old English æ – or riht). In
effect, the wise men of the Shorter Prologue are a legendary embodiment
of all that rachinburgii ought to be, but within a conception of judgement
determined by decree.
The causa is both the dispute and the complaint that brings one party to
court. A plaintiff may ‘mallare his causa according to the laws’. 40 In this sense
of pleading a case, mallare corresponds well to its cognate, Old English
mathelian, derived from mæthl, a court. 41 The verb, mathelian, is used in
Beowulf for making a solemn speech, and similarly mæthl itself may mean
‘speech’. The pattern of derivation (mallus→mallare, mæthl→mathelian) and
the semantic development (‘court’→‘speech appropriate to a court or
assembly’) are thus closely similar in Frankish and English, though what we
have in the Frankish cases are Latinized forms. What this range of usage
suggests is that a particular linguistic register was expected in court, and
that the verb for this style of grave pleading was extended to any weighty
speech before an assembly. A causa, then, is what a disputant tries to mallare
and the rachinburgii are expected to judge. 42
The language used to describe the pleading and judgement of cases is
echoed in the structure of the individual decree. The commonest form of
a decree in the Salic Law consists of a conditional sentence:
If anyone should have done X, let him be judged liable to pay Y.
The first clause, ‘If anyone should have done X’ is a generalized form of a
causa, the statement of what has happened which forms the basis of the
38 Cf. Schmidt-Wiegand (1987).
39 PLS Prologue (pp. 2–3); Eckhardt (1954) 170–2, but Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 108 is inclined to
date it to the seventh century. 40 Pactus Legis Salicae ed. Eckhardt (1962) 105.2 (p. 261).
41 Cf. mæ�lfri� in Æthelberht, c. 1, an medle o��e �inge, Hlothhere and Eadric, c. 8. Gothic ma�l is
likewise used in Mark 7.4 to translate agorá (Latin forum).
42 Causa may render sace in sacebarones etc. (cf. OE sacu).
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