CHAPTER IV

WOMEN AMONG THE GERMANIC PEOPLES

A second world force to modify the status of women--Accounts of Caesar and Tacitus on position of women among Germanic peoples--The written laws of the barbarians--Guardianship--Marriage--Power of the husband--Divorce--Adultery--The Church indulgent to kings--Remarriage--Property rights--Peculiarities of the criminal law--Minutely-graded fines--Compurgation and ordeals--Innocence tested by the woman walking over red-hot ploughshares--Women in slavery--Comparison of position of women under Roman and under Germanic laws--Influence of theology--Sources

DIGRESSION ON THE LATER HISTORY OF ROMAN LAW

Explanation of the various social and political forces which affected the position of women in the Middle Ages