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BY GUSTAVE RAVENE I, THE SACHSENSPIEGEL. (A Study.) ‘Among all the German races none have flung with sturdier independence or more tenacious conservatism to their ancient customs than the great Saxon confederation, which stamped its char acter so often’and so deeply upon the history of northern Europe. Of all pro ductions of the German mind within the domain of law, the Sachsenspiegel was the purest and the greatest.”—Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law, pag. 6. he Sachsenspiegel is a product of the independent German mind, a landmark in the history of popular institutions. It embodies the customary laws of the Saxons, and with truth is it called a mirror (Spiege)) for it reflects the views of the people concerning rights and wrongs, State and church. The period which gave birth to the Sachsenspiegel is a memorable one in the world’s history. All over European in tense intellectual movement was felt. The tide of free thought had risen, the waves of intellectual liberty were dash ing against the institutions of the church of Rome, and slowly, but surely, they were sweeping away the fetters imposed by tyranny and superstition. The Sachsenspiegel is the child of the thirteenth century; a century which saw the dying of the age of faith and the birth of the age of reason. It was the century which witnessed the struggle between the wordly and the spiritual powers, it was the age which beheld the bulwarks of law, order and liberty emerge from the chaos of lawlessness, strife and slavery; and when, expiring, the thirteenth cen tury sank back into the grave of time, the first rays of the sun of reason had burst through the clouds of ignorance and superstition, shedding light upon the gloomy pathway of humanity. In England the thirteenth century will be remembered as the century of Magna Charta; the century which produced the work of Bracton, and the laws of Henry II and Edward I; a century in which Roger Bacon lived and died, a martyr to the cause of science. For Germany, the thirteenth century was the age of Frederick II, the age which ushered into the world the great productions of the German mind, the works of Albertus Magnus, the poems of Walther von der Vogelweide, and the great German law book, the Sachsen spiegel. The Sachsenspiegel was written by Eicke von Repgew, a Saxon knight and judge (Scheeffe), about A. D. 1230. Of the Author little is known beyond the name, only that he first wrote the Sachsenspiegel in Latin, but at the request of Count Hager von Falkenstein, trans lated the book into the german language. The Sachsenspiegel was only a private compilation, but it soon obtained popular and judicial recognition, it is even alleg ed that Frederick II gave his imperial sanction to the Saxon Code. Many editions appeared and so numerous were the manuscript copies, that a medieval author states that 5000 of them were extant in his day. The mirror was also recognized as a source of law in many countries outside of Germany. One edition was put forth in Holland, and in the Baltic provinces the book was a source of law. Among the editions one was distinguished by its being written in verse, a not unusual feature in ancient law treatises; the Brehon law tracts, the various Hindu works were in verse; and Cesar informs us of the same fact having come to his notice in Gaul. In the Praefatio rhythmica, the author of the Sachsenspiegel accounts for the title of the book in the following words. —**Mirror of the Saxons. This book is to be called, Since Saxon law therein is made known As in a mirror the women Their faces do see.” The name “mirror” is a very common one in the literature of the middle ages. Thus we meet with the “Schwaben spiegel,” Tengler’s “Laienspiegel” and Sebastian Brandt’s “Klagspiegel.” The names of two law treatises are familiar the English lawyer; the “Mirroir de Nor mandie”’ and Andrew Horne’s “Mirrour of Justice.” In the great conflict between the em pire and the papacy, the Sachsenspiegel takes a decided stand. The Spiegler says: “Two swords gave God to protect christendom. ‘To the Pope the spiritual, to the emperor the wordly.” By these words the Sachsenspiegel defines the positions of Pope and em peror. The Spiegler also denies to the church the right by the introduction of Canon Law to supersede the law of the land. The Glossator in anolating this passage must have lost his temper, for he indulges in the words: “The Pope shall strengthen the em co and his laws with all his might. O man is to say: I am a priest, what do I care for the emperor’s laws. Foo, doe’st thou not know that all canoves ~_ be interpreted by leges, c.O f course such passages were sure to draw forth ecclesiastical fulminations, and in the year 1374 Pope Gregory XI issued a bulle against 14 articles of the Sachsenspiegel. From the directions of the bulle to the Bishops of various cities we may form a conception of the wide spread influence of the Sachsenspiegel. de Pope himself admits the great influ ence of the work in the words “—scripta in Saxonica et nonnulles alliis partibus apud tam nobiles quam plebejos reperiuntur quae indices et incole a songis retro temporibus observ arunt.” The thunders of the Vatican did not prevent the Sachsenspiegel from retain ing and even extending the authority it had once acquired. Its spread and au thority had always been a source of an noyance to the clergy, they had always looked upon the Sachsenspiegel with dis favor, but neither secret nor open hostil ities on their parts succeeded in impair to hold on the people. he rottenness of the clergy, the utter demoralization of the churchmen and their tyrannical rule had stirred popular discontent. Attacks directed against the Church were openly made, and the songs of the ‘‘Minnesaenger” and the expres sions of the law books give a faithful picture of the then prevailing state of affairs. To say “As bad as a priest” or “I had rather be a monk” became so fre quent that these expressions passed into common parlance. Walter von der Vogelweide says: “To Father in Heaven how long wilt thou sleep ? The lord of the treasury is only a thief; Thy —— a wolf who devoureth the Thysodesis of robbers and murderer’s chief.” In the Sachsenspiegel we find regula tions concerning the children of priests, and in several other law books enact ments which clearly express the con tempt in which priests were held. Similarity the many regulations on promises and debs, as also the sanguinary criminal code, throw a strong side light on the moral condition of the age. The Sachsenspiegel enjoins on every one the sacred duty of keeping promises. So strictly was this rule enforced that when a debtor could not pay his debts, his body was to answer. Of the same law we are informed by Taciitus and the Leges Barbarorum. But furthermore the Spiegler gives minute rules of conduct for the case that the promisor promises while under duress. An exactly similar provision is found in the old English law (laws of Alfred): “At the first we teach that it is most needful that every man wearily keep his oath and his‘wed.’ If anyone be con strained to either of this wrongfully, either by treason against his lord or to any unlawfulld, then it is faster to be lie than to fulfill.” The statute books of the german cities swarm with such provisions. The Sachsenspiegel has a very strict and complete criminal code. Murder, robbery, stealing church prop erty, arson and graveyard desecration, were punnishable by breaking on the rack. Highway robbery and theft subjected the offender to punishment by hanging. Rape was punished by decapitation. The house in which the crime was per petrated, was to be torn down, and all living beings in it were to be killed. In the city of Nurnberg, burning alive; in other cities, impaling were the punish ment. Burning at the stake was a punishment reserved for heretics, magi cians and prisoners. In later times several german cities added boiling in oil to the list of punish ments. It was inflicted for counterfeit ing the coin.
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