“ If anyone wishes to claim a freeman as his slave, he must show what right he has to his possession and service; and if the slave should assert that he himself is free, he must, in like manner, establish the existence of his freedom. ”

“ And if any judge shall appoint his own slave, or the slave of another, to transact any legal business, the judge who appointed him shall render full satisfaction to the law for whatever injustice said slave shall commit. Any bailiff who, acting under the orders of such an usurper of judicial authority, shall arrest or imprison any one, or remove any of his property, shall be scourged with a hundred lashes, and, in this way, shall pay the penalty of his insolence. ”

“ Where a slave is convicted of incendiarism inside or outside a city, and his master should wish to liberate him from the punishment of so heinous a crime, he shall, without delay, render full pecuniary satisfaction for the same, and the slave shall receive two hundred lashes in public. He whose house was burned, shall be compelled to swear that he does not claim a larger sum than the property was worth. If the master should be unwilling to render satisfaction for the act of his slave as aforesaid, the slave shall be surrendered to be punished, and shall be beheaded. ”

“ The law rules every order of the state, and every condition of man; it governs wives and husbands; youth and age; the learned and the ignorant; the polished and the rude. It aims to provide the highest degree of safety for both prince and people, and, in renown and excellence, it is as conspicuous as the noon-day sun. ”

“ It is, therefore, but reasonable that we decree that where one slave has married a slave owned by another person, any issue of said marriage shall belong equally to the masters of both slaves. Where, however, there is but one son born to said parents, since he cannot serve both masters at once, he shall remain with his mother until his twelfth year, at which age he will be able to work. The master of the female slave shall then pay to the master of her husband one half of the value of the child, after said value shall have been appraised by men of respectability. ”

“ If any one should compel a virgin or widow, who is freeborn, to commit adultery or fornication; if he should be freeborn, he shall be scourged with a hundred lashes, and be given forever to serve as a slave her whom he has injured. ”

“ Hitherto, we have directed our steps cautiously through the arduous paths which traverse the iniquities of the Jews; and have used moderation in the restraint of human crimes and infirmities. For it has been our manifest purpose and task, both to remove ill-founded opinions, and to prohibit what is evil, as well as to abolish what has been wrongfully done, and is abhorrent to decency and honor. As the law penetrates the secret recesses of minds conscious of guilt, so its censure corrects the depravity of morals, and prevents the perpetration of crime. ”

“ The maker of laws should not practise disputation, but should administer justice. Nor is it fitting that he should appear to have framed the law by contention, but in an orderly manner. For the transaction of public affairs does not demand, as a reward of his labors, the clamor of theatrical applause, but the law destined for the salvation of the people. ”

“ Therefore, if any slave belonging to a Jew should desire to be free from servitude, and seek the favor of Christ, no one shall retain him in bondage; no one shall oppose him in any way, or place any obstacle in his path; but, as soon as he shows himself to be a Christian, by his profession and his oath, and shall openly abandon, or reject the false doctrines of his master, he shall be at once released from slavery; and, removed, with all his property, from the control of his master, he shall fully enjoy the blessings of freedom ”

“ We hereby establish as a general principle of law, that whenever a freeborn person, a freedman, or a slave, is known to have committed any unlawful act by the order of his patron or his master, said patron or master shall be held liable for all satisfaction and composition for the same; for he who obeys the orders of his superior, cannot be considered guilty, because it is evident that he did not commit the act by his own will, but under the command of one possessing authority over him. ”

“ All slaves, buildings, lands, olive-orchards and whatever other real property they are found to have acquired from sales by Christians, or in any other manner whatsoever, although it may have been in their possession for many years, shall be confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury, and the king shall have the absolute disposal of the same. Should any Jew, who remains in infidelity, dare to act contrary to this law, or to transact business with any Christian, having been reprimanded, he shall be given to the Crown, along with all his possessions, to be a slave forever. ”

“ If anyone should deprive a freeman or one who has been set free, of any property, and, afterwards, should wish to claim him as a slave, he must restore what he deprived him of, before prosecuting his claim. ”

“ For, once invested with authority, some judges do not hesitate to assume illegal control over the property of others; and do not fear, under almost any pretext, to subject them to unreasonable expense in the exercise of official tyranny. Henceforth, any judge who shall take any property belonging to another, contrary to an order of court, or in violation of law, or shall injure said property in any way, shall be condemned to suffer the same penalty which he, acting in his judicial capacity, would have imposed upon any one guilty of the same offence. ”

“ If no ambiguity should arise in the determination of legal questions, we should not be under the necessity of making laws for future generations. For the reason that, under the pretence of liberty fraudulently asserted by slaves, the public service is often injuriously affected, and without any prejudice to the well-deserving, but as a warning to those who act rashly, we hereby decree, that, should freedom be granted hereafter to a slave of the Crown, the act shall be invalid, unless confirmed by the royal signature. ”

“ And, indeed, it is impious that when a condition of slavery has been abolished, the dignity of freedom should be degraded; and that, while the slave is exalted, the master is abased, and the children of the latter suffer injury, because the slave has power to inflict it. ”

“ If anyone should sell a slave, and the latter should accuse his former master of crime, he who sold him may recover said slave from the purchaser by returning the price for which he was sold, in order that he may avenge upon him the crime of which he himself was accused. And we decree that the same law shall be observed concerning female slaves. No servant of either sex, whether sold, given, or exchanged, shall be tortured to obtain evidence against his or her former master, nor shall he or she be believed if they should accuse their former master of crime. ”

“ If no one should be willing to accuse another of homicide, the judge, as soon as he learns that the crime has been committed, shall have the power to apprehend the guilty party, that he may receive the sentence he deserves; for the punishment of the crime may be unduly deferred, either on account of the absence of the accuser, or because some collusion exists between him and the murderer. A wife shall have the right to inquire into the death of her husband, or into any injury he has suffered at the hands of another ”

“ We should eradicate the reproach of apostasy, in order that we may enjoy the favor of God. For if we think it is an evidence of piety to punish sins of less importance, to a much greater extent should we visit with severe censure any crime committed against the Divine Power. Therefore, we decree by this law, which shall remain perpetually in force hereafter; that whoever adopts the dress of a religious order, and assumes the honorable mark of the tonsure, either for the purpose of performing penance, or through the pious wishes of parents, and without any suspicion of fraud ”

“ In all legislation the law should be fully and explicitly set forth, that perfection, and not partiality, may be secured. For, in the formation of the laws, not the sophisms of argument, but the virtue of justice should ever prevail. And here is required not what may be prompted by controversy, but what energy and vigor demand; for the violation of morals is not to be coerced by the forms of speech, but restrained by the moderation of virtue. ”

“ For how indeed can he bear a title of honor, whose parents are bound by the obligation of servitude? We refer to this matter because many of the slaves of the church are set free, but nevertheless do not enjoy absolute liberty; for the reason that they are still bound to serve the church from which they deduce their origin; and who, contrary to natural laws, contract marriages with freeborn women, and seek to have freeborn children who, in fact, are not so; and thus what ought to enure to the public good, becomes in fact a burden to it, both in respect to person and property ”

“ But if he should not have sufficient property wherewith to make amends, he shall be deprived of all that he is known to possess, and shall be delivered as a slave to him to whom he is indebted, or, after having been exposed in public, he shall receive fifty lashes. But if he shall have rendered an unjust judgment through ignorance, and can declare under oath that he has done this only through want of knowledge, and not through partiality or cupidity, or for the sake of profit, his judgment shall be invalid, and he himself shall not be considered guilty. ”

“ Leaving the provisions of a former law relating to fugitive slaves in full force, we now decree that hereafter, whoever shelters a fugitive slave belonging to another, shall immediately subject him to a judicial examination, even though he should assert that he is freeborn, in order that it may be ascertained whether he is a freeman or a slave, and should he prove to be a slave, that he may be returned to his master. ”

“ If a freeborn woman should commit adultery with her own slave, or freedman, or should marry him; as soon as this has been proved, she shall be put to death; and both adulterer [84] and adulteress shall be publicly scourged before the judge, and burned. And whenever any judge shall be convinced of the commission of such a crime, and shall learn that any mistress has married her slave, or her freedman; he shall at once cause them to be separated, in order that the sons of her former husband, or those of his relatives entitled to it by legal succession, may obtain possession of her property. ”

“ In order to prove the commission of adultery by either a master or a mistress, their slaves of both sexes may be put to the torture, in order that the truth may be the more certainly discovered and established, beyond question. ”

“ The more humanity is oppressed by misfortune, the more we should provide by our clemency for the evils with which it is afflicted. Wherefore, whenever any person of noble rank, or any freeman, or even a slave, is confined in prison, or sent into exile, by order of the king; and should afterwards be liberated, or pardoned, and return to his country, and anyone should have claimed any of his property during his absence ”

“ For, as the entire safety of the public depends upon the preservation of the law, he should attempt to amend the statutes of the country rather than the manners of the populace; and remember that there are some who, in controversies, apply the laws according to their will, and in pursuance of private advantage, to such an extent that what should be law to the public is to them private dishonor; so that, by perversion of the law, acts which are illegal are often perpetrated, which should obviously be abolished through the power of the law itself. ”

“ In order that insolence may be the more easily punished, the law regards excuses as superfluous. Sometimes freemen do not hesitate to injure the slaves of others, and then refuse to answer the petition of a slave in court; declaring that they should not be compelled to answer any one from whom they cannot collect damages, if they should chance to be victorious. But lest, through this delay, the slave himself should unjustly suffer injury; though his master should be distant fifty miles, or any objection should be made by his master on account of his employment at the time ”

“ Therefore, in the name of God and the Holy Catholic Church, we decree that, hereafter, as is also provided by the ecclesiastical canons, no one, either by force or consent, shall take as a wife, any virgin devoted to God, or any widow who has assumed the habit of any order; or any one who is performing penance; or any near relative of their own; or any one with whom his connection might be branded with infamy; because that cannot be a true marriage, which from good becomes evil, and which, under a false name, is nothing more than incest and fornication. ”

“ Whatever property has been bestowed by any free person upon any freedman, together with such property as a child of either sex sprung from them can acquire, possess, or waste, shall belong entirely to the heirs of said free person at his death; and, if such heirs should be lacking, it shall become the lawful possession of the king, to be disposed of absolutely at his pleasure. This law shall not only apply to men, but also to women; that is to say, where either a freedman or a freedwoman owing services to the church should be so bold as to marry a freeborn person. ”

“ Such are our obligations, legal, historical, ethical, philological, and economic, to the Visigothic Code. Its harsh, inelegant style, its repetitions and absurdities, its incoherence, its superstitions, and its savage treatment of heretics, may well be forgotten in the services it has rendered to mankind. All modern systems of government are infinitely indebted to it, for it forms to-day the basis of the jurisprudence of a large portion of the civilized nations of the earth. ”