Mund (in law)
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The mund is a principle in Germanic tradition and law that can be crudely translated as "protection" and which grew as the prerogative of a Germanic tribe king or leader. It has been latinized in mundium.
The word comes from Germanic mundo, "hand" or "protection".
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[edit] The mund within the family
The mund is basically the leadership an ancestor of a family, which one is understood as all the people related by the blood to this ancestor, exerts upon of all and each of the family members. The ancestor's responsibility is more aimed at the family as a whole than towards each member individually.
The mund manifests itself as a disciplinary power upon the members of the family ; the tenant of the mund has to watch over the women's chastity and faithfulness to prevent the family honour from being harmed, in the first case if a bride is not a virgin at the time of her departure from the family, in the second, if sons are born that are not of the common blood. It has also to control the male family members who may cast shame on the family honor, who may not serve the family, or who may endanger the whole family by their imprudence (for example by drawing the family into a feud. Thus the keeper of the mund can ban a member from the family. In this aspect, it is a coercive power, an authority, but not understood as the Roman auctoritas.
It is also the responsibility to defend the family's well-being and existence from all dangers and offenses (be they against the body or the honour).
[edit] The mundium in Germanic Code of Laws
When the Germanic traditions mingled with the Roman Law in the post-Migration kingdoms, the mund, that came to be known as mundium, was part of the many code of Laws those kingdoms edicted.
It became the responsibility of the closer male relative over non-responsible members of the society, i.e mostly children and women. As such, it gets mixed up with the guardianship ; but it also protects mothers (Lex Burgundionum art. LIX & LXXXV ; cf. ). It became useless as soon as such a protected member was responsible for himself, as when children grew. Prominent women also could shudder the mundium off.
[edit] Advantages
The mund is more of a responsibility than a right, but attached to this responsibility are a list of advantages.
[edit] Extension
From this first mund, the principle was extended to the entire tribe, then to several tribes. For example, Early Franks were divided into Salians, scattered in tribes dominated by tribal munds, and Ripuarians, that were all comprised under the mund of a king in Cologne, although he wasn't the king of all the Ripuarians, but only their "protector". This can be seen as an archaic building of the momentum that will eventually concentrate the coercitive power (potestas) and legal violence in the hands of a few, namely the nobles, and later only the monarchs.
The mund, came to neighbour the principle of auctoritas, without being the same as the kingship.
The mundium regis for example was the king's responsibility to protect his subjects and the churches.
The mund passed through to the chivalry code as a Christian virtue. It passed also, although modified, in modern political conceptions under the term protector. To an extent, the paternalism associated with medieval and modern kingships owes more to the mund than to the elected Germanic kingship.
[edit] Use in names
The particle mund is to be found in many Germanic names, and hence passed into some modern-time names as well. Such names are for example:
- Sig(is)mund
- Edmund (Edmond)
- Reginnmund (Raymond)
[edit] References
- GUILLOT O., RIGAUDIERE A., SASSIER Y., Pouvoirs et Institutions dans la France Médiévale, t. 1 Des Origines à l'époque féodale, 3rd ed., Armand Colin ed., Paris 1994/1999.
- Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch, dictionary of German legal terms, [source]
- PARDESSUS J.M., Loi Salique, Paris 1843 ; Dissertation Troisième [source].
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