Definition
The Thuringian Code is one of the early medieval Germanic tribal law compilations collectively known as the "barbarian codes" (leges barbarorum). It was a body of customary law recorded in written form and attributed to the Thuringian people, a Germanic tribe who inhabited the region of central Europe roughly corresponding to the modern German state of Thuringia. The code is also known by its Latin designation Lex Angliorum et Werinorum (or Lex Aneliorum Werinorum, as rendered in Burrill), a title reflecting that it governed not only Thuringians but also the Anglii and Warini, closely related Germanic peoples settled in the same region. Montesquieu, in De l'Esprit des Lois (Book 28, Chapter 1), attributed its issuance to Theodoric, king of Austrasia, who promulgated the code for his Thuringian subjects. The code addressed matters of personal status, composition payments (payments in lieu of blood vengeance), property, and the particular legal rights and obligations of the tribal communities to which it applied. Like most barbarian codes, it operated on the principle of personality of law: each person was governed by the law of their own people rather than by a territorial law applicable to all inhabitants of a given place.
Common Confusion
The Thuringian Code should not be confused with the broader body of Frankish law (including the Salic Law and Lex Ripuaria), which governed distinct Frankish tribal groupings. Nor should it be conflated with other barbarian codes such as the Bavarian Code (Lex Baiuvariorum) or the Burgundian Code (Lex Burgundionum), each of which addressed separate peoples with distinct customs. The barbarian codes are a family of related but independent instruments; treating them as a single undifferentiated body of early medieval law is a research error.
Why It Matters in Research
The Thuringian Code is primarily relevant to researchers working in legal history, comparative law, and the history of Germanic institutions rather than to practitioners of modern law. Several navigational points deserve attention.
First, the principle of personality of law that animated this and similar codes is essential to understanding early medieval legal administration. Where modern legal systems apply territorially — the law of a jurisdiction governs all persons within it — the barbarian codes operated inversely. A Frank, a Burgundian, and a Thuringian living in the same Frankish village could each be subject to a different law. Researchers examining the transition from personality to territoriality of law will find the Thuringian Code a useful reference point in that historiographical debate.
Second, the attribution question matters for source criticism. Montesquieu's attribution to Theodoric of Austrasia has been treated skeptically by later historians of early medieval law. Researchers relying solely on Black's or Burrill's entries for substantive historical claims will be working from an eighteenth-century secondary authority (Montesquieu) filtered through nineteenth-century legal dictionaries. The actual dating and origin of the Lex Angliorum et Werinorum remains a matter of scholarly debate among Germanists and medieval legal historians.
Third, the alternative Latin title — Lex Angliorum et Werinorum — is the form most commonly encountered in primary and scholarly sources. Researchers searching historical databases, manuscript catalogs, or continental European legal scholarship should prioritize the Latin designation over the English vernacular name.
Fourth, Bouvier's entry simply redirects to CODE, offering no independent content. This is worth noting: a researcher consulting Bouvier's alone would find nothing substantive about this term. Black's and Burrill's are the operative dictionary sources here.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three substantive entries (Black's 1st, Black's 2nd, and Burrill's) are in close agreement, all tracing the code's description to Montesquieu's De l'Esprit des Lois, Book 28, Chapter 1. Burrill's is the most precise, supplying the Latin name Lex Aneliorum Werinorum — a slight variant spelling of the more commonly cited Lex Angliorum et Werinorum — which is a useful addition absent from the Black's entries. None of the dictionary sources provide substantive content about the code's provisions, its structure, or the state of modern historical scholarship on its dating and authenticity. They function as identification entries pointing researchers toward Montesquieu, not as independent analyses. The Bouvier's entry is perfunctory and adds nothing. Collectively, these sources reflect the nineteenth-century American legal dictionary tradition's treatment of the barbarian codes as curiosities of legal antiquity worth naming but not deeply analyzing.
Jurisdictional Note
The Thuringian Code has no operative legal force in any modern jurisdiction. Its relevance is confined to legal history and comparative historical jurisprudence. Researchers working in German legal history may encounter it in the context of continental European scholarship on the leges barbarorum, where it is more extensively treated than in Anglo-American legal dictionary literature.