to pay. But if none of these things be found to be so, the sheriff can then, with a clear conscience, give an oath concerning this, and avoid the imminent loss of his possessions.
XVIII. How a husband is to be called to account for a wife or a wife for a husband, if he or she be not solvent.
D. Should a husband, indeed, be called to account for a wife who was bounden to the king and who has already died, or ought a woman who survives her husband to be called to account for him?
M. Thou hast heard often enough, that "he who cleaves to a woman is made one flesh," in such way, however, that he is her head. With right, therefore, he is to be called to account for her, for the woman has not power over herself, but the man over her. But if the husband have had offspring by her, to which offspring, by reason of the wife, the heritage is due, and, the wife being already dead, the money due to the king has not yet been paid: then that husband is to be called to account in the name of the heir, and coerced; but otherwise not. A woman, on the other hand, who survives her husband, and has offspring, and remains in widowhood with it, is to be called to account and coerced by reason of the offspring to whom the heritage is due; in such manner, however, that her dowry shall be spared, since it is the price of her virginity. But if, leaving her children, the woman cleave to another husband, the lawful heir is to be called to account for the debt of his father. If, however, a woman who has committed an offence and is bounden to the king, her former husband being dead without children, shall transfer herself and her heritage to another, her debt is to be required from the new husband. This is, then, what thou did'st ask. And in this way a man is to be summoned on account of the wife and a wife on account of the husband. Thou may'st be sure also that the lawful heir who succeeds to a debtor is to be called to account for him: so that he may succeed to the burdens as well as to the emolument. The bondsman alone, and he who dies without heritage, are, after their chattels have been sold, freed from their debt by death's
