Laws of the Alamans and BavariansThe survival of Germanic law codes affords us invaluable insight into prefeudal society. The inviolability of custom and the spontaneity of punishment so characteristic of primitive law served to perpetuate a rigid class structure in which the principal crimes were settled by a monetary recompense based on the victim 's social status. The codes reflect the principles of this culture. For example, the murderer of a freeman was required to pay one