>I. Stubbs' Cons. Hist,, 252.

'The beneficia, or benefices, were " grants of Koman provincial land by the chieftains of the tribes which overran the Roman Empire ; such grants being conferred on their associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest was military service." Maine's Village Communities, 132. The same writer al.io says, "that in the ineradicable tendencies of the Teutonic nice, to the hereditary principle, the benefices became descendible from father to son."

* I. Stubbs' Cons. Hist. 254.

the weaker man obtained the protection of the stronger, and he who felt himself insecure placed his title under the defence of the church. By the practice of commendation, on the other hand, the inferior put himself under the personal care of a lord [^that is, commended himself to him, hence the term'] but without altering his title, or divesting himself of his right to his estate ; he became a vassal and did homage. The placing of his hands between those of his lord was the typical act by which the connexion was formed. And the oath of fealty \Jaithfidness'] was taken at the same time. The union of the beneficiary tie with that of commendation completed the idea of feudal obligation ; the twofold tic on the land, that of the lord and that of the vassal, was supplemented by the twofold engagement, that of the lord to defend, and that of the vassal to be faithful." " This oath of 'fealty' and wherein it differed from 'homage' may be explained best in the words ot Littleton, " Fealty is the same that fidelitas is in Latine. And when a freeholder doth fealty to his lord he shall hold his right hand upon a booke (a Bible) and shall say thus: Know ye this my lord, that I shall be faithfull and true unto you, and faith to you shall beare forthe lands which I claime to hold of you, and that I shall lawfully doe to you the customs and services which I ought to doe, at the termes assigned, so help.nie God and his Saints; and he shall kisse the booke.