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. But he shall not kneel when he maketh his fealty, nor shall make such humble reverence as is aforesaid in homage.*

The practice of commendation became so very general, that in the words of Sir Henry Maine, it "went on all over Europe with singular universality of operation, and singular uniformity of result, and it helped to transform the ancient structure of Teutonic society no less than the institutions of the Roman Provincials."" It was one of the leading causes of the universality of feudalism in Europe.

Well writes one of the most distinguished living jurists of New York, on this subject, --

" Feudalism is compounded of barbaric usage and Roman law. While it resembled in some respects a Hindoo village community, it is in other respects quite different. The Hindoo communities gathered together by instinct, and new comers were introduced by fiction. The feudal obligation was created by contract. The feudal communities were, for this reason, more durable and varied in character than the ancient societies. Some would hold that the variety of Modern Civilizaiion is due to the exuberant and erratic genius of Germanic races. In opposition to this error, it may be asserted that the Roman Empire bequeathed to society the legal conception to which all this variety is attributable.