were held by the owner in person, and "benefices," of which the use was granted by a large proprietor to another person during the lifetime of the latter.
Many circumstances contributed to multiply these benefices. The Church, which had large estates and could not get them all cultivated by its serfs, lidi and coloni, let parts of them to freemen, who cultivated them, and at the death of the tenant the land returned, in an improved condition, into the hands of the Church. This mode of tenure was already known to the Roman law (precarium). It sometimes happened that in exchange for a grant of this kind, the grantee made a gift to the Church of an estate of similar value belonging to himself. Thenceforward he had the usufruct of both estates, that of the Church as well as his own; but at his death the Church took possession of both. The grantee had the advantage during his life of a doubled income, and on his death the Church doubled its property. But it often happened that the Church, which was, as we know, very powerful, received the lands of private persons in the manner described without adding anything of its own, only conceding to the former owner a life-use of the property. Thus in various ways the allodial lands disappeared, and benefices became every day more numerous.
Up to this point we have seen the beneficiaries solicit the benefice and take the initiative in obtaining it. These beneficiaries remained bound by ties of gratitude to their benefactor, they exerted themselves to serve him and marched with him when he went to battle; they were his vassi. Before long a man's power was measured by the number of his vassi, the army of his clients; and then the great men, in order to increase their clientage, and consequently their influence, began themselves to offer benefices to those whom they desired to attach to themselves and gain as adherents.
The king, or the Mayor of the Palace who replaced him, needed to be able to count on the great men for the wars, whether foreign or civil, in which he engaged. Obligation towards the State was too abstract a conception to be understood, and the mere sense of duty was not strong enough to keep the great men loyal. The king therefore began to distribute lands to these great men. At first he gave them absolutely, but before long these lands were assimilated to the benefices. This evolution took place especially at the time when Charles Martel laid hands upon the property of the Church and distributed it in his own name to his warriors. The property of the Church was inalienable, it could not be given as an absolute possession. The warriors were only the life-tenants of it, and at their death it reverted to the Church. These estates were therefore simply ecclesiastical benefices, granted by the king or the mayor. Once this precedent had been established, estates granted by the king from his own lands were granted on the same conditions, merely for the lifetime of the grantee.
