on, on the other hand, the inferior put
himself under the personal care of a lord, 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 connection was formed; and the
oath of fealty was taken at the same time. The union of the beneficiary
tie with that of commendation completed the idea of feudal obligation--
the twofold engagement: that of the lord, to defend; and that of the
vassal, to be faithful. A third ingredient was supplied by the grants of
immunity by which in the Frank empire, as in England, the possession of
land was united with the right of judicature; the dwellers on a feudal
property were placed under the tribunal of the lord, and the rights
which had belonged to the nation or to its chosen head were devolved
upon the receiver of a fief. The rapid spread of the system thus
originated, and the assimilation of all other tenures to it, may be
regarded as the work of the tenth century; but as early as A.D. 877
Charles the Bald recognized the hereditary character of all benefices;
and from that year the growth of strictly feudal jurisprudence may be
held to date.

The system testifies to the country and causes of its birth. The
beneficium is partly of Roman, partly of German origin; in the Roman
system the usufruct--the occupation of land belonging to another
person--involved no diminution of status; in the Germanic system he who
tilled land that was not his own was imperfectly free; the reduction of
a large Roman population to dependence placed the two classes on a
level, and conduced to the wide extension of the institution.

Commendation, on the other hand, may have had a Gallic or Celtic origin,
and an analogy only with the Roman clientship. The German _comitatus_,
which seems to have ultimately merged its existence in one or other of
these developments, is of course to be carefully distinguished in its
origin from them. The tie of the benefice or of commendation could be
formed between any two persons whatever; none but the king could have
_antrustions_. But the comitatus of Anglo-Saxon history preserved a more
distinct existence, and this perhaps was one of the causes that
distinguished the later Anglo-Saxon system most definitely from the
feudalism of the Frank empire.

The process by which the machinery of government became feudalized,
although rapid, was g