in which this admirable
writer more fully censures those preachers of his Church who, at the
commencement of their sermons, called upon the Virgin Mary for assistance,
in a manner somewhat similar to that in which heathen poets used to invoke
the Muses. The following passage, however, may be quite sufficient for your
correspondent's purpose:

"Sed si est fons gratiae, quid opus est illi dicere Ora pro nobis? Non
est probabile eam consuetudinem a gravibus viris inductam, sed ab
inepto quopiam, qui, quod didicerat apud Poetas propositioni succedere
invocationem, pro Musa supposuit Mariam."--Des. Erasmi Roterod.
_Apologia adversus Rhapsodias calumniosarum querimoniarum Alberti Pii,
quondam Carporum Principis_, p. 168. Basil. in off. Froben. 1531.

R. G.

* * * * *

ANCIENT TENURE OF LANDS.

(Vol. ix., p. 173.)

About the close of the tenth century (and perhaps much earlier) there began
to arise two distinct modes of holding or possessing land: the one a
_feud_, _i.e._ a stipendiary estate; the other _allodium_, the phrase
applied to that species of property which had become vested by allotment in
the conquerors of the country. The stipendiary held of a superior; the
allodialist of no one, but enjoyed his land as free and independent
property. The interest of the stipendiary did not originally extend beyond
his own life, but in course of time it acquired an hereditary character
which led to the practice of subinfeudation; for the stipendiary or
feudatory, considering himself as substantially the owner, began to imitate
the example of his lord by carving out portions of the feud to be held of
himself by some other person, on the terms and conditions similar to those
of the original grant. Here B. must be looked upon as only vassal to A.,
his superior or lord; and although feuds did not originally extend beyond
the life of the first vassal, yet in process of time they were extended to
his heirs, so that when the feudatory died, his male descendants were
admitted to the succession, and in default of them, then such of his male
collateral kindred as were of the blood of the first feudatory, but no
others; therefore, in default of these, it would consequently revert to A.,
who had a reversionary interest in the feud capable of taking effect as
soon as B.'s interest should determine. If the subinfeudatory lord
alienated, it would operate as a forfeiture to the person