to no tenant unless he would take the vassal's oath. Usually land was
the only form of pay which the lord could give; and it always served as
a material guarantee of faithful service, since it could be resumed
whenever the vassal made default. In days when law and morality availed
little as the sanctions of contracts, the landlord naturally desired to
bind his tenant to him by a personal obligation; and there were obvious
advantages in providing that every tenant should be liable to aid his
lord with arms. The estates granted to vassals were known as benefices
(_beneficia_); they foreshadowed the lay-fief of later times. But
there are some distinctions to be drawn. The benefice was not _de
jure_ heritable; it escheated on the death of either lord or tenant.
The service was not measured with the same precision as in later times.
The military duties of the beneficed vassal were not different in kind
or degree from those of the ordinary freemen. Finally, the idea had not
yet arisen that vassals were superior in status to the rest of the
community. The importance of the vassal depended entirely on his wealth
and his rank in the King's employ. Only in the old age of the
Carolingian Empire, when the class of free landowners, acknowledging no
lord, had been almost ground out of existence by official oppression and
the intolerable burden of military service, was the burden of national
defence thrown entirely upon vassals. Then, as the sole military class
in the community, they acquired the consideration which, in early stages
of social development, is the monopoly of those who are trained to arms.

(2) It was natural that the tie of vassalage should be imposed on every
important official; and natural also to regard his office as a benefice,
tenable for life or during good behaviour. At an early date we find
cases of conquered princes--a Duke of Aquitaine, a Duke of Bavaria, a
King of Denmark--who take the vassal's oath and agree to hold their
former dominions as a _beneficium_. So again a member of the royal