CHAP. XIV.: Of the Fiefs of Charles Martel.

I SHALL not pretend to determine whether Charles Martel, in giving the church-lands in fief, made a grant of them for life or in perpetuity. All I know is, that under Charlemaign As appears by his capitulary, in the year 801. art. 17. in Baluzius, tom. 1. page 360. ^†1224, and Lotharius I. See his constitution, inserted in the code of the Lombards, book 3. tit. 1. sect. 44. ^†1225 there were possessions of that kind which descended to the next heirs, and were divided amongst them.

I find moreover that one part of them See the above constitution, and the capitulary of Charles the Bald, in the year 846. chap. 20. in villa Sparnaco, Baluzius’s edition, tom. 2. page 31. and that of the year 853. chap. 3. and 5. in the synod of Soissons, Baluzius’s edition, tom. 2. page 54. and that of the year 854. apud Attiniacum, chap. 10. Baluzius’s edition, tom. 2. page 70. See also the first capitulary of Charlemaign, incerti anni, art. 49. and 56. Baluzius’s edition, tom. 1. page 519. ^†1226 was given as allodia, and the other as fiefs.

I took notice that the proprietors of the allodia were subject to the service all the same as the possessors of the fiefs. This, without doubt, was partly