THESIS I.

Ornamental woodcut initial 'I' with floral and vine motifs.THE laws of feudal estates are not to be derived from Liguria or the kingdom of Lombardy, but from the customs of the Roman People.
2. And these indeed have the force of Laws: but only in controversies regarding military estates.
3. Nay, that custom has more weight in feudal cases than the civil law of the Roman People.
4. If, however, it should fail in any matter, the common law of the Roman Citizens is to be observed.
5. Indeed, that benefit, friendship, and the necessity of wars, or some other service to be performed, gave rise to fiefs.
6. And for that reason, although vassals are not slaves, they nevertheless serve and owe services.
7. Furthermore, fiefs are established by the right of usufruct only in things of the soil, or those adhering to the soil, or those which are numbered among immovables, with the ownership remaining to the grantor.
8. There is a place for an agreement in the granting of a fief that the Oath of Fealty not be performed, and that service not be rendered; but not so for this: that faith not be performed.
9. To the Church, by the law itself, the Oath of Fealty is remitted.
10. In the oath of a Liege-man, no one is excepted besides the Emperor.
11. But in the oath of a non-liege-man, the King or a more ancient Lord is excepted along with the Emperor; likewise the one swearing himself and his father are excepted: but not the son, nor the brother.
12. One can be the non-liege vassal of two.
13. Or a liege-man to one, and not to the other.
14. Yet no one can be the liege-man of two.
15. The same loyalty which the Lord receives from the sworn Feudatory, he in turn, although unsworn, ought to provide to him.
16. A Fief (which is derived from Faith) is therefore a right in the property of another in perpetuity by usufruct, which the Lord grants as a benefit in such a way that the recipient is bound by the bond of loyalty, of military duty, or of rendering some other service.
17. And of these, one is Ecclesiastical, another Secular, another Royal.