Digital Continent Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul 2016 | Page 28

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A feudal system involved a grant of income producing
property known as the benefice or fife offered by the
lord in exchange for the public oath of loyalty by the
vassal. Investing mirrored this tradition when the lord
handed over a symbolic item, perhaps a staff or sword,
to represent the visible transfer of power.41 By the
year 1000 most of Latin Europe was comprised of peasant communities and a small aristocracy
that included both clergy and laymen. Lives and loyalties were bound together in an intricate
system that stretched both vertically and horizontally based on alliances to kings, other rulers,
superiors, and their families. The clergy, even if they lived under a rule, operated out of
necessity within the various networks of alliances, often resulting in allegiance owed to secular
rulers or family members. Clerical offices carried out both secular and spiritual duties. Kings
and emperors were often members of and contributors to royal monasteries and collegial
canonries. They called and presided over church councils and appointed and invested bishops
and abbots with their temporal properties, expecting in return material and military support,
typically in the form of men who could fight for the ruler. The bishop was almost always a
member of the local or regional aristocracy who was valued for his intellectual and
administrative abilities. His skills made him desirable as a royal counselor and less able to avoid
secular politics.42

41

Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy, 28.

42

Cushing, 9-14.