De feudis theses LVI

LEST anyone think that this province of disputation is empty, since many doubt the authority and strength of feudal customs attributed to them: therefore, for the sake of avoiding this doubt, for the sake of evidence and as a preface, we establish this conclusion: that the Law of Fiefs, that is, those books which we have inserted among the remaining parts of our Imperial Law, are authentic, approved, and (as our people say) autorizabiles authoritative.

II.

So that they may be cited for the decisions of cases, both in the schools and in the courts, and hold no less authority than the remaining legal books.

III.

To which conclusion another is joined as a relative: namely, that the laws of fiefs bind all Princes, nations, and peoples subject to the Roman Empire, just as it is a matter of manifest law that this is the effect of other laws.

IV.

This is to be understood not only regarding the lay people, but also the clerical, such that the Church and ecclesiastical persons are no less bound by these than others.

V.

With this settled, the next thing is to approach the definition of the name and the thing. A fief, therefore, is not from fieri to be made, as some want, but rather it is taught that it is said from fide faith, fideum, and by the transposition of letters through metathesis the rearranging of letters, feidum or, more softly, feudum.

VI.

Whence this name of feudum fief is not ancient, but is considered to be a new term.