The Roman Empire used the Latin term beneficium as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by the Western Church in the Carolingian era as a benefit bestowed by the crown or church officials. A benefice specifically from a church is called a precaria pl. A benefice is distinct from an allod , in that an allod is property owned outright, not bestowed by a higher authority.
In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land precaria for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, to the state. The word comes from the Latin noun beneficium , meaning "benefit". In the 8th century, using their position as Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel , Carloman I and Pepin III usurped a large number of church benefices for distribution to vassals, and later Carolingians continued this practice as emperors.
These estates were held in return for oaths of military assistance, which greatly aided the Carolingians in consolidating and strengthening their power. Thus, the imperial structure was bound together through a series of oaths between the monarch and the recipient of land and the resulting income [ 2 ] see Fief.
He ordered and administered his kingdom and later his empire through a series of published statutes called capitularies. The Capitulary of Herstal AD distinguished between his vassals who were styled casati sing. Once he had received a benefice, he would take up his residence on it; it was only rarely that a vassus casatus continued to work in the Palace. In his March Dictatus Papae , Pope Gregory VII declared that only the pope could depose an emperor, which implied that he could do so just as a lord might take a benefice away from a vassal.
The expanded practice continued through the Middle Ages within the European feudal system. This same customary method became adopted by the Catholic Church.
