14. (Lombard form.) Laymen who hold lands from churches as benefices by the command of the king, are to continue to hold them unless the king orders them restored to the churches. 200. General Capitulary to the Missi, 802. M. G. LL. 4to, II, 1, no. 33. Part of this capitulary is also translated as no. 9. This and the following document illustrate the holding of royal benefices, and the difficulty in making the holders perform their duties. It was part of the duty of the _missi_ to look after the royal benefices. 6. No man shall lay waste a benefice in order to improve his own property. 201. Capitulary to the Missi, 806. M. G. LL. 4to II, 1, no. 46. 6. We have heard that counts and other men who hold benefices from us have improved their own property at the expense of the benefices, and have made the serfs on the benefices labor on their own land, so that our benefices are waste and those dwelling on them in many places suffer great evils. 7. We have heard that some sell the benefices which they hold from us to other men in full ownership, and then, having received the price in the public court, they buy back the lands as allodial lands. This must not be done, for those who do this break the faith which they promised us. 202. Capitulary Concerning Various Matters, 807. M. G. LL. 4to, II, 1, no. 49. 3. Concerning the Frisians, we command that our counts and vassals who hold benefices, and all horsemen in general, shall come to our assembly prepared for war. 203-208. Effect of the Carolingian Organization on the Growth of Feudalism. Karl the Great succeeded in reducing the great dukes to subjection (see no. 7, Einhard, ch. 5 and 11, and notes), and enforcing obedience to law in general throughout his empire, but he did not interfere with the immunity rights of churches and lords over the inhabitants of their lands or with dependence of vassals and tenants on the great land-owners. Indeed, his attempt to reduce everything to law and system resulted in completing and fixing these relations. The following passages illustrate the increased dependence of the lower orders and the greater and more complete authority of the powerful persons in the state. 203. General Capitulary to the Missi, 805. M. G. LL. 4to, II, 1, no. 44. 16. Concerning the oppression of poor freemen: that they are not to be unjustly oppressed by more powerful persons on any pretext, and forced to sell or give up their property. 204. Capitulary of 811. M. G. LL. 4to, II, 1, no. 73. This and the preceding document illustrate the attempts of the great lords to round out their domains and increase the number of their dependent tenants by forcing poor free land-owners to give up their lands and become tenants. 2. Poor men complain that they are despoiled of their property, and they make this complaint equally against bishops and abbots and their agents, and against counts and their subordinates. 205. Capitulary of Worms, 829.