III. A large number of allods were converted into benefices by means of a tolerably ancient usage. Marculf has left us the formula by which this conversion was made; its origin we must seek in the practice of _recommendation_. Recommendation was not primitively anything else than the choice of a chief, or a patron. A law of the Visigoths, called a _lex antiqua_, and which must be referred to king Euric, towards the close of the fifth century, says: "If any one have given arms, or any other thing, to a man whom he has taken under his patronage, these gifts shall remain the property of him by whom they have been received. If this latter choose another patron, he shall be free to _recommend_ himself to whomsoever he will: this may not be forbidden to a free man, for he belongeth to himself; but he shall, in this case, return to the patron from whom he separates himself all that he has received from him." {126} These were, then, the ancient Germanic customs. The relation of the individual _recommended_ to his patron was a purely personal one. The presents consisted in arms; his liberty remained unimpaired. The law of the Lombards left to every one the same liberty as the law of the Visigoths. Nevertheless, we see, by the same capitulary, that this liberty began to be restrained. Charlemagne defined the reasons by which any one might be allowed to quit his lord, when he had received anything from him. We may learn from this, that the ties contracted by recommendation began to be strengthened. This practice became very frequent. By these means order was promoted, so far as the law was concerned, and protection and safety as far as concerned the person recommended. When relations of service and protection bearing a purely personal character were thus established with a patron, other more tangible relations arose in which the property of the parties was considered. The person recommended received benefices from the lord, and became a vassal of his estate; or rather he recommended his lands, as he had previously recommended his person. _Recommendation_ thus became a part of the feudal system, and it contributed most importantly to the conversion of allodial estates into benefices.