244 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE clipping coupons or drawing interest or receiving fat divi- dends, they received feudal services and, on certain occa- sions, various feudal aids and other revenues. As money again became more plentiful, they often invested it, in- stead of land, in soldiers, and we have money fiefs as well as grants of land. But when feudalism first came into exist- ence, land was the chief form of property and source of in- come, and the easiest thing to grant as a fief. When once men began to enter into feudal relationships, it is not hard to see how the custom would spread. The The spread great landholder who wanted an army of vassals of feudalism to frghx, for him against barbarian invaders and against his rivals, or to throng his castle on court days, di- vided his land in numerous fiefs among men who lacked estates and who were willing and able to fight. They were, perhaps, not nobles to begin with, but their new estates soon made them nobles. The peaceful bishop or abbot, who had many church estates under his care, granted part of them to some powerful warrior who would defend the rest. The owner of only one or two villas, who was not strong enough to stand alone with his handful of peasants against the storm of invasion or the cupidity of some great neighbor with a large band of vassals, would be forced to become the vassal of the lord who otherwise might take his land from him entirely, or else the vassal of some other lord who would protect him from that lord. But the spread of feudalism did not stop there. The owner of only one or two villas might deem it advisable to Complexity become the vassal of more than one lord, and of feudalism: ,, . t . „ ., A . sub- thus get some more land, especially if there were infeudation ^ Q or more g re at men who were in a position to protect or to injure him, and if he could find time to render feudal service to both or to all, and if they were not hostile to one another. Still more likely was the man who owned a number of estates scattered here and there to become the vassal for one of them co one lord and for another manor the vassal of another lord in its vicinity. Moreover, lords who already had vassals under them entered into the feudal re-
