defends a kind of autonomy, it also assumes intersubjectivity and a
basic relationality in the constitution of the self. It is also possible to
relate the view of 2 Cor. 10:12b (Vulgate) to Cicero in that a person
measures himself by his own standards and thus preserves a sort of
modesty. On the other hand, one can also read Paul as opting for
something very different from Ciceronianoikeiosis. Christians should
not appropriate themselves to themselves and their peers; instead,
God has assigned a special standard and commendation to them, and
they ought to measure themselves on this basis.
In addition to its everyday and philosophical uses,commendatio
has a legal sense. Practices likecommendatio morientum already
existed in Roman law. In this practice, the dying person assigns the
care of valuable objects to a friend or asks the friend to assure the
welfare of relatives.^49 While legal commendation goes back to Roman
law, it becomes particularly apparent in the medieval period. The
feudal ceremony in which a vassal comes under the lord’s protection
is calledcommendatio.As the relationship between lord and vassal is
the basic notion of feudal law, constituting its power structures, the
conceptions defining this relationship are formative in medieval
society.^50
In a purely feudal society, only God is a landowner. The king is
God’s vassal, and feudal lords are the vassals of the king. The lords in
turn have their vassals. Land is given and received as a grant from the
lord, and its ownership is constituted as a permanent tenantship. In
thecommendatio, the lord gives the land and other benefits to the
vassal who receives them as a grant (beneficium,feudum) from the
lord. In the end, everybody is a tenant enjoying someone else’s
benefit. The feudal law thus constitutes a pyramidal structure from
God and the king to the tenants.^51
In a sense, this structure manifests Cicero’s statement that nothing
is private by nature and everything needs to be occupied or taken
over. As a grant or benefit, the land and other goods are commended
by the benefactor. Distinctive in the medieval legal act of commend-
ing is the strong heteronomy and interdependence between all parties
(^49) Herman 1996–7, 870.
(^50) Ganshof 1979 gives a full picture of this. Cf. also Petot 1927 and Wesel
2010, 147.
(^51) Ganshof 1979, 5–12, 56–7, 97–8; Wesel 2010, 191–2. I will consistently use
‘benefit’as the translation ofbeneficiumin different contexts.
The Latin Traditions 61