Filioqueclause, dispute over 261Christian aspirations and the passion for the recovery of
classical culture.
See alsoNEOPLATONISM;PLATO ANDPLATONISM.
Further reading:Michael J. B. Allen, The Platonism of
Marsilio Ficino: A Study of His Phaedrus Commentary, Its
Sources and Genesis(Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1984); Michael J. B. Allen and Valery Rees with
Martin Davies, eds., Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Phi-
losophy, His Legacy(Leiden: Brill, 2002); Arthur Field,
The Origins of the Platonic Academy of Florence(Prince-
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988); James Hank-
ins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance,2 vols. Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1990); Paul Oskar Kristeller, The Philosophy of Mar-
silio Ficino, trans. Virginia Conant (1943; reprint,
Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1964); Charles Edward
Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness: Humanity and Divin-
ity in Italian Humanist Thought,2 vols. (Chicago: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1970).
fief (feudum, feodum) Among the Germanic people
the fief initially was a gift, usually of cattle, sanctioning
and demonstrating the restoration of relations after a con-
flict. The fief presumed a countergift and linked the
donor and the recipient in a social, political, and recipro-
cal bond. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the term fief
was used in secular affairs and supplanted the term
BENEFICE.It was a gift or means of support granted to a
vassal. The fief was often a landed property, to which
there were often attached rights and revenues. It was a
holding based on certain reciprocal conditions or terms
of tenure. Unlike in the case of peasant tenures, the
holder usually did not have to pay taxes or fees as part of
the deal but owed services and personal loyalty.
As the principal material object of vassal relation-
ships, the fief figured prominently in the establishment of
a personal relationship. The ceremony of investiture and
oath of homage and fidelity were accompanied by the
handing over of objects symbolizing the land or property
involved. The obtaining of a fief signaled the vassal’s obli-
gations of aid and counsel to his lord. Withdrawing a fief
meant breaking this personal bond.
The fief was considered a patrimonial property that
descended to sons who could fulfill the obligations of
vassals and who made a new oath of homage with a right
of relief levied by the lord. As inalienable property, the
fief was sometimes held by more than one heir in an
arrangement of joint vassalship. With the evolution of a
more monetized economy in the 13th century, contrac-
tual payments and exchanges of money sometimes
replaced pledges and the passage of landed property.
See alsoFEUDALISM AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM; MANORS
AND MANORIAL LORDSHIP.
Further reading:David Herlihy, ed., The History of
Feudalism(New York: Harper & Row, 1970); Marc Bloch,
Feudal Society,2 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1961); F. L. Ganshof, Feudalism, 3d ed., trans
Philip Grierson (1952; reprint, Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1996); Bryce D. Lyon, From Fief to Inden-
ture: The Transition from Feudal to Non-Feudal Contract in
Western Europe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1957); Susan Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities
in Western Europe, 900–1300(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1984).Filelfo, Francesco (1398–1481)Italian humanist
Born in Tolentino in ITA LYin 1398, he studied at the Uni-
versity of PADUA. From 1420 to 1427, he moved to and
lived in CONSTANTINOPLE, where he learned ancient
Greek while serving in official positions for VENICE, and
then even for the Byzantine emperor. While there, he
married the daughter of Manuel CHRYSOLORAS.He
returned to Venice with numerous manuscripts and
began establishing a reputation as a scholar of consider-
able ability. Teaching at BOLOGNAfrom 1428 and then
holding a chair in Greek in FLORENCE, he was soon
involved in disputes loaded with animosity with scholars
in Florence, from which he eventually had to flee on the
return of Cosimo de’ MEDICIfrom exile in 1434. At the
same time he divided his time among teaching, polemical
writing, and translating Greek authors such as ARISTOTLE,
Xenophon, and Plutarch. After passing through Siena, he
remained for the rest of his life in MILANwith the patron-
age of the VISCONTIand SFORZAfamilies. Passionately
and extremely competitively fond of philosophy, he took
part in the discussions among Platonists and Aris-
totelians, though along with BESSARIONan old friend, he
promoted their reconciliation. He died on July 31, 1481,
in Florence, where he had recently returned.
Further reading:Diana Robin, Filelfo in Milan: Writ-
ings, 1451–1477 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1991); Diana Robin, “A Reassessment of the Char-
acter of Francesco Filelfo,” Renaissance Quarterly, 36
(1983): 202–224.Filioqueclause, dispute over LATINfor “and from
the Son,” the Filioqueclause was inserted into the West-
ern statement of Christian beliefs or creed in 589. It
referred to the supposition that the HOLY SPIRIT pro-
ceeded not only from the Father, as stated in the Eastern
creed, but from Christ as well. This difference in the basic
creeds of the Eastern and Western Churches became an
obstacle to the union of the churches.
See alsoPHOTIOSI THEGREAT,PATRIARCH OFCON-
STANTINOPLE;SCHISM,GREAT.
Further reading:Richard S. Haugh, Photius and the
Carolingians: The Trinitarian Controversy(Belmont, Mass.:
Nordland, 1975); George Broadley Howard, The Schism
between the Oriental and Western Churches, with Special
Reference to the Addition of the Filioque to the Creed
(London: Longmans, Green, 1892); J. N. D. Kelly, Early