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The tenant enfeoffed of his holding on the conditions of base tenure was technically termed tenant by copy of court roll or tenant by the rod—par la verge.

Enfeoff′ment, act of enfeoffing: the deed which invests with the fee of an estate.

The oath concludes thus: "I shall not sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, "enfeoff anew, nor in any way alienate the possessions "belonging to my table, without the leave of the Ro- "man Pontiff.

In feudal times the kings had enfeoffed bishops with great fiefs in order to counterbalance the insubordinate secular lords, and because, in episcopal hands, these fiefs did not become hereditary.

As a villein might be enfeoffed of freeholds, though they lay at the mercy of his lord, so a freeman might hold tenements in villenage.