INVESTITURE
In ecclesiastical law, one of the formalities by
which an archbishop confirms the election of a
bishop. During the feudal ages, the rite by which
an overlord granted a portion of his lands to his
vassal.
The investiture ceremony, which took place
in the presence of other vassals, consisted of the
vassal taking an oath of fealty to the overlord
who, in turn, gave him a clod of dirt or a twig,
symbolic of the open and notorious transfer of
possession of the land. The ritual, used at a time
when writing and record keeping were not
widely practiced, fixed the date of the vassal’s
acquisition of the land and, in cases of disputes
over the land, provided a source of evidence in
the form of testimony of the vassals who wit-
nessed the proceedings.
CROSS-REFERENCES
