THE FORFEITING OF FIEFS.
In many regions it is becoming the practice for vassals and feudatories
to renounce and resign verbally and without due notice the fiefs and
benefices which they hold of their lords, and then to declare themselves
free from their allegiance and to seize the fiefs under pretext of war.
Therefore we decree hereby that such renunciation shall not be valid
unless it is genuine and made with the condition that the fiefs and
benefices shall revert immediately to the lords from whom they are held;
those who have renounced their allegiance shall never disturb or molest
their lords in the possession of these fiefs. Any subject violating this
decree shall lose his fiefs and benefices, shall be branded with infamy,
and placed under the imperial ban; no one shall ever give him a fief or
a benefice, and any grant or investiture made to him shall be void.