In the Middle Ages it became a legal fiction, and the two parties usually signed a contract specifying the rent or services owed by the petitioner.
In the Merovingian period the feminine form (singular precaria) became common, but in the eighth century the term beneficium began to replace precarium, although the institutions were practically identical.
[2] Precarium is discussed in the legal digests of Justinian, and seems to have existed in 6th century Visigothic Spain and France.
[3] In feudalism, the use of church lands to support warriors contributed to the growth of precaria in the eighth century in Catholic Europe.
[4] The lord or king often paid a fixed rent annually to the church or monastery for the land.