128 On the Roman Coloni. In another point on the contrary the coloni were protected by an immediate personal right. They paid the landowner a yearly rent for the enjoyment of the farm which they in- habited ^^ Generally speaking this rent was to be paid in kind, and a money-payment was not to be demanded ^^: there midit also be cases however in which the rent was to be paid in money, unquestionably either by contract or custom ^^ Now with rerard to this rent there was this im- portant rule, that the landowner was altogether unable to raise it above what till then had been customary ^^: and by this provision the condition of the colonus^ in other respects so hard, was very much lightened. This rent for the lands occupied by the colonic though it is indisputably one of the most important features in their condition, receives little light from the old lawbooks : but this only increases the value of the information which is con- tained in a letter of Gregory the Great ^^ concerning the coloni of the Roman church in Sicily, and of which I will attempt to give a connected statement. The church did not cultivate her estates on her own score, but farmed them on a large scale to conductor es^'^. Hence all the coloni living on the small plots of the estate were farmed out along with it to the conductor '^, that is to say, they had to pay their rent not to the church but to him, so that the regulations con- tained in the pope'*s letter are to be regarded in the first instance as a code for the farmers and coloni of the church. 6* Annuae functiones : L. 2. C. J. in quib. causis col. (xi. 49). Reditus : L. 20. pr. L. 23. § 1. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). ^' L. 5. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). Domini praediorum id quod terra praestat acci- piant, pecuniam non requirant, quam rustici optare non audent : nisi consuetudo prae- dii hoc exigat. 6G L. 20. § 2. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). 67 L. 1. 2. C. J. in quib. caus. col. (xi. 49). L. 23. § 1. C. J. de agric. (xi. 47). This was the only case in which the colonus was allowed to maintain a private action against his landlord. See note 38. 68 Lib. I. Ep. 44. p. 533, sqq. ed. Paris, 1705. 69 These conductores are mentioned in pp. 534, 535, 536. They again to a certain degree formed a class by themselves : at least it was held by many persons that their property at their death did not descend to their relations, but fell to the church. This doctrine is reprehended by the pope (p. 535), who orders that the common law of inhe- ritance should be observed. 70 Hence in pp. 536, 537 we find the words : Quoties conductor aliquid colono sua injuste abstulerit.
