Question II: What letting is

LEASING and Hiring are the same contract, by which a person, or some thing, is granted to another for use for a price, and is received by the same. For on the part of the one granting it is a Letting: on the part of the one receiving it is a Hiring, as D. Bonaventure teaches on those words of Luke 20, A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen.

DOCTORS admonish, moreover, that if an impediment arise on the part of the thing hired, which hinders its use without fault of the hirer, for that time he is not bound to the rent; otherwise if the impediment cling to the hirer's own side. So Sylvester, verb. Locatio, Navarrus, Manuali cap. 17. num. 187. et 197. Couarruvias, l. 4. var. cap. 13. Tanner, disp. 4. quaest. 7. dub. 6. etc. Bassaeus. It is gathered from Leg. Habitatores, and Leg. Qui operas, and Leg. si uno, ff. locati.

IF by reason of barrenness, or calamity without fault of the hirer, in any year nothing be received from the thing hired, the whole rent is to be remitted; otherwise, if the barrenness be not great, it is to be remitted pro rata, unless it has been otherwise agreed, or unless it be compensated by the fruitfulness of the following years. So runs the common opinion of Doctors according to the Law ex conducto and Leg. si merces, ff. Locati. See Bassaeus, loc. cit. and Diana, p. 3. tract. 6. miscell. resol. 17. and others there.

LESSIUS extends the same, cap. 24. dub. 3., if fruits stored in a barn perish by lightning, or the arrival of an enemy. So also Bassaeus, v. Locatio.

THE CAUSES for expelling the hirer are set forth by the Lex AEde, C. de Locato, in these words: As to the dwelling-house which you say you have hired, if you have paid the rent in full, you ought not to be expelled against your will; unless the lord proves that he needs it for his own uses, or shall prefer to correct, or restore, the house, or unless you have dealt badly with the thing let. See the Doctors cited in Bassaeus, num. 4. and Bonacina, disp. 3. quaest. 7. p. 2.

AND to the same sense Gregory IX, cap. propter sterilitatem, de locato, et conducto, explaining the civil law more fully, says: Truly you will be able to inhabit, or repair, the house with an unwelcome tenant, if necessity (which however did not impend at the time of the letting) so demand: the rent for the remainder of the time being remitted to him: who also is reasonably removed from it, if he has conducted himself perversely there, or if, when he had not paid the rent for two years, he did not provide for himself by speedy satisfaction.