«Lime burning.» (4) The '_obsequium coquendæ calcis_'--lime-burning. This was one of the specially mentioned services of the servi of the Church in Frankish times, under the Bavarian laws, in this very district of Rhætia, as we shall see by-and-by. «Building, &c., and support of inns, roads and bridges.» (5) The '_præbitio materiæ, lignorum, et tabulorum; cura publicarum vel sacrarum ædium construendarum atque reparandarum; cura hospitalium domorum et viarum et pontium_'--the supply of material, wood, and boarding for building, repairing, or constructing public and sacred buildings, and the keeping up of inns, roads, and bridges. Here we have two out of the 'three needs' marking in England the higher service of the Saxon thane. Such were the chief '_sordida munera_' of the settlers in Rhætia and other Roman provinces. But servile as they were, and like as they were to the later manorial services, we must not therefore conclude that the settlers from whom they were due--whether German or Roman, in Romano-German provinces--were under Roman law necessarily _serfs_. They were, as we have said, 'free coloni' or 'læti,' and below them were the 'servi.' The three grades in which they were classed, '_ditiores_, _mediocres_, _atque infimi_,' marked gradations of wealth,--probably according to the number of yokes of oxen held, or the size of their holdings--not necessarily degrees of freedom.[442] [p300] VIII. THE TENDENCY TOWARDS A MANORIAL MANAGEMENT OF THE 'AGER PUBLICUS,' OR IMPERIAL DOMAIN. Having now examined into the character of the holdings, tribute, and 'sordida munera' of the tenants on what may be called the great provincial manor of the Roman emperor, it may perhaps be possible to trace some steps in the process by which these tenants became in some districts practically serfs on the royal villas or manors of the Teutonic conquerors of the provinces. The beginning of the process can be traced apparently at work during the later empire. «The Imperial military and fiscal officers.» The German and Gallic provinces had for long been considered as in an especial sense _Imperial_ provinces, and their 'ager publicus' and tithe-lands had become regarded to a great extent as the personal domain of the emperors. They were under the personal control of his imperial _procuratores_, or agents.[443] In fact there had grown up strictly imperial classes of military and fiscal officers with local jurisdiction over larger or smaller areas. There were the 'duces,' or 'magistri militum,' and 'comites,' and 'vicarii,'[444] whilst in the lowest rank of 'procuratores,' possibly controlling smaller fiscal districts or [p301] subdistricts, were the '_ducenarii_,' and '_centenarii_.'[445] They seem to have combined military, and judicial, and fiscal duties with functions belonging to a local police.