786 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
church which sends her gifts thereby recognizes not only that they are in debt to her but to the whole of Christendom as well.1 " It was the scandalous abuse of this just claim that called forth bitter complaint.
As bearing on the papal revenues early in the thirteenth cen tury, a ledger account of the income of Innocent III. has come down to us, prepared by his chamberlain, Cencius, afterwards made a cardinal.2 Of the 633 bishoprics therein listed, 330 paid tribute of one kind or another to Rome. In addition to gifts of money, all sorts of articles are catalogued — vege tables, wine, grain, fish, wood, wax, linen, yokes of oxen, horses. Convents, churches, and hospitals made contribu tions to the pope's wants. The abbot of Reichenau, at his induction, sent two white horses, a breviary, and a book of the Gospels. A hospital in the see of Terouanne sent 100 herrings, St. Basil's, in Rome, two loads of fish.
In the latter half of the thirteenth century, the adminis tration of the papal finances was reduced to a system, and definite rules were adopted for the division of the revenues between the pope and the college of cardinals. We are re stricted to a single tax list3 for this period, while for the first half of the fourteenth century we have a number of de tailed and highly interesting ledger accounts which give the exact prices levied for papal privileges of all sorts. There, we have fiscal contracts drawn up between prelates and papal officials and receipts such as would be expected in a careful banking system. These lists and other sources of information enable us to conclude what methods were prac tised from 1250-1300.
The sources from which the papal treasury drew its reve nues were the annual tributes of feudal states, called census;
1 Quoted by Jensen, p. 42.
2 See Hurter, Innocent III. , III. 121-149. One is amazed at the extent and variety of the articles and at the curious names of the coins derived from different countries.
8 Tangl, pp. 7 sqq. The full treatment of the subject of the papal finances belongs to the period of the Avignon exile. It has called forth a distinct body of literature, beginning with the work of Woker and including the careful works of Tangl, Kirsch, Goeller, Gottlob, Baumgarten, and others.
§ 124. THE POPE AMD THE CU1UA.
'87
payments made by prelates and other holders of church bene fices called servitia, visitationes, and annates; and the occa sional taxes levied upon the Church at large, or sections of it, for crusades and other special movements. To these usual sources of revenue are to be added assessments for all sorts of specific papal concessions and indulgences.1
The servitia,2 visitationes, and annates, originally freewill offerings of the clergy, had come by the end of the thirteenth century to be recognized as obligatory assessments. The annates were payments made by papal appointees of a portion of a year's income of benefices which the pope reserved to himself the right of filling, such as prebends, canonries, and other livings. The portion was usually one-half. The visitationes were payments made by prelates; that is, archbishops, bishops, and abbots on their visits in Rome.3 These visits were made at fixed periods, the time being settled by law. The prelates, on taking their oath of office, obligated themselves to make them.
The servitia* were gifts of money paid by archbishops, bishops, and abbots at their confirmation in office. They
1 Monies from these sources were called "monies of the college," pecunice collegii, and were often entered into the books of the college of car dinals under the head oi servitia, census, visitationes, and proventus. Kirsch, Finanzverw., p. 5, Baumgarten, p. xcvi.
2 The terms servitia and annatce were used more or less interchangeably, but the former was usually applied to the gifts of prelates, the latter to the payments of the lower clerics. Gottlob, Servitientaxe, p. 1.
3 Such a visit was called a visitatio ad limina apostolorum, and was not limited to the city of Rome. The visits upon which a tax was paid were called visitationes reales in distinction from other visits called visitationes verbales. Kirsch, pp. 22 sq.
4 For the meaning and history of the word, see Gottlob, Servitientaxe, pp. 14-17. They were called servitia communia in distinction from the servitia pro familia or servitia minuta, which were smaller fees given to the officials of the papal household and officials of the body of cardinals, called familiares. These lesser fees were also matter of exact regulation, and usually amounted to one-fourteenth or one-twentieth of the servitium commune. Up to 1298 we hear of only two distinct fees for the members of the papal house hold. In 1299 we hear of three, and in the fourteenth century the number of the servitia minuta was increased to five. Gottlob, Servitientaxe, pp. 101 sqq. ; Kirsch, pp. 12 sqq.