788 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
constituted a large source of revenue. The amounts to be paid in each case were computed upon the basis of a year's income. Once fixed they remained fixed and obligatory until new valuations were made.'1 The levy was usually, though not uniformly, one-third of a year's income.2 The exact origin of this form of tribute is not known, but it was recognized as custom, having the force of law before the reign of Nicolas III. (1277-1280), and probably as early as the middle of the thirteenth century.3 The tax was usually paid by the prelates on their visit in Rome, when the ap pointment was confirmed. Sometimes the obligation of pay ment was made through a commercial house.4
The census included the taxes paid by the State of the Church, the assessments paid by convents and churches under the special protection of the Apostolic see, the tributes of the vassal states, Naples, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, and England, and the income of Peter's Pence. The tribute of 1000 marks, promised by John for England and Ireland, was over and above the amounts due from Peter's Pence. The tribute of Sicily in 1272, amounting to 8000 oz. of gold, was divided into two equal parts by Gregory X., one part going to the cardinals. In 1307, a demand was made upon Charles II. of Naples for back payments on this account amounting to the enormous sum of 93,840 oz. of gold. In 1350, the amount due was 88,852 oz.5
The custom of paying Peter's Pence, or a stipulated amount for every household, was in vogue in England,
1 Kirsch, p. 12, gives the documents in which appeals were made for a re duction of the tribute by the archbishops of Narbonne, 1341, and Cashel, 1332, and the abbot of Amiens, 1344. In the case of the abbot, the amount was reduced from 4000 to 2500 gold florins.
2 See the cases from which Kirsch deduces the rule, p. 9.
8 The case of the abbot of St. Edmundsbury seems to belong here. In 1248 he paid to the Roman see 800 marks. M. Paris, Luard's ed., V. 40 ; Tangl, p. 6.
4 The promises to pay were called obligationes. Receipts, quitationes, were given by the papal treasurer, or the treasurer of the college of cardinals, or by both. Kirsch gives original documents. He was the first to clear up the subject of the servitiy. 8 Kirsch, p. 32.
§ 124. THE POPE AND THE CURIA. 789
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Northern Germany, and Po land, but was never introduced into France though Greg ory VII. attempted to collect it there but failed.1 Robert Guiscard, in 1059, pledged for Sicily twelve denarii for every yoke of oxen to be paid for all time.2 Far-off Greenland also added its contributions to this tax and it was paid under Olaf, bishop of Gardar, 1246.3
During the second half of the thirteenth century, the custom was developed of dividing the revenues from visitationes, servitia, and census between the pope and the college of cardinals.4 Up to that time the cardinals had depended upon benefices held in their own names and the tributes of castles and towns in the papal territory set aside for them by popes. To these sources of revenue were added during the thirteenth century livings in foreign lands which they administered, if administered at all, through vicars. A number of benefices were often held by a member of the curia, but the abuse of pluralities did not reach its largest proportions till the latter half of the fif teenth century. In 1291, Benedict Gaetani (Boniface VIII.) cardinal of S. Nicolas in Carcere, held, in addition to that living, two archdeaneries and two churches in France, three churches in Home and prebend stalls in Langres, Chartres, Lyons, Paris, Anagni, Todi, Terouanne, and St. Peter's in Rome.
The half portion, accruing to the cardinals, was divided equally between those dignitaries. In case a cardinal was suspended his portion was divided equally between the papal treasury and the other cardinals. It became customary at the close of the thirteenth century, in appointing a cardinal, to announce that he was entitled to a share of the servitia.5
1 Hurter, III. 136. 2 Jensen, p. 36.
8 See O'Gorman, Hist, of the Cath. Cli. in the U.S., p. 6. Nicolas Breakspear, Adrian IV., as cardinal legate, secured the promise of Peter's Pence from Norway and Sweden at the synod of Linkoping, 1152. Jensen, p. 12.
4 Kirsch, pp. 22, 23, 25. Nicolas IV., 1288, was the first to establish an equal division of the census in the bull ccelestis altitudo.
5 Such a formula dating from 1296 is given by Kirsch, p. 58. The number of the cardinals is distinctly stated in the ledger-books and also the names of cardinals who had forfeited their rights by deposition.