818 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
through the sovereign. As late as 1288, Nicolas IV. granted Edward I. a tenth for six years for a crusade.1
The papal receipts from England came from three sources — Peter's Pence, the tribute of John, and special taxations. Peter's Pence, which seems to have started with Offa II., king of Mercia, in the eighth century and was the first mone tary tribute of the English people to Rome, was originally a free gift but subsequently was treated as a debt.2 The failure to promptly meet the payment became a frequent subject of papal complaint to king and bishops. In letters to Henry I., 1115, and to the archbishop of Canterbury, Pascal re minded them that not one half of the " gift " had been paid to St. Peter. Innocent III. gave his legate sharp orders to collect it and complained that the bishops kept back part of the tax for their own use. The tax of a penny for each household was compounded for X201. Is. ; but, in 1306., Wil liam de Testa, the papal legate, was commanded to ignore the change and to revert to the original levy. Beginning with the thirteenth century, the matter of collection was taken out of the hands of the bishops and placed in the hands of the papal legate. By the law of Gregory X. two subcollectors were assigned to each see with wages of 3 soldi a day, the wages being afterwards increased to 5 and 8 soldi. Peter's Pence, with other tributes to Rome, was abolished by Henry VIII. 's law of 1534.
The tribute of one thousand marks, promised by John, was paid with great unwillingness by the nation or not paid at all. In 1275, as John XXI. reminded the English king, the payments were behind seven years. By 1301 the arrearage amounted to twelve thousand marks. It would seem as if the tax was discontinued after 1334 and, in 1366, parliament
iUpon the valuation of 1291, the clerical tax should have amounted to £20,000. Stubbs, III. 350.
2 Jensen, D. englische Peterspfennig, Heidelb., 1903, and Liebermann, The Peter's Pence and the Population of Engl. about 1164, in Engl. Hist. Kev., 1896. The Saxon designations of Peter's Pence were romfeoh and heordpfennig. The Normans called it romascot, and the popes usually referred to it as denarius, census, or res beati Petri, and "gift," eleemosyna.
§ 128. CHURCH AND CLERGY IN ENGLAND. 819
forbade its further payment and struck off all arrearages since 1334. 1 The popes, however, continued to make the claim, and the tax was paid in part or in whole.
The special taxes levied by popes were for the cru sades in the East and against Frederick II. and for the expenses of the papal household. Gregory IX., 1229, with the king's sanction, levied a tax of a tenth for himself. The extraordinary demand, made by Innocent IV., 1246, of a third of all clerical revenues for three years and a half, was re fused by a notable gathering of bishops and abbots at Read ing and appeal was made to a general council.2
The most fruitful method which Rome employed for drain ing the revenues of the English Church was by requisition upon her benefices and special taxation of bishops and other dignitaries for their offices. The rapacity of the Roman proconsuls seemed to be revived. The first formal demand was made by Honorius III., 1226, and required that two pre bends in each cathedral and two positions in each monastery be placed at the pope's disposal. Italians were already in possession of English livings.
In 1231, Gregory IX. forbade the English bishops con ferring any more prebends until positions were provided for five Romans. In 1240, the same pontiff made the cool re quisition upon the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury of places for three hundred Italians.3 It was a constant complaint that Italian succeeded Italian. And the bitter indignation was expressed in words such as Shakespeare used in his King John (Act III., Sc. 1):
" that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toil in our dominions."
Innocent IV. was the most unblushing offender. He appointed boys to prebends, as at Salisbury, and Grosseteste spoke of some of his appointees as children, parvuli. A
1 Jensen, pp. 60-64, with elaborate list of authorities.
2 M. Paris, IV. 580.
3 M. Paris, IV. 32. This chronicler says that Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, was so harassed by these demands that in despair he exiled him self from the kingdom.