§ 9. FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE AVIGNON POPES. 89
ordained before the canonical age, all had to have a dispensation, and these cost money. ^ The larger revenues went directly into the papal treasury and the treasury of the camera. The smaller fees went to notaries, doorkeepers, to individual cardinals, and other officials. These intermediaries stood in a long line with palms upturned. To use a modern terra, it was an intricate system of graft. The beneficiaries were almost endless. The large body of lower officials are usually designated in the ledgers by the general term " familiars " of the pope or camera. 2 The notaries, or copyists, received stipulated sums for every document they transcribed and service they performed. However exorbitant the demands might seem, the petitioners were harried by delays and other petty annoyances till in sheer weariness they yielded.
The taxes levied upon the higher clergy were usually paid at Avignon bythe parties in person. For the collection of the annates from the lower clergy and of tithes and other general taxes, collectors and subcoUectors were appointed. We find these officials in different parts of Europe. They had their fixed salaries, and sent periodical reckonings to the central bureau at Avignon. ^ The transmission of the moneys they collected was often a dangerous business. Not infrequently the carriers were robbed on their way, and the system came into vogue of employing merchant and banking houses to do this business, especially Italian firms, which had representatives in Northern and Central Europe. The ledgers show a great diversity in the names and value of the coins. And it was a nice process to estimate the values of these moneys in the terras of the raore generally accepted standards.*
1 Tangl, 74 sq.
2 As an example of the host of these officials who had to be fed, see Tangl, pp. 04-67. He gives a list of the fees paid by agents of the city of Cologne, which was seeking certain bulls in 1393. The title "secretary" does not occur till the reign of Benedict XII., 1338. Goeller, p. 46.
3 One of the allowances made by John XXII. for collectors was 5 gold florins a day. Kirsch : KolleJctorien, VII. sqq., XLIX. sqq. Kirsch gives the official ledgers of papal collectors in Basel, pp. 4-32, and other sees of Germany. Sometimes the bishop acted as collector in his diocese, Goeller, p. 71.
* For elaborate comparisons of the value of the different coins of the fourteenth century, see Kirsch, Kollektorien, LXXVIII. and Buckkehr, p. xli sqq.
90 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The offerings madejby prelates at their visits to tlie papal see, called visitationes^\\vere divided equally between the pap_^l treasury and the cardinals. From the lists it appears that the archbishops of York paid every three years "300 marks sterling, or 1200 gold florins." Every two years the archbishops of Canterbury paid " 300 marks sterling, or 1500 gold florins"; the archbishop of Tours paid 400 pounds Tournois; of Rheims, 500 pounds Tournois; of Rouen, 1000 pounds Tournois.'-^ The archbishop of Armagh, at his visitation in 1301, paid 50 silver marks, or 250 gold florins. In 1350 the camera claimed from Armagh back payments for fifty years. ^ Presumably no bishop of that Irish diocese had made a visit in that interval. Whether the claim was honored or not, is not known.
Tlie servitia conwiunia, or payments made by archbishops, bishops, and abbots on their cunlirmatiun to oilice, were also listed^ according to a fixed scale. The voluntary idea had completely disappeared before a fixed assessment.* Such a dignitary was called an electus until he had paid off the
Gottlob, pp. 133, 174 sq., etc. Baumgarten, CCXI sqq. The silver mark, the gold florin, and the pound Tournois were among the larger coins most current. One mark was worth 4 or 5 gold florins, or 8 pounds Tournois. The grossus Tiironensis was equal to about 25 cents of our value. See Tangl, 14. For the different estimates of marks in florins, see Baumgarten, CXXI. The gold florin had the face value of §2.50 of our money, or nearly 10 marks German coinage. See Kirsch, KuUektorien, p. Ixx ; liikkkehr, p. xlv ; Gottlob, Servitientaxe, p. 176 ; Baumgarten, p. ccxiii ; Tangl, 14, etc. Kirsch gives the purchasing price of money in the fourteenth century as four times what it now is, Finanzverwaltung, p. 56. The gold mark in 1370 was worth 02 gold florins, the silver mark 5 florins, Kirsch .- liikkkehr, p. xlv. Kirsch : liikkkehr, pp. 1-lxi, gives a very elaborate and valuable list of the prices of commodities and wages in 1370 from the Vatican ledger accounts. Urban V.'s agents bought two horses for 117 florins gold and two mules for 90 florins. They paid 1 gold florin for 12 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of boots. A salma of wheat — equal to 733 loaves of bread — cost 4 florins, or $10 in our money. The keeper of the papal stables received 120 gold florins a year. The senator of Rome received from Gregory XI. 500 gold florins a month. A watchman of the papal palace, 7 gold florins a month. Cai-penters received from 12-18 shillings Provis, or 60-80 cents, 47 of these coins being equal to 1 gold florin. ^ Visitationes ad limina apostolorum, that is, visits to Rome.
2 See Baumgarten, CXXI.; Kirsch : Finanzverwaltung, p. 22 sq.
3 Baumgarten, p. cxxii.
* Gottlob, Servitien, p. 30 sqq., 75-93 ; Baumgarten. p. xcviisqq.