346 Constitutional History. [chap.
into account, a united and resolute determination of the com-
mons, such as in 1406 was brought to bear upon the king, must
have made itself felt in legislation, and could not have contented
itself with protest and petition.
Ecciesiasti- 395. In the department of finance and taxation, one of the
by the pope, great factors of the social problem may be briefly treated and
dismissed; the pecuniary assumptions and exactions of the
papacy are more important in political history than as illustra-
tions of constitutional action. From the nation at large no im-
perative claim for money was made by the popes after the reign
Papal of Henry III, except in 1306, when William de Testa was em-
powered by Clement V to exact a penny from every household
as Peter’s pence, instead of accepting the prescriptive traditional
composition of £201 9s. for the whole kingdom1: Ihetribute
promised by John was stopped in the year 1366 by the resolu-
tion of parliament2. Voluntary payments for bulls and dispen-
sations do not come within the scope of our present inquiries.
The burden of papal exaction had, even in the thirteenth cen-
tury, fallen chiefly on the clergy, and from the beginning of the
fourteenth it fell wholly upon them. Contributions from the
nation at large for papal purposes, such as crusades and the
defence against the Turks, were collected by the pope’s agents
The papal in the form of voluntary gifts. The pope had a regular official
collector who gathered the offerings of the laity as well as the
sums imperatively demanded from the clergy, and who was
Petitions jealously watched by both. A series of petitions against the
against him. , .
proceedings of this most unpopular official was presented in the
parliament of r3763. He was regarded as a mere spy, sent to
live in London and to hunt up vacancies and other opportu-
nities for papal claims ; he kept up the state of a duke ; he had
begun to take firstfruits, and sent out of the country annually
20,000 marks. In 1377 the commons petitioned that the col-
1 Hot. Parl. i. 220. Innocent III in 1213 complained that the English
bishops paid only 300 marks for Peter’s pence, retaining 1000 for them-
selves ; Eoed. i. n8.
a Vol. ii. p. 435.
3 It was no doubt in consequence of these representations that the
collector’s oath was framed; Kot. Parl. ii. 338-340.
XIX.]
Tenths and Firstfmits.
347
lector might be an Englishman1. In 1390 the king had to
reject a petition that the collector might be banished as a
public enemy. The oath which he was made to take was strin- Oath ad-
gent enough ; he swore fealty to the king ; that he would not to him.
do or procure anything prejudicial to the king, the realm, or
the laws ; would give the king good advice, and would not
betray his secrets ; would suffer the execution of no papal
mandates hurtful to the kingdom ; would receive no such man-
dates without laying them before the council ; would export no
money or plate without leave from the king, nor send any
letters out of the kingdom contrary to the king’s interests ;
that he would maintain the king’s estate and honour ; that he
would not collect Iirstfruits from benefices in the king’s gift,
nor from those given by the popes by way of expectative ; that
he would attempt no novelties, and would not leave the king-
dom without permission2. In 1427 the pope’s collector having Enforce-^
introduced bulls of provisions contrary to the statute, was im- oath,
prisoned, and only released on bail after a brisk discussion in
the privy council3 ; and there are many indications that the
fulfilment of the oath was generally enforced.
On the clergy the hand of the papacy was very heavily laid Papal exac-
in the exaction of compulsory contributions. These belong the clergy,
chiefly to the reign of Henry III. His grandfather in 1184
had, by the advice of the national council, refused to allow the
visit of a legate to collect an aid for the recovery of S. Peter’s
patrimony. The surrender of John and the piety of Henry
laid the king open to the greatest exactions, the history of
which has been traced in former chapters. The exactions of
tenths of ecclesiastical revenue, which were so common under
Henry III, were not indeed collected without the consent of
the payers, givenx in provincial synod ; but the consent was
really compulsory4; the king was in alliance with the pope,
and even Grosseteste admitted that the papal needs were great
1 Rot. Parl. ii. 373-
2 Rymer, vii. 603 ; Prynne, on the Fourth Institute, p. 146.
3 Ordinances, iii. 268.
4 See Ann. Burton, pp. 356, 360; and a list of papal exactions, ib.
PP- 364 4∙