Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/197

Rh who might otherwise have demanded his services at a time when his own crops required attention. From an entry which occurs in the manor of Shaldeford, the price at which this labour was commuted may be deduced, it being in that instance flied at twopence a day, the total amount received under this head throughout England being £184 16s. 8d.

We next come to the rent paid by freeholders, the entry for which is placed under the heading of redditus assisus. In only one instance is its nature specified. In the manor or bailiwick of Godsfeld in Hampshire it is distinctly stated to be rent for houses in the two towns of Portsmouth and Southampton. The profits arising from the fees and perquisites paid to the manor courts, constitute an entry in almost every bailiwick. In some cases they amounted to a considerable sum. An officer called the steward of the manor was appointed for the collection of these dues.

There yet remains an item of income to be explained which was of a totally different character to the rest, and could only have arisen under an ecclesiastical régime. This is a voluntary contribution from the neighbourhood, and is entered under the title of confraria. The mode of collection is not specified, but we may presume that by a system similar to that practised in the present day in many Roman Catholic countries, a house-to-house visitation was annually made for the purpose of extorting the charity of the pious. The amount thus scraped together by the wealthy mendicants of St. John from the overtaxed and harassed commons of England amounted in 1338 to nearly £900. It appears that even this large sum was less than what had previously been obtained, as may be gathered from an entry where the smallness of the contributions under this head is accounted for by the poverty of the country, and the heavy taxes payable to the king for the support of the navy.