Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/47

1922 ready to treat them with gentleness, but he warned them not to despise the keys of the church. On 5 February 1298 Archbishop Winchelsey notified Geoffrey that he would collect the procurations due from his own diocese for the second and third year, and told Geoffrey to address himself to the collectors originally appointed by the cardinals. The archbishop was then engaged in collecting the tenth granted by his province to repel the Scottish invasion, and it was not until 7 July 1298 that he issued instructions for the collection of these procurations which were long overdue. It is possible that he had delayed in the hope that the petition to Boniface VIII from the clergy might meet with some success.

The first article of the petition was that the procurations for the second and third year should for several reasons be reduced. The clergy urged that this new imposition was most burdensome and would become a precedent; the cardinals had exacted a full procuration both from England and from France; the church in England was oppressed by many wrongs and was unable to find so much money, and the sentences of excommunication were so stringently enforced by the cardinals that many of the clergy were suffering under them solely for their poverty. Lastly, the excessive procuration was recognized to be illegal; Cardinal Ottoboni and other legates were content with the moderate procuration of six marks, often they received less, and they never attempted to exact it from parish churches.

The second article of the petition was that the assessment of church lands and benefices in 1291, known as the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, should be carefully revised; they were then assessed above their value, the value was falling continually, and procurations such as those of the cardinals and other contributions would be levied on this assessment. The clergy had some justification for detesting this new assessment. In the bull of Nicholas IV there was a reservation that the taxation should be borne by churches and their rulers without grave inconvenience. Even the bishop of Winchester, who together with the bishop of Lincoln was responsible to Nicholas IV for the making of the assessment, complained to the dean of St. Paul's and the archdeacon of Wells that their valuation of £3,107 0s. 0¼d. for the property of his see was much too high, and he got a reduction of £129 16s. 2¼d. The rise in the