Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/49

1922 for absolution. When Edward I outlawed the clergy on 30 January 1297 most of them compounded, and so escaped the seizure of their property. It was represented to the pope that many were afraid that they were under excommunication, and so they absented themselves from divine service.

The last two articles of the petition were directed against the proceedings of Geoffrey of Vezano, who was resident papal collector in England from 1276 until 1302. The yearly amount paid in Peter's pence to the pope was 299 marks, and the contributions from the different dioceses were fixed before 1133. A penny was levied from each household. From the twelfth to the fourteenth century the popes made attempts to secure the full amount collected from the people. Innocent III complained that the bishops acquired a thousand marks in collecting Peter's pence. In 1282 Geoffrey of Vezano received a mandate from Pope Martin IV to inquire into the way in which Peter's pence had been collected by archbishops, bishops, and other prelates who were said to keep back part of it, and to apply such remedy as might be had without scandal. The clergy now petitioned that Geoffrey should demand no more from the bishops for Peter's pence than the customary amount; they alleged that Gregory V (996–9), or Gregory VI (1045–6), had specified it in a bull and suggested that it could be found by searching the register. The following papal letter which is entered in the register of Simon of Ghent is probably the document which is mentioned in the petition.

"Gregorius servus servorum dei venerabilibus fratribus Cantuariensi et Eboracensi archiepiscopis et eorum suffraganeis et dilectis filiis abbatibus prioribus archidiaconis eorumque officialibus per regnum Anglie constitutis ad quos iste littere pervenerint salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Qualiter denarius beati Petri qui debetur camere nostre colligatur in Anglia, scilicet in quibus dyocesibus debeatur ne super hoc dubitari contingat presentibus fecimus annotari, sicut in registro sedis apostolice continetur."

The statement of the customary amounts, in which there are two trifling clerical errors, follows, and the letter is dated at Orvieto on 22 April in the second year of the pope. Prom internal evidence it appears to have been written by Gregory X. The diocese of Ely was not created until 1109. Gregory VIII was pope from 20 October to 17 December 1187, Gregory IX was at Perugia on the date of the letter, while Gregory X was actually at Orvieto.