Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/52

44 Apparently Hamo refused to return to the curia, and there was a further delay. On 1 April the archbishop wrote from Gillingham to Boniface VIII to offer him a 'small and insignificant' present of two thousand marks from the bishops and clergy of the province of Canterbury, and to Neapolio, cardinal deacon of St. Adrian, telling him that Master William of Pickering and Master Reginald of St. Albans would bring him a trifling gift of thirty marks. He besought him to help them in bringing the business of their church to a favourable conclusion. From an entry in the margin of the register it appears that nine other cardinals were offered the same amount, all that the church could afford in its time of tribulation. But Boniface VIII was in desperate financial straits, and no petition which would reduce the revenues of the papal exchequer had any prospect of success. There is no record of any answer, but it is certain that William of Pickering and Reginald of St. Albans effected no more than Hamo of Gateley and Anselm of Eastry. The evidence is clear that the clergy continued to suffer under the burdens from which they had sought for some relief. The Taxation of Pope Nicholas remained the assessment for future tenths and other levies. The papal collectors pressed for payment of the procurations, and as late as 1309 William de Testa was still demanding the arrears due to the cardinals of Albano and Palestrina. His mandate to the bishop of Salisbury is entered in the register of Simon of Ghent, who gave instructions to his archdeacons and the dean of Salisbury to find out the names of the collectors and summon them to bring all their documents to Sherborne on 13 October. Those portions of the accounts of the collectors in the diocese of Salisbury which are entered in the register of Bishop Simon of Ghent show that the procurations had eventually been paid almost in full. The abbot of Abingdon, collector for the first and second years in the archdeaconries of Berkshire and Wiltshire, got in all but £2 13s. 0d. The abbot of Milton, collector for the first year in the archdeaconries of Dorset and Sarum, got in the full amount of £56 and paid £52 to Geoffrey of Vezano, being allowed £4 for the cost of collection. When an inquiry into the amount of arrears was held in 1309 by order of William de Testa, the abbot of Sherborne stated that he was collector for the third year in the archdeaconries of Dorset and Sarum. The total amount due at 3d. in the mark was £151 4s. 3d. From this total allowances of £28 11s. 8½d. had been deducted on certain names, probably those of hospitals and poor nunneries, and he had been granted the further sum of £6 10s. 4½d. for his expenses. He held