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20 perhaps impossible to be detennmed. The least objectionable part, indicating only unprin- cipled cupidity and rapa^^ty^ the Chancery Taxes» may with certainty be traced back to Pope John XXII* who reigned at the begins ning of the fomrteenth century, and is celebrated by papal* as well as other historians^. for his immoderate extortion by the dexterous manage- ment of benefices and by other means^ and for the immense wealth which he accumulated and left behind him. The frequent and exclusive reference to the Liber Jo* XXIL in Leo Xth's Taxe Cane. Apost. pubhshed 1514, place the fact beyond a doubt. Polydorus Vergilius indeed expressly as- cribes the origin of some such Taxes to him. Taxationes item constituit, per quas taxatis, hoc est, sestimatis sacerdotiis^ qusB ipse contu- lisset, caperetur vectigal. He proceeds. Rem vero omnem ad Apostohca pcenitentiar.i^, quam dicunt, curam pertinentem, Benedictus XIL (is sedit ad annum 1335) omnium primus ex- cogitavit, et taxationes literarum ordine consti- tuit. I am indebted for this quotation to S. du Mont s Taxffi, p. 134. The passage in P. V. is lib. viii. c. ii. fol. m. 487.
 * SeeCiac(niiiyiteetAflteP<mttScc. Taiii.u.ii.SM^ 6d»1877»