and Ralph of Morden, to the bishop of London's house on 10 August. There a notarial instrument was executed in the presence of the collectors and other witnesses in which the monks asserted that they gave the sum of six marks out of courtesy as a mark of reverence to the cardinals, and not because a procuration was due from them; in accordance with the terms of a composition made between the chapter and the abbot, the abbot was bound to pay the procurations and expenses of all papal legates who travelled with ten horses.[1] However, the protest was of no avail, for in the roll of the treasurer of the convent in 1297 the sum of £22 0s. l0d. is entered as paid for the procuration of the cardinals.[2] The payment of a double procuration in 1295, i.e. from the chapter as well as from the head of the house, is recorded at Canterbury and Worcester as well as at Westminster.[3]
When the cardinals put their proposals before the king and the great council at Westminster on 5 August, he replied that he could not make either a truce or a peace with the king of France without the consent of the king of the Germans.[4] The chroniclers recorded that as the cardinals could not accomplish their business they left London for Dover on 14 August; however, they actually carried with them letters from the king of that date, authorizing them to conclude a truce until All Saints' Day.[5]
The chronicler of Barnwell entered the receipt for the procuration paid by his house and observed that the cardinals went away 'wealthy with much money and with palfreys which they had got from all the bishops'.[6] The cardinals had a papal privilege enabling them to travel with as many horses as they judged necessary for their mission, and to demand them from those persons on whom they also levied procurations.[7] The prior of Norwich had duly paid his six marks when he received a further demand from the cardinals, dated 13 August, for ten marks for the purchase of a baggage horse, to be paid within a fortnight to merchants of the firm of the Ammanati of Pistoia on pain of excommunication and other penalties which would be enforced by Master John de Luco, canon of St. Paul's.[8]
- ↑ Westminster Abbey Muniments, no. 9499 A.
- ↑ Ibid. no. 19838. I am indebted to the Rev. H. F. Westlake for this reference, and for kindly giving me access to the Westminster Abbey Muniments.
- ↑ Literae Cantuarienses, ed. J. B. Sheppard (Rolls Ser.), ii. 174, 175; Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iv. 521; Flores Historiarum, ed. Luard, iii. 280; cf. Cotton, p. 299. When the head of the house had separate property, a double procuration was charged.
- ↑ Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 311; Flores Hist., iii. 279, 280.
- ↑ Rymer, Foedera, i. 825.
- ↑ Ecclesie de Bernewelle Liber Memorandorum, pp. 235, 236.
- ↑ Registres de Boniface VIII, ed. Digard, i. 243.
- ↑ Cotton, pp. 292, 293.
