assessment was in many cases a real grievance, and it can be most easily understood by studying the printed texts of the Norwich Taxation of Spiritualities in 1254 in the dioceses of Norwich[1] and Ely.[2] In the diocese of Ely the assessment of only a small number of benefices remained the same, and on the higher assessments there was a very considerable increase, Haddenham rising from 60 marks to 120, Leverington with the vicarage from 80 marks to 127½ without it, Cottenham from 33 marks to 60, Over from 25 marks to 53. The evidence is even more striking in other dioceses. In the diocese of Canterbury the parish church of Fordwich rose from 1 mark to 10, Sturry from 4½ to 20, Reculver from 50 to 200; in that of Rochester, Shoreham with its chapels was raised from 40 to 80 marks, Northfleet from 40 to 100, Cliffe from 40 to 110, Sevenoaks, Penshurst, and Chiddingstone all from 20 to 50.[3] In the diocese of Winchester, Wimbledon rose from 20 to 60, Merstham from 12 to 35; in that of Chichester, Tarring rose from 56¼ to 80, Stanmer from 7½ to 20, Ifield from 6 to 15.[4] But though the Taxation of Pope Nicholas resulted in the payment of much heavier taxes by the bishops, the larger monasteries, and the richer clergy, the burden was most severely felt by the poorer parish priests, many of whom now became subject to taxation for the first time, e.g. in the diocese of Canterbury the vicarages of Rolvenden, Sittingbourne, and Newington were raised from 1½ marks to 10, of Chilham, Northbourne, and Wye from 3 to 10, of Reculver from 3 to 25, Ospringe and Tenterden from 3 to 15, Eastchurch from 3 to 20, Elham and Lydd from 6 to 25.[5] The sympathy of the province of Canterbury with their poorer brethren was shown when they met in November 1297 to grant a tenth for defence against the Scottish invasion; the archbishop, bishops, deans and chapters, and the heads of monasteries agreed to pay their tenth on the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, but the contribution from rectors and vicars was levied on the Norwich Taxation of 1254, by which most of the poorer clergy were entirely exempted.[6] Moreover, vicarages which had been created between 1254 and 1291 were not in the Norwich Taxation, therefore these vicars escaped altogether.
In the third article of the petition the clergy requested the pope to appoint some one living in England to absolve the clergy who had incurred the sentence of excommunication by disregarding the bull Clericis laicos, and thus relieve them from the costly procedure of sending a proctor to the papal penitentiary
