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The agents in the mat

them fur

ther to the same effect;

Benedictine, Augustine, Carthusian, Grandmontane, and other orders, as well as to the rest of the ecclesiastical persons, regular and secular, exempt and non-exempt, located in the provinces of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, we admonish, urge, and exhort them by the bowels of the mercy of our God, recommending it as a means of obtaining the remission of their sins, and also giving them command in our apostolic writs, as they have any regard for piety towards God, or any reverence for the apostolic see and ourselves, to be careful to make their settlement with the said king, for the Tenth of all their ecclesiastical rents, revenues, and profits, (according to the form of our grant above mentioned, for the avenging of these fearful reproaches on Christ and Christianity, and the averting of the awful dangers to which the land aforesaid is exposed,) in such a spirit of liberality, that the voluntary promptitude exhibited in the liberal settlement which they make, obviating all necessity for any coercive measures, may prove meritorious in the sight of God, and commend itself to us also as a suitable occasion for thanksgivings on our part, and for such increased claims on our favour, as shall, under the circumstances, be meet.

"Wherefore we give charge to your discretion, in these our apostolic writs, that according to the wisdom ter to urge given you by God, you diligently admonish, and effectively induce, either personally, or by means of others, the aforesaid archbishops and their suffragans, and the others aforesaid, all and singular, not being exempt from contributing to the Tenth aforesaid, that they pay the said Tenth, for the same six years, as it is premised, to the said king of England, in a liberal spirit, and without the interposing of any impediment thereunto. "And if in obeying your admonitions in this behalf using coercive means they shall manifest any negligence, or occasion delay in if necessary. any sort whatsoever, in that case do you, by our autho

rity, compel them, all and singular, to make their settlement with the said king for the Tenth in question, at such terms as you shall think proper to specify for this purpose; setting aside any appeal which may be suggested by them, or by any individual of their number.

have this

"And forasmuch as in those parts, the same rents, Care to be revenues, and profits are estimated in divers modes, and taken to various ways of rating their values are in use, it is our rent paid will, and strict injunction, to you, which we urge also as with strict a matter of solemn charge upon your consciences, that honesty, setting God before your eyes, and acting with the advice of discreet persons belonging to the different cities and dioceses, in which the taxation will require to be made, you apply your diligent exertions to tax the true value of the rents, revenues, and profits aforesaid, according to what they usually amount to under ordinary circumstances, after such sort, that the churches of the said parts, and their rectors, may be able without serious inconvenience, to support the taxation aforesaid, and that the mode of conducting the business, so far as it may conveniently be possible, shall be such as to preclude all materials of scandal, hinder the opening of any door for peril to the souls of men, and sufficiently provide against the accruing of any loss to his majesty in the transaction. Any privileges, indulgences, or graces whatso- disregarding ever, which may have been granted by the apostolic see any former to the aforesaid archbishops and their suffragans, or to promises of the others, or to any individual of them, or to their dig- the" Aposnities, or orders, and specially to those of Citeaux, Præ- tolic See." monstre, Clugny, Chartreux, Grandmont, or to their universities, or single persons of them, under any form of words, or mode of expression whatsoever; even should it be contained in them, that mention full and express, or explicit in any degree of minuteness, must be made in future letters of their entire contents seriatim, or word for word, or specifying the proper names of the parties

covenants or

A certain limitation introduced.

Mode of allocation

raised.

acquiring or obtaining them, or any other indulgence of the same see, of whatsoever tenor, form, or mode of expression it may be, which not being inserted word for word in these presents, or not being expressed in them by name and specifically, might have power to cause impediment or delay in the way of their execution, in any manner, notwithstanding.

"It is however our will and pleasure that you, brother bishop, should not exercise the power aforesaid over the exempt of your city or diocese: but you, son dean, are at liberty to exercise it freely, whether directly or by the agency of another, over the exempt belonging to the city and diocese of Meath.

"Furthermore it is our pleasure, that whatsoever portion of the said Tenth may have been collected before of the money the said king shall have embarked for the purpose of crossing the sea, shall be assigned by you to his agents appointed for this purpose, as soon as he shall have gotten on board with his army to cross the water; and that whatever portion of the said Tenth shall be collected after that period, shall be carefully assigned by you, according as it may be collected, to such agents as he shall appoint for the purpose.

The pope's

bagmen to share of the

have no

spoils ;

And in order that the labours and anxiety undertaken by you in the discharge of the premises may be attended with a more abundant prize of everlasting retribution, we have considered it expedient not to exempt yourselves from payment of the Tenth in question. Our pleasure on the contrary is, that you should be holden bound to the same. Also for your own expenses you are to make no charge upon this Tenth; and in the settlement of any other expenses contingent upon the said

This violation of the rule in Deut. xxv. 4, may remind one of those lines of Horace, Sut. I. 1, 46 seqq., "ut si Reticulum panis," &c.

Tenth, you are to be careful that the costs which you charge thereupon shall be of moderate amount.

the work in

"Furthermore in executing matters of so important although and arduous a nature as the premises, and matters in- tied straitly enough to volving the need of such great and careful circumspec- give their tion, in order that the execution of them may be the personal atmore safely, judiciously, and effectively carried on, we tention to order you both, if it shall be possible, to give your at- hand. tention to the admonition, coaction, taxation, and settling of the said terms, as above mentioned, and also to the [proper] assignation of such sums as may be collected, of the said Tenth, whether before the abovenamed king shall have embarked on the water, or subsequently.

case of the

"But if either by death, or by some other impedi- How to arment, not invented, not pretended, either of you shall range in happen to be interrupted in this business, let the other death of eiduring the continuance of such impediment, attend to ther agent, the execution of the premises notwithstanding; and on &c. such impediment ceasing to exist, give your earnest attention both of you together, in accordance with the directions above given, to the effective execution of the premises.

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Moreover, to provide still more amply for the wel- Their aufare of souls, we grant by the tenor of these presents, strengththority full and free power to you both, and to each of you, to ened by a absolve directly, or through the agency of others, ac- grant of spicording to the Church's form, after due satisfaction ritual powmade, all those who for failing to pay the Tenth aforesaid, or for any impediment occasioned by them, in any manner whatever, to such payment, shall have incurred sentence of excommunication, and to dispense with them relative to any irregularity in which they may have become involved, from intermixing, while under such sentences, in assemblies for the celebration of divine offices.

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Comment

on the

above document.

"Given at the Old City, the 15th of the Kalends of April, in the fourth year of our Pontificate."

Considering that Ireland was visited with a most oppressive tax in 1229 to support the pope against the emperor Frederick, with another in 1240, (of which at p. 679 sup.), that there was a further levy on this country in 1251 "for the service of the Holy Land," a further demand in aid of the wars of the pope with the king of Arragon in 1270, and a grant of the Tenths in Ireland for three years assigned in the latter year by Henry III. to his queen Eleanor,* and that moreover at the very period when the bull above given was issued, the nobles and clergy of Ireland were impoverished by wars, and burdened with debt, it were certainly not very wonderful if such an extraordinary document as this were to have the effect of instigating the Irish ecclesiastics, disgusted at such incessant imposts in favour of the popes and their friends the kings of England, to form such a conspiracy against the influence of the latter, as that of this year 1291, recorded in Art. 39 sup.

See Mant, i. 13; Reeves, Ant. of Down, &c. Introdn. p. vi. notes.

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