( ix ), 



crated on the 25tU September 1205. Therefore < the fourth year of this 

 prelate should extend from 25th September 1208 to 25th September 1209, 

 unless we had reason to suppose that the mere fact of his pre- occupation 

 of the see with all its profits in virtue of royal mandates^ during the 

 preceding year had led the scribe to ignore the date of consecration for 

 fiscal purposes.^ 



There is, however, another method of computing the period of these 

 accoxmts from year to year; for whatever may have been the general, 

 practice in this respect,^ the fact that the revenues of the See of Winchester 

 were administered in connexion with an exchequer at Wolvesey would 

 seem to indicate that the procedxire of the royal Exchequer was followed 

 in this as in other particulars. 



The Bishop's Exchequer. — It has been usual to compare the Bishop 

 of Winchester's exchequer at Wolvesey with the royal Exchequer at 

 Westminster, and it has been generally assumed that the annual audit of 

 the episcopal revenues is recorded in the long series of stately muni- 

 mepts which stUl bear the title of " Pipe Rolls." 



As no critical examination of the episcopal archives has ever been 

 attempted, we must not attach a greater importance to this cursory de- 

 scription than it was meant to bear. With fuller opportunities for a 

 diplomatic study of their contents it can, we believe, be shown that the 

 series of inrolments, of which the earliest surviving specimen is printed 

 in the following pages, does not correspond in any true sense with the 

 Pipe Rolls of the royal Exchequer. The latter are primarily concerned, 

 it is true, with the farms of the royal demesnes, and equally record the 

 casual revenue of the Crown, together with the annual disbursements 

 made by due authority. Similar information is also contained in the 

 " Pipe Rolls " of the bishopric ; but, for all that, the classification of the 

 two species must follow dilferent lines. The Exchequer Pipe Roll is, in 

 fact, something more than a balance sheet of the territorial profits and 

 perquisites of the Crown, for every source of royal revenue passed 

 through this capacious conduit to fill the coffers of the Treasury. Now 

 it will be evident at once that this purpose was not served by the existing 

 episcopal account rolls, which take no cognizance of any temporal source 

 of revenue external to the manors of the See* or of any spiritualities 

 whatsoever. And yet we cannot doubt that these sources of revenue were 

 brought to account, just as they duly appear in the " states of account," 

 which are fitfully preserved in later ecclesiastical and monastic registers.^ 



1 Pat. 6 John, m. 8 (2l8t September 1204) ; Close 7 John, m. 16 (19th August 1205). 



2 In spite of these grants, the profits of the See for the year ending 29th September 1205 were 

 rendered to the Crown at the Exchequer (Pipe Roll, 7 John, Hants). It is possible, however, that 

 the intention of the grants was only to effect an assignment to the Bishop elect in connection with 

 his extensive pecuniary dealings with the Crown. 



' The ancient practice of the Prankish Curia, from which the form of our own accounts is 

 immediately derived, prescribed a fiscal year extending from Christmas to Christmas, a period 

 which, coinciding with the Cliristiau and the civil years, has been chiefly favoured by western 

 nations. It was even largely used for the accounts, of ministers of the Crown, which were not 

 audited at the Exchequer itself. 



* An exception to this might seem to be found in the case of the Scutages accounted for in 

 several of these Rolls, but it must be remembered that this was merely a customary exaction in the 

 case of sub-tenants. 



* e.g. Canterbury (Hist. MSS. Comm. ix. Appx. i.), and Winchester itself (Hampshire Record 

 Society, Registers of Sandale and De Asserio). 



