DISPOSITION OF THE PENALTIES ny 



writ of the treasurer (sometimes at the urgent request of 

 the collectors themselves) ^ to deliver them to the collectors 

 of the following year; ^ if the collectors in accounting prove 

 to have estreats which they confess not to have levied, these 

 estreats are sent (also by writ of the treasurer) to the next 

 set of collectors, who are instructed to levy the penalties in 

 aid of their year of the tax ; ^ if the collectors admit having 

 in their possession some portion of the penalties which they 

 had levied but not distributed,* two writs are issued by the 

 treasurer, one to the aforesaid collectors ordering them to 

 deliver the money to the collectors of the following year, 

 and the other to the latter bidding them receive and distri- 

 bute it." 



The arrears of the third year belong to the period when 

 the subsidy had ceased to run; for a few months after 

 Michaelmas, 1354,® there are instances when the collectors 

 are ordered to levy the penalties according to the estreats 

 and distribute them among the needy districts, '^ but the 



'App.,287. 'App., 278. 'App.,279. 



* In such a case the subcollectors must have been persuaded to levy 

 penalties which were not going to be of any direct benefit in lessening 

 their labours, as they had already collected the total amount of the tax. 



^App,, 279, In the instance here given the first order is merely re- 

 ferred to. 



*28th year; but Michaelmas, 29th year, in the exchequer. Cf. app., 

 256. 



' Cf. Mem. L. T. R., 29, Trin., Status et visus compotorum, rot. 13 d, 

 Somerset; the collectors at this date, clearly after the cessation of the 

 subsidy, make the following statement under oath: " debent xli s. ii d. 

 qui adhuc restant leuandi et distribuendi inter pauperes villatas dicti 

 comitatus. 



Idee de precepto curie prestiterunt sacramentum de leuando pre- 

 dictos xli s. ii d. et eos distribuendo inter villatas predictas iuxtaformam 

 statuti etc., cum ea celeritate qua etc." Finally, in the spring of 1359 

 indentures are delivered to the exchequer by one of the collectors, con- 

 taining the correct amount; but the process is continued against the 



