32 
Vatican Archives 
the Archivio, formed the basis of many brilliant studies, 38 which begin to 
make clear the management of papal finance, but these are for the most part 
confined to periods before the discovery of America. In fact the greater 
number of the series into which the Camera material found in the Vatican 
is divided end before that event had begun to afifect the finances of the Holy 
See, and for the history of the United States and Canada the whole is almost 
negligible. Probably more than three-quarters of the whole collection per¬ 
tains to the Papal States. The various series are as follows, correspond¬ 
ing in some degree to the various branches of income mentioned in the 
introduction. 
Introitus ct Exitns . 39 This is now an independent series of 608 numbers. 
It is also inventoried by De Pretis in the general inventory of the Archivio 
Segreto, indice 133 , arm. 65 - 74 , and 79 and 80 . A concordance between 
the two sets of numbers is to be found in indice 194 . Mixed with the series 
are volumes of mannalia, or palace accounts. The main series consists, first, 
of volumes of receipts from the census, the visitations, bulls, common services, 
and other sources, and secondly, of expenses. It extends only to 1528. Vol¬ 
umes 558 , 559 , 560 , and 561 , covering the years 1518 to 1521 and 1528, were 
examined and found to contain nothing with reference to America, nor is it 
probable that other volumes would prove more fruitful. Many volumes 
belonging to this series, but scattered in other collections both in and out of 
the Vatican, and covering later years, have been examined equally with¬ 
out result. 
Libri Censuum . 40 These give the accounts of the census, a tax levied on 
benefices and other property in return for protection. It was paid to the 
papacy, therefore, only in the Papal States and a few other regions where 
some constructive protection was afiforded. This is the same tax as the 
decima levied on the clergy of the Western Indies, to assist in protecting 
those regions from the pirates and which was so often a source of discussion 
between Spain and the Holy See, but in this case it was paid to the Spanish 
88 Dom Ursmer Berliere, O. S. B., Inventaire Analytique des Diversa Cameralia des 
Archives Vaticanes, au point de vue des anciens Dioceses de Cambrai, Liege, Therou- 
anne et Tournai, 1389-1300 (Rome, 1906, pp. 327) ; id., Inventaire Analytique des Libri 
Obligationum et Solutionum (Brussels, 1904, pp. 315) ; Paul Fabre, Etude sur le Liber 
Censuum de I’Eglise Romaine (Paris, 1892, pp. vii, 233) ; Abbe J. Fraikin, “ Les Comp- 
tes du Diocese de Bordeaux de 1136 a 1453, d’apres les Archives de la Chambre Aposto- 
lique ”, in Annales de St. Louis des Francois, III. 527-604, V. 5-74, VIII. 47-88; Emil 
Goller, “ Der Liber Taxarum der Papstlichen Kammer ”, in Quellen und Forschungen 
aus ltalienischen Archiven und Biblioteken, VIII. 113-173, 305-343; Adolf Gottlob, Aus 
der Camera Apostolica des 15. Jahrhunderts (Innsbruck, 1889, pp. 317) ; Joseph de 
Loye, Les Archives de la Chambre Apostolique au XIV e Siecle, I. (Paris, 1899, pp. x, 
274) ; E. von Ottenthal, “ Bemerkungen iiber papstliche Cameralregister des 15. Jahr- 
hunderts ”, in Mittheil. des Instituts filr Oester. Geschichtsforschung, VI. 615-626; 
Ch. Samaran, “La Jurisprudence Pontificale en Matiere de Droit de Depouille (Jus 
Spolii)”, in Melanges d’Arch. et d’Hist., XXII. 141-156; Ch. Samaran and G. Mollat, 
La Fiscalite Pontificale en France au XIV e Siecle (Paris, 1905, pp. 284). Also, on the 
archives, Cauchie, De la Creation d’une Ecole Beige a Rome, pp. 16-19. 
39 A series bearing this name is found listed in indice 145 , which gives the volumes 
contained among the archives brought from Avignon, but whether this is a separate col¬ 
lection, or had been added to the Archivio Segreto in the time of De Pretis, was not 
established, as this Avignon series, at any rate, ends with 1421. 
40 The Liber Censuum is being published by the French School. Volume I. contains 
the book of Cencius Camerarius, with appendices; vol. II., supplements to the end of 
the fifteenth century. 
