Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

MONEY.

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words DEI GRATIA appear now for the first time on English coins.
They were inscribed on his earliest gold coins, and afterwards on his
groats, but not on his smaller 1-,ieces of silver. It is remarkable, that
these emphatic words should not have obtained a place on the coins
at an earlier period, as they are found on all the great seals after the
reign of William I. They were used as early as the latter end of
the seventh century by Ina, king of the West Saxons, in the introduction to his laws.
The 40th year of this reign is remarkable by an order of the
king, that Peter-pence' should be no more gathered in England and
paid to the Bishop of Rome.
Richard II., 1377-1399, at the age of twelve years ascended the
throne of his grandfather. The troubles of his reign did not prevent
attention to the state of the money and coinage. In the second year
of his reign the Commons petitioned the king, against the clipping
of the coins and the exportation of the good money. In the Parliament of 1381, the Commons again represented the distressed state of
the country arising from the gold aud silver being carried out of the
kingdom; and what was left was very much clipped; they renewed
their petition at the end of the Session, and prayed that good and wise
counsel might be taken after inquiry and a remedy applied. The
remedies proposed were various. One of the chief was, that no clerk
nor provisor should be suffered to take away silver or gold, or to
make any exchange for payments to the court of Rome. On these
informations, a statute was enacted, which, among other things, provided that only "lords and other great men of the realm, and mer"
chants and soldiers," might carry money in gold and silver out of tlo
kingdom. A few years afterwards, an occasion arose for the enactment of a statute to protect the supremacy of the Crown, commonly
called the statute of prsemunire.'
1 In the year 1376, the court of Rome had become so oppressive in its
exactions that the Commons were forced to prefer a petition to the Parliament
in which they stated,-" So tost come le pape voet avoir monoic put meintenir
ses guerres de Lumbardie, ou aillours, pur despendre, ou pur raunson' ascuns
de ses amys prisoners Fraunceys pryses par Engleys, il voet avoir subside de
clergie d' Engleterre. Et tontost ce luy est grantez par les prelatz, a cause que
les evesqes n' osent luy contrestore, et est leve del clergie sanz lour assent eut
avoir devant. Et les seculers seigneurs n'y preignent garde, ne ne fobt force
coment le clergie est destruit, et la monoye du roialme malement enilorteo'"
The King in his answer replied, that he had already provided against such
offences by divers statutes and other means; and that he was then proceeding
ag'ainst the Holy Father, the Pope, in that very business, and that he wa s readir
to do, from time to time, whatever might be effectual. It also appeared that
the chief part of the money was conveyed out of the realm by the Pope's collector,
and by the Cardinal's procurator, who likewise discovered the secrets of the state.
The remedy proposed was, that Parliament should ordain, and that it should
be proclaimed throughout the realm, that no one should in future, up1on pain
of life or limb, act as procurator for the Pope, the Cardinals, or any other residing
at the Court of Rome.
In the following year, they further complain to the King "that the Pope's
collector here held a receipt equal to a prince or a duke, and sent annually to
Itome from the clergy for procuration of abbeys, priories, first-fruits, &c., twenty
thousand marks, some years more, some less; and to cardinals and other clerks,
holding benefices in England, was sent as much, besides what was conveyed to
English clerks remaining there to solicit the affairs of the nation; upon which
they desire his majesty, that no collector of the Pope may reside in England."
The Commons of the Realm made the following noble declaration against
the assumptions and aggressions of the Bishop of Rome:"The Crown of England hath been so free at all times, that it hath been
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