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The Taxatio Database

The Taxatio Database was compiled initially from the Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae Auctoritate Papae Nicholai IV (Record Commission, 1802). It is being supplemented by information derived from many other sources including different versions of the Taxatio.
A taxatio is an assessment for taxation and the taxatio with which this database is concerned is often called the Pope Nicholas IV taxatio because it was carried out on the orders of that pope. For nearly 250 years virtually all ecclesiastical taxation of England and Wales was based on this extremely thorough and detailed assessment. It is a unique source for the medieval period: no other complete survey of its kind survives for any part of medieval Europe. An edition of one of the many extant manuscripts of the assessment was produced by the Record Commission in 1802: Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae Auctoritate P. Nicholai IV, ed. T.Astle, S.Ayscough and J.Caley. All the detailed material concerning the values of ecclesiastical benefices in this printed edition (the 'spiritualities' part of the assessment as distinct from the 'temporalities' part) has been entered onto the database.