II.   Instruments & Transactions

Pence is a term first invented under the Carolingian “Sacred law” of the 8th Century as a voluntary donation and offering to the Church based on a wholly fraudulent history surrounding the mythical “Peter’s Pence” (Denarii Sancti Petri). To imply that such donations were expected of all good Christians. Pence has always meant “voluntary gifts to a temple or faith”.

Under the Carolingians, the concept of Peter’s Pence as a voluntary donation (Denarii Sancti Petri) to the church was never fixed, but proportional to the wealth and influence of the individual household. Thus a freeman farmer might donate a copper “peni” (penny) equivalent to one month’s work, whereas a soldier might donate a silver “scillinn” (shilling), while a lord might be expected to donate several “punds” (pounds) equivalent to 20 silve scillin (shillings) or approximately 350 grams of silver each pund (pound). Fixed fee personal donations under Sacred Law were considered morally repugnant as the poor would necessarily bear a disproportionate burden to the rich.

In 1533, King Henry VIII (25Hen.8 c.21) abolished Peter’s Pence and replaced the system with a private corporate model of tax collectors and a system called “Levies” after the mythical tribe (Levi) which these non-Christian Venetian and Pisan families claimed as their heritage and birthright. Thereafter, only these people could issue or collect taxes, using the argument of the Servi Camerae Regis or being “servants of the Royal Chamber”.