Note 5 — Introductory.

Gesta Abbatum I, p. 307; II, p. 3. Still more oppressive was the enactment of a General Lateran Council under Innocent IV, by which the Abbot had to visit Rome, either in person or by proxy, once every three years. The cost of such journeys and the extortion of the Holy See were regarded as a heavy grievance. ‘Iste quoque Abbas,’ says the chronicler (Gesta Abbatum I, p. 312), referring to Abbot John of Hertford (elected 1235), ‘in novitate sua multis exactionibus fatigabatur et expensis, sed prae omnibus Romanorum oppressionibus novis et inauditis coepit molestari.’