On 16 March 1379 the king ordered the archbishops of Canterbury and York to summon a convocation of their respective provinces in order to induce the clergy to grant the king a subsidy for the defence of the realm and the church. The province of Canterbury was convoked on 9 May and was still sitting on 23 May, when it granted the king a graduated poll tax.

There were fourteen rates of payment covering every grade of clerical society:

Archbishop of Canterbury - 10 marks

Bishops, mitred abbots, abbesses, priors 'of great estate' and of monastic cathedrals - 6 marks

Abbots, abbesses, priors and prioresses, deans and chapters of cathedral and collegiate churches and the king's free chapels, archdeacons, precentors, chancellors, treasurers and 'other dignities', provosts, wardens and rectors of conventual and collegiate churches, alien priors, proctors and bailiffs, prebendaries, curates and all other persons who have benefices or offices to the value of:

500 marks yearly or more - 60s.

£200 to 500 marks - 40s.

£100 to £200 - 30s.

100 marks to £100 - 20s.

£40 to 100 marks - 13s.4d.

£20 to £40 - 10s.

£10 to £20 - 5s.

Curates and holders of benefices, parochial and anniversary chaplains, and all chaplains whatsoever, both those in the service of lords and other persons, and those in cathedral, collegiate and conventual churches - 2s.

Monks, canons, nuns and other men and women of religion who belong to houses of the yearly value of:

300 marks or more - 40d.

100 to 300 marks - 20d.

£40 to 100 marks - 12d.

under £40 - 4d.

Unbeneficed and 'not advanced' (i.e. novices, acolytes, subdeacons) clerks - 4d.

Advocates, proctors and notaries 'not advanced' or married - 40d.

Exempt from the tax were: clerks under 16 years of age and mendicant friars.

Commissions for collection were issued on 6 June 1379, with the names of the collectors in each archdeaconry to be certified to the Exchequer by 24 June. The collectors were to record the names and status of all taxpayers and return these lists to the Exchequer when accounting for the tax.

In Lincoln diocese, the bishop appointed assessors to assist the collector in the archdeaconry. They were instructed to summon the clergy of the archdeaconry to elect three rectors or vicars, whose job it was to procure a statement, under oath, from the incumbent of every benefice as to its value. The rectors or vicars were then to send lists of benefices, incumbents and values to the collector of the archdeaconry.

Surviving assessments of clergy in the diocese of Lincoln have been printed in McHardy, |Clerical Poll-Taxes of the Diocese of Lincoln 1377-1381|, pp 71-91, and J E Brown, 'Clerical Subsidies in the Archdeaconry of Bedford, 1390-2, 1400-1', |Bedfordshire Historical Record Society Publications|, I (1913), pp 31-59. The assessment of the archdeaconry of Chester, in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield (E 179/15/6A; E 179/271/4) is printed in M J Bennett, 'The Lancashire and Cheshire Clergy 1379', |Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire|, CXXIV (1973), pp 22-28. The assessment of the city of London, in the archdeaconry and diocese of London, is printed in |The Church in London 1375-1392|, ed. A.K. McHardy (London Record Society, XIII, 1977), pp. 1-17. The assessment of the city of Salisbury (E 179/52/14) is printed in J L Kirby, 'Clerical Poll Taxes in the Diocese of Salisbury', in |Collectanea|, ed. N J Williams (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Records Branch, XII, 1956), pp 161-162.

The tax was to be paid in two instalments: on 7 July and 8 September 1379 (E 179/35/8), although payment of the second instalment was subsequently brought forward to 10 August. The work of assessment and collection fell greatly behind schedule, however, and in some cases, assessment had not been completed by November 1379.

(|CCR 1377-1381|, p 234; Weske, |Convocation of the Clergy|, p 261; McHardy, thesis, pp 113-116, 519; |CFR 1377-1383|, pp 139-141; McHardy, |Clerical Poll-Taxes of the Diocese of Lincoln 1377-1381|, pp xviii-xxi, xxv-xxvi; M J Bennett, 'The Lancashire and Cheshire Clergy 1379', |Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire|, CXXIV (1973), pp 1-22; J L Kirby, 'Clerical Poll Taxes in the Diocese of Salisbury', in |Collectanea|, ed. N J Williams (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Records Branch, XII, 1956), pp 158-159)

Enrolled Account: E 359/4B, rots 2-2d, 7, 8; E 359/75, rots 11-12