The pensio and the Prebend: Money makes the world go round

Due to new editing principles, more recent volumes of the „Repertorium Germanicum“ (RG) provide much more information concerning the role of money in dealings with the Curia than the older issues. This article begins with a survey of the many different uses of money that appear in RG X, identifying two categories as suitable for digital humanities research: the estimated value of benefices, and the pensio or rent paid on them. Such pensions were used in various ways, such as to facilitate benefice exchanges, as a means to circumvent nonresidency regulations, as a form of retirement fund, salary or reward, or as a means to settle disputes. Furthermore, pension use was related to the practice of renting the income of parish churches. The article turns to focus on one specific ecclesiastical institution and the persons who possessed a pension on its benefices, revealing how these incomes were used in established curial networks and, additionally, by one including familiars of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. Examining the reasons for this practice and why it focused on specific benefices in the Empire, it becomes evident that curialists were dependent on pensions to secure their income, while at the same time local chapters were adopting stricter regulations against nonresidency. As a result, rectories that were less subject to residency regulations were in high demand. Finally, we turn to the ‚notebook‘ of one such curialist to examine how he used pensions, what kind of bulls and documents he possessed, and how, at this ‚lowest‘ level, his network functioned.