PETER'S PENCE (DENARO DI S. PIETRO). - In the Middle Ages, "St. Peter's money" meant the annual tribute paid to the Holy See by states and lordships that had placed themselves under its particular protection. This money was either brought directly to Rome or deposited in the hands of the pontifical legates.
The following recognized this particular form of subjection to the Holy See and therefore paid St. Peter's money: England (7th century), where the payment was abolished in 1534, restored by Mary Tudor and abolished again by Elizabeth; the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1059), Denmark (1063), the Spanish kingdoms
(1073), Bohemia (1075), Croatia and Dalmatia (1076), Portugal (1144), and the Scandinavian kingdoms, where St. Peter's money was collected until the Reformation.
After the progressive stripping from the Pope of the territories of the former Papal State, the expression "St. Peter's money" or, as it was called, "Peter's Pence" served to replace the revenues previously assured by the yield of the contributions of the State of the Church.
In 1859 the Holy See found itself closing its budget with a deficit of 80,000 scudi; it was enough to launch the idea (due, it seems, to Montalembert) for the various peoples of the earth to vie with one another in giving their contribution to the Holy Father: in the front line, the clergy and the episcopate. It was then thought to organize the influx of money by creating a department, which took the name of administration of Peter's Pence. In Rome an archconfraternity was founded under the title of St. Peter (apostolic letter, 31 Oct. 1860), presided over by the cardinal vicar, with all affiliations authorized by specific statutes approved by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. The purpose of the confraternity was to find those who would collect the offerings and send them to the Roman pontiff. The dioceses, in noble rivalry, either created particular organizations and regulations (in Paris, for example, the organization took the name Oeuvre du denier de St-Pierre, created on the model of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith) or set up associations on the model of that of Rome. The result confirmed the usefulness of this capillary organization and of the related prescriptions. Special committees arose in the individual parishes, presided over by the curate (or parish priest), to whom the proceeds of the collections were paid, together with the list of donors, so that it might be forwarded to the bishop.
Thus the pontifical finances were able to make up for what was taken from them by the successive occupations.
With the encyclical Saepe, Venerabiles Fratres (5 Aug. 1871) Pius IX gave official consecration to the institution.
After 20 Sept. 1870 the same organization was maintained: Peter's Pence, merged with the Treasury, passed under the authority of Card. Antonelli, Secretary of State. Having ascended to the pontificate, Leo XIII instituted a cardinalitial Commission to assist the Cardinal Secretary of State in the office of administration of Peter's Pence and of the Property of the Holy See. Its first concern was to make the palatine administration and that of Peter's Pence more independent of the Secretariat of State and of the Prefecture of the Apostolic Palaces, ordering the nuncios and apostolic delegates that whatever concerned Peter's Pence be handled in separate correspondence. To this end the Holy Father issued the two motu proprio of 11 Dec. 1880 and of 23 May 1882. On 3 July 1882 the treasury of the Apostolic Datary also passed to the patrimony of the administration of Peter's Pence and of the property of the Holy See. On 1 Apr. 1887 an internal regulation of 27 articles was also given to the treasury of Peter's Pence; a new regulation was issued in 1891 and in 1894.
The apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio of 29 June 1908, which reorganized the Roman Curia, brought no changes to the administration of Peter's Pence (AAS, 1 [1909], pp. 7-108), which remained unchanged also under Benedict XV and Pius XI until Dec. 1926, when the prefecture of the Apostolic Palaces was united with the General Administration of the property of the Holy See (motu proprio of 16 Dec. 1926). From then on a distinct administration of Peter's Pence was no longer appointed, but it too, with its own employees, became part of the General Administration of the property of the Holy See.
Bibliography7 works
Giuseppe Palazzini