not always accept the obligation to pay. Older sources are often unclear in their references to Peter's Pence, and there was (and remains) a degree of local confusion between it, various hearth taxes (sometimes called smoke-money or smoke-farthings), and other ancient payments. By the end of the 12th century, the English population had increased, so the ecclesiastical authorities were collecting more than the stabilized sum, and keeping the surplus. It ceased to be remitted to the pope after 1320, but seemingly this was not permanent. The exact reason for the 'prohibition' by Edward III is unknown, but the threat of withholding payment of Peter's Pence proved more than once a useful weapon against uncooperative popes in the hands of English kings. In 1366 and for some years after, it was refused on the grounds of the pope's obstinacy. Evidently, however, the payment survived or was revived in some localities, because it was one of many payments abolished by Act of Parliament in the 25th year of Henry VIII's reign. The 1534 Act, "An Act for the exoneration of exactions paid to the See of Rome", specifically mentions Peter's Pence. Along with other payments, it was "never more to be levied … to any person", indicating that the payment was to be extinguished completely and not diverted to crown use. This occurred just prior to Henry's permanent break from the Church, which occurred in 1536, making England part of the Protestant Reformation. However, under the Catholic Queen Mary, Henry VIII's reformation legislation was overturned. On 16 Jan 1555, royal assent was given to "An Act, repealing all Statutes, Articles, and Provisions, made against the See of Rome, sithence the 20th Year of King Henry the Eighth; and for the Establishment of Ecclesiastical Possessions conveyed to the Laity" (1 & 2 Philip & Mary c.8) However, this act did not mention Peter's Pence specifically. There is isolated evidence that in some parishes, payment of Peter's Pence did indeed resume during Mary's reign, for instance in Rowington, Warwickshire, where the church accounts for 1556 record the collection of 54s. 4d., a considerable sum. Mary's Act was in turn repealed by the 1559 Act of Supremacy, under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Post-Reformation practice in England Despite the unequivocal abolition called for by the 1559 Act, payments termed Peter's Pence undoubtedly continued in England in the succeeding centuries. In one Devon parish, there is