Adam had benefited greatly from the generosity of Simon Langham who had already provided for him in his will. But by the time Adam had been created a cardinal, it is clear that he was in receipt of a regular income from England. Just as Simon had done, he would have had a proctor in England to collect money from his benefices on his behalf. Initially he may well have used William Palmer of Derby, the same man who had collected money on behalf of Simon. By 1382 Adam had at least two benefices in England, the vicarage of Somersham (Hunts.) and the Deanery of York Minster. The proctor would be responsible for collecting debts, selling produce at market. The produce would be collected and stored in  barns, such as the one in the photo above which is a 14th century tythe barn in Bredon Worcestershire. Then the proctor had the task of gathering in all the cash associated with each benefice, but this was quite literally a pile of coins, often stored in oak chests for safe keeping. This did not make the task of getting the money from England to the Cardinal in Rome any easier.

The brief entry in the Calendar of the Close Rolls below tells us much about how this was done. The Lombard and Tuscan banking families had set up a number of offices in London as well as their regular haunts of Florenze, Milan, Avignon and Rome. These banking families would take in cash at their London office and write what amounts to a cheque, quite literally a bill of exchange, and hand it to the proctor. This could then be sent to Adam in Rome. On arrival all Adam had to do was present his bill to the banker's office, and he would get the same amount of cash as his proctor had deposited in London.

the amount deposited with the Lombards was a very substantial sum. As we have seen already, £150 amounted to several years wages for a humble clerk or labourer and it is probable that by 1382 this was only a part of Adam’s annual income.