Throughout the thirteenth century the task of preaching the cross included the collection of financial subsidies in aid of the crusades. After Innocent Ill's Quia major the redemption of crusade vows for money and the collection of voluntary donations, normally referred to as subsidia or obventiones, in return for partial indulgences were regular features of all thirteenth-century crusading bulls. As the century progressed, other means of raising money for the crusade became important, too. Preachers were also made responsible for the collection of testamentary legacies, referred to as legata or deputata, and the seizure of unlawfully acquired money. The borderline between subsidies and vow redemptions was often fluid. If people were willing to pay enough money, they probably took the cross and redeemed it afterwards for a plenary indulgence. Any payment of money in aid of the crusade in return for an indulgence had to be handled by crusade preachers or papal collectors because all crusading indulgences could only be granted by those who were authorized by the pope. The mendicant friars certainly collected subsidies for the crusade from the very beginning of their appointment as crusade preachers. The earliest letters of 1234 which commissioned the friars to preach the cross to the Holy Land stipulated that they should also collect donations. These were to be deposited in churches or other religious establishments, and the pope informed about the amount, the provenance and the whereabouts of the money at the end of each year.