Brewer's: Glove Money

A bribe, a perquisite; so called from the ancient custom of presenting a pair of gloves to a person who undertook a cause for you. Mrs. Croaker presented Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, with a pair of gloves lined with forty pounds in “angels,” as a “token.” Sir Thomas kept the gloves, but returned the lining. (See above.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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