Note 394 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Strype, iii. Append. 147. This was exacted in order to raise men for service in the Low Countries. But the beneficed clergy were always bound to furnish horses and armour, or their value, for the defence of the kingdom in peril of invasion or rebellion. An instance of their being called on for such a contingent occurred in 1569. Strype's Parker, 273; and Rymer will supply many others in earlier times.
The magistrates of Cheshire and Lancashire had imposed a charge of eightpence a week on each parish of those counties for the maintenance of recusants in custody. This, though very nearly borne out by the letter of a recent statute (14th Eliz. c. 5), was conceived by the inhabitants to be against law. We have, in Strype's Annals, vol. iii. Append. 56, a letter from the privy council, directing the charge to be taken off. It is only worth noticing, as it illustrates the jealousy which the people entertained of anything approaching to taxation without consent of parliament, and the caution of the ministry in not pushing any exertion of prerogative farther than would readily be endured.