The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: The after-growth of the constitution

BY HANNIS TAYLOR.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.

1. Summary of the Contents of Vol. I.: Old-English Commonwealth; Norman

Conquest; process of fusion; struggle for the charters; treaty of Runny-

mede; growth of the law courts and the parliament

The rule or supremacy of law and the sovereignty of parliament the dominant

principles of the English constitution

When parliamentary sovereignty reached its full growth
Exclusive right of parliament to authorize taxation; Old-English taxes supple-
mented by the new feudal taxes; hidage and scutage. - the great land-taxes
-gradually superseded by taxes upon personal property; fifteenths and
tenths; memorable composition of 1334; unsuccessful attempt to levy poll
taxes; right of tax-payer to assent to taxation; its connection with the growth
of national assemblies; separate negotiation with each estate as to taxa-
tion; tax-payer's right dimly recognized during Norman period; conflict with
the baronage results in articles 12 and 14 of the Great Charter, and finally
in Confirmatio Cartarum; separate negotiations with clergy and commons;
fiscal visits of justices from the exchequer; election and representation in the
shire courts; representation in the national council a fiscal expedient; first
the shires, then the towns represented; Earl Simon's parliament of 1265;
Edward I.'s model parliament of 1295; right of nation to tax itself settled by
Confirmatio Cartarum; transitions from local to central assent; and from
feudal to national taxation; the customs revenue; its probable origin; article
41 of the Great Charter; great and ancient custom of 1275; new or small
custom of 1302; origin of tonnage and poundage; summary; after 1322 the
customs a part of the permanent revenue; additional subsidies; custom and
subsidy levied regularly after 23d of Edward III.; subsidies granted for life
to Richard II., Henry V., and Henry VI.

Collapse of the immature parliamentary system; emancipation of the monarchy

by Edward IV.; overthrow of parliamentary institutions on the Continent;

character of the struggle in England; outline of the policy of Edward IV.;

the royal authority becomes the dominant force in the state; its vital organ

the council; hereditary right; Edward's financial policy; infrequent meetings

of parliament; the council becomes an engine of tyranny

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2. Henry VII.: his threefold claim of title; his declaration of title in parliament;

the descent of the crown held to remove all effects of attainder; attainders

of subjects to be removed only by an act of parliament; declaration of par-

liament as to Henry VII.'s title; commons urge his marriage with Elizabeth

of York; act (11 Hen. VII. c. 1) for the security of the subject under a king

de facto

3. The Court of Star Chamber: original jurisdiction of the king in council; the

council as a court in the days of Henry III.; jurisdiction of the council

first narrowed then widened by statute; act of 3 Hen. VII. c. 1, revising and

defining the criminal jurisdiction of the council; such jurisdiction vested in a

special committee; Lord Bacon's views as to the same; powers of the special

committee fall back to the general body of the council; such powers expand

far beyond the limits of the act of 3 Hen. VII. c. I; the court in its final form,

the whole council sitting judicially; outline of its procedure .

4. Henry VII. and Parliament: causes which led to its decline prior to his acces-

sion; only two of the great baronial houses became extinct in the civil war;

Henry made no effort to check the decline of the baronage; dependent char-

acter of the new nobility; Henry's parliamentary policy a repetition of that of

Edward IV.; his financial policy, - benevolences, Morton's fork, revival of

obsolete feudal exactions, Empson and Dudley; parliament summoned only

seven times during the reign; the king's hoard

5. Henry's Legislation: its leading purpose to provide immediate remedies for

pressing evils; his two great statutes, the one to secure the subject under

a king de facto, the other to strengthen the criminal jurisdiction of the coun-
cil; the act increasing the authority of justices of the peace; Statute of
Fines; Henry's navigation act; protective policy begins with the legislation
of Edward I.; first navigation act that of Richard II.; Henry's patents to
the Cabots

6. The English Renaissance: the reign of monarchy brought with it peace; era of

discovery and conquest; Italian Renaissance; printing; slow progress of the

New Learning under Henry VII.; the fresh advance under Henry VIII.

CHAPTER II.

HENRY VIII. AND THE BREAK WITH ROME.

1. Outline of the Conciliar System: supreme powers of the state transferred
from the king in parliament to the king in council; from the council emanated
all the more important acts of government; star chamber overawes the ordinary
tribunals; the council as an administrative body; strength and weakness of the
system (absence of a military force); Tudors knew how to yield at the oppor-
tune moment; the royal will the driving force of the conciliar system
2. Marriage Alliances arranged by Henry VII.: marriage of James IV. of Scot-
land with Margaret, 1503; marriage of Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 1501;
Arthur's death and the betrothal of his widow to his brother Henry; canonical
difficulties; the dispensation; the secret protest.

3. Accession and Early Measures of Henry VIII.: his characteristics; punish-

ment of Empson and Dudley; marriage of Henry and Catherine, June, 1509;

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objections to the marriage revived; Henry's first parliament, January, 1510,

tonnage and poundage for life; he enters the Holy League and breaks the

policy of peace; two demands for money in quick succession in the parliaments

of 1511 and 1513; general subsidy of 1514 marks a point in the history of taxa-

tion; results of the heavy pressure of taxation; protest of the New Learning

against the spirit of conquest

4. Wolsey, 1515-29: his rapid promotion in the church; receives the seals as

chancellor in 1515; origin of the office of master of the rolls; Wolsey's diplo-

macy makes England a leading factor in European politics; appointed legate

a latere; concentrates in his hands the control of both secular and ecclesiastical

business; French and Spanish war of 1521; forced loans of 1522; parliament

of 1523

Sir Thomas More as popular leader, as a light of the New Learning, as a diplo-

mat; the "Utopia," its scope and character; religious toleration; aspirations

for the improvement of the laboring classes; reformation declared to be the

end of all punishment; when a king should be deposed; straining the law in

favor of the crown; More, on account of his popular influence, made speaker

in 1523

Wolsey makes an unprecedented demand for money; More's response for the
commons; clergy assert their right to grant money only in convocation; the
forced loan of 1526; downward turn in Wolsey's fortunes.
Luther and the Reformation; in each country in which it prevails it has a special
and local history; Luther and Henry VIII.; Luther and the New Learning;
Lutheranism and Lollardry; Tyndal's translation and Wycliffe's tracts appear
together; Wolsey's attempt to reform the clergy; he suppresses some smaller
monasteries and founds Christ Church; Cambridge first receives the Lutheran
literature; in 1528 Oxford purged of heresy

Wolsey and the divorce; no male heir, and Mary's legitimacy assailed; real
grounds for a divorce belittled by unworthy motives; position of the pope as
final judge in such matters, under the theory of the medieval empire; Wolsey
first attempts to hear the case as legate; then refers it to Rome, and guarantees
a successful issue; conflicting motives which there embarrassed its considera-
tion; appointment of Campeggio and failure of his mission; Wolsey's over-
throw; last of the great ecclesiastical statesmen; distribution of his powers;
his portrait of Henry VIII. .

5. Cromwell, 1529-40: his early life; disciple of Machiavelli; member of the
parliament of 1523; his fidelity to Wolsey, who had employed him in the sup-
pression of monasteries; after Wolsey's fall he suggests to the king a new line
of policy; outline of that policy in its broader aspects
Review of the prior relations between the English Church and papacy; resistance
of the feudal supremacy of Boniface VIII.; Statute De asportatis; Statute of
Provisors; Statute of Præmunire; Lollardry; religious revolt of the fourteenth
century a mere prologue to that of the sixteenth

Cromwell aimed not at the restraint but entire abolition of the papal power;

sworn of the privy council; the divorce becomes the mainspring of separation;

Henry's policy of menace and coercion; parliament made the tool of the crown 60

Outline of the work of the Reformation Parliament of 1529; its first session began

in November with an attack upon the clergy; detailed accusation against them;

the bishops called upon to answer; clergy's dual allegiance; acts for their dis-

cipline, and for the reduction of probate and administration fees; mortuary

fees or "corse presents;" act as to clerical trading, residence, and pluralities;

king released from his debts

Wiltshire's mission to the emperor; attended by Cranmer, who had suggested the

submission of the question of the divorce to the learned; he writes a treatise

upon the subject; his scheme put into practical operation; coercion and bribery