three years; which was looked upon as a ſtartling propoſal: though lord Clarendon tells us[1], that the ſpeaker, ſerjeant Glanvile, made it manifeſt to the houſe, how very inconſiderable a ſum twelve ſubſidies amounted to, by telling them he had computed what he was to pay for them; and, when he named the ſum, he being known to be poſſeſſed of a great eſtate, it ſeemed not worth any farther deliberation. And indeed, upon calculation, we ſhall find, that the total amount of theſe twelve ſubſidies, to be raiſed in three years, is leſs than what is now raiſed in one year, by a land tax of two ſhillings in the pound.
The grant of ſcutages, talliages, or ſubſidies by the commons did not extend to ſpiritual preferments; thoſe being uſually taxed at the ſame time by the clergy themſelves in convocation; which grants of the clergy were confirmed in parliament, otherwiſe they were illegal, and not binding; as the ſame noble writer obſerves of the ſubſidies granted by the convocation, who continued ſitting after the diſſolution of the firſt parliament in 1640. A ſubſidy granted by the clergy was after the rate of 4s. in the pound according to the valuation of their livings in the king's books; and amounted, ſir Edward Coke tells us[2], to about 20000𝑙. While this cuſtom continued, convocations were wont to fit as frequently as parliaments: but the laſt ſubſidies, thus given by the clergy, were thoſe confirmed by ſtatute 15 Car. II. cap. 10. ſince which another method of taxation has generally prevailed, which takes in the clergy as well as the laity; in recompenſe for which the beneficed clergy have from that period been allowed to vote at the elections of knights of the ſhire[3]; and thenceforward alſo the practice of giving eccleſiaſtical ſubſidies hath fallen into total diſuſe.
The lay ſubſidy was uſually raiſed by commiſſioners appointed by the crown, or the great officers of ſtate: and therefore in the beginning of the civil wars between Charles I and his parliament,
