s of the Crown, above all those of
marriage and wardship, which were harassing to the people while they
brought little profit to the Exchequer. The Commons had more than once
prayed for some commutation of these rights, and Cecil seized on their
prayer as the ground of an accommodation. He proposed that James should
waive his feudal rights, that he should submit to the sanction by
Parliament of the impositions already levied, and that he should bind
himself to levy no more by his own prerogative, on condition that the
Commons assented to this arrangement, discharged the royal debt, and
raised the royal revenue by a sum of two hundred thousand a year.

[Sidenote: Attitude of the Commons.]

Such was the "great contract" with which Cecil met the Houses when they
once more assembled in 1610. It was a bargain which the Commons must
have been strongly tempted to accept; for heavy as were its terms it
averted the great danger of arbitrary taxation, and again brought the
monarchy into constitutional relations with Parliament. What hindered
their acceptance of it was their suspicion of James. Purveyance and the
Impositions were far from being the only grievance against which they
came to protest; they had to complain of the increase of proclamations,
the establishment of new and arbitrary courts of law, the encroachments
of the spiritual jurisdiction; and consent to such a bargain, if it
remedied two evils, would cut off all chance of redressing the rest.
Were the treasury once full, no means remained of bringing the Crown to
listen to their protest against the abuses of the Church, the silencing
of godly ministers, the maintenance of pluralities and non-residence,
the want of due training for the clergy. Nor had the Commons any mind to
pass in silence over the illegalities of the preceding years. Whether
they were to give legal sanction to the impositions or no, they were
resolute to protest against their levy without sanction of law. James
forbade them to enter on the subject, but their remonstrance was none
the less vigorous. "Finding that your majesty, without advice or counsel
of Parliament, hath lately in time of peace set both greater impositions
and more in number than any of your noble ancestors did ever in time of
war," they prayed "that all impositions set without the assent of
Parliament may be quite abolished and taken away," and that "a law be
made to declare that all impositions set upon your people, their goods