[389] Camden, 449; Strype's _Annals_, ii. 288. The queen had been told, it seems, of what was done in Wyatt's business, a case not all parallel; though there was no sufficient necessity even in that instance to justify the proceeding by martial law. But bad precedents always beget "progeniem vitiosiorem." There was a difficulty how to punish Burchell capitally, which probably suggested to the queen this strange expedient. It is said, which is full as strange, that the bishops were about to pass sentence on him for heresy, in having asserted that a papist might lawfully be killed. He put an end, however, to this dilemma, by cleaving the skull of one of the keepers in the Tower, and was hanged in a common way. [390] Strype's _Annals_, iii. 570; _Life of Whitgift_, Append. 126. [391] Rymer, xvi. 279. [392] Carte, 693, from Stowe. [393] Strype's _Annals_, i. 535. [394] 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.