An important change had occurred in the relation of the clergy to the State at the opening of the year 1665, which we must step back to notice. In ancient times they had possessed the privilege of self-taxation, and this privilege survived the Reformation. Ecclesiastical persons continued to vote subsidies from their own body: the proportions being assessed by Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The censures of the Church fell upon those who did not pay; and if Sheriffs were remiss in executing the writ _de excommunicato capiendo_, Bishops had their own prisons in which to confine the refractory: and it may be concluded, that it came within the power of diocesans to sequester the profits of incumbencies, when the holders of them refused to meet their assessments. Parliament, in the reign of Henry VIII., had confirmed such aids; and from that time the clerical tax, after being ratified by the two Houses, could be levied in the way of distress. The whole of this system of taxation had disappeared in 1641, when ministers of religion, in common with other people, became subject to Parliamentary assessment. A proposition to the effect that ministers should be exempted from paying tenths and first-fruits had been entertained in an early part of the Protectorate; and it had even been suggested that they should be relieved from taxation altogether;[456] but this excess of liberality bore no fruit, and at the Restoration the clergy fell back into their old position. After the revision of the Prayer Book had been completed, in the winter of 1661-2, Convocation did nothing but grant subsidies,--beyond discussing such matters as the composition of a school grammar, a petition from poor clergymen in the Isle of Wight, and the translation of the Prayer Book into Latin.[457] A grant of four subsidies in the year 1663 was confirmed by Act of Parliament;[458] but before the close of that year, the Bishops and clergy began to regard this rating of themselves as troublesome, and they found that both the Court and the Commons were discontented, unless Convocation fixed their contributions at a rate beyond all reasonable proportion. The petition of the clergy, already noticed, looked in that direction, and noticed the existing mode of Convocational taxation, as an ecclesiastical hardship. Sheldon, and other prelates, it is supposed under the influence of considerations of this kind, arranged with the Government that the ancient custom of voting subsidies should be waived, and that spiritual as well as secular persons should be included in the Money Bills of the Commons. In promoting this alteration, the Archbishop and his Episcopal helpers did not appear in the character of High Churchmen, the alteration being thoroughly opposed to the ancient canon law. And to encourage the clergy, it was proposed that two of the last four clerical subsidies should be remitted, and that a clause should be inserted in the new Act, for the saving of ancient rights. The Bill