We must remember that before the Norman times, the clergy were exempt from all taxation; inasmuch as "they held in Frankalmoigne," that is, held their lands, &c., on free alms "in liberam eleemosynam." Littleton (lib. ii. c. 6. s. 135.) says: "And they which hold in Frankalmoigne are bound of right before God to make orisons, prayers, masses, and other divine services for the soul of their grantor or feoffer, and for the souls of their heirs which are dead," &c. The king's succeeding William the Conqueror tried to make the clergy contribute to the public exchequer, but were effectually resisted. In order to surmount the difficulty, King John (A.D. 1206) summoned all the priors and abbots _to parliament_, and obtained from them a vote of a _thirteenth_: and then wrote to the archdeacons to get the same from the clergy generally. Edward I. rendered this scheme for the taxation of the clergy complete. He applied to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to assemble, by _their canonical authority_, the convocations of each province; and these Metropolitans, moved by the King's writ (the same practice is settled now), summoned these bishops and clergy. The earliest royal writ, summoning a provincial synod, is dated Nov. 24, 1282, and calling them to meet at _Northampton_: "Venire ... _coram nobis_ apud Northampton." This Convocation assembled at Northampton; and we find another mandate from the Archbishop to the dean of the province, directing him to summon the bishops and clergy to a Convocation for the 9th of May, 1283, at the _New Temple_ (now the Inner and Middle Temples), pursuant to a resolution of the Convocation of Northampton. At this Convocation, the proctors of the clergy refused to pay the tenth. Eleven years after, we find Edward summoning the whole body of the bishops and clergy to _Westminster_ on St. Matthew's day, 1294. His writ orders "The dean and archdeacon to appear in their proper persons, the chapter by one, and the clergy of the diocese by two procurators." The clergy objected to this writ as uncanonical, and claimed to be convoked only by their Metropolitans; as tending to abolish their provincial synods convened by regular ecclesiastical authority, and to establish in their place a parliamentary chamber under secular authority. The King, finding them so opposed to his project of thus making them a part of the Third Estate, reverted to the established practice, and addressed his writs to the Archbishops; whereupon the Metropolitans issued their mandates, Convocations met, and subsidies were voted. An important result followed this struggle (see 2 Lingard, p. 375.), viz., that the procurators of the common clergy of each diocese (in compliance with the direction on the Kings writ) were admitted as _constituent members_ of these and all subsequent Convocations; the archdeacons, before this time, being considered as their representatives, who probably were furnished with letters of procuration from them.