grew up among members of parliament; and this growing national
consciousness supplanted local consciousness as the safeguard of
constitutional liberty.

Most of the principles and expedients of representative government were
adumbrated during this first flush of English nationalism, which has
been called "the age of the Commons." The petitions, by which alone
parliament had been able to express its grievances, were turned into
bills which the crown had to answer, not evasively, but by a thinly
veiled "yes" or "no." The granting of taxes was made conditional upon
the redress of grievances; the crown finally lost its right to tallage;
and its powers of independent taxation were restricted to the levying
of the "ancient customs" upon dry goods and wines. If it required more
than these and than the proceeds from the royal domains, royal
jurisdiction, and diminishing feudal aids, it had to apply to
parliament. The expense of the Hundred Years' War rendered such
applications frequent; and they were used by the Commons to increase
their constitutional power. Attempts were made with varying success to
assert that the ministers of the crown, both local and national, were
responsible to parliament, and that money-grants could only originate
in the House of Commons, which might appropriate taxes to specific
objects and audit accounts so as to see that the appropriation was
carried out.

The growth of national feeling led also to limitations of papal power.
Early in Edward III's reign a claim was made that the king, in virtue
of his anointing at coronation, could exercise spiritual jurisdiction,
and the statutes of _Praemunire_ and _Provisors_ prohibited the
exercise in England of the pope's powers of judicature and appointment
to benefices without the royal licence, though royal connivance and