Specifically, he decried the disregard
of free speech and of freedom from prosecution afterward, and the
arbitrary dissolution of Parliament. Secondly, he alleged popery
had been encouraged and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction enlarged.
Thirdly, he protested the patent monopolies given to favorites to
the detriment of the buying public, the imposition of ship money
levies beyond the need of national defense and without the consent
of Parliament, the revival of the feudal practice of imposing a
fine for refusal to accept a knighthood with its attendant
obligations, the enlargement of the King's forests and driving out
from hence tenants with lucrative holdings, extra judicial
declarations of justices without hearing of counsel or argument in
many criminal matters, and the abuses of the prerogative courts in
defending monopolies. Parliament's assertion into religious
matters and foreign affairs was unprecedented, those areas having
been exclusively in the power of the King.
The Long Parliament begun in 1640 removed many of the King's
ministers and forbade clergy from sitting in Parliament or
exercising any temporal authority. It passed measures which were
not agreed to by the King. It undid the lawless acts of the King
and the court decision in the case of King v. Hampden. Ship money
was declared illegal. The new concept that the present Parliament
should not be dissolved but by its own consent was adopted.
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