Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/68

 to the validity of legislative acts; for their presence was not even required in many assemblies of the nation which occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The extraordinary power thus committed to the commons was, on the whole, unfavorable to their liberties. It deprived them of the sympathy and cooperation of the great orders of the state, whose authority alone could have enabled them to withstand the encroachments of arbitrary power, and who, in fact, did eventually desert them in their utmost need.

But, notwithstanding these defects, the popular branch of the Castilian cortes, very soon after its admission into that body, assumed functions and exercised a degree of power on the whole superior to that enjoyed by it in other European legislatures. It was soon recognised as a fundamental principle of the constitution, that no tax could be imposed without its consent; and an express en-