178 MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION of money. In 1355, when King John demanded help, the estates of Paris declared themselves ready to vote it, but on condition that the king, in exchange, give up the making of counterfeit money and the confiscation of merchandise without paying for it. When the king was taken prisoner the estates meeting in 1356 de- manded that the dauphin should permit them to organize and to superintend the levy of the aid. They tried to take possession of the government by forcing the dauphin to change his councillors, and by deciding that the estates should have the right to assemble with- out being convoked by the king. But the greater number of the inhabitants of France never dreamed of limiting the power of their king. The Great Ordi- nance of 1356, which closely resembled the Magna Charta of England, did not end with guarantees in favor of the subjects; it remained a dead letter, and the king continued to govern arbitrarily. Charles V. let twenty years pass without convoking the Estates. Louis XL summoned them only once, and for the mere form; Charles VTL in 1443 refused to call them together, saying that they were but the occasion of expense. In northern France the reunions of the estates were rare; beginning with the fourteenth cen- tury the king did not want to bring them together after the Estates of 1356 had organized the aid. In the south it was necessary, each year, to call together the provincial estates of several provinces to have them vote the "fouage" (the hearth money); but the moment they had voted the king hastened to dissolve the assembly.