In the Middle Ages, lawfulness meant alignment with natural and customary law; taxation was lawful only by consent, for the common good, and within moral limits.
Common law affirms that property rests in natural right, government power arises from consent, and any exaction without lawful authority is void.
The essay Why Taxes Were So Hated in the Middle Ages from the Mises Institute reminds us that modern taxation rests not on lawfulness but on legality, a system of power that replaced consent with authority.
In other words, it traces the transition from lawful order to legal power, allowing the reader to recognize that modern systems operate by statute rather than by natural law.
“During the Middle Ages, taxation was considered to be appropriate only as an extreme measure in times of emergency, and as a last resort. Kings were expected to subsist on revenues from their own property, and to respect the property of others.”
— Mises Wire, Why Taxes Were So Hated in the Middle Ages, Ryan McMaken.
https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-taxes-were-so-hated-middle-ages
