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18th century France was a society based on a medieval conception of three estates (orders):

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1. clergy

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duty was to pray and worship

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2. nobility

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duty was to fight and protect

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3. commons

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duty was to obey and work

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the privileged orders were the clergy and nobility

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1. clergy

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140,000 people

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0.5% of the total population

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regular clergy

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26,000 monks

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55,000 nuns

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secular clergy

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40,000 priests

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19,000 curates

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job was to take care of the needs of secular society, hence their name

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church

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a privileged corporation

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privileged comes from "private law", i.e. the church was self-governing

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wealthy

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had tax exemptions on lands that it owned

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made a regular voluntary gift called a "don gratuit"

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drew a tithe from common French people

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8%-12% of harvests went to upkeep of church

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8% of France was in the hands of the church

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in Paris it was higher, near 40%

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social divisions

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bishops

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men from the nobility

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dominated church in terms of power and wealth

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cathedrals were commonly run by bishops

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power went beyond spiritual power

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in Strasbourg, Cardinal de Rohan, enjoyed 1000 times what a country curate would have earned in a year

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spent a good part of the year at Versailles

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incurred scorn of the "philosophes" such as Voltaire

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in small villages such as Corbières, priests earned only 300 livres per year

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not much more than an average peasant household

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some of the great abbeys often were landholders and feudal lords in their own rights

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if ordinary people in France received an education, it was at the hands of the church

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during winter months when there wasn't much farm work that children went to school

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a majority of boys and a quarter of girls were able to sign the marriage register when they married

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education was in large part to educate people of the dangers of sin

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purgatory and hell were terrible prospects that were placed in the minds of the faithful

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the power of the church came not only from this threat, but also from the power demonstrated by the great ecclesiastical edifices that dominated so many towns and villages across the land of France

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once the peasants went into the church, the message was not only in the words of the priests but also in the way the churches were decorated

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this was a society in which the most important method of communication was the spoken word supported by visual representation

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stained glass windows portrayed stories of the happy afterlife that awaited them if they obeyed properly, and the life of dread that awaited them if they were not duly obedient and observed the sacraments

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church was also marked by regional contrasts, felt in the French revolution

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Brittany

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characterized by a bocage landscape

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essentially a scattered population

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hamlets and farmsteads

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most people lived outside of the village but came into the village on Sundays to hear the word of God and to see other people

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parish priests were local people from respected families

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Provence

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people lived in the village itself

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church was not needed to provide a center of communication as it did in western and northern France

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church was not the social hub so much

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church was losing some of its social authority

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The Second Estate: Nobility

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125,000 (0.5% of total population),

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same as clergy

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variety of forms of wealthy

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owned 30% of land in France

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has a range of taxation exemptions, pays some taxes but avoids the most onerous

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the role was a preparation to fight for the faith and the king in times of need

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exercised its power in physical demonstrations of ostentation, authority, and intimidation across the landscape

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two kinds of nobles

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nobless d'épée

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"nobles of the sword"

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traced their noble heritage back many generations

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noblesse de robe

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"nobles of the robe"

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through devotion and money were able to become nobles

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nobles spent most of their time in royal courts

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to stay in a small village would be a sentence of boredom

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where the clergy has a reciprocal role (commoners were learning how to save their souls in return for their work and obedience), this was not so evident with the nobility who seemed to be more of an "absent extracting presence", a one way relationship

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this tension was exacerbated by the fact that the military had been gradually concentrated in the state over the past decades and centuries, whereas the great noble families of France no longer have private armies

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the question arose then: if the task of protecting the country rests now with the king, what is the purpose of the nobility and how does it justify the privileges which it enjoys?