4 Jeanette Needham. 
dentials’’ as their sole object. The Archbishop of Vienne, who — : 
led the majority and who, curiously enough, was placed at the 
side of President Bailly, in his speech to the assembly, called his _ 
followers the ‘‘ majority of the deputies of the order of the clergy _ 
to the estates-general.’’ ‘‘This reunion,” he added, ‘‘which to- — 
day has for its object only the common verification of credentials,! 
is the signal and, I may say, the prelude to that constant union — 
which they desire with the other orders, and especially with 
that of the deputies of the commons.”’ Thus verification of 
credentials was their sole purpose in coming and his reference to 
“that constant union’’ doubtless meant nothing more than 
harmony in the relations of the orders. 
It was not the sort of union that Bailly had in mind in ex- 
pressing the joy of the national assembly at their coming—a 
union which had for its object the sinking of all class distinctions 
in the body of the national assembly. But the very fact that 
the majority of the clergy supported the commons in just one 
phase of their policy must have strengthened the latter to meet 
the crisis which they faced the next day, especially as more 
than one interpretation might be placed upon the clergy’s action. 
In the royal session of June 23, from which Necker was con- 
spicuously absent—a striking testimony to the failure of his 
conciliatory scheme—the king, unconscious of the significance | 
of the action of the assembly on June 20, presented the much 
Siete YEA eee NEE Sa lets 
modified plan. The project embodied two sections, an outline % 
of procedure dealing with that particular session of the estates- 
general, and a sort of charter which, from its indefiniteness and 
lack of guarantees, could not be accepted by the third estate. 
All acts of the national assembly were nullified, deliberation by 
order enjoined, and immediate separation of the deputies com- 
manded. To these imperative orders, the representatives of 
the commons openly refused obedience by remaining in the 
hall and decreeing that the national assembly persisted in all 
its preceding acts. When reminded by the master-of-ceremonies 
of the king’s order to separate, the deputies challenged him to 
expel them by force and took positive steps for protection by 
declaring their persons inviolable. In the evening, the report 
2 The italics are not found in the text of the decree. 
118 
