72 Jeanette Needham. 
the choice of two secretaries, the customary number, was pro- 
posed, but postponed because they still hoped for the return of 
their members who had gone to the third estate. To permit 
the co-operation of the majority, the election of a second secre- 
tary was deferred. Besides the secretary, a promoteur, a sort 
of floor leader, in the person of the Abbé de Montesquieu, general 
agent of the clergy was elected. Both he and Abbé Barmond 
took immediately the oath to fulfil their duties.” 
The promoteur began his work at once by stating his opinion 
in regard to the action to be taken upon the first declaration of 
the king, to which the chamber next turned its attention.® 
Without record of any debate, the clergy passed a resolution, 
first, to adhere purely and simply to the declaration of the king 
the twenty-third of June, concerning the present session of the 
estates-general; second, in order to be able to execute the said 
declaration at once, to send deputations to the other two orders, 
either to arrange with them the form for the communication of 
credentials, or to propose to them to proceed, in a genera 
assembly of the three orders united, to the judgment of cre- 
dentials which are or may be contested.® 
The president and the Archbishops of Aix and Rheims were 
commissioned to present this resolution to the king and to 
portray the situation in which the clergy, all of whose steps had 
been dictated by the purest zeal and the most inviolable fidelity, 
found themselves. They were exposed every day, as Coster 
adds, to the insults of the populace and to the slights of the 
third estate and of the numerical majority of the clergy, because 
they obeyed the king’s orders and conformed to the declaration 
of June 23.!° 
6 Coster, Récit, 341-342. 
7 Coster, Récit, 342; Barmond, Récit, 271. 
8 Barmond, Récit, 271. 
9 Ibid., 271-272; Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 269. The texts vary 
slightly in a few phrases. The first has ‘‘ soit pour concerter ’’ where the 
second has merely “‘ pour concerter.’”’ The Récit runs ‘‘au jugement des 
pouvoirs ’’ while the Procés has ‘‘ au jugement de ceux.’’ The variations are 
of a minor character which do not change the meaning of the decree. 
10 Coster, Récit, 342; Barmond, Récit, 271-272. 
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