Meeting of the Estates-General, 17809. 157 
Very clearly, the minority of the clergy had absolutely no 
intention of yielding in the slightest degree to the policy of the 
national assembly. They stood firmly upon their traditional 
rights, guaranteed in the first declaration of the king and were 
merely executing the policy laid down in the royal session. 
Since the decree could be carried out only with the concurrence 
of the nobility, the Archbishop of Aix, who had attended the 
royal conference that morning, and the Abbé de Montesquiou, 
agent-général of the clergy, and promoteur of the chamber, were 
sent to inform the nobility of the action taken in response to the 
king’s appeal, and to confer with the chamber of nobility in 
regard to the matter.® . 
Before that order acted, the clergy succeeded in clearing up 
most of their work laid out the day before. In the first place, 
their decree upon the renunciation of pecuniary privileges was 
read and approved.'° Like the decree for union, the preamble 
was long and complex. It explained that ‘‘the order of the 
clergy, anxious to second with the most respectful attachment, 
the paternal wishes of the king for the happiness of his people, 
and in consideration of the fact that the unanimous desire of 
their constituents makes it more than ever a duty to fuse the 
temporal interests of the ministers of religion with those of their 
brothers and their fellow citizens; in order that today the abuses 
of the fiscal regime may no longer burden the country; and, 
that the justice of the sovereign may effect a revival, in favor 
of the other two orders, of the ancient liberties and national 
rights, preserved without alteration by the churches of France 
in all epochs of the monarchy’’—it explained that, for all these 
reasons, the clergy agreed to the four propositions that follow. 
The first pledged, that, ‘‘for the future, the holders of bene- 
fices, ecclesiastical bodies, and communities, would contribute, in 
the same proportion as other citizens to all royal, provincial and 
municipal taxes, and to all imposts agreed to by the three orders.”’ 
9 Barmond, Récit, 280. Barmond says they “ ont été priés d’aller conférer 
avec la noblesse en lui faisant part de l’arrété qui venait d’étre pris.” The 
Procés-verbal of the nobility contains no reference to the appearance of these 
envoys to their chamber and the Récit says nothing of their return. 
10 Barmond, Récit, 280-281. 
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