38 Charles Kuhlmann 



tion, its deputies should, if need be, declare themselves 

 competent to represent it. It is in advocating action in 

 accord with this principle that they first make themselves 

 remarked as a special nucleus in the assembly. As early 

 as May 3, Le Roulx, in discussing the question of the vote 

 by head, wrote that, "It will nevertheless be necessary to 

 attack the question in some manner, and after having at- 



formed there the same close unit as theii- co-deputies in the assembly 

 of the Third Estate, resolutely opposing the measures intended to 

 create difRculties for the latter order. (See Bulletin de Rennes, I, 

 No. 18, where an account of their action on June 9 is given relative 

 to the nomination of a committee to occupy itself with the question 

 of the dearness of bread — that is, a committee to act in accord with a 

 similar committee from the other orders, a proceeding to which they 

 objected on the grounds that the States General were not yet formed). 

 This course soon won them the title, the "Macedonian Phalanx." 

 (Hcraiilt de la nation, No. 46.) 



But instead of joining the Breton Committee or the Breton Club 

 where they could not prepare themselves for the specific work of their 

 order, since these organizations were concerned with the discussions 

 in the Third Estate, they seem to have formed an independent com- 

 mittee in which they prepared their resolutions. At least when they 

 were confronted with the important question as to whether or not 

 they should desert the order of the Clergy to unite with that of the 

 Third Estate, they held a meeting to decide what course to follow. 

 (Bulletin de Rennes. I, No. 20. The meeting was evidently held on 

 June 14.) Had the Breton cures been accustomed to attend the club, 

 how could the deputies of Saint-Brieuc have written on June 16 the 

 following suspicions, betraying total ignorance of J;he sentiments of 

 the cures: "II nous arrive journellement des cures qui desertent la 

 chambre de I'eglise pour se joindre h nous. Dans le nombre de ceux 

 qui sont raembre de notre assemblee. on ne compte encore que trois 

 bretons, les deux dont on vons a parle dans notre precedente et celui 

 du Minihy, eveche de Treguier. Mais des autres, et surtout de ceux 

 de notre eveche de Saint-Brieuc nous n'avons point encore entendu 

 parler. (!) II est vrai qu'on assure qu'ils viendront aussitot que le 

 clerge qui depuis pres de huit jours, delibere sur notre arrete du 10, 

 aura pris une resolution definitive. Si ces gueux de cures nous man- 

 quent et ne suivent pas I'exemple de leurs genereux confreres, nous 

 sommes decides a les denoncer a la nation comme des gueux, des- 

 traitres a leur patrie. Nos pauvres cures sont bien faibles, ils craig- 

 nent les eveques qui se moquent d'eux et les bercent de promesses qu' 

 ils n'effectueront pas." In a letter of Boulle of May 22, in speaking 

 of the rector of Pontivy, second of the Breton deputies to desert the 

 Clergy, the writer says: "Nos demeures sont eloignes et comme nos 

 assemblees ne se tienent pas dans le meme lieu, nous nous voyons assez 

 rarement." Boulle was an enthusiastic member of the Breton Club, 

 and had the rector of Pontivy been accustomed to attend the meet- 

 ings, there could have been no occasion to write this. 



Had the Breton Committee been formed by the cures and Third Es- 



244 



