y8 Mae Darling 



to the three orders united. They added a written protest in 

 which they claimed that the inspection of the cahiers by the 

 clergy was in direct opposition to the intentions of the king and 

 would tend to alienate the third estate.-*^ This same day the 

 president appointed a committee to draw up provisional rules of 

 order [rcglement] for the clergy."^'^ 



On Alay 19, the motion was again brought up that the clergy 

 should announce through its commissioner, its willingness to give 

 up its pecuniary privileges. ^^^ Vallet relates that the opposition 

 argued that if the upper orders began by renouncing their pecu- 

 niary privileges, they would be sent back to their provinces with- 

 out having done anything except consent to the payment of cer- 

 tain taxes, which would not relieve the third estate, and hence 

 their renunciation would be useless.-^- Jallet states that the 

 bishops tried to bring about a compromise in regard to the ques- 

 tion of the renunciation of pecuniary privileges. They proposed, 

 he says, that it should be left to the discretion of commissions as 

 to whether they should announce the renunciation of their privi- 

 leges. Jallet says that since there were three bishops among the 

 commissioners, the higher clergy thought they could keep the 

 declaration from being made. Jallet also tells of a discourse by 

 the cure of Cherigne, in which the speaker defended the third 

 estate against the accusations of the bishops that it was trying 

 to destroy the power of the throne and of the church. The cure 

 also attacked the intolerable and scandalous luxury of the 

 clerg}'.-"^ When the vote was finally taken in regard to the 

 renunciation of the pecuniary privileges, it showed that at last the 

 lower clergy had won. The order agreed to instruct the con- 

 ciliatory commissioners to announce that the clergy was ready 

 to submit to general taxation.-^* In the meantime, a deputation 

 had come from the third estate to announce that the commons 



2*9 Ibid., 30. 



-^^Ibid.; Coster, 16 mai ; Thibault, 199. 



251 Thibault, 199; Coster, 14 mai; Vallet, Rccit, 33; Jallet, 59. 



252 Vallet, Recit, 33. 



253 Jallet, 60. 



-^^ Ibid., 61; Thibault, 199; Coster, 18 mai; Vallet, Rccit, 33. 



280 



