Cahiers de Doléances Notes

Cahiers de Doléances Notes

Cahiers de doléances notes
Cahiers of the First Estate
• The cahiers of the First Estate reflected the interests of the parish clergy.
• They called for an end to bishops holding more than one diocese, and demanded those who were not noble be able to become bishops.
• In return they were prepared to give up the financial privileges of the Church. They were not, however, prepared to give up the dominant position that the Church held over the other two Estates.
• They did not intend to allow Protestants to practice religion, and were still strictly only accepting of the Catholic religion.
Cahiers of the Second Estate
• Among the three Estates, the Second Estates cahiers were possibly the most surprising.
• Many of them proved to be quite liberal in their opinions, 89% voting that they were willing to give up their financial privileges. Where up until now, they had been against the idea of the commoners entering their ranks (as shown by the Segur Ordinance) they were finally accepting of the fact that Academic Merit, rather than the position held by a man because of his birth, should be the requirements to hold certain offices (the offices included Military, Administrative and Venal Offices).
• They also attacked the government for being out of date, and the injustice of the Ancien Regime.
Cahiers of the Third Estate
• The cahiers of the Third Estate spoke out mainly against the financial privileges held by the two other Estates. They were both exempt from most taxes such as the church tithe and the taille (the main direct tax).
• They also wanted to have a fair voting system in the Estates-General. At the moment, they would be outvoted by the other two orders, who would combine their votes on any issue that suited them.
• They wanted double representation (so that they had 600, rather than 300 members representing them) so that they could have a chance in the voting. This would only be effective if they were voting by head, and not by order...

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