What was the role of church in French society?
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The church was the largest land-owner in France. It owned about 20% of the arable land in France. That obviously made them a target of the more radical elements in the National Assembly. When the Estates General assembled in the spring of 1789, rather than discussing taxation—the King had called the Estates because of his financial difficulties—members of the Third Estate called for voting by membership, rather than by estates. Voting by estates, the clergy and the nobility could dismiss any measure of the Third Estate by two to one. Voting by members would give an advantage to the Third Estate. The Comte de Mirabeau, although a member of the nobility, had been elected to the Third Estate, and he was able to convince a few members of the nobility to vote with the Third Estate. The Abbé Sieyès,* a high-ranking clergyman had also been elected to the Third Estate rather than appearing with the clerical estate, and he convinced quite a few members of the clergy to vote with the Third Estate. These people then convened themselves as a National Assembly. When Louis XVI annulled their measures and refused to recognize the National Assembly, finally locking them out of la salle des etats where the Estates met. But members of the clergy had anticipated him, and had booked the tennis court at Versailles. Those who had joined the National Assembly met there, and on June 20th, 1789, they all swore the Tennis Court Oath— "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established." That was truly the beginning of the French Revolution.
(* The Abbé Sieyès became a member of the Directory, the reactionary, counter-revolutionary government which took over France in 1795. He helped Bonaparte to organize a coup against the Directory in November, 1799, leading to Bonaparte’s rise to power.)
The National Assembly seized a great deal of land from the Church, and used it rather clumsily to establish their paper money. Members of the clergy were made employees of the state, paid a salary, and largely divorced from the influence of Rome. That was by virtue of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790. Many members of the clery refused to swear the oath to the national government, and were known as non-juring (not having sworn the oath), refractory clergy, and were prohibited from administering the sacraments. Counter-revolutions in the west and the south, many of the refractory clergy became leaders in the counter-revolutionary movements