The
abolition of the feudal system, which took place during the famous night
session of August 4-5, 1789, was caused by the reading of a report on
the misery and disorder which prevailed in the provinces. The report
declares that " Letters from all the provinces indicate that property
of all kinds is a prey to the most criminal violence; on all sides chateaux
are being burned, convents destroyed, and farms abandoned to pillage.
The taxes, the feudal dues, all are extinct; the laws are without force,
and the magistrates without authority." With the hope of pacifying
and encouraging the people, the Assembly, in a fervor of enthusiasm
and excitement, straightway abolished many of the ancient abuses. The
document here given is the revised decree, completed a week later.
ARTICLE
I. The National Assembly hereby completely abolishes the feudal system.
It decrees that, among the existing rights and dues, both feudal and
censuel,[1] all those originating in or representing real or personal
serfdom shall be abolished without indemnification. All other dues are
declared redeemable, the terms and mode of redemption to be fixed by
the National Assembly. Those of the said dues which are not extinguished
by this decree shall continue to be collected until indemnification
shall take place.
II. The
exclusive right to maintain pigeon houses and dovecotes is abolished.
The pigeons shall be confined during the seasons fixed by the community.
During such periods they shall be looked upon as game, and every one
shall have the right to kill them upon his own land.
III. The
exclusive right to hunt and to maintain uninclosed warrens is likewise
abolished, and every landowner shall have the right to kill, or to have
destroyed on his own land, all kinds of game, observing, however, such
police regulations as may be established with a view to the safety of
the public.
All hunting
capitaineries, [2] including the royal forests, and all hunting rights
under whatever denomination, are likewise abolished. Provision shall
be made, however, in a manner compatible with the regard due to property
and liberty, for maintaining the personal pleasures of the king.
The president
of the Assemby shall be commissioned to ask of the king the recall of
those sent to the galleys or exiled, simply for violations of the hunting
regulations, as well as for the release of those at present imprisoned
for offenses of this kind, and the dismissal of such cases as are now
pending.
IV. All
manorial courts are hereby suppressed without indemnification. But the
magistrates of these courts shall continue to perform their functions
until such time as the National Assembly shall provide for the establishment
of a new judicial system.
V. Tithes
of every description, as well as the dues which have been substituted
for them, under whatever denomination they are known or collected (even
when compounded for), possessed by secular or regular congregations,
by holders of benefices, members of corporations (including the Order
of Malta and other religious and military orders), as well as those
devoted to the maintenance of churches, those impropriated to lay persons,
and those substituted for the portion congrue,[3] are abolished, on
condition, however, that some other method be devised to provide for
the expenses of divine worship, the support of the officiating clergy,
for the assistance of the poor, for repairs and rebuilding of churches
and parsonages, and for the maintenance of all institutions, seminaries,
schools, academies, asylums, and organizations to which the present
funds are devoted. Until such provision shall be made and the former
possessors shall enter upon the enjoyment of an income on the new system,
the National Assembly decrees that the said tithes shall continue to
be collected according to law and in the customary manner.
Other tithes,
of whatever nature they may be, shall be redeemable in such manner as
the Assembly shall determine. Until this matter is adjusted, the National
Assembly decrees that these, too, shall continue to be collected.
VI. All
perpetual ground rents, payable either in money or in kind, of whatever
nature they may be, whatever their origin and to whomsoever they may
be due, . . . shall be redeemable at a rate fixed by the Assembly. No
due shall in the future be created which is not redeemable.
VII. The
sale of judicial and municipal offices shall be abolished forthwith.
Justice shall be dispensed gratis. Nevertheless the magistrates at present
holding such offices shall continue to exercise their functions and
to receive their emoluments until the Assembly shall have made provision
for indemnifying them.
VIII. The
fees of the country priests are abolished, and shall be discontinued
so soon as provision shall be made for increasing the minimum salary
[portion congrue] of the parish priests and the payment to the curates.
A regulation shall be drawn up to determine the status of the priests
in the towns.
IX. Pecuniary
privileges, personal or real, in the payment of taxes are abolished
forever. Taxes shall be collected from all the citizens, and from all
property, in the same manner and in the same form. Plans shall be considered
by which the taxes shall be paid proportionally by all, even for the
last six months of the current year.
X. Inasmuch
as a national constitution and public liberty are of more advantage
to the provinces than the privileges which some of these enjoy, and
inasmuch as the surrender of such privileges is essential to the intimate
union of all parts of the realm, it is decreed that all the peculiar
privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the provinces, principalities,
districts, cantons, cities, and communes, are once for all abolished
and are absorbed into the law common to all Frenchmen.
XI. All
citizens, without distinction of birth, are eligible to any office or
dignity, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or military; and no profession
shall imply any derogation.
XII. Hereafter
no remittances shall be made for annates or for any other purpose to
the court of Rome, the vice legation at Avignon, or to the nunciature
at Lucerne. The [Page 408] clergy of the diocese shall apply to their
bishops in regard to the filling of benefices and dispensations, the
which shall be granted gratis without regard to reservations, expectancies,
and papal months, all the churches of France enjoying the same freedom.
XIII. [This
article abolishes various ecclesiastical dues.]
XIV. Pluralities
shall not be permitted hereafter in cases where the revenue from the
benefice or benefices held shall exceed the sum of three thousand livres.
Nor shall any individual be allowed to enjoy several pensions from benefices,
or a pension and a benefice, if the revenue which he already enjoys
from such sources exceeds the same sum of three thousand livres.
XV. The
National Assembly shall consider, in conjunction with the king, the
report which is to be submitted to it relating to pensions, favors,
and salaries, with a view to suppressing all such as are not deserved,
and reducing those which shall prove excessive; and the amount shall
be fixed which the king may in the future disburse for this purpose.
XVI. The
National Assembly decrees that a medal shall be struck in memory of
the recent grave and important deliberations for the welfare of France,
and that a Te Deum shall be chanted in gratitude in all the parishes
and the churches of France.
XVII. The
National Assembly solemnly proclaims the king, Louis XVI, the Restorer
of French Liberty.
XVIII.
The National Assembly shall present itself in a body before the king,
in order to submit to him the decrees which have just been passed, to
tender to him the tokens of its most respectful gratitude, and to pray
him to permit the Te Deum to be chanted in his chapel, and to be present
himself at this service.
XIX. The
National Assembly shall consider, immediately after the constitution,
the drawing up of the laws necessary for the development of the principles
which it has laid down in the present decree. The latter shall be transmitted
by the deputies without delay to all the provinces, together with the
decree of the 10th of this month, in order that it may be printed, published,
read from the parish pulpits, and posted up wherever it shall be deemed
necessary.