Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Principal events in Loyseau's life
- Bibliographical note
- Note on translation and citations
- List of abbreviations
- Biographical notes
- Dedicatory epistle: Charles Loyseau to the Honourable Jean Forget
- Preface
- 1 Of order in general
- 2 Of the Roman orders
- 3 Of the order of the clergy
- 4 Of the order of nobility in general
- 5 Of plain gentlemen
- 6 Of the high nobility
- 7 Of princes
- 8 Of the third estate
- 9 Of solemn deprivation of order
- 10 Of the plain dignities of Rome
- 11 Of the plain dignities of France
- Index
- Title in the Series
8 - Of the third estate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Principal events in Loyseau's life
- Bibliographical note
- Note on translation and citations
- List of abbreviations
- Biographical notes
- Dedicatory epistle: Charles Loyseau to the Honourable Jean Forget
- Preface
- 1 Of order in general
- 2 Of the Roman orders
- 3 Of the order of the clergy
- 4 Of the order of nobility in general
- 5 Of plain gentlemen
- 6 Of the high nobility
- 7 Of princes
- 8 Of the third estate
- 9 Of solemn deprivation of order
- 10 Of the plain dignities of Rome
- 11 Of the plain dignities of France
- Index
- Title in the Series
Summary
1. In as much as order is a species of dignity the third estate of France is not properly an order: for, as it embraces all the rest of the people, apart from churchmen and nobles, all the people of France would have to be in dignity. But in as much as order signifies a condition or occupation or else a distinct species of persons, the third estate is one of the three orders or estates general of France.
2. Nevertheless, in ancient Gaul no account was taken of it, nor was it held in any respect or regard. So Caesar says:
Throughout Gaul there are two kinds of men who are in some rank and honour – on the one hand druids, on the other knights. For the common people are reckoned in the place virtually of slaves who undertake nothing by themselves and are never consulted.
3. M. Pasquier observes very pertinently that in the first two dynasties of our kings there was no mention of the third estate, and that the common people were not summoned at all to the general assemblies convened for the state's constitutional affairs.
4. At those assemblies, which were then called parlements and are now called estates-general, there were only prelates and barons: that is, the principal members of the clergy and the nobility. Hence our courts of parlement are at present composed of clerics and laymen who were formerly nobles and men of the sword, as the old books testify.
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- A Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities , pp. 166 - 181Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994