Company of Old Mode

A hierarchical company

In the company of Old Mode, the person does not have individual rights, but it is profit those of its social group. Each " corps" , each community, each state has its payment, its franknesses and its privileges which identify it and distinguish it from the others. There is a multitude of groups: orders, cities, communities rural, trade associations, schools…

These bodies are treated on a hierarchical basis according to their position in the production (employers or employees), their incomes (financier and grocer). But there is in parallel a hierarchy related to mentalities: there exists a scale of values which classifies the social positions, and in which the position can be considered to be higher like lower (poor nobliaux superior with the financier, the officer seigneurial more senior than the plowman).

Ideological bases of the company of orders

As of the the Middle Ages, the well-read men of the clergy work out the theoretical executives of a supposed social system to guarantee the harmony and the peace of the kingdom; at the beginning of the 11th century, the bishop S Adalbéron de Laon and Gerard de Cambrai pose the bases of the theory of the orders: " those which prient" ( oratores ), " those which combattent" ( bellatores ) and " those which travaillent" ( laboratores ) composes the French company dominated by the king. Each of the three orders must be complementary to both others: the Moine S request for the safety of the laic ones; the knight S put their weapons at the service of the Church and protect the weak ones; finally, the Paysan S cultivate the ground to nourish the first two orders. The access to the first two groups is conditioned by rites (the Ordination for the clergy; the Adoubement for the knight S. This triad is not without recalling the Christian dogma of the trinity and the trifonctionnalism expensive to Georges Dumézil.

To the 17th century, at the time of the rise of the Absolutism, Charles Loyseau brings a legal definition of the three orders. He writes a Traité orders and simple dignities in 1610 in which he describes the separation of the three orders that he names also " états" , while insisting on obedience due to the king. He observes that each order is subdivided of finer categories. The philosophers are at the origin of the awakening that the old mode is an unjust mode not respecting freedoms of the population.

Three orders of the French company

Under the Old Mode, the French company is deeply uneven. The clergy remains the first order of the social hierarchy. The majority of the taxes rest on the third state. The first two orders are not however the only ones to profit from privileges, in the etymological sense of the term: certain provinces, certain cities, the Corporation S, the universities and the Académie S are exempted on the one hand fiscal charge

Clergy

The clergy is the first order in the social hierarchy of the modern time. If it does not pay the size, it returns to him to take responsibility for its assistance with poor and the instruction.

The high clergy, composed of the cardinal , of the Archbishop S, of the Abbot S and the bishop S trains only one small portion of this kind. Often resulting from the rows of the nobility, they reside downtown, sometimes in Versailles, and attend the princes and the king.

The priests of countryside hold a big role in the life of the community: they hold the registers of baptism and of burial, distribute the sacraments like the marriage, hear the confessions and give the mass.

The secular clergy, which lives in the world of the century, is distinguished from the regular clergy, which lives in withdrawal while following the regulations of an order. With the Middle Ages was established the distinction between the contemplative orders devoted to the prayer and the orders beggars dedicated to preaching. The orders accommodate the juniors by the easy families which are excluded from the family successions.

The nobility

The nobility is claimed of a particular race equipped with specific qualities and which are transmitted by blood. The old nobility goes back to the Middle Ages. The more recent nobility owes its statute to the king who has only the capacity to anoblir by letters patent or the sale of loads. The files consigning the right seigneuriaux are preserved in the castles.

Like the clergy, the nobility has privileges: it is not subjugated with the size, the royal tax. It has the right to have armorial bearings, to carry the sword and to practice hunting. She is judged by particular courts.

The nobility on the other hand is subjected to duties, it must pour its blood. It has places reserved in the army and the administration but the majority of the community activities is refused to him. Very noble which does not respect these duties can Déroger and to see deposed its condition.

The third state

the last order of the company of Old Mode is made of all those which belong neither to the clergy nor with the nobility. That concerns more than 95% of the French, which represents million people, born in the commoner's condition.

the third is before very rural. The life of the peasants is due to the abundance of harvests. The Laboureur S are however richer than the Tenancier S and the farm laborers (the Journalier S).

The peasants pay many taxes, in particular the royal size and the taxes seigneuriales (Cens, Champart). They are compelled with the Banalité S and the Corvée S, which are survivals of the Middle Ages.

downtown, the third state is also very heterogeneous: all separates the merchant enriched by the beggar pursued by the police force or the servant. Most of the townsmen hold a shop or work in the craft industry: they work then in workshops and belong to a corporation. The rise in the price of the bread can involve urban riots.

The organization of the company itself

For each field that are the Noblesse, the policy, the tax, but also the religions catholic and semi-officially Protestant woman also, the territory of the France of Ancien Mode is squared of a hierarchisation - France; zones; subfields; etc - for which are responsible for the agents has denomination, title and role precise.

Capacities with the XVIII ème century

The king controls assisted by his Council. Gradually starting from Philippe the Beautiful one and his son Philippe length, the Council knew a double evolution. On the one hand it gave rise to more specialized bodies. In addition the large lords were évincés with the profit of a more professional personnel. The responsibilities of advising are venal but the king chooses the holders of the important functions.

The chancellor affixes the royal seal on the acts: he represents eternal justice. The superintendent of finances manages the incomes and the expenditure. The role of the 4 Secretaries of State evolves of that of clerk to that of minister.

The royal authority is applied in province by an intendant in each of the 34 general information. The intendant is also invaluable information means for the central capacity. He intervenes in the distribution of the principal direct tax, the size. 13 cours des accounts are dedicated to audit the accounts of the government officials and to preserve the royal inheritance.

12 cours des assistances return justice in last tax matter authority. The size is taken according to the provinces by titular of their load, wrongfully called officers “elected”, or the general states, assemblies the notable ones. The perception of the direct taxes is ensured by the system of the tenant farming: a group of financial advances the lump sum with the king then organizes itself the perception of the tax, with profit. The principal indirect tax is the gabelle one on salt.

Current justice is returned in the hierarchical order by baillages then by présidiaux. 18 cours sovereign of justice, called Parliaments, judge in last authority. Their springs are of very variable size: that of Paris covers half of the territory. The members of Parliament are owners of their load, which they bought. Their integrity is often blamed, which does not prevent them from being posed with respect to the royal capacity like the defenders of the public rights and freedoms.

To become noble residence an ideal but the nobility does not form therefore an organized body. At the top, some large lords accumulate the royal favors: they are the princes of blood or very often of favorites or their descendants. Under the dynasty of the Bourbons, the princes of blood are mainly the duke of Orleans, princes de Condé and of Conti. In bottom of the scale, many gentlemen live chichement in their field.

The peasants who constitute the very great majority of the population seldom have business with the royal authority. The priest announces the official news and holds the civil statue. The lord returns justice. The assembly of the principal owners distributes the tax and recruits the schoolmaster.

The Church

The clergy holds of the general meetings and has its own courts: officialities. It takes the dîme. It is exempted taxes but can grant gifts to the king.

The priests are appointed by an outlet drain, the founder of the parish or his successor. They have an adequate portion of the dîme but are in general safe from indigence. After the application of the council of Thirty, they are compelled to reside in their parish and they are formed better: there is now a seminar in each évêché.

France is cut out in 140 dioceses of very variable size. They are more numerous in the South when certain episcopal sees are only of large boroughs. In a way less widespread than in Germany, certain prelates are also temporal lords: for example the bishop of Mende is count of Gévaudan. Since the legal settlement of Bologna obtained by François Ier in 1516, it is the king who names the bishops. Personalities of the church reach the post of Prime Minister: it is in particular the case of Richelieu (1624-1642), Mazarin (1642-1661) and Fleury (1726-1743).

The States Third

Corporation S
Échevinage

Mobilities and social relations

the most modest layers of the population can enter the clergy and benefit from its privileges.

The middle-class seeks to imitate the lifestyle of the noble ones. By buying loads of officer or finances, the Office S, it rises with the row of the Noblesse de robe. The intellectual elite of the third aspires to take part more in the policy, the administration and the military commands. A fraction among it shows anticlerical and reproach with the high clergy its dealings with the nobility.

Inside each order, competition exacerbates the enmities: the high clergy carries a glance condescending on the low clergy. The nobility tests scorn for small the Gentilhomme S rural. The middle-class is afraid of the vagrants in the cities. The nobility mistakes the third because he works. However, during the Sling, the noble ones instrumentalisé the peasants to encourage them to revolt against the capacity. Solidarity between rural or urban will be done day at the time of the French revolution.

a fixed company?

The three orders of the Old Mode are not closed: the clergy is opened with the other orders, the proviso of having the vocation and of adopting the continence. Certain middle-class men nouveau riches buy administrative loads which them anoblissent. The king sells his loads to draw some from the benefit but it lets create dynasties of officers who can escape his control. The load of Secrétaire of the king is most expensive, but very required: it is the " cake of soap with vilains". Certain municipal loads allow the integration of the middle-class men in the " nobility of cloche". Starting from second half of the 18th century, the warheads make it possible to escape the commoner's condition. These parvenus of the " cake of soap with vilains" are seen of an evil eye by the old nobility. The marriage is also the occasion to integrate a higher order. Let us note to finish that one can lose his privileges of order: the noble ones which derogates from their lifestyle are deposed their prerogatives. It is necessary to await the end of the Old Mode to see them taking share with industry and the trade.

A usual company

The socio-economic individuals and groups have relations regulated by habits multiséculaires which form in fact the private law. These habits are different according to the areas (thus the system of heritage is not the same one in Normandy or in Languedoc). They are also different according to the social groups: the nobility and the Third-State very often do not have the same rules for the successions. On the other hand the south of the kingdom is subjected to the Justinien Code which perpetuates the Roman law. Does everything company a mosaic. The royal government, on several occasions, tries well to put order in this multitude but generally preserves the characteristics. (See the category: Right or habit of the Old Mode)

A catholic company

The Catholicisme is the religion of the State and the Crown. No one cannot be a king de France if it is not catholic: the Protesting Henri de Navarre, although heir legitimates throne, had to convert. At the time of his sacring the king swears to defend the Catholic church but also to extirpate the heresy of his kingdom. With the family, the Paroisse is the basic framework of the religious but so civil life. The very large majority of the French are guided birth (with the baptism) with dead (with the extreme unction), by the precepts of the Catholic church. The catholic priest is one of the essential wheels of the life of the village community or district. Not only it distributes the sacraments, but he is also the adviser in the private affairs and the spiritual adviser. This Church plays the part of public service; it holds the Registry office (registers of baptism), it organizes schooling with all the degree of teaching, it provides the public assistance with the hospitals. Each body of the company has its patron saint. The collective life is rythmée by catholic religious holidays. The French who are not catholic (Jews and Protestants) do not exist legally, they are regarded as " asociaux". This is why the policy anti-Protestant woman of Louis XIV in fact approved, will be even glorifiée, by almost the whole of its subjects (except the victims and some very rare opponents).

Disputes

At the century of Louis XIV

Many famous writers lived under the Old Mode and criticized, under cover of comedies or fables, the company of orders. The fables of Jean of the Fountain, the Satire S of Nicolas Boileau, the characters of Jean of the Heather and the parts of Molière denounce them through system. the Middle-class man gentleman makes fun of Mr the Jordan who wants to imitate the way of life of the noble ones.

Philosophical of the Lights

The philosophers of the Lights criticized the legal and social inequality of the Old Mode. This pact is contracted between all the participants, i.e. the exhaustive whole of the citizens. Does what each one lose its freedom natural to exert its right of most extremely makes it possible to draw up this social contract, and saves with each one freedom and égalité.et that of tamere???

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