2
10
1079
-
Text
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<p>Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing all the estates of the people of this realm, did, upon the thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-eight, present unto their Majesties, then called and known by the names and style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, being present in their proper persons, a certain declaration in writing, made by the said Lords and Commons, in the words following; viz:—</p> <p>Whereas the late King James II., by the assistance of diverse evil counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom:—</p> <p>1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of Parliament.</p> <p>2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused form concurring to the same assumed power.</p> <p>3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under the Great Seal for erecting a court, called the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes.</p> <p>4. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, for other time, and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament.</p> <p>5. By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law.</p> <p>6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law.</p> <p>7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament.</p> <p>8. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench, for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament; and by diverse other arbitrary and illegal courses.</p> <p>9. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, and unqualified persons have been returned and served on juries in trials; and particularly diverse jurors in trials for high treason, which were not freeholders.</p> <p>10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the liberty of the subjects.</p> <p>11. And excessive fines have been imposed.</p> <p>12. And illegal and cruel punishments inflicted.</p> <p>13. And several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures, before any conviction or judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied.</p> <p>All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes, and freedom of this realm.</p> <p>And whereas the said late King James II. having abdicated the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his Highness the Prince of Orange, whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power did (by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and diverse Principal persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque ports, for the choosing of such persons to represent them, as were of right to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westminster upon the two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year one thousand six hundred eighty and eight, in order to such an establishment, as that their religion, laws and liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted; upon which letters, elections have been accordingly made.</p> <p>And, thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being now assembled in a full and free representation of this nation, taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case have usually done), for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties, declare:—</p> <p>1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.</p> <p>2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.</p> <p>3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious.</p> <p>4. That levying money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal.</p> <p>5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.</p> <p>6. That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law.</p> <p>7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law.</p> <p>8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free.</p> <p>9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.</p> <p>10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.</p> <p>11. That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders.</p> <p>12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction, are illegal and void.</p> <p>13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.</p> <p>I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to their Majesties King William and Queen Mary:</p> <p>So help me God.</p> <p>I, A. B., do swear, That I do from my heart, abhor, detest, and abjure as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm:</p> <p>So help me God.</p> <p>IV. Upon which their said Majesties did accept the Crown and royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the resolution and desire of the said Lords and Commons contained in the said declaration.</p> <p>V. And thereupon their Majesties were pleased, that the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, being the two Houses of Parliament, should continue to sit, and with their Majesties' royal concurrence make effectual provision for the settlement of the religion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, so that the same for the future might not be in danger again of being subverted; to which the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, did agree and proceed to act accordingly.</p> <p>VI. Now in pursuance of the premises, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, for the ratifying, confirming, and establishing the said declaration, and the articles, clauses, matters, and things therein contained, by the force of a law made in due form by authority of Parliament, do pray that it may be declared and enacted, That all and singular the rights and liberties asserted and claimed in the said declaration, are the true, ancient, and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom, and so shall be esteemed, allowed, adjudged, deemed, and taken to be, and that all and every the particulars aforesaid shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed, as they are expressed in the said declaration; and all officers and ministers whatsoever shall serve their Majesties and their successors according to the same in all times to come.</p> <p>VII. And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, seriously considering how it hath pleased Almighty God, in his marvellous providence, and merciful goodness to this nation, to provide and preserve their said Majesties' royal persons most happily to reign over us upon the throne of their ancestors, for which they render unto Him from the bottom of their hearts their humblest thanks and praises, do truly, firmly, assuredly, and in the sincerity of their hearts, think, and do hereby recognize, acknowledge, and declare, that King James II. having abdicated the government, and their Majesties having accepted the Crown and royal dignity aforesaid, their said Majesties did become, were, are, and of right ought to be, by the laws of this realm, our sovereign liege Lord and Lady, King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, in and to whose princely persons the royal State, Crown, and dignity of the same realms, with all honours, styles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, powers, jurisdictions and authorities to the same belonging and appertaining, are most fully, rightfully, and entirely invested and incorporated, united and annexed.</p> <p>VIII. And for preventing all questions and divisions in this realm, by reason of any pretended titles to the Crown, and for preserving a certainty in the succession thereof, in and upon which the unity, peace, tranquillity, and safety of this nation doth, under God, wholly consist and depend the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do beseech their Majesties that it may he enacted, established, and declared, that the Crown and regal government of the said kingdoms and dominions, with all and singular the premises thereunto belonging and appertaining, shall be and continue to their said Majesties, and the survivor of them, during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them. And that the entire, perfect, and full exercise of the regal power and government be only in, and executed by, his Majesty, in the names of both their Majesties during their joint lives; and after their deceases the said Crown and premises shall be and remain to the heirs of the body of her Majesty: and for default of such issue, to her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body; And for default of such issue, to the heirs of the body of his said Majesty: and thereunto the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of all the people aforesaid, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs and posterities, for ever: and do faithfully promise that they will stand to, maintain, and defend their said Majesties, and also the limitation and succession of the Crown herein specified and contained, to the utmost of their powers, with their lives and estates, against all persons whatsoever that shall attempt anything to the contrary.</p> <p>IX. And whereas it hath been found by experience, that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom, to be governd by a Popish prince, or by any king or queen marrying a Papist, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do further pray that it may be enacted, That all and every person and persons that is, are, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be excluded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and government of this realm, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any regal power, authority, or jurisdiction within the same; and in all and every such case or cases the people of these realms shall be and are hereby absolved of their allegiance; and the said Crown and Government shall from time to time descend to, and be enjoyed by, such person or persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case the said person or persons so reconciled, holding communion, or professing, or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally dead.</p> <p>X. And that every king and queen of this realm, who at any time hereafter shall come to succeed in the Imperial Crown of this kingdom, shall, on the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament, next after his or her coming to the Crown, sitting in his or her throne in the House of Peers, in the presence of the Lords and Commons therein assembled, or at his or her coronation, before such person or persons who shall administer the coronation oath to him or her, at the time of his or her taking the said oath (which shall first happen), make, subscribe, and audibly repeat the declaration mentioned in the statute made in the thirtieth year of the reign of King Charles II., intituled "An Act for the more effectual preserving the King's person and government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament." But if it shall happen, that such king or queen, upon his or her succession to the Crown of this realm, shall be under the age of twelve years, then every such king or queen shall make, subscribe and audibly repeat the said declaration at his or her coronation, or the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament as aforesaid, which shall first happen after such king or queen shall have attained the said age of twelve years.</p> <p>XI. All which their Majesties are contented and pleased shall be declared, enacted, and established by authority of this present Parliament, and shall stand, remain, and be the law of this realm for ever; and the same are by their said Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, declared, enacted, and established accordingly.</p> <p>XII. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after this present session of Parliament, no dispensation by non obstante of or to any statute, or any part thereof, shall be allowed, but that the same shall be held void and of no effect, except a dispensation be allowed of in such statute, and except in such cases as shall be specially provided for by one or more bill or bills to be passed during this present session of Parliament.</p> <p>XIII. Provided that no charter, or grant, or pardon granted before the three-and-twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-nine, shall be any ways impeached or invalidated by this act, but that the same shall be and remain of the same force and effect in law, and no other, than as if this act had never been made.</p>
Sortable Date
1689-00-00
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Guy Carleton Lee, <i>Source-Book of English History</i> (London: Henry Holt, 1901), 424–31.
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In response to policies that threatened to restore Catholicism in England, Parliament deposed King James II and called William of Orange from the Dutch Republic and his wife Mary, who was James’s Protestant daughter, to replace him. William and Mary agreed to the <i>Bill of Rights</i> presented to them by Parliament, thereby acknowledging that their power came from the legislature rather than from any concept of the "divine right of kings." The <i>Bill of Rights</i> confirmed traditional English liberties, especially the power of Parliament to make laws and consent to taxation. It also confirmed and guaranteed freedom of speech and denied the legitimacy of cruel and unusual punishments. The <i>Bill of Rights</i> quickly took its place as a foundation of English constitutionalism and exercised great influence in the British North American colonies during their war for independence.
Identifier
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267
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The <i>Bill of Rights</i>, 1689
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/267/
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1689
Enlightenment
Laws
Middle Classes – Bourgeoisie
Monarchy
Nobility
Popular Politics
Public Opinion
Text
The US and Great Britain in Revolution
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1689-00-00
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1043
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Bill of Rights.
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1043/
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1689
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Sortable Date
1690-00-00
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Identifier
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1044
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John Locke, "Of Political or Civil Society."
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1044/
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1690
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Text
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<p>Some time ago we set forth the principles of our foreign policy; today we come to expound the principles of our internal policy.</p> <p>After having proceeded haphazardly for a long time, swept along by the movement of opposing factions, the representatives of the French people have finally demonstrated a character and a government. A sudden change in the nation's fortune announced to Europe the regeneration that had been effected in the national representation. But, up to the very moment when I am speaking, it must be agreed that we have been guided, amid such stormy circumstances, by the love of good and by the awareness of our country's needs rather than by an exact theory and by precise rules of conduct, which we did not have even leisure enough to lay out. . . .</p> <p>What is the goal toward which we are heading? The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality; the reign of that eternal justice whose laws have been inscribed, not in marble and stone, but in the hearts of all men, even in that of the slave who forgets them and in that of the tyrant who denies them.</p> <p>We seek an order of things in which all the base and cruel passions are enchained, all the beneficent and generous passions are awakened by the laws; where ambition becomes the desire to merit glory and to serve our country; where distinctions are born only of equality itself; where the citizen is subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, and the people to justice; where our country assures the well-being of each individual, and where each individual proudly enjoys our country's prosperity and glory; where every soul grows greater through the continual flow of republican sentiments, and by the need of deserving the esteem of a great people; where the arts are the adornments of the liberty which ennobles them and commerce the source of public wealth rather than solely the monstrous opulence of a few families.</p> <p>In our land we want to substitute morality for egotism, integrity for formal codes of honor, principles for customs, a sense of duty for one of mere propriety, the rule of reason for the tyranny of fashion, scorn of vice for scorn of the unlucky; self-respect for insolence, grandeur of soul for vanity, love of glory for the love of money, good people in place of good society. We wish to substitute merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glamor, the charm of happiness for sensuous boredom, the greatness of man for the pettiness of the great, a people who are magnanimous, powerful, and happy, in place of a kindly, frivolous, and miserable people—which is to say all the virtues and all the miracles of the republic in place of all the vices of the monarchy. . . .</p> <p>What kind of government can realize these wonders? Only a democratic or republican government—these two words are synonyms despite the abuses in common speech—because an aristocracy is no closer than a monarchy to being a republic. Democracy is not a state in which the people, continually meeting, regulate for themselves all public affairs, still less is it a state in which a tiny fraction of the people, acting by isolated, hasty, and contradictory measures, decide the fate of the whole society. Such a government has never existed, and it could exist only to lead the people back into despotism.</p> <p>Democracy is a state in which the sovereign people, guided by laws which are of their own making, do for themselves all that they can do well, and by their delegates do all that they cannot do for themselves.</p> <p>It is therefore in the principles of democratic government that you should seek the rules of your political conduct.</p> <p>But, in order to lay the foundations of democracy among us and to consolidate it, in order to arrive at the peaceful reign of constitutional laws, we must finish the war of liberty against tyranny and safely cross through the storms of the revolution: that is the goal of the revolutionary system which you have put in order. You should therefore still base your conduct upon the stormy circumstances in which the republic finds itself; and the plan of your administration should be the result of the spirit of revolutionary government, combined with the general principles of democracy.</p> <p>Now, what is the fundamental principle of popular or democratic government, that is to say, the essential mainspring which sustains it and makes it move? It is virtue. I speak of the public virtue which worked so many wonders in Greece and Rome and which ought to produce even more astonishing things in republican France—that virtue which is nothing other than the love of the nation and its laws. . . .</p> <p>But the French are the first people of the world who have established real democracy, by calling all men to equality and full rights of citizenship; and there, in my judgment, is the true reason why all the tyrants in league against the Republic will be vanquished.</p> <p>There are important consequences to be drawn immediately from the principles we have just explained.</p> <p>Since the soul of the Republic is virtue, equality, and since your goal is to found, to consolidate the Republic, it follows that the first rule of your political conduct ought to be to relate all your efforts to maintaining equality and developing virtue; because the first care of the legislator ought to be to fortify the principle of the government. Thus everything that tends to excite love of country, to purify morals, to elevate souls, to direct the passions of the human heart toward the public interest ought to be adopted or established by you. Everything which tends to concentrate them in the abjection of selfishness, to awaken enjoyment for petty things and scorn for great ones, ought to be rejected or curbed by you. Within the scheme of the French revolution, that which is immoral is impolitic, that which is corrupting is counterrevolutionary. . . .</p> <p>We deduce from all this a great truth—that the characteristic of popular government is to be trustful towards the people and severe towards itself.</p> <p>Here the development of our theory would reach its limit, if you had only to steer the ship of the Republic through calm waters. But the tempest rages, and the state of the revolution in which you find yourself imposes upon you another task.</p> <p>This great purity of the French Revolution's fundamental elements, the very sublimity of its objective, is precisely what creates our strength and our weakness: our strength, because it gives us the victory of truth over deception and the rights of public interest over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies against us all men who are vicious, all those who in their hearts plan to despoil the people, and all those who have despoiled them and want impunity, and those who reject liberty as a personal calamity, and those who have embraced the revolution as a livelihood and the Republic as if it were an object of prey. Hence the defection of so many ambitious or greedy men who since the beginning have abandoned us along the way, because they had not begun the voyage in order to reach the same goal. One could say that the two contrary geniuses that have been depicted competing for control of the realm of nature, are fighting in this great epoch of human history to shape irrevocably the destiny of the world, and that France is the theater of this mighty struggle. Without, all the tyrants encircle you; within, all the friends of tyranny conspire—they will conspire until crime has been robbed of hope. We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish, in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.</p> <p>If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue. It is less a special principle than a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most pressing needs.</p> <p>It has been said that terror was the mainspring of despotic government. Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed. Let the despot govern his brutalized subjects by terror; he is right to do this, as a despot. Subdue liberty's enemies by terror, and you will be right, as founders of the Republic. The government of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Is force made only to protect crime? And is it not to strike the heads of the proud that lightning is destined?</p> <p>Nature imposes upon every physical and moral being the law of providing for its own preservation. Crime slaughters innocence in order to reign, and innocence in the hands of crime fights with all its strength.</p> <p>Let tyranny reign for a single day, and on the morrow not one patriot will be left. How long will the despots' fury be called justice, and the people's justice barbarism or rebellion? How tender one is to the oppressors and how inexorable against the oppressed! And how natural whoever has no hatred for crime cannot love virtue. . . .</p> <p>Social protection is due only to peaceful citizens; there are no citizens in the Republic but the republicans. The royalists, the conspirators are, in its eyes, only strangers or, rather, enemies. Is not the terrible war, which liberty sustains against tyranny, indivisible? Are not the enemies within the allies of those without? The murderers who tear our country apart internally; the intriguers who purchase the consciences of the people's agents; the traitors who sell them; the mercenary libelers subsidized to dishonor the popular cause, to kill public virtue, to stir up the fires of civil discord, and to prepare political counterrevolution by means of moral counterrevolution—are all these men less to blame or less dangerous than the tyrants whom they serve? All those who interpose their parricidal gentleness to protect the wicked from the avenging blade of national justice are like those who would throw themselves between the tyrants' henchmen and our soldiers' bayonets. All the outbursts of their false sensitivity seem to me only longing sighs for England and Austria.</p> <p>Aristocracy defends itself better by its intrigues than patriotism does by its services. Some people would like to govern revolutions by the quibbles of the law courts and treat conspiracies against the Republic like legal proceedings against private persons. Tyranny kills; liberty argues. And the code made by the conspirators themselves is the law by which they are judged.</p>
Sortable Date
1704-02-05
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From <i>THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR</i> by Richard Bienvenu. Copyright (c) 1970 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 32–49. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
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In this speech to the Convention, delivered on 5 February 1794, Robespierre offered a justification of the Terror. By this date, the Federalist revolt and Vendée uprisings had been by and large pacified and the threat of invasion by the Austrians, British, and Prussians had receded, yet Robespierre emphasized that only a combination of virtue (a commitment to republican ideals) and terror (coercion against those who failed to demonstrate such a commitment) could ensure the long–term salvation of the Republic, since it would always be faced with a crisis of secret enemies subverting it from within, even when its overt enemies had been subdued.
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413
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Robespierre, "On Political Morality"
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/413/
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February 5, 1704
Clubs
Enlightenment
Public Opinion
Text
The Terror
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Text
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<p>The cold began to be felt at the end of October 1708, on the evening of the Feast of the Apostles Saint Simon and Jude, 28 October 1708. The wind shifted to the north, the rain that had been falling all day long turned into ice and snow, and one saw therein a warning of what was to happen later on because the snow, having frozen in the trees, weighed on them so heavily that branches as heavy as men were seen to succumb under the burden and fall to the ground, and I am an eyewitness that most of the oak trees of the parish were badly damaged.</p>
<p>Nothing withstood this cold; many men died of it, but to tell the truth not in the immediate vicinity; almost no birds remained; partridge were taken by hand or were found dead, together with other game, either as a result of the cold or because the ground was always covered with snow. But if only that had been the greatest evil! Wheat died and vines dried up; none of the large trees, neither the oaks nor the fruit trees, could withstand it; and the chestnut and walnut trees were especially ill treated. When one had confidence to venture out, one could hear the oaks breaking apart, and I have seen some open to a width of three fingers from top to bottom.</p>
<p>Finally, after three weeks of this cold, which increased continually, the thaw came. Its sad effects were not yet known. Work was begun on the vines in the usual manner, but this soon became impossible because the cold began again at the start of Lent toward the middle of February and lasted fifteen days in the same violent manner. The sun, however, was stronger and made the cold more bearable to men during the day, but much more damaging to what remained of the produce of the earth, which could not resist the terrible nights that caused almost everything to die, so that it was scarcely possible to gather enough to provide for next year's seed.</p>
<p>Wheat was soon at 28 <em>livres</em> the septier, and wine at 100 <em>francs</em> the pipe. It was hardly possible even for those who knew how, to find money, when there wasn't any. The number of poor people increased incredibly because the continuing rains of the previous year, 1708, had been very bad and had damaged the grain crops. . . . The poor of the countryside were destitute of any aid, no longer possessing a cabbage or a leek in their gardens, so they crowded into the cities to take part in the liberalities of the inhabitants, which were very considerable, at least in Nantes—for I cannot speak of other cities.</p>
<p>But they were soon begrudged the only help they had. They were forced, by the threat of great penalties, to return to their homes, and there soon appeared the most beautiful edicts in the world to help them, which, however, served only to increase their misfortune. Each parish was supposed to feed its own poor; but for this it would have been necessary for the poor to feed the poor. So these lovely edicts were without effect, and the only way to help the poor, by decreasing the taxes with which they were burdened, was never put into practice. On the contrary, they were increased.</p>
Sortable Date
1709-00-00
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Jeffry Kaplow, ed., <em>France on the Eve of Revolution: A Book of Readings</em> (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), 9–12. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Village priests served as community leaders in a variety of respects, including keeping a register of births, marriages, and deaths. One such curate, the abbé Lefeuvre, also included in his register impressions of life during the severe winter of 1709, which give a sense of the difficult and fragile lives of the poor in rural towns in the eighteenth century.
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353
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! Poverty Observed: Journal of a Country Priest
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/353/
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1709
Economic Conditions
Peasants
Provinces
Religion
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BOOK THREE: WHERE I BEGIN EXPLAINING THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF ROYAL AUTHORITY <p>ARTICLE 1. Its essential characteristics can be distinguished.</p> <p>Proposition 1. Royal authority has four essential characteristics or qualities. First of all, royal authority is sacred; second, it is paternal; third, it is absolute; and fourth, it is subject to reason. These will be established, in order, in the following articles.</p> <p>ARTICLE 2. Royal authority is sacred.</p> <p>Proposition 1. God establishes kings as his ministers, and through them reigns over the People.</p> <p>We have already seen that all power comes from God. (<i>Romans</i> 13:5) As Saint Paul adds, "The King is God's minister to do good. If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not wield the sword in vain. He is God's minister, the avenger of evil deeds." (<i>Romans</i> 13:4) . . . Princes therefore serve as God’s ministers and as His lieutenants on earth. It is through them that He exercises His rule. . . .</p> <p>Proposition 2. The king’s person is sacred.</p> <p>It is clear from the foregoing that kings' persons are sacred, and that any attack upon them is sacrilege. </p> <p>God’s prophets anoint them with a holy unction, as He does with his pontiffs and altars. But even without the outward application of this ointment, kings are sacred due to their office as representatives of the Holy Majesty, and delegated by His providence to execute His commands. Thus God calls even Cyrus his anointed. "Thus spoke the Lord to Cyrus, my anointed, who I have taken by the right hand, so that he may subdue all nations before him." (<i>Isaiah</i> 45:1)</p> <p>The title of "Christ" is given to kings, and, everywhere we see them called 'Christ,' or 'the Lord's anointed.' With this venerable title even the Prophets revere them and regard them as included in God’s sovereign realm, and whose authority they wield over the People. "Speak boldly of me before the Lord and before his Christ. Tell them whether I have taken any man's ox or ass, whether I have taken a bribe from any man, or whether I have oppressed any man. And they answered 'never.'. And Samuel said, 'the Lord and his Christ thus bear witness that you have no complaint to bring against me.'" (<i>Samuel I</i>, 12:3–5). </p> <p>It is thus that Samuel, after having judged the People on behalf of the Lord and with absolute power for twenty-one years, accounts for his conduct before God and before Saul, both of whom he calls upon to bear witness and by whose testimony he establishes his innocence. </p> <p>Kings must be guarded as one would sacred things, and he who neglects to guard them as such deserves death. . .</p> <p>Proposition 3. The prince must be obeyed on the principles of religion and conscience.</p> <p>Saint Paul, having said that the prince is God's minister, concludes thusly: "It is therefore necessary that you be subject to him, not only for fear of his wrath, but also for the sake of your conscience." (<i>Romans</i> 13: 5) . . . Even when kings fail to discharge their duty [of praising good deeds and punishing evil], they must be respected for their office and their ministry. "Obey your masters, not only those who are kind and gentle, but also those who are vexatious and unfair." (<i>Peter I</i>, 2:18). </p> <p>There is therefore a religious element to the respect rendered a prince. Serving God and respecting kings are one and the same, and Saint Peter places these two duties together: "Fear God, and honor the king." (<i>Peter</i> <i>I</i>, 2: 17) . . .</p> <p>It is therefore in the spirit of Christianity to respect kings with the sort of religion that Tertullian most aptly terms 'the religion of the second majesty.'</p> <p>This second majesty is but an outgrowth of the first, that is, of the Divine Majesty, who, for the good of humanity, wished to reflect some of His radiance upon the kings.</p> <p>Proposition 4. Kings must respect their power, and only use it for the public good.</p> <p>Their power comes from on high, and as has been said, they must not think that they have been given this power to use it as they please. Rather, they must use it with fear and restraint, befitting something which comes from God, and for which God will demand an accounting. . . .</p> <p>Kings must consequently tremble while using the power that the Lord gives them, reflecting upon how horrible a sacrilege it is to use a power which comes from God for evil purposes. </p> <p>We have seen kings seated on the throne of God, holding the sword which He Himself put into their hand. What a desecration, and what audacity for unjust kings to sit upon God’s throne, making decrees contrary to His laws, and using the sword He gave them for committing acts of violence and butchering His children!</p> <p>Let kings therefore respect their might, for it is not theirs but rather the Lord’s, and it must be used in a holy and religious manner. . . .</p> <p>ARTICLE 3. Royal authority is paternal, and its true characteristic is goodness. . . .</p> <p>Proposition 1. Goodness is a royal quality, and the true prerogative of greatness.</p> <p>"Because the Lord your God is God of gods, King of kings, a great God, powerful and formidable, who judges without considering whom He judges nor who accepts bribes. He judges both orphans and widows, He loves strangers and gives them His food and His clothing." (<i>Deuteronomy</i> 10:17–18). </p> <p>Because God is great and complete in and of Himself, He bends over backwards, as it were, to do good for men, in conformity with these words, "For as is His greatness, so also is His mercy." (<i>Ecclesiastes</i> 2:23). </p> <p>He imbues kings with an image of His majesty, so that they must imitate his goodness. </p> <p>He raises them to a level where they no longer desire anything for themselves. . . .</p> <p>That is why, in the passages where we read that "the kingdom of David was imposed upon the People," the Jew and Greek infer "for the people." This shows that the purpose of greatness is the good of the subjects. </p> <p>In fact, God, who created the body of all men from the same earth and who also placed His image and His likeness in their souls, did not create so many distinctions among men in order to have the proud be separate from the slaves and the destitute. He created the great only so they could protect the meek. He only gave his power to kings so that they may provide for the public good, and so that they could be the People’s support.</p> <p>Proposition 2. The prince is born not for himself, but for the public. . . .</p> <p>Let the princes understand that their true glory lies not in existing for themselves, but rather that the public welfare that they provide is a sufficiently worthy reward on earth while they await the eternal blessings that God has reserved for them.</p> <p>Proposition 3. The prince must provide for the needs of the People. </p> <p>The Lord said to David, "Thou shall feed my People of Israel, and shall be their shepherd." (<i>Samuel</i> <i>II</i>, 5:2) . . . . </p> <p>It is a right of kings to provide for the needs of the People. Whoever else undertakes this function, to the detriment of the prince, infringes upon royalty. The obligation to care for the people is the basis for all the rights that sovereigns have over their subjects, and it was for this reason that royalty was established. </p> <p>And it is also for this reason that the People, when they have great need, have the right of appeal to their prince. "In their extreme famine, all of Egypt came to the Pharaoh, crying for bread." (<i>Genesis</i> 41:55). . . .</p> <p>Proposition 4. Of all the People, it is the weak to whom the prince must provide the most.</p> <p>For it is they who have the greatest need of him who is, by his office, the father and protector of all. This is the reason that God commends widows and orphans mainly to judges and magistrates. . . .</p> <p>BOOK FOUR. CONTINUATION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ROYALTY</p> <p>ARTICLE 1. Royal authority is absolute.</p> <p>In order to make this term odious and unbearable, there are those who pretend to confuse absolute government with arbitrary government. But no two things could be more different, as we will demonstrate when we speak of justice.</p> <p>Proposition 1. The prince answers to no one for his decrees. </p> <p>"Observe the commandments that the king utters, and keep the oath that you have taken to him. Do not think about escaping from under him, and do not continue in evil work, for he will do all that pleases him. His word is powerful, and no one can ask him: ‘Why do you do this?’ He who obeys shall not be harmed." (<i>Ecclesiastes</i> 8:2–5).</p> <p>Without this absolute authority, the prince can neither do good nor repress evil. His power must be such that no one can hope to escape him. And finally, the sole defense of individuals against the public power must be their innocence. </p> <p>This doctrine conforms to what Saint Paul said: "Do you not wish to fear this power? Be well afraid." (<i>Romans</i> 13:3).</p> <p>Proposition 2. When the prince has judged, there shall be no other judgment. </p> <p>The sovereign judgments are attributed to God Himself. . . . The prince can correct himself when he recognizes that he has done wrong, but against his authority the only remedy lies within that authority. </p> <p>That is why a prince must be very careful about what he decrees. . . .</p> <p>Proposition 3. There is no coactive force against the prince. </p> <p>Coactive force is the power to enforce the execution of legitimate orders. Legitimate command belongs to the prince alone. Also to him alone belongs coactive force. </p> <p>This is also why Saint Paul gave the sword only to the prince. "If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not wield the sword in vain." (<i>Romans</i> 13:4). </p> <p>In a State, only the prince is armed, otherwise everything is confusion and the State collapses into anarchy.</p> <p>Whoever makes himself a sovereign prince takes everything into his own hands, the supreme judicial authority as well as all the forces of the State. . . . </p> <p>To the prince alone belongs the general care of the People. This is the first article and the basis for all the others. To him belong the public works. To him belong the parade grounds and weapons. To him belong the decrees and regulations. To him belong the badges of distinction. All power stems from his power. All assemblies are dependent upon his authority. </p> <p>Thus, for the good of the State, all force is gathered into a single entity. For power to exist outside of this entity is to divide the state, ruin the public peace, and create two masters in contradiction to the word of the Gospel. "No man can serve two masters." (<i>Matthew</i> 6:24).</p> <p>By virtue of his office, the prince is father to his people, and by his greatness he is above petty interests. But even more than this, all his majesty and natural interest are directed toward the preservation of the people, since, in short, if there is no People, there is no prince. There is therefore nothing better than to leave all the power of the State to he who has the greatest interest in its preservation and grandeur.</p> <p>Proposition 4. Kings are thereby not freed from all laws. . . . </p> <p>Kings are therefore subject, like all others, to the equality of the law, both because laws must be fair, and because they owe the People the example of maintaining justice. But they are not subject to the penalties of the law. In the language of theology, they are subject to the laws, not as a coactive force but as a directive force.</p> <p>Proposition 5. The People must peacefully remain under the prince’s authority. . . .</p> <p>Proposition 6. The people must fear the prince; but the prince need only fear doing evil . . . . </p> <p>Fear is a necessary constraint on the People because of their presumptuousness and their natural resistance. Therefore it is necessary for the People to fear the prince. But should the prince fear the People, all is lost. </p>
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1709-00-00
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J.-B. Bossuet, <i>Politique tiree des propres paroles de l'ecriture sainte</i> (Paris: 1834) vol I, 133 - 149;180 - 188,
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Jacques–Benigne Bossuet (1627—1704), bishop of Meaux, was a well–known seventeenth–century peacher who believed that although France had a sizable minority of Protestants, France should have a single religion, Catholicism. At the same time, he was a Gallican, meaning he argued that the French clergy owed primary allegiance to the king rather than the Pope in Rome. His emphasis on religious unity and devotion to the French crown—rather than tolerance—appealed to Louis XIV, who appointed Bossuet tutor to heir, the "Dauphin" or crown prince. In this capacity, Bossuet wrote the following passage setting out the basic ideas of the French monarchy.
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234
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Bossuet, "The Nature and Properties of Royal Authority"
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/234/
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1709
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1713-00-00
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911
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Promulgation of Papal Bull <i>Unigenitus</i> regarding Jansenism.
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/911/
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1713
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1715-00-00
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913
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Death of Louis XIV and ascension of Louis XV.
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/913/
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1715
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<p>(17 July 1725)—On Saturday the fourteenth, a baker of the faubourg Saint-Antoine seemingly tried to sell bread for thirty-four <i>sous</i> which that morning had cost thirty. The woman to whom this happened caused an uproar and called her neighbors. The people gathered, furious with bakers in general. Soon their numbers reached eighteen hundred, and they looted all the bakers' houses in the faubourg from top to bottom, throwing dough and flour into the gutter. Some also profited from the occasion by stealing silver and silverware.</p> <p>The guards, who are at the city gates during the day, arrived but were driven back by a shower of rocks. They had the presence of mind to close the three gates of the faubourg Saint-Antoine. They sent for a mounted patrol, which forced its way with swords into the midst of the crowd and fired three shots, leading to a general dispersal.</p> <p>All this is due to the controls on bread. Farmers are forbidden to bring wheat to market and bakers are given only a certain quantity of flour. The kind of bread baked is also regulated. Rolls and soft bread are no longer eaten in Paris.</p> <p>Several signs have appeared in the mornings, one of them posted in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal, containing terrible rumors against the government and against Monsieur the Duke [of Orléans]. Just very recently, we have had to pay [two new taxes] and bread has been extraordinarily expensive. This is too much at once to take sitting down.</p> <p>(April, 1724)—Money has been devalued by one-third this year. . . . Order is being reestablished only with great difficulty, which highlights the danger of workers becoming accustomed to increased earnings. It was attractive for them to work only three days and to have enough to live on for the rest of the week.</p> <p>It is obvious how far these lower-class individuals go in creating factions. In Paris there are perhaps four thousand stocking weavers. When the first devaluation took place, they wanted to have five <i>sous</i> more per pair of stockings, and this the merchants were obliged to give them. With the second devaluation, the merchants wished to reduce this five <i>sous</i> increase. The workers refused, the merchants complained, and the workers rebelled. They threatened to beat up those among them who would work for a lower wage, and they promised one <i>écu</i> a day to those who would have no work and could not live without it. To do this, they chose a secretary who had a list of the jobless and a treasurer who distributed the stipend.</p>
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1718-00-00
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E. J. F. Barbier, <i>Chronique de la regence et du regne de Louis XV ou journal de Barbier, </i>vol. 1 <i></i>(Paris: G. Charpentier et Cie., 1857), 350–51, 399–403.
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Bread was the basic staple of most people’s diets, and variations in the price of bread were keenly felt by the poor, especially by women who most frequently bought bread in the marketplace. Women would sometimes protest against what they thought to be unjust price increases for bread in what were known as "bread riots." As this excerpt shows, these were not usually violent, nor did they involve looting, but instead were a collective action designed to force bakers to sell bread at a "just" or "moral" price rather than at whatever price the market would allow. This passage is taken from a well–known chronicle of the reign of Louis XV by Etienne–Joseph Barbier.
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359
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A Bread Riot
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/359/
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1718
Economic Conditions
Text
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Text
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<p>LETTER LXXIV</p> <p><i>Usbek to Rica, at</i> ———</p> <p>It was a few days ago that a man I know said to me, "I promised to introduce you into the best houses in Paris, and I will now take you to the home of a great noble, one of the men who best represents the realm."</p> <p>"What does that mean, sir? Is it that he is more polished or more affable than the others?" "No," he said. "Ah, I understand; he makes his superiority constantly felt by those who approach him. In that case, it is of no use if I go. I grant him everything and accept my sentence as an inferior."</p> <p>But I had to go, and I met a little man who was so proud, who took snuff with such haughtiness, blew his nose so mercilessly, spat with such composure, and who caressed his dogs in such an offensive manner, that I could not help but admire him. "Oh, good heavens," I said to myself. "If I acted like that at the court in Persia, I would be quite a fool!" Rica, we would have to have been of quite mean character to go and insult in a hundred petty ways those people who came every day to show us their respect. They knew well that we were above them, and if they did not, our kind deeds would [have] made them aware of it every day. Not having to do anything to make ourselves respected, we did all we could to make ourselves liked. We were accessible to the humblest, and although we lived in a grandeur that always tends to harden feelings, they found us to be sensitive. We descended to their needs, keeping only our hearts above them. But when it was a matter of sustaining the prince's majesty in public ceremonies, or of building respect for the nation in the eyes of foreigners, or when, finally, it was necessary to lead soldiers in perilous times, then we held ourselves a hundred times higher than we had ever descended. We became proud once more, and sometimes we were deemed to have made a rather good showing for ourselves.</p> <p><i>Paris, the 10th of the moon of Saphar, 1715</i></p>
Sortable Date
1721-00-00
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Charles-Louis de Sécondat, Baron de Montesquieu,<i> Persian Letters, </i>no translator listed, 3d ed. (London: J. Torson, 1736), no. 74, 157–58.
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In his<i> Persian Letters, </i>published anonymously and abroad in 1721, Charles–Louis de Sécondat, Baron de Montesquieu, president of the<i> Parlement </i>of Bordeaux and a noble himself, made a scathing critique of nobility that set the tone for the philosophes’ attack on the inequality of eighteenth–century French society.
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361
Title
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Montesquieu’s Attack on the Nobility
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https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/361/
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1721
Enlightenment
Middle Classes – Bourgeoisie
Nobility
Text