(1) But in many Provinces they were artificial creations.
(2) They were weakened by the same class divisions as the States-General.
Accordingly after the fifteenth century many Provinces lost their Estates, and finally only some four survived the reign of Louis XIV., and even those had but little power beyond that of assessing the Taille.
The Church.—The Church had its
(1) Ecclesiastical Courts, which as elsewhere in Europe had attempted to extend their jurisdiction very widely, not only over clergy but over laity. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, their jurisdiction was confined to offences of clerics or laics against morals, the law or doctrine of the Church, and to cases concerning the marriage and death-bed—e.g. divorce, wills, etc.; any attempt on the part of the Ecclesiastical Courts to encroach on the domain of secular jurisdiction being met by the Appels comme d’abus (abuse), which were presented to the Parlement of Paris.
(2) Its Assemblies, in which, in and after the sixteenth century, the clergy voted ‘dons gratuits’ (voluntary offerings) to the Crown.
The relations of the Church to the Crown and to the Pope were further defined by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and the Concordat of Bologna (cf. [p. 81]).
TAXATION.
The revenue during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was drawn from the following sources:—