s from nature. The
clergy complained that the concessions of August were applied to their
destruction in November, but they suffered by their change of front.
Boisgelin, Archbishop of Aix, proposed a practical and statesmanlike
arrangement. As the credit of the Church stood better than the credit
of the State, he offered to advance L16,000,000 as a loan to the
Government on the security of Church property, which it would thus
become impossible for the Assembly to tamper with. The State would be
rescued from its present difficulties; the Church would secure the
enjoyment of its wealth for the future.

By restoring the finances, and the authority of government, it was
believed that this plan would ensure the success of the Revolution,
and would prevent the collapse that was already threatening. Necker,
for a moment, was fascinated. But his wife reminded him that this
compact would establish Catholicism for ever as the State Church in
France, and he broke off the conference. Talleyrand's motion was
altered and reproduced in a mitigated form; and on November 26, 1789,
568 votes to 346 decided that the possessions of the clergy were at
the disposal of the nation. On December 19 it was resolved that the
sum of 16 millions should be raised by the sale of the new national
property, to be the basis for an issue of paper money. That was the
beginning of the _assignats_ that rendered signal service at first,
and fell rapidly after two years. It was made apparent that more was
at work below the surface than the financial purpose. There was the
desire to break up a powerful organisation, to disarm the aristocratic
episcopate, and to bind the individual priest to the Revolution.
Therefore Malouet made no impression when he urged that they were
taking on themselves the maintenance not only of the priesthood, but
of the poor; and that no surplus would be available as long as there
was a Frenchman starving.

In August, 1789, a committee on Church questions had been appointed,
and in February, as it did not agree, its numbers were increased, and
the minority was swamped. Thereupon they reported against the
religious orders. Monasticism for some time had been declining, and
the monks fell, in a few years, from 26,000 to 17,000. Nine religious
orders disappeared in the course of twelve years. On February 13,
1790, the principle that the civil law supported the rule against the
monk was abandoned. Members of monastic orders were to depart