France, a feudal country in the eighteenth century, was ruled under the ‘ancien regime’. The king was the absolute monarch. He had centralized power in the royal bureaucracy. At this time in French history, the social classes played a very important role in the lives of the people. The social structure of France was divided into three groups: The First Estate, The Second Estate and The Third Estate. The First Estate was the clergy (the church). During the ‘ancien regime’, the church was equal in terms of its social, economic and spiritual power. This class owned nearly ten percent of the land in France. It paid no taxes, but to support church activities such as school running and caring for the poor, it collected a tithe, or a tax on income

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