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Jotham Parsons
Though comparatively little known, the Assemblies of the Clergy were the most consistently influential representative institution of the French old regime. They were created by the monarchy in the Middle Ages as an occasional and generally tractable extension of the royal council, particularly useful during conflicts with the papacy. In the course of the Great Schism and its aftermath, they began to arrogate some of the (ill-defined) status of a national ecclesiastical council, but this was a development more important in theory than in practice. It was only after 1560, during the Wars of Religion, that they achieved the internal coherence, strong bargaining position, and regularity of meetings that would make them a powerful independent force in the kingdom. The decisive factors behind this development were the government's desperate need for funds, which the Clergy provided under a periodic contractual arrangement, and a new solidarity within the clerical estate in the face of the Protestant threat and, more importantly, of an increasingly aggressive Gallican judiciary that threatened ecclesiastical status and privilege. This allowed the clergy to demand and receive a substantially increased role in the French political system, one that they retained until the eve of the Revolution.
