CHAPTER XXXV

Page 132.

1. I. îin ordre de V État. It is difficult to say exactly what Voltaire means by this phrase, but it appears to be what we should call an "estate of the realm." A distinct "order" the clergy were, of course, in ail countries: but it is true they were nowhere so distinctly an "estate" as in France. In England they had, up to the Reformation, claimed to be recognised as such, and voted their own taxes in Convocation, and the position of the Bishops in the House of Lords after the Reformation indicated that their claims were still to a certain extent allowed. In the Protestant states of Germany, the church was completely subject to the civil power. In the rest of the German Empire and in Spain the clergy, if their liberties were not as clearly defined as in France, were at least as independent of the civil power as they were in that country. Voltaire's remark must therefore be taken with caution.