clared that the kings of Europe would be summoned to direct their arms against them until they should restore Ferrara to the church.

5. INTERDICT OF UTRECHT IN 1426.

Matthaeus' edition of the Cronica de Trajecto, 2d ed., V, p. 456. Latin. The growing use of the interdict for purely political purposes is here shown, and indicates the chief reason for the declining force of the censure.

Now it is remarkable that this decree should have been passed notwithstanding the fact that the pope had deprived the city of the sacraments and pronounced an interdict upon it on account of its having received Rudolph; especially if you consider that not only is nothing severer than a papal interdict, but that nothing is likelier to stir up the common people against their magistrates and superiors. For under such circumstances the churches are closed, there are no divine services' no chants are heard, nor is there mass, nor do the faithful assemble together. There are no sacraments there, or confession, no baptism of any except infants. Even burial is forbidden. All become the prey of Satan. The credulous people are persuaded that it is in the pope's power either to raise them to heaven or cast them down into hell. And yet neither the city nor the clergy paid any attention to these things. The pope's interdict was held in contempt and the clergy continued unhesitatingly to conduct divine services, especially after both the city and the nobles had promised to guard and protect them against all, even against the pope.

6. THE DOGE'S REPLY TO THE INTERDICT LAID ON VENICE IN 1606. English translation found in Trollope's "Paul the Pope and Paul the Friar," pp. 381, 382.

Original Latin text in Magnum Bullarium Romanum, Tom. X (Ed. Luxemburgi, 1741), pp. 177, 178.

In his prolonged quarrel with Venice pope Paul V. attempted to compel the repeal of two obnoxious laws by laying an interdict on the city, but this last serious attempt of the papacy to enforce its decrees by a general censure broke down before the determined opposition of the republic.

Leonardo Donato, by the Grace of God doge of Venice, etc., etc., to the most reverend, the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops of all our Venetian domains, etc., etc., greeting:

It has come to our knowledge that on the 17th of April last past, by the order of the most holy father, Pope Paul V., there was published and posted up in Rome a so-called brief, which was filminated against

us, our senate, and the whole of our state; and that one was addressed to you, the tenor and contents whereof were similar to those of the other. We therefore find ourselves constrained to preserve in peace and tranquility the state which God has given us to rule; and, in order to maintain our authority as a prince, who in temporal matters recognizes no superior saving the Divine Majesty, we, by these our public letters, do protest before the Lord God and the whole world that we have not failed to use every possible means to make his Holiness understand our most valid and irrefragable case; first, by means of our ambassador residing at the court of his Holiness; then, by letters of ours in answer to briefs addressed to us by his Holiness; and, lastly, by a special ambassador sent to him to this effect. But having found the ears of his Holiness closed against us and seeing that the brief aforesaid is published contrary to all right reason and contrary to the teaching of the divine Scriptures, the doctrine of the holy fathers, and the sacred canons, to the prejudice of the secular authority given us by God, and of the liberty of our state, inasmuch as it would cause disturbance in the quiet possessions which, by divine Grace, under our government our faithful subjects hold of their properties, their honor and their lives, and occasion a most grave and universal scandal throughout the state; We do not hesitate to consider the said brief not only as unsuitable and unjust, but as null and void and of no worth or value whatever, and being thus invalid, vain, and unlawfully fulminated, de facto nullo juris ordine servato, we have thought fit to use in resisting it the remedies adopted by our ancestors and by other sovereign princes against such pontiffs as, in using the power given them by God to the use of edifying, have overstepped their due limits. . . . And we pray the Lord God to inspire him [the pope] with a sense of the invalidity and nullity of his brief and of the other acts committed against us, and that He, knowing the justice of our cause, may give us strength to maintain our reverence for the holy apostolic see, whose most devoted servants we and our predecessors, together with this republic, have been and ever shall be.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

Lea, Henry C.: Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Lawthe Wager of Battle-the Ordeal-Torture. Philadelphia, 4th ed., 1892. The best concise treatment in any language of the methods of medieval legal procedure. The last edition of this work has been greatly enlarged by the author, who

has taken into account the researches of other modern scholars in this field, correcting and supplementing their views from the wealth of his own learning. No student, either of medieval life and thought or of legal history, can afford to be without this book.

Patetta: Le Ordalie. Torino, 1890.

This is a full and judicious treatment of the subject of the judgments of God from primitive Aryan times down, with a full citation of authorities.

Neilson Trial by Combat. New York, 1891.

A popular but accurate discussion of the judicial duel in England and Scotland. The author has drawn his account wholly from the original authorities, and has enlivened the subject by many picturesque incidents from trials and combats.

Thayer, James Bradley: A Preliminary Treatise on Evidence at the Common Law, Part I., Development of Trial by Jury. Boston, 1896.

The first chapter of this very scholarly work is on Older Modes of Trial, and gives a short but clear description of early English legal procedure.

Brunner, H.: Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte. Leipzig, 1892.

Two sections of this work contain much material relating to judgments of God,§ 23, Der Rechtsgang, and § 106, Die Gottesurteile. To the latter section is prefixed a careful bibliography of works dealing with this subject.

Hinschius, Paul: Das Kirchenrecht der Katholiker und Protestanten in Deutschland. Berlin, 1895.

The fifth volume of this the most satisfactory work on the ecclesiastical law of Germany contains much material for the study of excommunication and interdict. Pages 1-51 and 493-563 relate directly to these subjects.

Lea, Henry C.: Studies in Church History. Philadelphia, 1883.

More than half of this book is taken up by an essay on excommunication, the most complete and satisfactory treatment of the subject that we possess. In it the rise and development of the censure are traced, the abuses that grew out of it are noted, and its gradual decline is explained.

II.

III.

CAHIER OF NOBILITY, BAILLIAGE OF BLOIS.
CAHIER OF THIRD ESTATE, BAILLIAGE OF VERSAILLES .

No. 5.

PAGE

2

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

It has been the effort of the editor to present, as nearly as possible, a complete cahier of each of the three orders. It is in the study of a single cahier that the trend of pre-revolutionary thought and aspiration may best be recognized. From this as a starting point the student may proceed to acquaint himself with the variations of criticism and suggestion afforded by a comparison of many cahiers. Something of this kind has already been done by Mr. E. J. Lowell, in his Eve of the French Revolution, chapters XXI. and XXII.

In selecting typical cahiers for presentation, an effort has been made to avoid the cahiers of localities whose conditions were exceptional. Such cahiers are for the most part filled with grievances and demands of a purely local nature. For this and other reasons two cahiers of Blois have been selected. The cahier of the Third Estate of Blois, however, was rejected. This document has shared a fate common to many of the cahiers of the Third Estate. The local cahiers of the smaller political divisions of the bailliage of Blois have fallen into the hands of lawyers, who have assembled and combined them with an eye single to their own desires and interests, reducing all other considerations to the simplest terms. The cahier of Versailles seems to have been somewhat more fortunate.

The cahiers of the Nobility are the most interesting. They are original composi tions, drawn up by men of the highest intelligence and patriotism, men not devoid of sympathy with the intellectual movements of their time, and thoroughly alive to the necessity of reorganization. The Clergy were less susceptible to the influences of the time, and their cahiers are more self-conscious. The method of assembling the local cahiers of the Third Estate resulted in a loss of vigor and personality. The ingenuousness and local coloring, which give the original cahiers an exceptional interest, are lost in the necessary process of condensation.

In the following text a French word here and there has been retained, mainly for the reason that no brief English equivalent has suggested itself. These terms may be found explained for the most part in Mr. Lowell's book, cited above; and for a wider discussion the student may consult Chéruel: Dictionnaire historique des institutions, moeurs et coutumes de la France, or to better purpose, La Grande Encyclopédie.