ood, no two near
relatives, as father and son, or two brothers, should sit at the same
time in the council; while ecclesiastics of every grade were to be
utterly excluded, both because they had taken an oath of fealty to the
Pope, and because their very profession demanded a residence in their
respective dioceses. On the other hand, the States General were to be
convened at least once in two years, and no offensive war was to be
undertaken, no new impost or tax to be raised, without consulting them.
Happy would it have been for France, had its people obtained, by some
such reasonable concessions as these, the inestimable advantage of
regular representation in the government! At the price of a certain
amount of political discussion, a bloody revolution might, perhaps, have
been avoided.

In the matter of religion, the third estate recommended, first of all,
the absolute cessation of persecution and the repeal of all intolerant
legislation, even of the edict of July past; grounding the
recommendation partly on the failure of all the rigorous laws hitherto
enacted to accomplish their design, partly on the greater propriety and
suitableness of milder measures. And they judiciously added, with a
charitable discernment so rare in that age as to be almost startling:
"The diversity of opinions entertained by the king's subjects _proceeds
from nothing else than the strong zeal and solicitude they have for the
salvation of their souls_."[1061] Strange that so sensible an
observation should be immediately followed by a disclaimer of any
intention to ask for pardon for seditious persons, libertines,
anabaptists, and atheists, the enemies of God and of the public peace!

[Sidenote: An impartial national council.]

It was natural that, in accordance with these views, the third estate
should call for the convocation of a national council to settle
religious questions, to be presided over by the king himself, in which
no one having an interest in retarding a reformation should sit, and
where the word of God should be the sole guide in the decision of
doubtful points. Meanwhile, the third estate proposed, that in every
city a church or other place should be assigned for the worship of those
who were now forced to hold their meetings by night because of their
inability to join with a good conscience in the ceremonies of the
"Romish Church"--for so the document somewhat curtly designated the
establishment.[1062]

[Sidenote: The Frenc