Document: "Abolition of the Feudal System" (August 5, 1789)

Source: James Robinson, (ed.), Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, vol. I (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898), pp. 2-5.

I.

The National Assembly hereby completely abolishes the feudal system. It decrees that, among the existing rights and dues,... all those originating in or representing real or personal serfdom or personal servitude, shall be abolished without indemnification.

IV.

All manorial courts are hereby suppressed with indemnification....

V.

Tithes of every description, as well as the dues which have been substituted for them... are abolished, on condition, however, that some other method be devised to provide for the expenses of divine worship, the support of the officiating clergy, for the assistance of the poor, for repairs and rebuilding of churches and parsonages, and for the maintenance of all institutions, seminaries, schools, academies, asylums, and organizations to which the present funds are devoted.

VII.

The sale of judicial municipal offices shall be suppressed forthwith. Justice shall be dispensed gratis.

IX.

Pecuniary privileges, personal or real, in the payment of taxes are abolished forever. Taxes shall be collected from all the citizens, and from all property, in the same manner and in the same form....

X.

...All the peculiar privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, for the provinces, principalities, districts, cantons, cities and communes, are once and for all abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all Frenchmen.

XI.

All citizens, without distinction of birth, are eligible to any office or dignity, whether ecclesiastical, civil or military; and no profession shall imply any derogation.

XVII.

The National Assembly solemnly proclaims the King, Louis XVI, the Restorer of French Liberty.

XVIII.

The National Assembly shall present itself in a body before the King, in order to submit to him the decrees which have just been passed, to tender to him the tokens of its most respectful gratitude....

XIV.

The National Assembly shall consider, immediately after the constitution, the drawing up of the laws necessary for the development of the principles which it has laid down in the present decree.