The Decrees of 4 August 1789 (excerpts)

The decrees of 4 August 1789 announced the end of the old regime in France. True, the decrees contained many qualifications, most of them requiring that nobles be compensated for the loss of privileges they had enjoyed legally. The decrees also left many institutions of the old regime in place until new institutions could be put in their place. But the decrees were also unequivocal about the direction France was taking.

1) The National Assembly abolishes the feudal regime entirely, and decrees that both feudal and seigneurial rights and dues deriving from real or personal servility…are abolished without indemnity, and all others are declared redeemable[the law proceeds to list a whole series of noble privileges that are abolished, with or without compensation] […]

4) All seigneurial courts of justice are suppressed without indemnity […];

5) Tithes of every kind and dues which take the place thereof, under whatever denomination they are known and collected…are abolished […]

7) Venality of judicial and municipal offices is suppressed henceforth . Justice shall be rendered gratuitously [i.e., at no cost] […]

9) Pecuniary privileges, personal or real, in matters of taxation are abolished forever. Collection [of taxes] shall be made from all citizens and on all property, in the same manner and in the same form […]

10) Since a national constitution and public liberty are more advantageous to the provinces than the privileges which some of them enjoy…all special privileges of provinces, principalities, lands, cantons, cities, and communities of inhabitants, whether pecuniary or of any other kind, are declared abolished forever […]

11) All citizens may be admitted, without distinction of birth, to all ecclesiastical, civil, and military employments and offices, and no useful profession shall entail forfeiture.