National Assembly in 1789

The National Assembly was created on the 17th of June in 1789. The Third Estate of the Estate-general  declared itself to be the body most truly representative of the nation. This development became permanent when the King was forced to return to Paris from Versailles in October of 1789. He then became a prisoner of the Assembly and the people of Paris. The Assembly called itself the Constituent Assembly from the 9th of July, 1789, onwards.

   The Church was the Catholic Church in France. This was decreed by King Henry IV in 1598. In certain areas of northern France, whole villages sat upon Church land and were indebted to the clergy for the land's use. Taxes collected for the use of such land amounted to more then 150 million livre per year. The converstion factor is one livre to $4.50 current American dollars.

   Besides having such enormous wealth at its disposal, the Church controlled all schools in France and held an absolute right of censorship of all printed material. The church's records of births, burials, and marriages were the most esteemed official documents in the nation, the highest authority when inheritance and titles of nobility had to be validated.

characteristics of social change

1. social change is a universal phenomenon.
2. social change is community change. 
3. social change is uniform
4. social change is affected by and related to time factor.
5. social change is chain reaction 
6. social change results from interaction with number of factors.
7. social change is chiefly modification or replacement. 

Sociology of Religion

 The external courses of religious behavior are so diverse that an understanding of this behavior can only be achieved from the viewpoint of the subjective experiences, notion, and purposes of the individuals concerned--in short, from the viewpoint of the religious behavior's "meaning."

A power thought by analogy to human possessed by a soul may be coerced into the service of human, just as the naturalistic "power" of a spirit could be coerced. Whoever possesses charisma for employing the proper means is stronger even than the god, whom he can coerce to do his desire. In these cases, religious behavior is not "worshipping the god" but rather "coercing the god," and invocation is not prayer but magical formulae. Such is one ineradicable basis of popular religion, particularly in India. Indeed, such magical coercion is universally diffused, and even the Catholic priest continues to practice something of this magical power in executing the miracle of the mass and in exercising the power of the keys. By and large this is the origin, though not exclusive, of the orgiastic and imitative components of the religious cult especially of song, dance, drama, and the typical fixed formulae of prayer.
Humanization of the god, by analogy of the human behavior, may also take the form of a mighty terrestrial lord, whose discretionary favor can be obtained by entreaty, gifts, service, tributes, adulation, and bribes. Or god's favor may be earned as a consequence of the obedient attitude conformed with the his will. In these ways, the gods are conceived by analogy to earthly rulers: mighty beings whose power differs only in degree, at least at first. As this type of god develops, the concept of "worship" comes to be necessary.