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.
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