As David Bell expresses, “The rise of the concepts of nation and patrie initially took place as Europeans came to perceive a radical separation between God and the world, searched for ways to discern and maintain terrestrial order in the face of God’s absence, and struggled to relegate religion to a newly defined private sphere of human endeavor, separate from politics.”12 The turn to rationalism that was characteristic of the Enlightenment tended to separate the Church from the nation. This influence, in turn, shifted people’s devotion from the Church to the idea of the patrie, or fatherland.
Another source of influence within the government were the parlements, high courts which had the right of registering royal edicts and ordinances. […] The parlements had significant power, which enabled them to influence the laws of the state, and even go so far as to deny the passage of an edict…
Provincial estates also held significant influence within the government. They had the power to enact local initiatives, as well as fiscal privileges. These provincial estates were controlled mostly by lay or clerical aristocracy.15 In addition, the Catholic Church held about 15 percent of the land in France, collected the tithe and other taxes, and engaged in commerce. However, it was exempt from taxation by the State.16 The lay and clerical aristocracy held the majority of the wealth in the country, and that gave them power within the government. The landholding aristocracy held seigniorial rights stemming from the feudal system. These rights allowed them to charge tenants for services; including the maintenance of courts to settle local disputes, to collect various dues, to charge tolls on roads and bridges, and for the local population’s use of the seigneur’s grain mill or baking oven.17
