The things we do!

[50]
France is cut up into geometrical sections like a chess-board, and,
within these improvised limits, which are destined for a long time
to remain artificial, nothing is allowed to subsist but isolated
individuals in juxtaposition. There is no desire to spare organized
bodies where the cohesion is great, and least of all that of the
clergy.
"Special associations," says Mirabeau,[51] "in the community at
large, break up the unity of its principles and destroy the
equilibrium of its forces. Large political bodies in a State are
dangerous through the strength which results from their coalition
and the resistance which is born out of their interests." ii --
That of the clergy, besides, is inherently bad,[52] because "its
system is in constant antagonism to the rights of man." An
institution in which a vow of obedience is necessary is
"incompatible" with the constitution. Congregations "subject to
independent chiefs are out of the social pale and incompatible with
public spirit.


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