these big prizes. Let us select only those of the prelacy, and but one
particular side, that of money. In the "Almanach Royal," and in "La
France Ecclésiastique" for 1788, we may read their admitted revenues.
The veritable revenue, however, is one-half more for the bishoprics,
an double and triple for the abbeys; and we must again double the
veritable revenue in order to estimate its value in the money of to
day.[27]. The one hundred and thirty-one bishops and arch-bishops
possess in the aggregate 5, 600, 000 livres of episcopal income and
1,200,000 livres in abbeys, averaging 50,000 livres per head as in the
printed record, and in reality 100,000. A bishop thus, in the eyes of
his contemporaries, according to the statement of spectators cognizant
of the actual truth, was "a grand seignior, with an income of 100,000
livres."[28] Some of the most important sees are magnificently
endowed. That of Sens brings in 70,000 livres; Verdun, 74,000; Tours,
82,000; Beauvais, Toulouse and Bayeux, 90,000; Rouen, 100,000; Auch,
Metz and Albi, 120,000; Narbonne, 160,000; Paris and Cambray, 200,000
according to official reports, and probably half as much more in sums
actually collected. Other sees, less lucrative, are, proportionately,
still better provided. Imagine a small provincial town, oftentimes not
even a petty sub-prefecture of our times, - Conserans, Mirepoix,
Lavaur, Rieux, Lombez, Saint-Papoul, Comminges, Luçon, Sarlat, Mende,
Fréjus, Lescar, Belley, Saint-Malo, Tréguier, Embrun, Saint-Claude, -
and, in the neighborhood, less than two hundred, one hundred, and
sometimes even less than fifty parishes, and, as recompense for this
slight ecclesiastical surveillance, a prelate receiving from 25,000 to
70,000 livres, according to official statements; from 37,000 to
105,000 livres in actual receipts; and from 74,000 to 210,000 livres
in the money of to day. As to the abbeys, I count thirty-three of them
producing to the abbé from 25,000 to 120,000 livres, and twenty-seven
which bring from 20,000 to 100,000 livres to the abbess. Weigh these