Dom Rocourt, abbot of Clairvaux, has from 300,000 to 400,000 livres income; the Cardinal de Rohan, archbishop of Strasbourg, more than 1,000,000.[1207] In Franche-Comte, Alsace and Roussillon the clergy own one-half of the territory, in Hainaut and Artois, three-quarters, in Cambresis fourteen hundred plow-areas out of seventeen hundred.[1208] Almost the whole of Le Velay belongs to the Bishop of Puy, the abbot of La Chaise-Dieu, the noble chapter of Brionde, and to the seigniors of Polignac.

The canons of St.Claude, in the Jura, are the proprietors of 12,000 serfs or 'mainmorts.'[1209] Through fortunes of the first class we can imagine those of the second.
As along with the noble it comprises the ennobled.

As the magistrates for two centuries, and the financiers for one century had acquired or purchased nobility, it is clear that here are to be found almost all the great fortunes of France, old or new, transmitted by inheritance, obtained through court favors, or acquired in business.

When a class reaches the summit it is recruited out of those who are mounting or clambering up.

Here, too, there is colossal wealth.