Twenty gentlemen cannot not assemble and deliberate without the king's special permission.[1313] If those of Franche-Comte happen to dine together and hear a mass once a year, it is through tolerance, and even then this harmless group may assemble only in the presence of the intendant.

Separated from his equals, the seignior, again, is further away from his inferiors.

The administration of the village is of no concern to him; he is not even tasked with its supervision.

The apportionment of taxes, the militia contingent, the repairs of the church, the summoning and presiding over a parish assembly, the making of roads, the establishment of charity workshops, all this is the intendant's business or that of the communal officers whom the intendant appoints or directs.[1314] Except through his justiciary rights, so much curtailed, the seignior is an idler in public matters.[1315] If, by chance, he should desire to act in an official capacity, to make some reclamation for the community, the bureaus of administration would soon make him shut up.

Since Louis XIV, the higher officials have things their own way; all legislation and the entire administrative system operate against the local seignior to deprive him of his functional efficiency and to confine him to his naked title.
Through this separation of functions and title his pride increases, as he becomes less useful.