USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The First Estate was the clergy, who were people, including priests, who ran both the Catholic church and some aspects of the country. In addition to keeping registers of births, deaths and marriages, the clergy also had the power to levy a 10% tax known as the tithe.

Detailed explanation-2: -clergy, a body of ordained ministers in a Christian church. In the Roman Catholic Church and in the Church of England, the term includes the orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. Until 1972, in the Roman Catholic Church, clergy also included several lower orders.

Detailed explanation-3: -The First Estate-the highest level of the feudal class system-was the clergy. Clergy, by definition, is a body of ordained ministers (bishops, priests, and deacons) in a Christian church.

Detailed explanation-4: -France under the Ancien Régime (before the French Revolution) divided society into three estates: the First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners). The king was considered part of no estate.

Detailed explanation-5: -The First Estate occupied a prestigious place in the social order. Belief in God, religion and the afterlife dominated late 18th century Europe, so for ordinary people the church and its clergy were the only avenues for understanding or accessing God and the afterlife.