<P> In the 11th and 12th centuries thinkers argued that human society consisted of three orders: those who pray, those who fight, and those who labour . The structure of the first order, the clergy, was in place by 1200 and remained singly intact until the religious reformations of the 16th century . The very general category of those who labour (specifically, those who were not knightly warriors or nobles) diversified rapidly after the 11th century into the lively and energetic worlds of peasants, skilled artisans, merchants, financiers, lay professionals, and entrepreneurs, which together drove the European economy to its greatest achievements . The second order, those who fight, was the rank of the politically powerful, ambitious, and dangerous . Kings took pains to ensure that it did not resist their authority . </P> <P> By the 12th century, most European political thinkers agreed that monarchy was the ideal form of governance . This was because it imitated on earth the model set by God for the universe; it was the form of government of the ancient Hebrews and the Christian Biblical basis, the later Roman Empire, and also the peoples who succeeded Rome after the 4th century . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> The First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy . Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the Second Estate . In the time of Louis XVI, every bishop in France was a nobleman, a situation that had not existed before the 18th century . </P>

The french population was split into 3 divisions called