Louis VI had enfranchised the serfs on the royal domain, and the nobles, after his example, gradually released theirs, finding that the peasant, with liberty and hope, worked better than the slave, and made the land more valuable. To them they sold or rented some of their acres. In 1315 appeared the order of Louis X, requiring all the nobles to emancipate their serfs, because ‘every man should be born free; therefore let the lords who have rights over the persons of men, take example from us, and bring all to freedom.’ The nobles, determined by their interest, obeyed; but down to 1789 serfs remained in France;--it was from the hands of the Church that the Revolution liberated them. To the last, the canons of the Cathedral of S. Claude, in Franche-Comté, refused to emancipate their slaves from the feudal right of _main morte_, which placed human beings, ransomed by the blood of Christ, on a level with the cattle. In Jura there were as many as ten thousand; but in Normandy serfage had disappeared in the thirteenth century. The serf became a small farmer, and free;--but at what price? The land was his on condition of paying a rent. Charges also, _real_, that is, paid in money or in fruits, and _personal_, that is, acquitted by service rendered free of expense to the landlord, weighed on the agriculturist. The imposts which oppressed him were these:--First, the _Taille_ or tax. Of this there were two kinds, the _taux_ and the _taillon_. From these taxes the nobles and the churchmen were exempt. Of nobles there were in France some 83,000, and of churchmen some 200,000. The capitation was an impost direct and personal, which touched all. Calculated upon the presumed value of land and property which was taxable, it was arbitrary, and those who had access to, and credit with, the officers of comptrol, were lightly rated, whilst those without interest were obliged to pay according to an exaggerated estimate. By a succession of injustices, also, the capitation of some was fixed, whilst that of others varied. The duty of tenth was levied nominally on all; but nobles and ecclesiastics were privileged, and paid nothing on their woods, meadows, vines, and ponds, nor on arable land belonging to the home farm. The _Corvée_, also, weighed only on the peasant. The name, according to etymologists, indicates the posture of a man bowed at the hardest labour. He who was amenable to the _corvée_ was required to work himself, and make his horses and oxen work, for his landlord and for government. By this means the roads and other public works were kept in repair.