Jennifer


 * Name:** Emmanuel Bagley
 * Age:** 50
 * Gender:** Male
 * Occupation:** Clergy- Bishop
 * Social Class:** First Estate
 * Financial situation:** Very well off
 * Appearance:** Small eyes, white curly hair, with beard. Always nicely dressed and well mannered.
 * Daily routine:** From Monday to Saturday, I would wake up at around 9 and go to the church around noon. When I'm at the church i rarely do anything other than making an appearance. I usually leave early to either go back home or meet up with my nobility friends or other clergy men. However, on Sundays, no matter what, I would always go to church early in the morning and stay till late.
 * Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits:** Appears to have a perfect image in public, but is not-so-perfect in private. In fact, he is secretly the father of two daughters.
 * Past/individual-family history:** As far as I know, my ancestors have always belonged to the First or Second Estate.
 * Family:** Secretly the father of two daughters =P
 * Social relations with your own and other classes (people you deal with or know about in other classes, AND your opinions and feelings about them):** I know a lot of people from the first and second estate. They usually try to get on my good side. The only third estate people I know personally are the peasants that I rent my land to.
 * Religion:** Catholic
 * Education:** Highly educated
 * Style of speaking in France:** Speak fluently and with no accent. Speak in a very formal style.
 * Languages you speak:** French, a bit of English and some Latin
 * Main privileges and/or conflicts:** Exempt from paying almost all direct taxes, the ones that I'm not exempt from, I usually find a way to avoid paying. I rarely get into conflicts with people, since I'm the bishop, people tends to agree with me.
 * Portrait** (Mr. Barrons changed his mind-you must have a portrait)

Diary 1  __Before the storm __ //Sunday August 30, 1788 // Today I woke up early and decided to go see how my newly renovated garden house looked. I was more than satisfied with the result. It was quite nicely done especially considering the fact that the renovation didn’t cost me a penny. I’ve used the church fund to pay for the entire renovation fee because it was “for church use”. However, there are people who think the church is being reckless about where we spent the church’s money, but so far they usually only talk among themselves and none of them have yet dared to bring the subject up to me.  After breakfast, I did something I don’t usually do. I went out in the fields to where the peasants are and asked them about their work. But of course, that wasn't the real reason why I was there. And they knew exactly why I went, and it was to remind them of the money they owned me. The peasants have had troubles paying the right amount of taxes and crops to me ever since the hailstorm earlier this year. Although I could probably survive just fine without the money from the peasants, I have been getting more than annoyed with them constantly giving excuses to delay their payments. So today I gave them an ultimatum, saying that if I don’t receive their full payments in the next two weeks, I’ll have to kick them off my land.  I took my time heading to the church after leaving the farm. When I got there it was already noon. It was one of those days that I didn’t plan on doing much, and just wanted to get the day over with. However, I came across an interesting conversation that two commoners were having in the halls of the church. They were discussing the king’s decision to call an Estates General earlier this month. I joined their conversation and shared with them my opinion on the subject. I told them that I thought it was a great idea. Because this way, we’ll have the power to block the king’s plan to tax the landowners since both the first and second estate will obviously vote against it. They seemed to agree with me, although I wasn’t quite sure if they actually meant it or if they just nodded because I was the bishop. Either way, I felt like I had done enough at the church for one day and so I left earlier than usual and got home before sunset.  I didn’t go meet up with my nobility friends like I had planed. Instead, my two daughters came over for the first time in this month and we spent the night at my house. After a whole day of pretending to be someone that I’m not, someone holy, always well-mannered, and almost perfect, I felt good to just sit with my daughters and be who I am. However, no one can ever find out about this, or else it would not only completely ruin my reputation, it would also put me and them in a dangerous place in such a sensitive time like this in which commoners are beginning to question the church. If people find out, I might loose my title as a bishop and be forced to live like the third estate peasants for God’s sake! __From Crisis to Revolution__ June 12, 1789 ** ** Time pass by sooner than I realize, and it is now already the month of June, 1789. A lot had happened in the past year, one of which was that the Estates General had finally met in May. However things went out of hand and had the opposite effect as intended. Instead of making the third estate citizens feel included in decision making, the unfair order that the king gave in regard to making the three estates meet in separate halls had angered the third estate. Furthermore, there was a voting crisis which soon arises due to the unfair voting system within the Estate General. They made it clear that the only way they would agree to meet was if the first and second estates join them in a single “national assembly”. They then made a formal invitation to welcome us, the first estate people to join them. Of course everyone was against it at first; I, for one thought that it was a completely insane idea. I mean, at the time I thought that to join the third estate would be like to lower our status in order to fit their command. However, an encounter with an English writer had completely changed my point of view. ** ** I was on my way back home from church when I passed the Fontarie Fountain in the center of the church square. I saw a young man sitting beside the fountain writing in a small notebook with such concentration that my attention was instantly drawn to him. My first impression of him was that he was a well-dressed young man doing something that’s not very common in our society, writing, especially in public. I gave in to my curiosity and decided to walk over and talk with the young writer. As we started talking I could instantly tell that the man was highly educated just like me. However he wasn’t anything like any of the other nobility friends I’ve ever met before. I started out by asking him what he was writing about, his answer to that was “nothing”. Which was not surprising to me at all, due to the fact that the commoners and the third estate people usually either despite people that belonged to higher estates like me, or they are often too scared that they would say anything that would offend me. ** **
 * Diary 2
 * After much more inquiry on the subject, he finally gave in and told me that he was writing about the French society. This answer, however, did surprise me an awful lot. I was confused at what a commoner like him would have to say about our society. I guess it was my extreme interest in his writing that made him finally decide that he could trust me and so he told me all about his work. He explained to me how he had been going all around France throughout the past few years to observe the French society in order to write a book based on it. **
 * I heard from him about the harsh life that peasants throughout France were living, the unfair taxing system that was forced on them, and even about their extremely limited political rights that gave them nearly no say in the government. Most of these I’ve heard before from various sources throughout the years of being a bishop. However, hearing it so truthfully from a commoner gave me a complete different perspective. After parting with the writer I resumed to my normal daily life routines and carried on with my walk back home. But somehow, I felt like I had a complete different outlook towards the issue concerning whether or not we, the clergy, should join the third estate in the Estate General. Furthermore, it made me pity the peasants that were leading such hard lives when I get to lead such an extravagant life style. On the way back, I saw from afar one of the peasants that I know from church, Jeanne Simon, she was still working in the fields even though it was way after dinner time. Seeing this made my chose on whether or not to join the National Assembly much clearer. **
 * Finally, after much consideration, I along with many other clergymen had come to the conclusion that we should make the honorable choice and join the third estate. And I pray to God that we had made the right choice!
 * Here's a detailed page about the English writer, Alexander Henry Rotterdam. It talks about what he writes about and his personal life. --->Pearl
 * Here's a detailed page about Jeanne Simon. --->Bonnie

Diary3 __Reign of Terror__ September 1793 For the past few days I dared not to leave the house at all. With the “Law of Suspects” being put in to effect, I doubt there is anyone in the entire country that could truly believe that they are safe and could live one day without fearing for being arrested and send off to prison. Not even us clergies. Our land had been taken away, along with the power and influence that we held. People are living under a constant sense of fear and tension these days, the fear for arrest, the fear for guillotine, and now the fear for the gradual disappearance of the church. Our holy church is claim by the sans culottes to be no more than just a “superstition”. Oh it angers me to even think about it. How dare they spoil the lord’s name like this! What a shame it is to know that people’s faith in God can be so easily changed. I’ll be the first to admit that we clergy haven’t been leading the holiest life styles, myself included. However, to go against the church likes this, to go against God and all beliefs of Christianity like this is a sin! I had no choice but to leave the house today because of the Mass Levy. I was ordered to go to the church square, well at least what used to be the church square to help make weapons along with other men that were forced to go there. With the church closed down, the church square has been transformed into a common place for weapon making. When I got there I was shocked by what I saw, the place was not only packed with men like me; there were children’s there. Children that looked only merely older than my two daughters at home! Oh what kind of cold-blooded person would ask such young children to do such risky work? I couldn’t help but think what my children might be force to do if they are older by just a few years. Thank God that they aren’t, or else I would have to risk losing them to making weapons for a war that I don’t even want to fight! When I was dismissed from the church square it was already late at night. All I wanted at that time was to get home as soon as possible. So instead of the usual route, I took a lesser known path that people doesn’t usual take because of the strong smell and narrow side-walk. I was nearly home when I saw a group of men that were clearly in disguise. I recognized one of them, Jean-Paul Girard; he was one of my closer nobility friends who I used to know quite well. He didn’t saw me watching them run but I was sure that he was on a secret escape with his men. Seeing Jean-Paul Girard, a once very well-respected, if not feared after man escape was just what I needed in order to make my final decision on whether or not I, myself, should just bring my two daughters and leave this place which I no longer feel like home. Now, my decision is set, tomorrow, I’m bringing the girls with me and leaving France once and for all! I will not be taking my diary or any of my other personal belongings with me on my escape. All we need is food and water, for the less we bring, the less attention we will get. And right now, all that matters is for me and my girls to leave France safely! I pray to God that we do! Emmanuel Bagley
 * The well respected Jean-Paul Girard ---> Bradley