cus." Tocqueville argues that when feudalism was maintained in its true form, when the nobility was also an aristocracy, with responsibility and power as well as privilege, its special rights and prerogatives were less obvious or, at least, less irritating, for they could be justified. However, immediately prior to the Revolution, the nobility had lost its power yet maintained its privilege, much to the disgust and fury of the people. The anger and hatred of the French peasant, explains, to an extent, the violent destruction of the institutions of the ancien régime.
             The hatred of the ruling class extended into a hatred for another institution of the ancien régime: the Church. Tocqueville argues in Book I that Christianity was not hated for its religious tenet, but rather for its nature as a political institution; the Church leaders were not despised for their roles in the Church, but for their roles as "propriétaires, seigneurs, décimateurs, (et) administrateurs." Whilst in Book I, therefore, Tocqueville argues that Christianity is not despised as a religious doctrine, he argues in Book III that the fundamental beliefs of the Church were despised – an apparent inconsistency in his argument. The French people hated the Church because it was rooted in tradition, and they wished to destroy everything that was old; because it was founded on hierarchy, and they wanted the abolition of rank; because the Church recognised an authority superior to individual reason, and they appealed to nothing but that very same reason. Thus, Tocqueville ar
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