Every decision made by three of these "deputations" - and in each of them the lower clergy formed the majority - was ratified for the sake of form in general congregation, and if necessary led to decrees promulgated in session.
It was attended by deputations from the National Guards in every part of the kingdom, from the regular regiments, and from the crews of the fleet.
In this gathering the provincial deputations caught the revolutionary fever of Paris.
His constitution was of iron, his capacity for work prodigious; reviews and parades, receptions of deputations, visits to public institutions, then eight or nine hours in his 3 The prisoners were kept in solitary confinement in the casemates of the inner fortress of St Peter and St Paul.
The democratic character of the assembly of Basel was the result both of its composition and of its organization; not only was the number of prelates in it always small in comparison with that of the doctors, masters, representatives of chapters, monks or clerks of inferior orders, but the influence of the superior clergy had all the less weight because, instead of being separated into "nations," as at Constance, the fathers divided themselves according to their tastes or aptitudes into four large committees or "deputations" (deputationes), one concerned with questions of faith (ldei), another with negotiations for peace (pacis), the third with reform (reformatorii), the fourth with what they called "common concerns" (pro communibus).