As Marquis Lafayette finished speaking, a middle-aged man of about forty, with a slight limp and dressed in a black bishop's robe, entered and bowed to the others.
"Bishop Talleyrand!" The people in the small sitting room recognized the clergyman at once.
His Excellency the Bishop was a favorite in Paris's salons and places of pleasure. He came from a fallen noble family and had been sent to seminary as a child. This was also a common path for the sons of many noble families.
Generally speaking, the sons of noble families had a few paths open to them.
First, inherit the family fortune and become a happy, idle layabout, living off it until the day he died—though by Talleyrand's time, the happy layabouts of earlier generations had already squandered the family fortune.
Second, become an officer and live well on His Majesty the King's military stipend—though the army had no need for a lame officer.
Third, become a civil servant and live well on His Majesty the King's salary, embezzled public funds, and other people's bribes—though to get a civil service position, one first had to bribe the right people. Talleyrand's family couldn't afford that.
So Talleyrand had only one path left: to become a clergyman.
The clergy were not a bad path, either. In theory, all believers were God's children and equal before Him. In practice, though, some people were always more equal than others in God's eyes. Generally, clergymen from common backgrounds could rise no higher in the Church than parish priest; above that, every senior church official was of noble birth.
The Church owned vast assets, and those who became bishops could live well.
There was a story in Boccaccio's Decameron. A Catholic persuaded a friend of his, a Jew, to convert to Catholicism. The Jew