town visits, three
or four domestics for manual service, three or four secretaries for
official writings, some old mansion or other, cheaply repaired and
refurnished without ostentation, its rooms and bureaus being those of an
administrator, business man, and responsible head of a numerous staff;
in effect, he is responsible for a good many subordinates, he has a
good deal to attend to; he works himself, looking after the whole and
in detail, keeping classified files by means of a chronological and
systematic collection,[5250] like the general director of a vast
company; if he enjoys greater honors, he is subject to greater
exigencies; assuredly, his predecessors under the ancient regime,
delicate Epicureans, would not have wished for such a life; they would
not have considered the benefit worth the effort.

Even when old, he draws on his energies; he officiates, he preaches,
he presides at long ceremonies, he ordains seminarians, he confirms
thousands of children,[5251] he visits one after another the parishes
in his diocese; often, at the end of his administration, he has visited
them all and many times. Meanwhile, shut up in his episcopal cabinet, he
is constantly inspecting these four or five hundred parishes; he reads
or listens to reports, informs himself on the number of communicants, on
what is required in worship, on the financial state of the fabrique,
on the attitude of the inhabitants, on the good or bad dispositions of
municipal counselors and mayors, on the local cause of dissension
and conflict, on the conduct and character of the cure or vicar; each
resident ecclesiastic needs guidance or maintenance between intemperate
zeal and inert lukewarmness, evenly balanced according as parishes and
circumstances vary, but always in a way to prevent false steps, to turn
aside mistakes, to humor opinion, to stop scandals. For the entire
life of the clergyman, not only his public life but again his personal,
domestic, private life, belongs to and concerns the Church:[5252] there
must be no evil reports, even without foundation, on his account;
if these occur, the bishop summons him to headquarters, warns him,
admonishes him, and, without unburdening himself by handing the
matter over to a responsible tribunal, he alone passes judgment after
personally conducting the investigations, suffering the worries, and
carrying out the painful, painstaking labor always attendant on direct
absolute power. Likewise, in relation