ch less ornamental but much more active and governing,
provided with a more ample jurisdiction, with more absolute authority
and wielding more effective influence. The final effect of the
Revolution in relation to the bishop is the same as in relation to the
Pope, and in the French diocese, as in the universal Church, the modern
regime sets up a central, extraordinary, enormous power of which the
ancient regime knew nothing.

Formerly, the bishop encountered around him, on the spot, equals and
rivals, bodies of men or individuals, as independent and powerful as
himself, irremovable, owners of estates, dispensers of offices and of
favors, local authorities by legal sanction, permanent patrons of a
permanent class of dependents. In his own cathedral, his metropolitan
chapter was, like himself, a collator of benefice; elsewhere, other
chapters were so likewise and knew how to maintain their rights against
his supremacy. In each body of regular clergy, every grand abbot or
prior, every noble abbess was, like himself, a sort of sovereign prince.
The territorial seignior and justiciary on his own domain, was through
the partial survival of the old wholly secular feudal order equally
sovereign. Likewise sovereign, was, for its part, the parliament of
the province, with its rights of registry and of remonstrance, with
its administrative attributes and interference, with its train of loyal
auxiliaries and subordinates, from the judges of the presidencies and
bailiwicks down to the corporations of advocates, prosecutors and other
members of the bar.[5223] The parliamentarians of the district capital
(chef-lieu), purchasers and owners of their offices, magistrates from
father to son, much wealthier and much prouder than nowadays, were,
in their old hereditary mansions, the real chiefs of the province, its
constant representatives on the spot, its popular defenders against
ministerial and royal absolutism. All these powers, which once
counterbalanced episcopal power, have disappeared. Restricted to their
judicial office, the tribunals have ceased to be political authorities
and moderators of the central government: in the town and department,
the mayor and general councilors, appointed or elected for a certain
time, enjoy only temporary credit; the prefect, the military commandant,
the rector, the treasurer-general are merely passing strangers.
The local circumscription, for a century, is an exterior post where
individuals live tog