by recommendations to the ministers in reality, he
was merely the remote and worldly representative of his ecclesiastical
principality at court and in the drawing-room.[5231] When, from time
to time, he made his appearance there, the bells were rung; deputations
from all bodies hurried to his antechambers; each authority in turn, and
according to the order of precedence, paid him its little compliment,
which compliment he graciously returned and then, the homage being over,
he distributed among them benedictions and smiles. After this, with
equal dignity and still more graciously throughout his sojourn, he
invited the most eligible to his table and, in his episcopal palace
or in his country-house, he treated them as guests. This done, he had
performed his duty; the rest was left to his secretaries, ecclesiastical
officials and clerks, men of the bureaux, specialists and "plodders."
"Did you read my pastoral letter?" said a bishop to Piron. And Piron,
who was very outspoken, dared reply, "Yes, my lord. And yourself?"

Under the modern regime, this suzerain for show, negligent and
intermittent, is succeeded by an active sovereign whose reign is
personal and constant; the limited and easy monarchy of the diocese is
converted into an universal and absolute monarchy. When the bishop,
once invested and consecrated, enters the choir of his cathedral to the
reverberations of the organ, lighted with wax candles amidst clouds of
incense, and seats himself in solemn pomp[5232] "on his throne," he is
a prince who takes possession of his government, which possession is
not nominal or partial, but real and complete. He holds in his hand "the
splendid cross which the priests of his diocese have presented to him,"
in witness of and symbolizing their voluntary, eager and full
obedience; and this pastoral baton is larger than the old one. In the
ecclesiastical herd, no head browses at a distance or under cover; high
or low, all are within reach, all eyes are turned towards the episcopal
crook; at a sign made by the crook, and according to the signal, each
head forthwith stands, advances or recedes: it knows too well that the
shepherd's hands are free and that it is subject to its will. Napoleon,
in his reconstruction of the diocese, made additions to only one of the
diocesan powers, that of the bishop; he suffered the others to remain
low down, on the ground. The delays, complications and frictions of a
divided government were repugnant t