and manners of the lower and the upper
clergy, all these inequalities and irregularities which alienated
inferiors from the superior, have disappeared; the modern regime has
leveled the wall of separation established by the ancient regime between
the bishop and his priests. At the present day he is, like them, a
plebeian, of common extraction, and sometimes very low, one being the
son of a village shoemaker, another the natural son of a poor workwoman,
both being men of feeling and never blushing at their humble origin,
openly tender and respectful to their mothers,--a certain bishop lodging
his mother, formerly a servant, in his episcopal palace and giving her
the first seat at his table among the most honored and noblest of his
guests.[5247] He is "one of fortune's officers," that is to say, a
meritorious and old officer.[5248] According the "Almanac" of 1889, the
three youngest are from forty-seven to forty-nine years of age; all the
others are fifty and over; among the latter, three fourths of them are
over sixty. As a general rule, a priest cannot become a bishop short of
twenty or twenty-five years' service in lower or average grades; he must
have remained in each grade a longer or shorter period, in turn vicar,
cure, vicar-general, canon, head of a seminary, sometimes coadjutor,
and almost always have distinguished himself in some office, either
as preacher or catechist, professor or administrator, canonist or
theologian. His full competence cannot be contested, and he enjoys a
right to exact full obedience; he has himself rendered it up to his
consecration; "he boasts of it," and the example he proposes to his
priests is the one he has himself given.[5249] On the other hand, his
moderate way of living excites but little envy; it is about like that of
a general of division, or of a prefect, or of a high civil functionary
who, lacking personal fortune, has nothing but his salary to live on. He
does not display, as formerly, confessionals lined with satin, kitchen
utensil of massive silver, hunting accoutrements, a hierarchical staff
of major-domos, ushers, valets, and liveried lackeys, stables and
carriages, lay grand-seigniors, vassals of his suzerainty and figuring
at his consecration, a princely ceremonial of parade and homage, a
pompous show of receptions and of hospitalities. There is nothing but
what is necessary, the indispensable instruments of his office: an
ordinary carriage for his episcopal journeys and