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.
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