Note 883 — Chapter VIII · THE BISHOP.

The ‘Institutes of Ecclesiastical Polity’ are very explicit upon these points. They say:—“To a bishop belongs every direction, both in divine and worldly things. He shall, in the first place, inform men in orders, so that each of them may know what it properly behoves him to do, and also what they have to enjoin to secular men. He shall ever be [busied] about reconciliation and peace, as he best may. He shall zealously appease strifes and effect peace, with those temporal judges who love right. He shall in accusations direct the lád, so that no man may wrong another, either in oath or ordeal. He shall not consent to any injustice, or wrong measure, or false weight; but it is fitting that every legal right (both ‘burhriht’ and ‘landriht’) go by his counsel and with his witness: and let every burgmeasure, and every balance for weighing be, by his direction and furthering, very exact; lest any man should wrong another, and thereby altogether too greatly sin.... It behoves all Christian men to love righteousness, and shun unrighteousness; and especially men in orders should ever exalt righteousness, and suppress unrighteousness: therefore should bishops, together with temporal judges, so direct judgments, that, as far as in them lies, they never permit any injustice to spring up there.... By the confessor’s direction, and by his own measure, it is justly fitting that the thralls work for their lords over all the district in which he shrives. And it is right that there be not one measuring-rod longer than another, but all regulated by the confessor’s measure; and let every measure in his shrift-district, and every weight, be, by his direction, very rightly regulated: and if there be any dispute, let the bishop arbitrate.” Thorpe, ii. 312 seq.