QUESTIONS FOR SELF-EXAMINATION, BEARING ON
EPISCOPAL LIFE AND DUTIES.

    Have I duly estimated the great responsibilities of my office, remembering that the Episcopate is a burden formidable even to the shoulders of an Angel?
    Do I repent me of having yielded to the promptings of ambition at the time of my nomination?
    Do I humble myself in secret, in view of the outward dignity and pomp which my office demands of me?
    Do I maintain that dignity as a part of my episcopal duty, and not to gratify personal pride?
    Do I bear in mind that the Episcopate is one form of the call to perfection, and that I must live accordingly ?
    Do I strive to acquire a personal knowledge of all my clergy, mindful that a good shepherd calleth his sheep by name?
    Am I patient and forbearing in times of trouble and difficulty, so as not to begin nor foster strife in my diocese?
    Do I strive against vacillation of purpose, when the path of strict duty is clear?
    Do I remember that the greatest prelate is not he who holds the highest worldly station, but he who is most nearly conformed to the life of CHRIST in poverty, humility, and zeal for souls?
    Have I taken care that the services over which I have direct control, such as those in my own chapel, shall be orderly, reverent, and a model for the diocese?
    Have I laboured for the multiplication of occasions of public worship in my diocese, and for the increase of the beauty and order of the services?
    Have I been frugal and modest in personal expenditure, and yet careful to observe due liberality and stateliness in the discharge of public functions ?
    Have I checked in my household all luxury, display, ostentation, and rivalry of secular persons ?
    Have I striven to make my household, by its order, moderation, and devotion, a model for the clergy of my diocese?
    Have I suffered members of my household to assume any authority or position in the diocese to which they aye not officially entitled?
    Have I been given to hospitality, not so much by entertaining wealthy secular persons, as by welcoming my clergy, especially the poorer among them, to my house ?
    Have I shown readiness to support the diocesan charities by precept and example?
    Have I borne in mind that the revenues of the See are but a trust in my hands for GOD and His Poor, and that I have no right to amass wealth for my family out of them?
    Have I kept all Ordination and Visitation fees, with other charges which press on the clergy, to the least possible sum ?
    Have I been careful myself to observe the Ember seasons as times of special fasting and prayer, after the example of the Apostles, and to urge the same on all candidates for Holy Orders?
    Have I made sedulous inquiry into the history and moral character of candidates for Holy Orders, as well as into their theological and literary acquirements?
    Have I maintained a high standard in examining for Holy Orders, so as to keep out illiterate candidates ?
    Have I ever admitted any one, otherwise unfit, to Holy Orders, as a matter of personal favour, or to oblige some influential person?
    Have I over given letters dimissory.to an unfit candidate in order to shift the responsibility of his Ordination from ray own shoulders on to those of another Bishop who is ignorant of the circumstances of the case?
    Have I kept a written record of the condition of my diocese, and a watchful eye on the clergy, noting those who labour diligently and rule well, that I may promote them, or recommend them for promotion ?
    Have I set my clergy an example of diligence and activity in the discharge of duty?
    Have I endeavoured to encourage learning amongst them, and shown personal zeal in study?
    Have I striven to raise the standard of clerical efficiency in my diocese, by encouraging progress, and rebuking sloth and shortcomings?
    Have I stimulated all agencies for promoting diocesan life and organization?
    Have I made my Visitations realities, and searchingly inquired into defects and abuses, with a view to their removal ?
    Have I constructed my Charges with a real view to the actual needs of my Diocese, and not merely as pamphlets intended for the general public ?
    Have I ever attempted to make my private opinions and likings an iron rule for the diocese?
    Have I remembered that the "erroneous and strange doctrines" which I have promised to drive away, do not necessarily mean opinions and practices which I personally dislike, but those which are contrary to the consent of the Church Universal?
    Have I ever rebuked a clergyman for obeying a plain law of the Church, because it happened to be unpopular, or because I did not obey it myself?
    Have I ever allowed a clergyman to go on wilfully breaking a plain law of the Church, because public opinion happened to connive at it? Have I ever done this myself?
    Have I carefully discouraged my clergy from taking part with schismatics in religious services or meetings, and set a strict example in this respect?
    Have I ever yielded to popular clamour, by condemning, or even by failing to support openly, things which in my conscience I knew to be right and lawful?
    Have I ever treated an unbeneficed priest with harshness and severity which I should not have ventured on with a beneficed one?
    Have I remembered always to rule with justice and courtesy, not lording it over GOD's heritage, but entreating the elder clergy as fathers, and the younger as brothers in the LORD?
    Have I taken care to see, and inquire personally into all things of moment, and not trusted to the reports of a clique?
    Have I been careful not to surround myself with a clique of flatterers and parasites?
    Have I allowed all my clergy free access to me at all reasonable times, and not kept aloof from them by the means of a staff of chaplains?
    Have I ever proceeded to the condemnation of a clerk without the knowledge and assent of the Diocesan Synod ?
    Have I ever broken the Apostolic rule by receiving an accusation against a priest from anonymous sources, or from mere public rumour?
    Have I always looked on the patronage in my hands as a trust for GOD and the Church, and not as a means of obliging my private friends?
    Have I imported strangers into the diocese unnecessarily, to the prejudice of the just claims of the clergy already in it?
    Have I ever conferred a benefice on a relative or private friend when I knew of any one better fitted to discharge its duties?
    Have I exacted a pledge from every one whom I have promoted that he will not allow any diminution in the standard of parochial efficiency maintained by his predecessor, but will rather raise it?
    Have I ever hampered persons promoted by me with unfair or untenable restrictions before giving them institution ?
    Have I ever bargained with another Bishop or patron to promote his relatives and friends on condition of his promoting mine?
    Have I ever connived at the wrong-doing of another Bishop, and thus sacrificed truth and justice to class-feeling?
    Have I allowed private grudges to affect my teaching and practice?
    Have I ever refused to discharge some duty in a parish (as, for instance, to hold a Confirmation) by reason of a quarrel with the Incumbent?
    Have I ever refused to license Curates, against whom no objection lay, in order to inconvenience and annoy an Incumbent I dislike?
    Have I ever refused to countersign testimonials out of private grudge ?
    Have I ever issued illegal or ungodly monitions (such as attempts to diminish the services or beauty of GOD's House) out of pique or vindictiveness ?
    Have I been bold in rebuking offenders, without respect of persons, or regard to their position and influence ?
    Have I held Confirmations with sufficient frequency and variety of place to allow of all diocesan candidates coming to that Sacrament ?
    Have I ever repelled a child from Confirmation by reason of tender age, when it could say the Creed, the Our FATHER, and the Decalogue, as enjoined in the Rubric?
    Have I been regular and fervent in intercessory prayer on behalf of the diocese?
    Have I ever intrigued in order to obtain translation to another See ?
    Have I ever intruded into another diocese against the consent of its Ordinary ?
    Have I always borne in mind that I am Bishop of the whole diocese, and not of one school or party in it, and therefore shown wise tolerance and checked factiousness ?

Reproduced from

The Priest's Prayer Book
containing
Private Prayers and Intercessions; Occasional, School,
and Parochial Offices; Offices for the Visitation
of the Sick, with Notes, Readings, Collects,
Hymns, Litanies, etc., etc.

WITH A BRIEF PONTIFICAL

BY THE LATE
REV. R.F. LITTLEDALE, LL.D., D.C.L.

AND
REV. J. EDWARD VAUX, M.A., F.S.A.

NEW EDITION, REVISED
20th THOUSAND

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY

1897