In the general administration of his diocese he concentrated all his powers, allowing nothing to escape him, erring, if at all, on the side of mercy and toleration, finding it difficult to believe many of the charges brought against his clergy, and only convinced by the most conclusive evidence. He abstained from unnecessary acts of authority, avoided all unnecessary display, removed what was blamable by meekness and moderation, improved with prudence and sobriety what was good. His administration was uniformly wise, strict in some respects, and yet on broad and liberal lines. There was no harrying of Protestants or Jansenists, no bureaucratic fussiness, no seeking after popularity, but every man, great or small, was treated exactly as was becoming. Between him and his flock, his chapter, or his clergy, there was no discord. Though by his indefatigable zeal he soon made the district committed to his charge the model of a well-regulated diocese, his biographers do not record of him a single instance of what are generally called acts of vigor, or a single instance of gaudy virtue. The peace of heaven was with him, and was communicated to all around. All local customs, down to the humblest, were handled with a delicate touch, and pardonable eccentricities of usage were never dealt with severely. In the matter of patronage he was careful that no outsider, and still less no relative of his own, should swoop down on the richest livings and secure by interest what the natives naturally looked upon as their own by right. He traveled throughout the district, making tours of inspection several times a year, and so coming into touch with every corner, preaching more than once in every one of the six hundred parishes.