cause renders them liable to ecclesiastical censure and punishment. Moreover, as will be noticed in the course of this treatise, the bishop has been given, by express enactments, divers powers in relation to both beneficed and unbeneficed clergy on matters of detail, subject in many cases to an appeal to the archbishop of the province. By law and custom part of the administrative functions of the bishop and almost the whole of his judicial functions are discharged by his chancellor, who is at once his vicar-general and the official principal of his consistory court. Suffragan bishops, where they are appointed, have no independent authority or jurisdiction, but simply so much as the diocesan bishop, in his discretion, from time to time delegates to them. 11. The archdeacon is in his archdeaconry next in point of dignity after the bishop and the suffragans (if any) and the chancellor of the diocese.[18] He is sometimes called _oculus episcopi_, being the bishop's vicar, charged with the duty of inspecting that portion of the diocese which is under his charge and of reporting to the bishop anything which is amiss. Besides this general supervision, he holds an annual visitation of his archdeaconry, and admits the churchwardens and sidesmen, except in years of episcopal visitation, when he is inhibited from performing his functions, and these are exercised instead by the bishop in person, or, as regards the admission of churchwardens and sidesmen, by the chancellor.[19] At his annual visitation, and at other times, as occasion arises, it is the business of the archdeacon to satisfy himself that churches, and especially chancels, are in a proper condition, and to require that any necessary repairs be executed; to take note of the ornaments and utensils of churches, and to ascertain that the services and offices of the Church are everywhere duly performed and administered. The clergy are bound to assist the archdeacon in his inspection and inquiries and to attend his visitations.[20] Various duties assigned to him by statute are noticed in subsequent chapters. 12. Rural deans have within their deaneries the same functions and powers of inspection and report as an archdeacon in his archdeaconry. It is their duty to hold from time to time chapters consisting of the beneficed clergy of the deanery or their curates as proxies for them. In the present day these chapters are usually attended not only by the incumbents but also by all the licensed unbeneficed clergy of the deanery.[21]