By such means the ecclesiastical power became greater and greater, and, in those countries under the sway of France, was quite as arbitrary and enormous as that of the nobility.

The bishops of Utrecht, Liege, and Tournay, became, in the course of time, the chief personages on that line of the frontier.

They had the great advantage over the counts, of not being subjected to capricious or tyrannical removals.

They therefore, even in civil affairs, played a more considerable part than the latter; and began to render themselves more and more independent in their episcopal cities, which were soon to become so many principalities.

The counts, on their parts, used their best exertions to wear out, if they had not the strength to break, the chains which bound them to the footstool of the monarch.