At Besancon,[5225] among 1500 benefices and livings, he once conferred less than 100 of them, while his metropolitan chapter appointed as many cures as himself; at Arras, he appointed only 47 cures and his chapter 66; at Saint-Omer, among the collators of curacies he ranked only third, after the abbey of Saint-Martin and after the chapter of the cathedral.

At Troyes, he could dispose only of 197 curacies out of 372; at Boulogne, out of 180, he had only 80, and this again because the chapter voluntarily abandoned to him 16.

Naturally, the eyes of all candidates turned towards the collator; and, among the highest and most lucrative places, those which gave the least trouble and afforded the most satisfaction, all sinecures, ranks, simple benefices and large urban curacies, probendaries and canonicates, most of the offices, titles, and incomes that might tempt human ambition, were in the hands, not of the bishop, but of the king or of the Pope, of an abbot or prior, of an abbess, or of a certain university,[5226] of this or that cathedral or college-body, of a lay seignior, of a patentee, or of an indultaire, and often of the titulary himself.

Thus, the hold of the bishop on his clercs was feeble; he did not hold them through the hope of a favor.
And, on the other hand, he had still less hold on them, no hold at all, through fear of losing favor.

They might displease him almost with impunity; his faculty for punishment was much more restricted than his means of recompense.