THE CHURCH UNDER INNOCENT III 437 of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, for instance, Innocent had to content himself with scolding him by letter for living a life of plunder and keeping a court of brigands. This also illustrates the fact that many bishops still followed the career of feudal lords rather than of ministers of Christ. When Richard the Lion-Hearted was asked by one of Inno- cent's legates to free Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais and a cousin of the French king, whom he was keeping in chains in a dungeon, he indignantly replied that Philip had not been captured as a bishop, but as a knight in full armor, and furthermore that he was a "robber, tyrant, and incen- diary who did nothing but devastate Richard's lands day and night." Indeed, Innocent knew well enough that Philip was not a desirable type of bishop and afterwards refused to approve his election as Archbishop of Rheims. Each bishop had his own cathedral church, usually located in a town; in fact, in England no place was called a city unless it had a cathedral. The bishop shared The cat h e . his great church with a cathedral chapter of dral chapter canons, each of whom by this time had a prebend or regular income for his support. They occupied the chief seats in the choir stalls : first came the dean, then the chanter in charge of the singing, then the archdeacons who aided the bishop in visiting his diocese and holding his ecclesiastical courts, then the theologian or interpreter of Scripture, the schoolmaster of the cathedral school, the penitentiary, the treasurer, and the chamberlain. Other churches which were large enough to require a number of clergy or canons to administer their affairs, but which were not the seats of bishops, were known as " collegiate" instead of " cathedral" churches. Finally we come to the simple parish church and priest. The parish was the smallest local ecclesiastical territorial unit. The priest, although nominated by some Parish lay or ecclesiastical patron of the parish church, P nests must be approved and ordained by his bishop, who was also supposed to visit and superintend the activities of all the priests within his diocese. So much of the tithes which the
