438 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE people of the parish had to pay the Church and of its other revenues went to persons or institutions "higher up," that the parish priest was generally poorly paid and hence was often a man of little ability. The priesthood also suffered from lack of episcopal supervision when bishops neglected their religious functions for other interests. There were, however, archrjriests or rural deans, clergymen with the oversight of a few other parishes than their own in much the same way that the archbishop was related to his bishops. Under Innocent we become aware of an increasing ten- dency of the local clergy and churches to refer everything Papal rela- to the P°P e f° r decision. Innocent was an tionswith administrator of great industry and capacity for detail, and he did not object when arch- bishops, bishops, and abbots from all parts of Latin Chris- tendom referred to him for decision even quite petty mat- ters of local organization or problems in theology or ecclesi- astical discipline which they should have been able to settle satisfactorily themselves by the exercise of a little common sense. For instance, in 1198 we find him permitting the division of a parish in the Bishopric of Laon in northern France. However, in many cases the pope's interference was necessary in order to preserve the peace between two con- tending local parties. The lesser clergy were often at odds with their bishops, and the clergy often had to appeal to the pope for protection against the feudal lords. Sometimes the reverse was the case, and in 1198 we find the Count of Auvergne asking Innocent's help against his brother, the Bishop of Clermont. Innocent also had to warn the bishops in Champagne to be a little less forward in heaping anath- emas and interdicts upon the counts of that region for every trifling thing that they did. Taken all in all a vast business was dispatched at the papal court, and even Innocent at times complained that the burden of business left him no time for meditation or for the composition of religious works. While the medieval Church recognized the great impor-
