both secular and
regular, was very large, the bishops and abbots powerful, and the
number of monasteries and nunneries increasing. The most important
ecclesiastical change was the development of church courts. The
bishops or their representatives began to hold courts for the trial of
churchmen, the settlement of such suits as churchmen were parties to,
and the decision of cases in certain fields of law. This gave the
church a new influence, in addition to that which it held from its
spiritual duties, from its position as landlord over such extensive
tracts, and from the superior enlightenment and mental ability of its
prominent officials, but it also gave greater occasion for conflict
with the civil government and with private persons.

After the death of Henry I in 1135 a miserable period of confusion and
violence ensued. Civil war broke out between two claimants for the
crown, Stephen the grandson, and Matilda the granddaughter, of William
the Conqueror. The organization of government was allowed to fall into
disorder, and but little effort was made to collect the royal revenue,
to fulfil the newly acquired judicial duties, or to insist upon order
being preserved in the country. The nobles took opposite sides in the
contest for the crown, and made use of the weakness of government to
act as if they were themselves sovereigns over their estates and the
country adjacent to their castles with no ruler above them. Private
warfare, oppression of less powerful men, seizure of property, went on
unchecked. Every baron's castle became an independent establishment
carried on in accordance only with the unbridled will of its lord, as
if there were no law and no central authority to which he must bow.
The will of the lord was often one of reckless violence, and there was
more disorder and suffering in England than at any time since the
ravages of the Danes.

In Anglo-Saxon times, when a weak king appeared, the shire moots, or
the rulers of groups of shires, exercised the authority which the
central government had lost. In the twelfth century, when the power of
the royal government was similarly diminished through the weakness of
Stephen and the confusions of the civil war, it was a certain class of
men, the great nobles, that fell heir to the lost strength of
government. This was because of the development of feudalism during
the intervening time. The greater landholders had come to exercise
over those who held land from them