You know the pieces on a chessboard? There’s the knight, and the queen, and the castle….and then there’s the bishop.
There’s a reason why a game that simulates medieval power strategy has a piece called the bishop. Bishops had power.
And it was a power that didn’t flow from the monarchy. And in britain, it wasn’t a power that necessarily had to be aligned with the monarchy either. We’re going to see this over and over again on the island - if you were trying to rule Britain, holy men were often a wildcard in your hand of ambitions. And the more powerful the holy man, the bigger the potential upset.
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