Bishop Roger seems to have been also a great supporter of the Cistercian monks, who appeared in the neighbourhood about this time, and for whom he built an abbey in the diocese at Buildwas, not very far from Shrewsbury. Then, being a soldier as well as a bishop, he started for the East, and died, after fighting in the Crusades, at Antioch in 1148. Ever since the Conquest the struggles in the Church had been growing sharper. There is no room for a full discussion of these quarrels, but, briefly, it may be said that they arose largely from a desire on the part of the monks and the collegiate churches to shake off the power of the bishops. In doing this it had been necessary to appeal more and more to the Pope, and in consequence the Pope was gradually increasing his power in England, to the detriment not only of the bishops, but also of the king. On the death of Bishop Clinton, Stephen, instead of appointing a successor himself, as had been the custom of the king on previous occasions, found it necessary to depute his authority to a joint council of the monks of Coventry and the canons of Lichfield and Chester. They met at Leicester, and the monks by themselves appointed =Walter Durdent= (1149-1159), prior of Canterbury. The canons would not admit this election, although the new nominee had been precentor at Lichfield; they appealed to Rome, and--how the result came about is not clear, but indeed is a matter of dispute--Durdent was consecrated at Canterbury. He was enthroned at Coventry, but was barred out of Lichfield, where he commenced his rule by excommunicating the canons. But Durdent, being now a bishop, soon drew the canons to his side, and it was with Coventry that the differences continued. He and the prior were summoned to Rome, where it was settled that the bishop should keep the abbey as a monastic cathedral, but that the prior should in the future have the first voice in the election of bishops. Durdent died at Rome, and was succeeded by =Richard Peche= (1161-1182), son of Robert Peche--for the clergy of that day often married--who seems to have secured the suffrages of both sets of electors. He retired just before his end to the priory of St Thomas, near Stafford, which he had founded in 1180 in memory of Thomas à Becket, who had been murdered ten years previously. He was one of those who had consecrated the archbishop a few years before, and he joined in the popular indignation which ended in the canonisation of the victim. About this time the diocese was permanently divided into the archdeaconries of Derby, Stafford, Chester, and Coventry. The next bishop was =Gerard Puella= (1183), a celebrated authority on ecclesiastical and canon law. Lichfield refused to admit him, and he died soon after his consecration.