These sacerdotal soldiers were called _sōhei_. The principle of maintaining them was adopted at many temples, but nowhere did they exhibit such truculence as in the case of Enryaku-ji near Kyōto. When the lord high abbot of a temple was appointed, it was the custom that the priests of the temple, if they objected to the appointment, or if, subsequently, they had cause of complaint against his ministration, should appeal to the imperial court for his removal. On such occasions, it became customary for the complainants to wear armor and carry bow and spear when they submitted their grievance. They did not shrink even from attacking the residence of the prime minister. During the reign of Shirakawa, the military priests developed such lawless independence that on more than one occasion they entered Kyōto in turbulent force, dragging with them sacred cars, the sight of which restrained the hand of the martial defenders of the court. Not only against the government, but also among themselves, the temples openly used arms and caused bloodshed. It was said that there were found among these fighting priests men originally belonging to the military class, who, failing to obtain promotion in the regular routine of feudal administration, adopted the cowl as a means of working out their ambitious designs. This state of things aggrieved the Emperor Shirakawa, but he appears to have been unable to check it. On one occasion, lamenting the arbitrary conduct of the Buddhists, he said: "There are but three things in my dominions that do not obey me: the waters of the Kamo River, the dice of the 'sugoroku' game, and the priests of Buddha." Finally, the sovereign was driven to invite the Minamoto clan to defend him against the rebellious proceedings of the priests, and from that time dates an era of feuds between the followers of religion and those of the sword. It was the same Emperor Shirakawa who instituted the peculiar system of the Camera administration (_Insei_), which powerfully tended to break down the last remains of the Taikwa reformation. After a reign of fourteen years he resigned in 1087, only to retain the administrative power in his hands, with his special court and special ministers. The reigning emperor and his government had few functions to discharge, as the entire control of the state affairs rested in the Camera of the ex-emperor. Shirakawa sat in the Camera till 1130, and was succeeded for twenty-eight years by the ex-Emperor Toba. All this while Buddhist soldiers behaved with the greatest lawlessness, constantly disturbing the peace of the capital, and the military class simultaneously became turbulent and vicious.