I, and of Juliane to Guillaume of the cadet branch of Gruyere--had extended the domain of the latter house. Undeterred by the greed of the bishop, Rodolphe piously preserved the traditions of his predecessors Raimond and Guillaume II, who had founded the monasteries of Humilimont and Hautcret, by continued gifts to the latter as well as to Hauterive. Yet the robber bishop implacably demanded another act of renunciation from Count Rodolphe, one of serious significance to the future of his house, by which he authorized the transference of the market of the county from Gruyere to the neighboring city of Bulle which belonged to the bishop. The city of Bulle thereafter became the centre of exchange of the county, while Gruyere, although now the _chef-lieu_ of the reigning counts, was permanently deprived of all possibility of progress or enlargement. Thus the city of Bulle, busy and flourishing even to this day, has kept its place in the growing commercial importance of the county, while Gruyere is still the little feudal city of the middle ages, precious historically as it is picturesque, but crystalized in a permanent immobility. Forty marks, scarcely more than the worth of the mess of pottage for which Esau sold his heritage, was the price accepted by Count Rodolphe for the commercial existence of Gruyere. [Illustration: GATEWAY] Rodolphe's far more virile successors, Pierre I and Rodolphe II and III, attempted with the support of the people to defy the power of the bishop, and in disregard of the act of their predecessor, to keep up the marche at Gruyere. But the power which could excommunicate an emperor did not hesitate to launch the same formidable curse upon the princes of Gruyere and they were forced to yield. The foundation of the church of St. Theodule at Gruyere and of the rich and venerated convent of the Part Dieu by his daughter-in-law, Guillemette de Grandson (widow of his eldest son Pierre) attested the unabated devotion of the Gruyere house to the Catholic religion. CHAPTER III SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY In the middle of the thirteenth century the counts of Gruyere--who had so long been oppressed by the grasping prelates of the Church--came within the orbit of another power, that of the rising house of Savoy.