The higher clergy in this period of disorder were for the most part secular princes. They ruled large tracts of land, possessed and exercised royal prerogatives, and were granted immunities and privileges such as market rights, coinage, tolls, feudal judicature, etc. Furthermore they assumed secular titles and offices. The leading statesmen of the day were chosen from the clergy. Louis the Infant made the Abbot of Corvey a count (900), and gave the Bishop of Tours the same title (902). Henry I. made the Bishop of Tule also the Duke of Tule (928).[420:3] Otto I. gave his own brother, the Archbishop of Köln, the duchy of Lorraine and made him Count of Brandenburg and Magdeburg. Otto III. and Henry III. also made many such grants to churchmen. These higher clergy were married in many cases, or lived with mistresses, and had families. After the time of Otto I. they began to counteract the power of the nobles, hence they were made more and more dependent upon kings, who claimed the right to appoint them, who invested them with their power, and to whom they swore allegiance. They appeared at the court of the king like nobles, and in the event of war led their troops in person to the battlefield. Depositions for alleged disloyalty were very common. As the bishops became more involved in secular affairs they naturally neglected their spiritual duties. Simony crept in as a consequence and was shamefully practised. Often the worst fitted instead of the best prepared persons were given the coveted sinecures. It was but natural that the moral example set by the Pope should reveal itself in the lives of the clergy. Greedy hands were raised against the monasteries, and their rich lands were frequently given as fiefs to laymen.[421:1] The abbots began to strive for worldly reputation and power. Hence the old discipline was neglected, and disorders and excesses of all kinds prevailed among the monks and nuns.[421:2] The common priests and monks were probably better as a rule than either Popes or bishops, still in too many cases they were prone to follow the example set by their superiors. The laity were undoubtedly on a lower moral and intellectual plane than the priesthood.[421:3] Consequently few complaints were made by them against the sins and crimes of Popes, bishops, abbots, and priests. The denunciation of flagrant abuses and the cry for reform, as far as there was any, came from the better clergy. Of the eighty councils held in France during the eleventh century, every one denounced the lawlessness of the laity and the unchastity and simony of the clergy.[422:1]