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A bishop had no formal role in feudalism as knights had. This was because they were formally speaking not subject to a temporal lord like a king, but to the Pope.

But several kings tried to include them in the feudal system anyway. There were sometimes heavy clashes over appointments of bishops between kings and Popes, and in general the silent understanding was that a king could 'propose' a candidate that the Pope would then appoint. This was because Bishops were in actual fact of course also subjects of the king and had the same responsibilities as many nobles in the land. Kings liked giving administrative roles to bishops because bishops could not have legitimate children and make a job hereditary. So the king was sure that at each bishop's death he could pick a new man for the job himself and have him created a bishop.

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10y ago

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