[Footnote 89: On this subject of ecclesiastical and
beneficiary discipline, Father Thomassin, (tom. iii. l. i.
c. 40, 45, 46, 47) may be usefully consulted. A general law
of Charlemagne exempted the bishops from personal service;
but the opposite practice, which prevailed from the ixth to
the xvth century, is countenanced by the example or silence
of saints and doctors .... You justify your cowardice by the
holy canons, says Ratherius of Verona; the canons likewise
forbid you to whore, and yet - ]