The civil war between King Stephen of England (r. 1135–54) and Empress Maud has long been a period of interest for medieval historians. During this violent and destructive time centralized authority largely fragmented and fell into the hands of the local and regional nobility, including ecclesiastical lords. Contemporary observers, such as the compiler of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, complained that God had forsaken England and it was “said openly that Christ and His saints slept.” In the midst of societal and governmental upheaval ecclesiastical lords, primarily bishops, became both protectors and despoilers of the countryside. The author of the Gesta Stephani (himself perhaps a bishop) complained that bishops were behaving in much the same fashion as secular lords in warfare: