 The defence taken by the king was not novel; it had been used before by William I and William II against Odo of Bayeux and William de St-Calais, respectively.Traditionally, the arrest of the bishops has been seen as a turning point in Stephen's reign, and the event that turned the ecclesiastical hierarchy against him.Recent historians have held a lively debate on the issue; a few still hold to the traditional interpretation, but most have decided that reactions in the English church were more ambivalent.