eastern Christianity was not exactly the same as in the west. The hierarchy of bishops was as active in the east as in the west, and increasingly bishops were city leaders here as well. Bishops were less prominent players in a wider politics, however, except those of the major cities; episcopal churches may have been less rich in land, and emperors were more powerful in ecclesiastical affairs than rulers were in the west. The hierarchy of the church was also not the only basis for religious activism. Autonomous monasteries grew rapidly in number, and were not always as closely associated with aristocratic power as in the west; they were foci for some quite rough-cut popular religiosity, and monks could be fanatical religious police in places where they were numerous, as around Jerusalem and in southern Egypt.