 However, in 995, Emperor Otto III and Bishop Notker of Liège persuaded the reluctant Ansfried to assume the then vacant see of Utrecht.Ansfried objected that as he had borne weapons as a knight, he was unworthy of the office; but the emperor prevailed.The elderly count laid down his sword on the altar of St. Mary in Aachen and was ordained priest and consecrated eighteenth Bishop of Utrecht in the same ceremony.