3 Verbs to Use for the Word upholders

You have induced those very excellent upholders of English law and liberty to set a plain-clothes man to following me about.

These and other inconsistencies have puzzled many ardent upholders of American chivalry.

Yet there was a difference between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the institutions.

3 Verbs to Use for the Word  upholders