The churches having become poor, the kings abandoned elections to bishoprics and other ecclesiastical benefices.1 Princes were less concerned with naming the ministers, and the claimants made less appeal to their authority. Thus the Church received a sort of compensation for its properties that had been taken.
And if Louis the Debonaire left to the Roman people the right to elect the popes,2 that was an effect of the general spirit of his time ; one governed oneself with respect to the See of Rome as one did with respect to the others.