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.