31.13. 13. Of the Election of Bishops and Abbots.
As the church had grown
poor, the kings resigned the right of nominating to bishoprics and other
ecclesiastic benefices.
[111]
The princes gave themselves less trouble
about the ecclesiastic ministers; and the candidates were less
solicitous in applying to their authorities. Thus the church received a
kind of compensation for the possessions she had lost.
Hence, if Louis the Debonnaire left the people of Rome in possession
of the right of choosing their popes, it was owing to the general spirit
that prevailed in his time;
[112]
he behaved in the same manner to the
see of Rome as to other bishoprics.
Footnotes
[111]
See the "Capitulary of Charlemagne" in the year 803, art. 2,
Baluzius's edition, p. 379; and the "Edict of Louis the Debonnaire," in the
year 834, in Goldast, "Constit. Imprial.," tome i.
[112]
This is mentioned in the famous canon, ego Ludovicus, which is
a palpable forgery; it is Baluzius's edition, p. 591, in the year 817.
