The papacy began it again, and laboured energetically to
rebuild its crumbled fortunes. In Germany, several years
were sufficient to achieve a satisfactory result. By the
concordat of Vienne, which Pope Nicholas v. signed with the
emperor Frederick III. ( 1448), and which once more enforced
the convention of Constance, the papacy achieved it. ¹ And
it will be remembered that this convention confirmed the
juridical situation created by John XXII. and Benedict XII.
In France the condition was much more difficult. For more
than sixty years the popes uttered the most lively protests
against the hated Pragmatic Sanction, without succeeding in
abrogating it. ² At length, in 1516, Leo X. obtained from
Francis I. the much-desired abrogation. That was the
purpose of the concordat of Bologna. But the crafty king of
France, in making the convention, had thought only of his
own interests. He had surrendered the Pragmatic Sanction,
only in order to be the master of the Gallican Church, to
take from that church the independence which the Pragmatic
Sanction assured it. Therefore it was with great parsimony
that he gave Rome a share in the recruiting of the bishops.
He reserved to himself and to the kings of France his
successors, the appointment of bishops. He left to the Pope
only the right to confirm the choice of the king. After this,
France no more received its bishops from the chapters, but
neither did it receive them from Rome. The Gallican Church,
deprived of its episcopal elections and partly freed from the
protectorate of Rome, was to be ruled by kings. ³

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