Rome indeed was brought to waive its alleged right of appointing foreigners to English livings.

But a compromise was arranged between the Pope and the Crown in which both united in the spoliation and enslavement of the Church.

The voice of chapters, of monks, of ecclesiastical patrons, went henceforth for nothing in the election of bishops or abbots or the nomination to livings in the gift of churchmen.
The Crown recommended those whom it chose to the Pope, and the Pope nominated them to see or cure of souls.

The treasuries of both King and Pope profited by the arrangement; but we can hardly wonder that after a betrayal such as this the clergy placed little trust in statutes or royal protection, and bowed humbly before the claims of Rome.
[Sidenote: Its Worldliness] But what weakened the clergy most was their severance from the general sympathies of the nation, their selfishness, and the worldliness of their temper.

Immense as their wealth was, they bore as little as they could of the common burthens of the realm.