The higher the income from a see, the harder it is for the pope to get his preferred candidate as bishop. Valuable sees require the pope to make sacrifices. He has to agree to a bishop who in a pinch is more likely to support the king than the pope—or else the pope loses income. This gives the pope a reason to stymie economic growth outside the Church’s domain. In fact, shortly after 1122, the Church adopted a series of new programs that were likely to hinder economic progress outside the Church. Was that a coincidence? We cannot know, we can only see that changes introduced by the Church—and
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