The arbitrary appropriation of tithes by landowners to monasteries, although according to their rights, was contrary to canon law.[259] At a national synod held at Westminster in 1125 (25 Henry I.) it was constituted that no abbot, prior, monk, or clergyman should accept a church or tithe or any other ecclesiastical benefice from a layman without the authority and assent of his own bishop. The lay patrons paid no attention to this canon, because they thought it was an ecclesiastical encroachment upon the rights of property. It was a part of the supremacy over the civil power which the Church was then usurping wherever she found weak instruments. In the reigns of Richard I. and John, however, laymen’s investitures gradually ceased. The Church became supreme. Archbishop Anselm was a very strong supporter of papal canons which inhibited the custom of lay investiture. The struggle continued after his death. The practice at the present time is, the patron nominates or presents, the bishop institutes, and the archdeacon inducts. But before the reigns of Richard I. and John, the lay patrons nominated, instituted, and inducted. The bishop had no voice in the matter. The practice, as I have already stated, was condemned and made void by the Third Lateran Council held in 1180. At the General Council of Lateran, held in 1215, the arbitrary appropriation of tithes to monasteries or other ecclesiastical corporations which were not parochial, was strongly condemned, and the tithes were commanded to be paid in future to the parish churches. This council therefore gave the parsons the parochial right to tithes. It was certainly very wrong to hand over the parochial tithes to outsiders who did no parochial work and took no interest whatever in the parishes from which they drew large incomes, while the parochial clergy who did the work were most miserably remunerated. But we find that when the parsons received the tithes they became wealthy, indolent, and vicious. We have the trustworthy testimony of Wickliffe himself for this statement. No man could possibly write or speak stronger than he did against the conduct of the monks and secular clergy of his time. In King John’s reign the papal power was supreme in England, and therefore the canon law gained strength as England became weak, particularly after Pope Innocent III. issued his interdict against the kingdom.