Answer:
It was the Popes.
Explanation:
The Pope as Vicar of Christ acts as a visible foundation and source of unity and as a pastor of all Christian Church. In this sense, the Pope has supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.
There is a significant relationship between the church and the temporal state in matters such as ecclesiastic privileges and some times in terms of successions. That's the reason why the Pope can influence some political decisions made by the government and at the same time to develop and improve some aspects of the Church.
