At this point, we should open a brief parenthesis. It has been claimed on occasion that the Church took the lead in bringing the practice of lot to an end by banning its use in the selection of bishops and abbots at a time when the procedure was still current in the Italian city-republics.
It is true that Honorius III did, by a decretal promulgated in 1223 (Ecclesia Vestm, addressed to the chapter of Lucca), prohibit the use of lot in ecclesiastical appointments.