Monastic exemption was a product of political negotiation and re-negotiation. More than just a passive outcome of individual circumstance, monastic freedom and protection were objectives reached with direct and effective papal support and intervention. These specific rights and liberties were achievable in no small measure because of Rome’s increasing role in challenging unwanted episcopal and lay domination. Although initiated by monks in Christian provinces like France – and supported regionally by Frankish bishops, kings, and magnates – exemptions became increasingly mobilised as powerful social, political, and legal mechanisms of medieval papal governance. This concluding chapter questions this so-called ‘victory of the papacy’, asking whether this is still the most accurate and lasting impression.