 According to Paul Fouracre, the rate of monastery building is the best-recorded indicator that Christian culture was successfully flowing through the countryside from urban centers as members of the Frankish elite founded monasteries on their lands, greatly influencing their tenants, and occupied leading posts within the Catholic Church.Royal assent remained crucial to ecclesiastical appointments, which meant that the Merovingian monarchs themselves were usually important patrons of the monasteries.Their support of the religious communities was a means of sanctifying and legitimating their royal power.