THE DECREE OF THE GOLDEN BULL, 1356.

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the general assembly (Diet) of the various estates of the Roman realm that emerged from the earlier informal and irregular assemblies, known as 'Hoft-Age,' convened by the one of the Princes of the Empire with selected chief princes within the empire.
More precisely, it was the convention of the legal entities of the realm that, according to Feudal Law, had not authority above them besides the Prince or King of the Romans himself. The deputied convened occasionally at different cities, until in 1663 the Perpetual Diet was established at the Regens-Burg city hall.
Regens-Burg, one of the oldest Celtic settlements in South-East Germany, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab, and Regen Rivers, was the seat of a powerful ruling family known as the Agilol-Fings.
They ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Mero-Ving-Ian suzerians from about 550 until 788 CE. Gari-Bald I of Bavaria, stood at head of the Agilol-Fings and the Bavar-Ian Dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of the Lombards. He married Waldrada, the widow of Mero-Ving-Ian king Theude-Bald, in 555 CE, after her marriage to Lotha-Ir was annulled on grounds of consaguinity. As they had their fate intertwined with Mero-Ving-Ian dynasty, they opposed the rise of the Caro-Ling-Ian majordomes, the managers of the Frank-Ish king, the power behind the throne, in the North-Eastern kingdom of Austr-Asia, who finally deprived the Agilol-Fings of their power. The major of the palace held and wielded the real and effective power to make decisions affecting the kingdoms, while the kings had been reduced to performing merely ceremonial functions, which made them little more than figureheads (do-nothing kings). The office may be compared to that of the prime minister, all of which have similarly been the real powers behind a ceremonial monarch.
Regens-Burg remained as an important place during the reign of Charle-Magne. After the partition of the Caro-Ling-Ians in 843 CE, the city became the seat of the Eastern Frank-Ish ruler, Louis II the German. Two years later, 14 Bohem-Ian princes came to the city to receive 'baptism.' This was the starting point of 'Christianization of the Czechs,' and the diocese of Regens-Burg became the 'mother' diocese of Prague. These events had a wide impact on the history of the Czech lands, as they were now part of the Roman Catholic hand and not the Slavic-Orthodox world. A memorial plate located at the alleged place of the 'baptism,' St. John's Church, was unveiled a few years ago, commemorating the incident in the Czech and German languages.
The Decree of the Golden Bull of 1356 cemented the concept of 'territorial rule,' the largely and independent rule of the 'dukes' over their respective territories, and also limited the number of electors to seven. The Decree prescribed that 4 out of seven would always be suffice to elect a new king; as a result 3 electors could no longer block the election.
The Decree was the milestone in the establishment of largely independent states, a process to be concluded only centuries later, notably with the Peace of West-Phalia of 1648.
The Pope was never involved in the electoral process but only in the process of ratification and coronation of whomever the 'Prince-Electors' chose.