It will be observed that throughout this controversy both sides appealed to the king, as if he had the right to decide the point in dispute, but that his decision had no compelling power as long as it was not supported by evidence.  He could ensure toleration for views regarded by many as heretical, but was unable to force the views of one party on the other until the winning cause had publicly disproved the contentions of its opponents.  On the other hand the king had practical control of the hierarchy, for his chaplain was de facto head of the Church and the appointment was strictly personal.  It was not the practice for a king to take on his predecessor’s chaplain and the latter could not, like a Lamaist or Catholic ecclesiastic, claim any permanent supernatural powers.  Bodopaya did something towards organizing the hierarchy for he appointed four elders of repute to be Sangharajas or, so to speak, Bishops, with four more as assistants and over them all his chaplain Nana as Archbishop.  Nana was a man of energy and lived in turn in various monasteries supervising the discipline and studies.

In spite of the extravagances of Bodopaya, the Church was flourishing and respected in his reign.  The celebrated image called Mahamuni was transferred from Arakan to his capital together with a Sanskrit library, and Burma sent to Ceylon not only the monks who founded the Amarapura school but also numerous Pali texts.  This prosperity continued in the reigns of Bagyidaw, Tharrawadi and Pagan-min, who were of little personal account.  The first ordered the compilation of the Yazawin, a chronicle which was not original but incorporated and superseded other works of the same kind.  In his reign arose a question as to the validity of grants of land, etc., for religious purposes.  It was decided in the sense most favourable to the order, viz. that such grants are perpetual and are not invalidated by the lapse of time.  About 1845 there was a considerable output of vernacular literature.  The Digha, Samyutta and Anguttara Nikayas with their commentaries were translated into Burmese but no compositions in Pali are recorded.

From 1852 till 1877 Burma was ruled by Mindon-min, who if not a national hero was at least a pious, peace-loving, capable king.  His chaplain, Pannasami, composed the Sasanavamsa, or ecclesiastical history of Burma, and the king himself was ambitious to figure as a great Buddhist monarch, though with more sanity than Bodopaya, for his chief desire was to be known as the Convener of the Fifth Buddhist Council.  The body so styled met from 1868 to 1871 and, like the ancient Sangitis, proceeded to recite the Tipitaka in order to establish the correct text.  The result may still be seen at Mandalay in the collection of buildings commonly known as the four hundred and fifty Pagodas:  a central Stupa surrounded by hundreds of small shrines each sheltering a perpendicular tablet on which a portion of this veritable bible in stone is inscribed.  Mindon-min also corrected the growing laxity of the Bhikkhus, and the esteem in which the Burmese church was held at this time is shown by the fact that the monks of Ceylon sent a deputation to the Sangharaja of Mandalay referring to his decision a dispute about a sima or ecclesiastical boundary.