Saichō did not ask for complete autonomy for the Tendai School. Although he criticized the bureaucracy controlling the Buddhist schools, he readily accepted the principles of government control over the number of monks, government examination and certification of candidates for the order, and government issuance of identification certificates for novices and monks. The lay administrators (zoku bettō) too were appointed by the government, which could have resulted in direct government supervision of the Tendai School by laymen.

Saichō certainly could have criticized such supervision by the court as infringements on the autonomy of the Tendai School, but chose not to do so, probably because he was more concerned with the interference of Nara monks in Tendai affairs than with the possibility of interference from the court.

One of Saichō’s most important achievements in church-state relations was his clear demarcation of the areas in which monks could live and act. The testing, initiation, and ordination of prospective Tendai monks was no longer to take place in Nara and Kyoto but on Mount Hiei, where the new monks were required to spend the next twelve years. Tendai monks were to be concerned with religious, not political affairs; thus they would not give the court cause to interfere in monastic affairs.