Gallicanism (găl`ĭkənĭz'əm), in French Roman Catholicism, tradition of resistance to papal authority. It was in opposition to ultramontanism ultramontanism (ŭl'trəmŏn`tənĭzəm) [Lat.,=beyond the mountains, i.e.
..... Click the link for more information. , the view that accorded the papacy complete authority over the universal church. Two aspects of Gallicanism are sometimes distinguished: royal Gallicanism, which defended the special rights of the French monarch in the French church; and ecclesiastical Gallicanism, which tried to preserve for the French clergy a certain administrative independence from Rome. Gallicanism in both senses received its theoretical formulation during the crisis of the Great Schism Schism, Great, or Schism of the West, division in the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. There was no question of faith or practice involved; the schism was a matter of persons and politics.
..... Click the link for more information. through the conciliar theory, which asserted the supremacy of general councils over the pope. The Council of Basel (see Basel, Council of Basel, Council of, 1431–49, first part of the 17th ecumenical council in the Roman Catholic Church. It is generally considered to have been ecumenical until it fell into heresy in 1437; after that it is regarded as an anticouncil.
..... Click the link for more information. ) further extended the conciliar ideas and in 1438 the French king, Charles VII, legalized these antipapal measures in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (see under pragmatic sanction Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by Charles VII of France in 1438, sharply limited the papal authority over the church in France and established the liberty of the Gallican Church (see Gallicanism ).
..... Click the link for more information. ). For additional chapters in the long struggle between monarch and pope for control of the French church see investiture investiture, in feudalism , ceremony by which an overlord transferred a fief to a vassal or by which, in ecclesiastical law, an elected cleric received the pastoral ring and staff (the symbols of spiritual office) signifying the transfer of the office.
..... Click the link for more information. ; church and state church and state, the relationship between the religion or religions of a nation and the civil government of that nation, especially the relationship between the Christian church and various civil governments.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Philip IV Philip IV (Philip the Fair), 1268–1314, king of France (1285–1314), son and successor of Philip III. The policies of his reign greatly strengthened the French monarchy and increased the royal revenues.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Boniface VIII Boniface VIII, 1235–1303, pope (1294–1303), an Italian (b. Anagni) named Benedetto Caetani; successor of St. Celestine V.

As a cardinal he was independent of the factions in the papal court, and he opposed the election of Celestine.
..... Click the link for more information. ; concordat concordat (kənkôr`dăt)
..... Click the link for more information. . The quarrel between Louis XIV and Innocent XI occasioned the famous "Four Gallican Articles," drawn up for Louis by the French bishops (see also Innocent XII Innocent XII, 1615–1700, pope (1691–1700), a Neapolitan named Antonio Pignatelli; successor of Alexander VIII. He was frequently employed by his predecessors as a nuncio, and Innocent XI created him cardinal.
..... Click the link for more information. ). These declare that kings are not subject to the pope, that general councils supersede the pope's authority, that the pope must respect the customs of the local church, and that papal decrees do not bind unless accepted by the entire church. Gallicanism was much encouraged by Jansenism and remained fashionable at court. It was furthered by the followers of the Swiss theologian Thomas Erastus Erastianism has come to represent approval of the dominance of civil authority in all punitive measures and, by extension, complete dominance of the state over the church, though Erastus himself never held such an extreme view.
..... Click the link for more information. . No French king, however, sought to separate the French church from Rome, as did Henry VIII with the church in England; nor did any French king, despite the development of Gallican theory, ever manage to gain a hold over the church comparable to that exercised by the Spanish kings. The French clergy generally supported Gallicanism and during the French Revolution had little difficulty assenting to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The First Vatican Council in 1870 established the authority of the pope as a matter of dogma, and Gallicanism continued to live on only in the heretical Old Catholics Old Catholics, Christian denomination established by German Catholics who separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church when they rejected (1870) the decrees of the First Vatican Council , especially the dogma of the infallibility of the pope.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See W. H. Jervis, The Gallican Church and the Revolution (1882).

Gallicanism

French eccelesiastical and government policies designed to restrict the papacy's power. It affirmed the independence of the French king in the temporal realm, the superiority of an ecumenical council over the pope, and the union of king and clergy to limit the intervention of the pope within France. Gallicanism was opposed to Ultramontanism, which championed papal authority. The doctrine was important in the medieval struggle between church and state. In 1438, after several conflicts between kings and popes, Charles VII issued the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, affirming that a pope was subject to a general council and that his jurisdiction was conditioned by the royal will.

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Bibliography

Gallicanism

Gallicanism