Christian Cyclopedia

Term applied to the polity in certain areas of the RC Ch., e.g., Ger. (see Febronianism) and esp. France. Gallicanism includes 2 primary principles: 1. Secular govt. is supreme in its own sphere; 2. papal jurisdiction, even in the sphere of religion, is subordinate to the collective episcopate. These principles were gen. maintained against papal absolutism 13th–19th c. The Pragmatic* Sanction of Bourges, issued 1438, embodied, with modifications, 23 reformatory decrees of the Council of Basel* directed against extortionary and other arbitrary proceedings of the papacy. In particular, it declared the supremacy of the nat. ch. as against the papal ideal of universal rule. A prominent phase of Gallicanism grew out of the quarrel bet. Louis* XIV and Innocent* XI; the Fr. clergy supported the king and in 1682 issued 4 Gallican Articles drawn up by J. B. Bossuet*: 1. The authority of the pope is limited to spiritual matters; 2. the authority of a council is above that of the pope; 3. the authority of the pope is restricted by the laws, institutions, and usages of the Fr. Ch.; 4. doctrinal pronouncements of the pope are final and authoritative only with concurrence of the whole ch. in council. See also Church and State, 8; Concordat, 4, 5; France, 1–3; Roman Catholic Church, The, D 2; Ultramontanism.