GALLICANISM. — A complex of sacred doctrines, drawn from religious and political sources, which prevailed in France during the ancien régime (with remnants persisting into the 19th century), aimed at limiting the jurisdiction of the Holy See within the French Church. It claimed to be based on ancient rights and favored the sovereign’s interference in ecclesiastical affairs.
Attempts have been made to trace the origins of Gallicanism very far back, treating it as a characteristic feature of the French Church from the time of Charlemagne. While acknowledging significant precedents from that period, the immediate antecedents of Gallicanism are found in the 14th century.
In France, however, the power of the papacy is limited by the canons and rules of councils accepted in the kingdom.
PITHOU’s work is primarily political in nature; the defense of the liberties of the Gallican Church serves to exalt the authority of the king even in ecclesiastical matters. It establishes a kind of indirect power of the state over the Church, thereby strongly limiting the spiritual jurisdiction of the Holy See. More than the Gallican tradition itself, it was the controversies of those years over the absolute authority of the sovereign and the indirect power of the pope that shaped this system, which is commonly called political Gallicanism.
Political Gallicanism as developed by Pithou was expanded in the first half of the 17th century by other authors: Edmond Richer, syndic of the University of Paris, in *De ecclesiastica et politica potestate* (1611) and other writings; the Dupuy brothers in *De droits et libertés de l'Église gallicane* (1639); and Pierre de Marca in *De concordia sacerdotii et imperii seu de libertatibus gallicanis* (the first four books published in 1641). The episcopate and clergy of France did not adhere to this political Gallicanism (Richer himself was condemned in provincial synods at the instigation of Cardinal Du Perron). Yet under the reign of Louis XIV (1638–1715), Gallican theories gained ascendancy and were accepted and formulated—though not without opposition—even by representatives of the French Church. With Bossuet, who spoke of the “Gallicanism of magistrates” and the “Gallicanism of bishops,” their Gallicanism is often styled theological, in contrast to that of the politicians. The difference, however, is more apparent than real; in fact, it amounted to no more than the acceptance of political Gallicanism with its most dangerous jurisdictional principles attenuated, presented as a defense of the Gallican Church and its traditional doctrines. Lively theological controversies at the Sorbonne (which in 1663 led to the imposition of six propositions limiting papal ritual authority) preceded the celebrated *Declaration of the French Clergy* of 1682, which represents the definitive formulation of Gallicanism. The declaration was provoked by the king, who had convened an assembly of bishops and representatives of the clergy to support him in his dispute with the Holy See over the issue of regalia (v. INNOCENT XII). Bossuet was its principal drafter (it is uncertain whether in an irenic or conciliatory form), and he sought to temper the demands of the Gallicans so as to keep them within the bounds of common doctrine. He failed, however, to preserve the orthodoxy of the declaration (
V. text in Denz
U., 1322–25). The first article, while professing the full authority of the pope in spiritual matters, rejects—contrary to common theological doctrine—even indirect papal intervention in temporal affairs. The next three articles further encroach upon the pope’s spiritual jurisdiction: the second upholds the superiority of a council (affirmed implicitly through an appeal to the decrees of Constance, whose validity is proclaimed); the third defends Gallican liberties, presented within the broader framework of ecclesiastical customs and deemed inviolable because once approved by the Holy See; the fourth, and most serious, denies papal infallibility, conceiving it as dependent on the consent of the Church. Louis XIV immediately approved the declaration and imposed it on all schools and seminaries of the kingdom. This obligation was withdrawn in 1693, but the declaration remained registered with the Parlement, and the court continued in practice to uphold its principles until the Revolution. The Holy See opposed the Assembly of 1682, and the condemnation of the four articles was published in 1690 by Alexander VIII without explicit mention of them (to avoid schism), but declaring null and void all that had been decreed by the Assembly of 1682 (Denz.-U., 1325).Gallicanism exerted great influence throughout the 18th century. Its developments included various systems of jurisdictionalism and state interference in the Church that manifested themselves in Europe during that century. In particular, Gallican doctrine served as the foundation for the canonist Van Espen of Louvain, for Giannone in Italy, and for Febronius in Germany. Napoleon, in reestablishing the Church in France through the Concordat of 1801, sought to include the Declaration of 1682 among the organically abusive articles appended to the Concordat. During the Restoration, there was a certain revival of Gallicanism, supported by the court. Its final traces appeared at the First Vatican Council, in the controversy surrounding the definition of papal infallibility: the constitution *Pastor Aeternus*, which condemned with great precision the specific errors of Gallicanism, also marked its true end.