ULTRAMONTANISM. - A word of generic and imprecise meaning, created and used beyond the mountains (France, Germany, England, the Low Countries) to designate, rather than a true current of thought, that adherence to the orientations and the conduct of the Roman Church in theological and jurisdictional relations or even in political interests.
In those countries, therefore, those writers, politicians, and Catholic ecclesiastical figures who followed such a line of conduct were called ultramontane, and naturally all Italians faithful to the teachings of the Holy See. People began by calling ultramontane those citizens or those religious who in Germany took the side of Gregory VII during the investiture controversy. In the 17th century in France, the same name was given by the Jansenists and the regalists to the jurists and theologians who combated their doctrines. For the Josephinists, the Enlightenment thinkers, and the Febronians, their adversaries were likewise ultramontane. The word continued to be used during the 19th century by all liberals and non-Catholics who in the religious field followed new theories or assumed oppressive practical attitudes in their relations with Catholicism. Particularly during the debates held on the occasion of the Vatican Council, the supporters of papal infallibility were readily called ultramontane.
And even today the use of this word has not been lost in politico-religious polemics, always preserving a tone if not of true contempt, at least of discredit.
Bibliography
Pio Paschini