The "Quatre Points Cardinaux" fountain in front of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Bossuet is one of the four Gallican prelates.

I have written an article on The Anglo-Catholic about Erastianism. There are several other articles that deal with the delicate balance a national Church maintains between its relationship with the secular State authorities (monarchy or republic, for example) and its communion with the See of Rome. I would recommend re-reading Dr William Tighe’s Can the Thirty-Nine Articles Function As a Confessional Standard for Anglicans Today?

I have tended to see Catholic Anglicanism as a kind of ‘English Gallicanism’ as opposed to state-sanctioned Protestantism. As some have commented, the comparison is very imperfect, even when Gallicanism is not confused with the Jansenism on which I have written.

In its Royal form, French Gallicanism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had much in common with Erastianism. Erastianism has changed its appearance over the centuries, but the principles stay the same. The Chinese Communists have their puppet church calling itself the Patriotic Association. Some countries like Latvia still appoint their bishops and Rome rubber stamps the appointment. French Gallicanism is still alive as in much of Europe, in their the national Episcopates do what they want and disobey everything coming from Rome, especially when it is a matter of doing something in a traditional direction.

I have often wondered if there is a ‘moderate’ Gallicanism, and indeed, if there is a ‘moderate’ Papalism. Take anything to absolutes and extremes, and the Church suffers from it. One thing that can be said for the French is, unlike Henry VIII, they stayed in communion with Rome. That communion was sometimes strained, but remained intact throughout. Common sense would inform us that a Church depending on a good and Catholic authority is a good thing, and that its domination by an authority that is un-Christian and even possibly evil can only lead to problems. It is the whole issue of the relationship between the Church and the State. With a good King like St Edward the Confessor or St Louis IX, who would consider any other arrangement? It is another matter when the Church has to bend the knee to an anticlerical Republic full of men like Emile Combes or characters with ideologies like that of Richard Dawkins.

Another things that can be said is that most modern States and democracies do not want to play nanny to a national Church. Secular politicians believe that religion should be allowed and tolerated as a private philosophy of life for its adepts and believers, but in no way should be allowed to have any influence, moral or political, on the functioning of the country’s government and legal authorities.

Gallicanism had its relevance under Christian kings and princes who largely respected the functioning of the national Church’s Episcopate in spiritual and canonical matters, and everything concerning the clergy.

Another thing to consider is the distinction between Royal Gallicanism and Episcopal Gallicanism. The former is moot when most countries no longer have a Monarchy or a Christian republic. The second still has relevance, for the simple reason that local Churches in communion with Rome have bishops.

One event is capital in the history of the Church and the determining of ecclesiology, the Council of Constance in 1414-17, and the Council of Basle in 1431-6. They brought an end to a situation of extreme corruption in the Papacy and the scandal of the Avignon antipopes. Those councils developed the notion of the Ecumenical Council and strengthened the standing of the Episcopate. The issue was the superiority of a General Council over the Pope. The word is Conciliarism.

Gallicanism was developed in the seventeenth century, and attempts were made to curtail the power of the Pope in France. The Pope could only influence by persuasion; he not enforce his will by constraint. The King was the Protector of the Church. Jansenism helped to spread Gallicanism in France to bring the clergy to support Royal absolutism rather than Papal absolutism. The accession of Louis XIV in 1661 ushered in a new era for Gallican liberties.

In the seventeenth century, the King of France had the right to revenues of vacant Sees and abbacies, and to appoint to benefices during the vacancy until the oath of allegiance had been taken by the new bishops. Follow the money! This is where the French title Monsieur l’Abbé (Sir Abbot) for a secular priest came from. Commendatory Abbots of monasteries were beneficed clerics who lived off the benefice and cared little for his monks!

Perhaps, the household name most associated with Gallicanism is Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, but he was only a part of the French Episcopate of his time. The French Bishops claimed four Gallican liberties:

1. The King is not subject to the Pope in temporal matters, and the Pope does not have the right to release the King’s subjects from the Oath of Allegiance.
2. The Pope’s power in spiritual matters cannot go against the Council of Constance.
3. The Roman Church cannot contradict the local laws and customs of the Gallican Church.
4. No decision of the Pope is irreformable until it has been received in the body of the Church.

The King was for the Articles, as was the Archbishop of Paris. The Doctors of the Sorbonne were against, and academics in those days had considerable influence. Many European universities protested against the French Gallican articles. Louis XIV was probably not far from a break with Rome as happened under Henry VIII. Louis XIV had no wish to repeat history. He finally repealed the Gallican articles in 1690 and opened friendly negotiations with Innocent XII. Despite the Articles no longer being compulsory in France, Gallicanism continued to have a strong hold.

Throughout the eighteenth century, the Crown and the French parliament constantly interfered in the affairs of the Church. Finally, after the Revolution, the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon with Pius VII destroyed Gallicanism as a coherent ecclesiological theory. There was an attempt under Napoleon to revive it by the Organic Articles.

Most nineteenth century bishops and priests had little time for Gallican principles, which disappeared entirely after the definition of Papal Infallibility at the Vatican Council. The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, in communion with the Anglican Communion since 1931, and now ordaining women and supporting same-sex marriage, are, in theory, built upon the Conciliarist principles of the Council of Constance. There is a small independent Gallican Church based near Bordeaux and there is also a community in Paris based at Saint Rita’s church in the Rue François Bonvin in the 15^th District.

The present attitude of dissidence on the part of many national Episcopates from the authority of the Pope has other roots than Gallicanism. I do not hear French, American or German progressive bishops talking about the Council of Constance or questions of benefices. The issues today are totally different. We have a situation of refusal of obedience to the Holy See, and a state of conflict between local Episcopates and the Roman Curia. The Church’s Bishops are in need of reform to strengthen and revive the notion of the Universal Church and Tradition.

Writing this brief article about Gallicanism brings me to the idea that everything needs to be in moderation. You go to one extreme, and people will react and go to the other extreme. One end of the spectrum was Louis XIV with his L’Etat c’est moi, and the other was Pius IX with his La Tradizione son’io. Vatican II solved many of the problems brought up by Vatican I. The authority of the Pope and that of the Bishops needs to be seen as complementary. Collegiality and Episcopal Conferences have been discussed at length and with great lucidity in the present Pope’s books going into questions of local Churches and Rome. The Church is afflicted very seriously when Bishops allow their ministries to be influenced by secularising ideologies. I have every confidence that many of these difficulties can be cleared up with good will and a spiritual sense of the Church.

Related posts:

1. Jansenism