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4135 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA CWucan Confession Goancantam unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God; whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. Conse quently kings and princes are not by the law of God subject to any ecclesiastical power, nor to the keys of the Church, with respect to their temporal government. Their subjects can not be released from the duty of obeying them, nor ab solved from the oath of allegiance; and this maxim, necessary to public tranquillity, and not less advantageous to the Church than to the State, is to be strictly maintained, as conformable to the word of God, the tradition of the Fathers, and the example of the Saints. 2. The plenitude of power in things spiritual, which resides in the Apostolic See and the successors of St. Peter, is such that at the same time the decrees of the ecumenical Council of Constance, in its fourth and fifth sessions, approved as they are by the Holy See and the practise of the whole Church, remain in full force and perpetual obligation; and the Gallican Church does not approve the opinion of those who would depreciate the said decrees as being of doubtful authority, insuufciently approved, or restricted in their ap plication to a time of schism. 3. Hence the exercise of the Apostolic authority must be regulated by the canons enacted by the Spirit of God and con secrated by the reverence of the whole world. The ancient rules, customs, and institutions received by the realm and Church of France remain likewise inviolable; and it in for the honor and glory of the Apostolic See that such enact ments, confirmed by the consent of the said see and of the churches, should be observed without deviation. 4. The pope has the principal place in deciding questions of faith, and his decrees extend to every church and all churches; but nevertheless his judgment is not irreversible until confirmed by the consent of the Church. Under the system thus formally established, the pope was recognized as the successor of Peter and vicar of Christ, the divinely appointed head of 3. Relation the Church, with spiritual jurisdiction of the Pope over the whole body and over national to the Epis- Churches in particular. But the sta copate. tun of the bishops rested equally upon divine ordinance, and they, with the pope, represented the Church in general councils, which were of higher authority than the pope, and could alone issue an irreformable definition in matters of faith; a definition issued by the pope when no council was sitting required the consent of the whole Church before it could be considered irreformable. From the point of view of his rela tions to the French episcopate, the pope was sup posed to be bound by the canons, and in France especially by the recognized ancient customs. These, it is true, had been substantially altered by the Concordat of 1516 between Francis I. and Leo X., which had gone into effect in spite of clerical protests (Bee CONCORDATS AND DELIMITING B17LI13, III., 2, § 1). The king named the bishops, who were then confirmed by the pope. Papal interference in the affairs of individual dioceses was only to be tolerated as far as the law of the Church allowed. The papal nuncio had no jurisdiction in France, and the presence of a legate to latere was permissible only in virtue of a mutual agreement, and then only during the king's pleasure. The greatest power was conceded to the pope in regard to the ap pointment to benefices; abbots and, in practise, abbesses were nominated by the king and confirmed by the pope, who also claimed for his province dispensations of all kinds, unless the king or the par liaments interfered in a specific case. In theory the Church was an independent power, but in reality the State ruled. Every papal consti-
tution, whether relating to doctrine or discipline, required the approval of the king or a government
official before it went into effect in .y. Relation France, and the same thing applied of the Pope to the decrees of councils. A part of to the State: the decisions of the Council of Trent
was enforced through the royal ordonnance de Blois of 1579. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction was strictly limited. The offenses of clerics, unless purely ecclesiastical, came before secular tribunals, except in the case of bishops, who were tried before a provincial council. All mixed causes (dissolution of marriage, questions of church property, benefices, tithes, etc.) were decided by the higher secular courts. The king claimed the right to tax the clergy and church property, but this was vehemently opposed by the clergy and, never wholly conceded before the Revolution. , The incomes of vacant sees went to the king, who also claimed the right to appoint to all benefices during a vacancy in the see.
The State took strong ground against any immediate interference of the curia in the government of the French Church. A French prelate consecrated in Rome was not allowed to exercise his functions. The decrees of the Roman congregations had no validity in France, nor were Frenchmen allowed to be summoned to Rome in any process of law. As 9, consequence of this conflict between the rival powers, an institution grew up which seriously crippled the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the appal comma d'abus, by which on the application of one party to a case, or simply on grounds of public interests, the procureur-gWral might cite the case before the parliament of the province for investigation and decision. This institution, created by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1438 (see PRAGMATIC SANCrION), was abolished by the Concordat of 1516, but the parliaments still maintained it; it found a new support in the ordonnance de Millers-Coter4s in 1539, was limited or modified on complaint of the clergy by new edicts in 1571, 1580, 1605, and 1695, and stoutly upheld by the parliaments until practically there was no more question of an independent ecclesiastical jurisdiction or administration. Thus the power of the papacy was indeed broken, but at the cost of serious damage to the rights of the episcopate and the complete subjection of the Gallican Church to the State. The downfall of the old r_gime, however, allowed the pope to acquire a degree of power in France which he had never before possessed, and the nineteenth century witnessed the gradual decay of the last remnants of the old Gallican spirit. (J. F. voN ScHuLTE.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. de Marca, De ooncordia saardotii et imperil, Paris, 1641; J. B. Boseuet, Detensio declaraiionis
. de potentate eccleeim sanxit clams Gallicanus, Luxemburg, 1730; C. Fleury, Diseours our lea libertt!a de l'6plise pallicane, Paris, 1765; idem, Institution au droit ecrcUsiastique, ib. 1767; L. E. Dupin, Les Libert& de 1'Jplise pailicane, ib. 1824; idem, Manual du droit publique eccUsiastique /rantais, ib. 1847; J, B. Bordas-Demoulin, Las Pouyoirs conatitutifs de 1'hgliae, ib. 1855; F. Host, Le Gallimnisme, ib. 1855; W. H. Jervis, The Gallican Church, London, 1872 (from 1516 to the Revolution); idem, The Gallican Church and the Revolution, ib. 1882; A. Le Roy, Le Gallicanieme au xviii. sipcle, Paris, 1892; L. Mention, Domino* relatila aux rapporta du clerg,' avec 14 royaulE 1888-1705, Paris, 1893 sqq.; A. Debedour. Mist. den rap-