Église gallicane

The Église gallicane, or the Gallican Church, is a French church that was founded by a former Roman Catholic priest, Hyacinthe Loyson. Loyson was considered to be the most effective pulpit orator of his day. In 1868, he was summoned to Rome and was ordered to stop preaching on any controversial subject, and to confine himself exclusively to those subjects upon which all Roman Catholics were united in belief.[1]

Traditionally the term "Gallican Church" was sometimes used as merely signifying the Catholic church in France, while more commonly it is applied to that church only so far as it holds to certain national privileges, doctrines, and usages. Those who have advocated these distinguishing peculiarities, in opposition to Rome, have therefore generally been called the Gallican party, while their opponents were known as the Roman, papal, or, in modern times, the ultramontane party.

The most important manifestation of Gallicanism is found in the pragmatic sanction of St. Louis (Louis IX.), issued in 1269, which forbade the levying of moneys for the court of Rome without the royal consent, and fixed, independently of the pope, the cases in which appeals were allowed from ecclesiastical tribunals to the royal courts. The spirit of independence was strengthened by the decrees passed in the fourth and fifth sessions of the Council of Constance, and those enacted by the Council of Basel while in open revolt against the pope.

Although these decrees were condemned by Roman pontiffs, they were adopted by France at the Assembly of Estates at Bourges in 1438, and promulgated in the pragmatic sanction of Charles VII., which forms the fundamental law of the Gallican church. This placed the general council above the pope, forbade the paying of taxes to the pope for appointing bishops and prelates, and abolished the annates after the death of the then living pope. This sanction was repealed by Louis XL in 1431, but restored by Charles VIII., and by Louis XII. through the edict of 1499. Its most important points were again changed by the concordat concluded in 1516 between Francis I. and Leo X., which granted most of the demands of the pope, and, notwithstanding the protestations of the parliaments and provincial estates, remained valid until the revolution of 1789. The Gallican church became almost entirely dependent upon the kings, who often found it to their interest to strengthen the Gallican rather than the Roman tendencies.

With Fr. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, Hyacinthe Loyson opposed what he saw as reactionary tendencies wrought by Vatican Council I. Loyson openly and publicly questioned the way in which the Council was convened. He was also an outspoken opponent of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. In June 1869, Loyson delivered an address before the Ligue internationale de la paix, which was founded by Frédéric Passy, in which he described the Jewish religion, the Catholic religion, and the Protestant religion as the three great religions of civilized peoples. This expression elicited severe censures from the Catholic press.[2]

Loyson was ordered to retract his statement, but he refused and broke with his order in an open letter of 20 September 1869, addressed to the General of the Discalced Carmelites, but evidently intended for the governing powers of the Church. In it he protested against the "sacrilegious perversion of the Gospel". For this and other perceived offences Loyson was excommunicated. In March 1873, Loyson was invited by the Old Catholics to lecture in Geneva. In a series of discourses he boldly advocated a complete system of Church reform, to be carried out in conjunction with the Old Catholic party.

Ten years later The New York Times published a jibing headline (October 30, 1883) which read: "The entire Gallican Church, consisting of the Rev. M. LOYSON and his wife, is now in this country. M. LOYSON arrived here on Sunday last, and there is no doubt that he will be warmly received by his many admirers." [3]