French monarchy confirmed its hold on the Church of France. The process of subjugating the ecclesiastical liberties to the parliaments and tribunals of the country was steadily pursued; but the Church of a great nation, or rather of an aggregate of nations, in close contact and affinity with the Holy See, with the memories and even the present influences of Avignon in the midst of it, could not fall under a royal master, as the Church of an island, far off and detached from Rome, fell under the violence of a royal tyrant. The great Church of France was led, indeed, to the verge of danger through its national traditions, but it has never passed the line. English nationalism became the Anglican schism. French nationalism checked itself at the Gallican Articles. The Anglican Reformation has no perils for the Catholic Church; it is external to it, in open heresy and schism. Gallicanism is within its unity, and is neither schism nor heresy. It is a very seductive form of national Catholicism, which, without breaking unity, or positively violating faith, soothes the pride to which all great nations are tempted, and encourages the civil power to patronise the local Church by a tutelage fatal to its liberty. It is therefore certain that Gallicanism is more dangerous to Catholics than Anglicanism. The latter is a plague of which we are not susceptible; the former is a disease which may easily be taken. Gallicanism is also the last form of Regalism yet lingering in the Church. The Imperialism of Constantinople and of Germany is gone. Time has rendered it obsolete, because impossible; the ecclesiastical prerogatives of medieval
