standard of Catholic moderation in rebuke of ultramontane excesses, makes it seasonable to tell its history. Gallicanism is no more than a transient and modern opinion which arose in France, without warrant or antecedents in the ancient Theological Schools of the French Church; a royal theology, as suddenly developed and as parenthetical as the Thirty-nine Articles, affirmed only by a small number out of the numerous Episcopate of France, indignantly rejected by many of them; condemned in succession by three Pontiffs; declared by the Universities of Louvain and Douai to be erroneous; retracted by the bishops of France; condemned by Spain, Hungary, and other countries, and condemned over again in the bull "Auctorem Fidei."'[1] Whether I am justified in using these words, the next chapter will show.
Now, in the following chapter I will give the outline of the history of the doctrine of the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff; and in doing so sufficient evidence will, I hope, appear by the way to justify the assertions of the above quotation. What will appear may be thus stated:—
1. That Gallicanism has no warrant in the doctrinal practice or tradition of the Church, either in France or at large, in the thousand years preceding the Council of Constance.
2. That the first traces of Gallicanism are to be found about the time of that Council.
3. That after the Council of Constance they were rapidly and almost altogether effaced from the theology of the Church in France, until their revival in 1682.
