'While we are standing upon the awful confines of this mortal life, and meditating on the account we must give of the supreme administration of the Church of God which has been committed to us, to the strict Judge Who is knocking at the door, we have deemed it to be altogether our duty to declare null and void all things, with all their consequences, past and future, which some years ago were done and declared in thy kingdom against the rights of churches, persons, and foundations in the same kingdom, and also against the authority of the Roman Pontiff, the Apostolic See, and the Universal Church, as will manifestly appear from the brief promulgated on the subject.'[1]
To Alexander VIII. succeeded Innocent XII., in whose time the contest with the King of France was terminated. In the letter of Louis XIV. to the Pontiff, on his elevation, the King retracted the acts of 1682 in these words:—'And, inasmuch as I desire to testify (my filial respect) by the most effectual proofs in my power, I most gladly make known to your Holiness that I have given the necessary commands that the things contained in my edict of the 22nd day of March 1682, concerning the declaration of the Gallican clergy (to which past circumstances drove me), shall not be observed.'[2]
It was also required that the bishops of France who had participated in those acts should retract the same.
