Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or state's authority—over the Church is comparable to that of the Pope.
History
The term descends from the Middle Ages, when a non-Italian pope was said to be papa ultramontano – a pope from beyond the mountains (the Alps).[1] Foreign students at medieval Italian universities also were referred to as ultramontani.
After the
In the 18th century the term came to refer to supporters of the Church in any conflict between church and state. In Austria ultramontanists were opposed to Josephinism, and in Germany to Febronianism. In Great Britain and Ireland ultramontanists resisted Cisalpinism, which favored concessions to the Protestant state in order to achieve Catholic emancipation.
In
In Canada, the majority of Catholic clergy despised the French Revolution and its anti-clerical bias and looked to Rome for both spiritual and political guidance. There were many laymen and laywomen who supported these ideals as key to preserving Canadian institutions and values. For this reason they were called ultramontanists. The ultramontanes distrusted both the Protestant anglophone and francophone politicians, but the Church found it easier to deal with British governors, who appreciated the role of the Church in containing dissent, than with the francophone liberal professionals who were secularists.[5]
First Vatican Council
According to Catholic academic Jeffrey P. von Arx,
The threat to the Catholic Church and the papacy through the 19th century was real, and the church’s reaction to that threat was understandable. Indeed, the church remained threatened on all sides. On the left, secular liberals sought to reduce or eliminate the role of the church in public life and civil society (by suppressing church schools, for example, and expelling religious congregations). The more radical heirs of the revolution and the socialists and communists into whom they evolved remained committed to the church’s utter destruction. But the threat was also from the nationalist right. Otto von Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was aimed directly at the Catholic Church, imposing state supervision of Catholic schools and seminaries and government appointment of bishops with no reference to Rome.[6]
The response was a condemnation of Gallicanism as heretical:
[W]e condemn and reject the opinions of those who hold that this communication of the supreme head with pastors and flocks may be lawfully obstructed; or that it should be dependent on the civil power, which leads them to maintain that what is determined by the apostolic see or by its authority concerning the government of the church, has no force or effect unless it is confirmed by the agreement of the civil authority.[7]
The Council also asserted
[W]e teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman Church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other Church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman Pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world.[8]
Von Arx compares this to "the great empires and national states of the 19th century, which used new means of communication and transportation to consolidate power, enforce unity and build bureaucracies".[6] "Cardinal Henry Edward Manning in Great Britain thought unity and discipline within the church were of the utmost importance in protecting the church and advancing its interests in a liberal, democratic state, and so he was one of the strongest advocates of the ultramontane position."[6] The English bishops at the Council were characterized by their ultramontanism and described as "being more Catholic than the Pope himself".[9]
Reaction
Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church |
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Other Christian groups outside the Catholic Church declared this as the triumph of what they termed "the heresy of ultramontanism". It was specifically decried in the "Declaration of the Catholic Congress at Munich", in the Theses of Bonn, and in the
As with previous pronouncements by the pope, liberals across Europe were outraged by the doctrine of infallibility and many countries reacted with laws to counter the influence of the church. The term "ultramontanism" was revived during the
After
At the
Controversy
Some, such as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, have claimed the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity can overrun ultramontanism and has the potential to decentralize the Catholic Church,[11] whereas others defend it as merely a bureaucratic adjustment to give more pastoral responsibility to local bishops and priests of local parishes.[12]
Challenges to ultramontanism have remained strong within and outside Roman jurisdiction.
Position of other traditional churches
Papal primacy, supremacy and infallibility |
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Ultramontanism is distinct from the positions adopted by the other traditional churches, particularly the
In the joint agreed statement "The Gift of Authority" (1999) the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion were agreed on the collegial nature of the life and work of bishops.[17]: 148 Similarly both churches acknowledged the role of episcopal primacy within the college of bishops.[17]: 151 On the question of the universal primacy of the Pope, the joint report found common ground, and stated that a "particular conclusion" of their discussions had been "that Anglicans be open to and desire a recovery and re-reception under certain clear conditions of the exercise of universal primacy by the Bishop of Rome";[17]: 159 nonetheless a clear distinction remained between the Anglican view of a universal primacy exercised within a universal collegiality, and the Catholic view of a universal primacy with actual universal jurisdiction.
See also
- Caesaropapism
- Donation of Constantine
- Erastianism
- Integralism
- Interdict
- Louis-Antoine Caraccioli
- Neo-ultramontanism
- Political Catholicism
- Quanta cura
- Syllabus of Errors
- Temporal power (papal)
References
- ^ a b Benigni, Umberto. "Ultramontanism." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 6 January 2019
- ISBN 9789004146662
- ^ Farriss, N.M. Crown and Clergy in Colonial Mexico 1759-1821. London: The Athlone Press 1968, p. 97.
- ^ Farriss, Crown and Clergy, p. 105.
- ^ Belshaw, John Douglas. "Ultramontanism and Secularism", Canadian History: Pre-Confederation, B.C. Open Textbook project
- ^ a b c Von Arx, Jeffrey (June 10, 2015). "How did Vatican I change the church?" America Magazine.
- ^ a b O'Neill, Taylor Patrick (October 12, 2018). "A Defense of Ultramontanism Contra Gallicanism". Church Life Journal. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on January 17, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- ^ "Pastor aeternus", Const. de Ecclesia Christi, July 18, 1870
- ^ Nobili-Vitelleschi, Francesco (1876). The Vatican Council; Eight Months at Rome, During the Vatican Council. London: John Murray. p. 28.
- ISBN 9780802831743, retrieved 2012-02-10
- ISBN 0826413617, 9780826413611
- ^ See e.g. Vinzenz Gasser, trans. James Thomas O'Connor, The Gift of Infallibility: The Official Relatio on Infallibility of Bishop Vincent Ferrer Gasser at Vatican Council I (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986/2008).
ISBN 1681494914, 978168149491
- ISBN 0199741417, 9780199741410
- ISBN 0809149605, 9780809149605
- ISBN 1551262460, 9781551262468
- ^ "Anglicanism and the Papacy". Anglican Catholic. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
- ^ a b c "Looking towards a Church fully reconciled" (PDF). SPCK (2016). Retrieved 16 June 2018.
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
External links
- The Gift of Authority (Eternal Word Television Network)
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.