A Concise History of the Catholic Church by Thomas Bokenkotter

Author:Thomas Bokenkotter [Bokenkotter, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Religion, Christianity, Catholic, History, Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307423481
Google: DISK1e7JXA8C
Amazon: 0385516134
Publisher: Image
Published: 2005-08-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

PIO NONO CARRIES ULTRAMONTANISM TO A GRAND TRIUMPH AT VATICAN I

One of the most remarkable trends in nineteenth-century Catholicism was the tremendous increase in the power and influence of the papacy. This resurgence of ultramontanism was closely associated with the Catholic revival of the early nineteenth century. The Ultramontanes were Rome-centered Catholics who in contrast with the Gallicans, their adversaries, saw a strong papacy as the only salvation of the Church in an age of godless, anti-Christian, and anticlerical liberals. No one was more fervently ultramontane than Pius IX himself, and his long reign (1846–78), coupled with numerous other religious, social, and political factors, enabled him to steer the movement to its climax—the definition of papal infallibility at Vatican I. This increase of spiritual authority more than compensated for his loss of temporal authority. It also set the Church’s stamp of approval on his condemnation of liberalism and hardened the Church in the state-of-siege mentality that Pius himself did so much to foster.

NUMEROUS REASONS CAN be found for the strong ultramontane upsurge in the early nineteenth century. First, political conservatives saw in the papacy a strong bulwark against the revolutionary ideas. Second, Pius VII’s heroic defiance of the autocratic Napoleon enhanced the prestige of the papacy. Third, the clergy, who had been stripped by the Revolution of their property and privileges, found Rome their only defense against the whims of the lay state, which wanted to make them mere civil servants. Fourth, many priests who suffered persecution for their obedience to Rome came out of their experience strengthened in their loyalty. Fifth, the Concordat of 1801, requiring that the whole French episcopate tender their resignation to the Pope, struck a heavy blow at Gallicanism by providing an unprecedented and awesome demonstration of the Pope’s power over the bishops. Sixth, the same concordat, by giving the bishops almost unlimited authority over their priests, drove the latter into the arms of the Pope as their only safeguard against episcopal arbitrariness.

On the literary front two important French writers, Lamennais and de Maistre, greatly advanced the cause of ultramontanism. The latter’s book Du Pape (1819)—a best seller in its day—argued in favor of an infallible authoritarian papacy as indispensable to a conservative European political order. Lamennais for his part won over a large section of the younger clergy to his vision of a cohesive Church closely linked with the Pope and ready to struggle with the new and godless liberal order. So it took only twenty years in France to gain wide popular acceptance of the ultramontane Church order— stressing the personal infallibility of the Pope and close control by the Roman Curia over the internal affairs of the Church.

Conditions in Germany also favored a grass-roots ultramontane movement. During the Revolution numerous sees remained vacant for a long period; in the interim the German Catholics got accustomed to depending on Rome for dispensations and other necessities. Moreover, thanks to the gerrymandering of the Congress of Vienna, Catholics found themselves everywhere in a minority. In dealing with the Protestant governments, they learned to appreciate Rome’s help and support.

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