Ultramontanism

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Ultramontanism literally alludes to a policy supporting those dwelling "beyond the mountains" (ultra montes), that is, beyond the Alps—generally referring to the Pope in Rome. In particular, ultramontanism may consist in alleging the superiority of Papal authority over the authority of local temporal or spiritual hierarchies.

The actual origin of the term is relative and technical ecclesiastical language from the Middle Ages: when a non-Italian pope was elected he was said to be a papa ultramontano.

The word was revived after the Protestant Reformation. Among the northern European governments and peoples there gradually developed a tendency to regard the papacy as a foreign power, especially when the Pope interfered in temporal matters by favoring some ruler or country over another. This name of Ultramontain was applied in France to the supporters of the Roman doctrines and papal superiority, as opposed to the "Gallican liberties". The term was intended to be insulting, or at least to convey the implication of a failing in attachment to one's own country. From the 17th century, ultramontanism became closely associated with the Society of Jesus, stating the superiority of popes over councils and kings, even in temporal questions.

In the 18th century the word passed to Germany (Josephinism and Febronianism), where it acquired a much wider signification, being applicable to all the conflicts between Church and State, the supporters of the Church being called Ultramontanes. (It is in this sense that Paleoconservatives in the United States are sometimes referred to as being Ultramontanist.)

The word ultramontanism was revived in the context of the French Third Republic as a general insulting terms for policies advocating the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in the policies of the French government, in opposition to laïcité.

In the above cases, the ultramontanist movement acted as a counterbalance to growing power of the state in Europe. Roman Catholic apologists argued that if the Pope has ultimate authority in the Church, then national churches would be more immune to interference from their governments. As a fact of history, however, states which had national churches grew increasingly secular and have either granted charters of religious freedom or have disestablished the Church.

Within the Roman Catholic Church, Ultramontanism achieved victory over conciliarism at the First Vatican Council with the pronouncement of papal infallibility and of the supreme universal and immediate episcopal jurisdiction of the Roman Pope. Other Catholic Christians not in full communion with Rome 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 Declaration of Utrecht, which became the foundational documents of Old-Catholics (Altkatholische) who split with Rome over the declaration on infallibility and supremacy. With the resolution of the question of papal authority in the Roman Catholic Church, the Ultramontanist movement, and the opposing conciliarism, became obsolete to a large extent.

However, at the Second Vatican Council, the debate re-emerged, and in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the Pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. Challenges to Ultramontanism have remained strong within and outside of Roman jurisdiction since then. This has particularly overshadowed ecumenical work between the Roman Catholic Church and both Lutherans and Anglicans. The joint Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation on The Gift of Authority highlights agreements and differences on these issues.

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