authority directly from God, that they held a unique position of independence within
Christendom, and that royal temporal concerns were outside papal jurisdiction. The result
of this doctrine was the crown’s insistence that the French church exercise independent
authority over ecclesiastical appointments, religious courts, and church revenues within
the realm.
During the Avignonese papacy and ensuing Great Schism (1378–1417), the French
played a complex role. Parisian scholars like Jean Gerson perfected the theory asserting
the so-called libertés de l’église gallicane and simultaneously supported the parallel
doctrine of conciliarism, which called for the council of bishops to limit papal
prerogative. French monarchs initially supported the Avignonese popes, but by 1398 they
temporarily withdrew obedience from both papal claimants. After the Council of
Constance (1414–18) reunified the western church, Valois legists and clerics worked to
reconcile their dogma with their institutions. At a 1438 synod, Charles VII issued the
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, which contained twenty-three articles giving Gallicanism
legal form. The papacy consistently opposed this legislation, and it was eventually
superseded by the Concordat of Bologna of 1516. In this definitive concession to the
French crown, the papacy promised to confirm all future royal appointments to
ecclesiastical office. As a result, the tradition of Gallican liberties jointly exercised by
crown and clergy lapsed in favor of an emphasis on the independent authority of the
crown over the French church.
Medieval Gallicanism left a mixed legacy. Although not tempted to support domestic
Protestantism, the crown was isolated from the Counter-Reformation church. France
never accepted the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the monarchy often supported
Protestant princes during the Wars of Religion. Gallicanism reached its fullest statement
in the 1682 declaration of the French clergy drafted by Bishop Bossuet, whose four
articles, though repealed only eleven years later, remained the basis of French church-
state relations until the 20th century.
Paul D.Solon
[See also: AVIGNON PAPACY; CONCORDAT OF AMBOISE; GERSON, JEAN;
PRAGMATIC SANCTION OF BOURGES; SONGE DU VERGIER; SUBTRACTION
OF OBEDIENCE]
Lewis, P.S. Later Medieval France: The Polity. New York: St. Martin, 1968.
Martin, Victor. Les origines du Gallicanisme. Paris: Bloud et Gay, 1939.
Royer, Jean-Pierre. L’église et le royaume de France au XIVe siècle d’après le “Songe du vergier”
et la jurisprudence du Parlement. Paris: Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1969.
Valois, Noel. La France et le grand schisme en occident. 4 vols. Paris: Picard, 1896–1902.
GARENCIÈRES, JEAN DE
(1372–1415). Along with Oton de Granson and the poets of the Cent ballades,
Garencières represents the new generation of knight-poets who appeared at the end of the
14th century. His surviving corpus includes some fifty poems, almost all love lyrics in
contemporary formes fixes: ballade, rondeau, lai, and complainte. They are found in a
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