Gallicanism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The doctrine that the church of France is autonomous, especially in relation to the pope; also, the intellectual movement in support of this doctrine and the policies expressing it. countable, historical, uncountable
"[…] after being ordained, [Wake] went to Paris in 1682 as chaplain to Viscount Preston. Here Wake came into close touch with Gallicanism […]"
- 2 a religious movement originating among the French Roman Catholic clergy that favored the restriction of papal control and the achievement by each nation of individual administrative autonomy of the church wordnet
- 3 Support for the autonomy of national churches. broadly, countable, derogatory, often, uncountable
"Ultramontanism (dominance by the Vatican) conflicted with Gallicanism (freedom from the Vatican) as the Church tried to come to terms with the changes of the nineteenth century."
- 4 A liturgical feature distinctive of the Gallican Rite. countable, uncountable
"It must be remembered that the Gelasian Sacramentary is a Gallican recension of a Roman Sacramentary, and that it abounds in Gallicanisms."
Example
More examples"[…] after being ordained, [Wake] went to Paris in 1682 as chaplain to Viscount Preston. Here Wake came into close touch with Gallicanism […]"
Etymology
From Gallican + -ism.
Related phrases
More for "gallicanism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.