ULTRAMONTANISM
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ULTRAMONTANISM
COLOAN, Acta Sand. Uib. (Louvain, 1645) ; Coqan, Diocese of
Mealh (Dublin. 18R2)i Healt, Ireland's Ancient Schools and
Scholars (4th ed., Dublin, 1902) ; Hyde, Lit. Hist, of Ireland (upw
ed., London. 1901). W. H. GraTTAN-FloOD.
Ultramontanism, a term used to denote integral and active Catholicism, because it recognizes as its spiritual head the pope, who, for the greater part of Europe, is a dweller beyond the mountains {ultra mnntes), that is, beyond the Alps. The term "ultra- montane", indeed," is relative: from the Roman, or Italian, point of view, the French, the Germans, and all the other peoples north of the Alps are ultra- montanes, and technical ecclesiastical language actu- ally applies the word in precisely this sense. In the Middle Ages, when a non-Italian pope was elected he was said to be a pnpa idtranumtano. In this sense the word occurs very frequently in documents of the thir- teenth century; after the migration to Avignon, how- ever, it dropped out of the language of the Curia. In a verv' dilTerent sense, the word once more came into use after the Protestant Reformation, which was, among other things, a triumph of that ecclesiastical particularism, based on political principles, which was fonnvilated in the maxim: Cujus regio, ejus religin. Among the Catholic governments and peoples there gradually developed an analogous tendency to regard the pai)acv as a foreign power; Gallicanism and all forms of French and German regalism affected to look uiion the Holy See as an alien power because it was beyond the Alpine boundaries of both the French kingdom and the German empire. This name of Ultramontane the Gallicans applied to the supporters of the Roman doctrines — whether that of the mon- archical character of the pope in the government of the Church or of the infallible pontifical magisleriiim — inasmuch as the latter were supposed to renounce "Galilean hberties" in favour of the head of the Church who resided ultra monies. This use of the word was not altogether novel; as early as the time of Gregory VII the opponents of Henry IV in Ger- many had been called Ultramontanes (ultrmnon- tani). In both cases the term was intended to be opprobrious, or at least to convey the imputation of a failing in attachment to the Ultramontane's own prince, or his country, or his national Church.
In the eighteenth century the word passed from France back to Germany, where it was adopted by the Febronians, Josephinists, and Rationalists, who called them-selves Catholics, to designate the theo- logians and tlie faithful who were attached to the Holy See. Thus it acquired a much wider significa- tion, being applicable to all Roman Catholics worthy of the name. The Revolution adopted this polemical term from the old regime: the "Divine State", formerly personified in the prince, now found its personification in the people, becoming more " Divine" than ever as the State became more and more laic and irreligious, and, both in principle and in fact, denied any other God but itself. In presence of this new form of the old state-worship, the "Ultramon- tane" is the antagonist of the athei,sts as much as the non-Cathohc believers, if not more — witness the Bis- marckian KulturkampJ, of which the National Liberals rather than the orthodox Protestants were the soul. Thus the word came to be applied more especially in Germany from the earliest decades of the nineteenth century. In the frequent conflicts between Church and State the supporters of the Church's liberty and independence as against the State are called UUramontanes. The Vatican Coun- cil naturally called forth numerous written attacks upon Ultramontanism. \\'hen the Centre was formed as a political party it was called by preference the Ultramontane i)arty. In a few years the "Anti- Ultramontane Reichsverband " came into existence to combat the Centre and, at the same time, Catholi- cism as a whole.
As our present purpose is to state what Ultramon-
tanism is, it is beside our scope to expound the Cath-
olic doctrine on the power of the Church and, in
particular, of the pope, whether in spiritual or in
temporal matters, these subjects being treated else-
where under their respective titles. It is sufficient
here to indicate what our adversaries mean by Ultra-
montanism. For Catholics it would, be superfluous
to ask whether Ultramontanism and Catholicism are
the same thing: assuredly, those who combat Ultra-
montanism are in fact combating Catholicism, even
while they disclaim the desire to oppose it. One of
the recent adversaries of Ultramontanism among
CathoUcs was a priest. Professor Franz Xaver Kraus,
who says ("Spektatorbrief ", II, quoted in the article
Ultramontanismus in "Realencycl. fiir prot. Theol. u.
Kirche", ed. 1908): "1. An Ultramontane is one
who sets the idea of the Church above that of religion;
2 . . . who substitutes the pope for the Church;
3 . . . who believes that the kingdom of God is of this world and that, as medieval curialism asserted, the power of the keys, given to Peter, included tem- poral jurisdiction also; 4 . . . who believes that religious conviction can be imposed or broken with material force; 5 . . . who is ever ready to sacrifice to an extraneous authority the plain teaching of his own conscience." According to the definition given in Leichtenberger, "Encycl. des sciences religieuses" (ed. 1882): "The character of Ultramontanism is manifested chiefly in the ardour with which it conibats every movement of independence in the national Churches, the condemnation which it visits upon works written to defend that independence, its denial of the rights of the State in matters of government, of ecclesiastical administration and ecclesiastical con- trol, the tenacity with which it has prosecuted the declaration of the dogma of the pope's infallibility and with which it incessantly advocates the restora- tion of his temporal power as a necessary guarantee of his spiritual sovereignty."
The war against Ultramontanism is accounted for not merely by its adversaries' denial of the genuine Catholic doctrine of the Church's power and that of her supreme ruler, but also, and even more, by the consequences of that doctrine. It is altogether false to attribute to the Church either political aims of temporal dominion among the nations or the pretence that the pope can at his own pleasure depose sover- eigns that the Catholic must, even in purely civil matters, subordinate his obedience towards his own sovereign to that which he owes to the pope, that the true fatherland of the Catholic is Rome, and so forth. These are cither pure inventions or malicious traves- ties. It is neither scientific nor honest to attribute to "Ultramontanism" the particular teaching of some theologian or some school of times past ; or to invoke certain facts in medieval history, which may be ex- plained by the peculiar conditions, or by the rights which the popes possessed in the Middle Ages (for example, their rights in conferring the imperial crown). For the rest, it is sufficient to follow attentively, one by one, the struggle kept up in their journals and Ijooks to be convinced that this warfare by the Rationahst-Protestant-Modernist coahtion against "Clericalism" or "Ultramontanism" is, fundameiit- ally, directed against integral Catholicism — that is, against pa]>al, anti-Liberal, and eounter-Revolu- tionary Catholicism. (See al.so State and Church; Pope;"Galli('anism; Feduonianism; Syllabus.)
The following works are all opposed to Ultramontanism: DoLLlKGEB, Kleinere Schriflen. ed. Reusch (1890); InEM. Kirche und Kirchrn, Papstum uud Kirchtnstaat (Ratisbon, 1801) ; VON HiJENBROECH. DcT UUramonlanismun, seine Wesen und seine Bekttmpfung (2nd ed., 1899): GoTZ, Der Ultramonlanismus ah Weltanschauung (1904); Quinet, L' UUramonlanisme, ou Vtahse romaine et la sociill modeme (Paris, 1844); Latbeili.e, Joseph de Maistre et la papautf (Paris, 1906).
U. Benigni.
