Gallicanism

G2A1L1L1I1C3A1N1I1S1M3

noun

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.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounGallicanism (countable and uncountable, plural Gallicanisms)

plural Gallicanisms

  1. countablehistoricaluncountableCatholicismThe 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.

    […] after being ordained, [Wake] went to Paris in 1682 as chaplain to Viscount Preston. Here Wake came into close touch with Gallicanism […]

    1912, “Wake, William”, in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, volume 12, page 237
    1 more example

    Moreover, the enthusiasm with which Hecker’s ideas had been received among Catholic liberals in France served to increase Leo XIII’s suspicion that Americanism was yet another attempt, not so very different from the Gallicanisms of the past, to assert the independence of a national church from Rome.

    1999, Michael W. Cuneo, The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism, →ISBN, page 8

    Antonyms: anti-Gallicanism, ultramontanism

  2. broadlycountablederogatoryoftenuncountableSupport for the autonomy of national churches.

    Douthat himself immediately tweeted that “it’s synodality when the Germans want something, Gallicanism when the Americans want something.”

    2018 November 19, Chad C. Pecknold, “Synodality Upended”, in First Things
    2 more examples

    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.

    2006, John C. Super, “Papacy”, in J. Michael Francis, editor, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia, volume 1, →ISBN, page 823

    The second large issue roiling the world Church during the papacy of Pope Francis was closely related to this theological question of the reality of revelation: the emergence of a new, twenty-first-century Gallicanism that imagined Catholicism as a federation of national Churches rather than a universal Church with distinctive local expressions.

    2019, George Weigel, The Irony of Modern Catholic History […], →ISBN
  3. countableuncountableChristianityA liturgical feature distinctive of the Gallican Rite.

    It must be remembered that the Gelasian Sacramentary is a Gallican recension of a Roman Sacramentary, and that it abounds in Gallicanisms.

    1895, F. E. Warren, “Introduction”, in The Antiphonary of Bangor: An Early Irish Manuscript in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, part 2, page xxviii
    2 more examples

    The earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon books are full of Gallicanisms: just as the Stowe Missal, though it contains the Roman Canon, betrays at every turn its Celtic origin.

    1904, C. J. B. Gaskoin, Alcuin: His Life and Work, page 217

    Whatever Gallicanisms are found in the Dominican rite were not taken directly from the Gallican rite—for this had long ceased to exist—but from the Roman rite. As a matter of fact some of the Gallican customs incorporated in the Roman rite were rejected by the Friars Preachers in favor of the more ancient practice of Rome.

    1939, William R. Bonniwell, “The Dominican Rite”, in The American Ecclesiastical Review, volume 100, number 6, page 508

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe 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.

Origin

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 高卢主义, 限制教皇权力主义
  • 高卢主义doctrine of autonomy of the French church
  • 限制教皇权力主义doctrine of autonomy of the French church
  • 各国天主教自主主义doctrine of autonomy of the French church
Finnish gallikanismi
  • gallikanismidoctrine of autonomy of the French church
French gallicanisme
  • gallicanismedoctrine of autonomy of the French church
German Gallikanismus
  • Gallikanismusdoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Hungarian gallikanizmus
  • gallikanizmusdoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Indonesian Galikanisme
  • Galikanismedoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Italian gallicanismo
  • gallicanismodoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Latin Gallicānismus
  • Gallicānismusdoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Norwegian Bokmål gallikanisme
  • gallikanismedoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Polish gallikanizm
  • gallikanizmdoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Spanish galicanismo
  • galicanismodoctrine of autonomy of the French church
Cite this entry
APA

Gallicanism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gallicanism

MLA

“Gallicanism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gallicanism. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gallicanism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gallicanism.

Source: Gallicanism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.