Assembly of The French Clergy - Assembly of 1682

Assembly of 1682

Four Articles were voted on by the Assembly of 1682, convened to consider the régale, a term denoting the right assumed by the French king during the vacancy of a see to appropriate its revenues and make appointments to benefices. The kings of France had often affirmed that the right of régale belonged to them in virtue of the supremacy of the Crown over all sees. Under Louis XIV, these claims were vigorously enforced. Two prelates, Nicolas Pavillon, Bishop of Alet, and François-Etienne Caulet, Bishop of Pamiers, made a lively resistance to the royal pretensions. The pope sustained them with all his authority. Thereupon the king convoked the Assembly of 1682, presided over by Harley de Champvallon, and Le Tellier, Archbishops respectively of Paris and of Reims. Bossuet, on 9 November, 1681, preached in the church on the Grands Augustins at Paris his sermon "On the Unity of the Church". This piece of eloquence was so fortunate as to secure the approbation of both pope and king. Contrary to its custom, the Assembly ordered the discourse to be printed. Thereupon, the question of the régale was quickly decided according to the royal wish.

When Louis XIV asked the Assembly to pronounce upon the authority of the pope. Bossuet tried to temporize and requested that, before proceeding further, Christian tradition on this point be carefully studied. This move proving unsuccessful, the Bishop of Meaux stood out against the Gallican propositions presented in the name of the commission by Choiseul-Praslin, Bishop of Tournai. Thereupon the propositions were turned over to Bossuet himself; he succeeded in eliminating from them the irritating question of appeals to a future council, a proposition several times condemned by the Holy See.

It was then that the Assembly voted (19 March 1682) the "Four Articles" that may be briefly summarized as follows:

• The pope has no right, direct or indirect, over the temporal power of kings.
• The pope is inferior to the General Council, and the decrees of the Council of Constance in its fourth and fifth sessions are still binding,
• The exercise of pontifical authority should be regulated by the ecclesiastical canons.
• Dogmatic decisions of the pope are not irrevocable until they have been confirmed by the judgment of the whole Church.

Bossuet, who was drawn into the discussions in spite of himself, wrote his Defensio Declarationis in justification of the decisions of the Assembly. It was not published, however, until after his death. The king ordered the Four Articles to be promulgated from all the pulpits of France. Pope Innocent XI (1676-89), notwithstanding his dissatisfaction, hesitated to pass censure on the publication of the "Four Articles", He contented himself with expressing his disapproval of the decision made by the Assembly on the question of the régale, and refused the papal Bulls to those members of the Assembly who had been selected by the king for vacant sees.