Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/99



the seventeenth century Ultramontanism found its principal obstruction in the Church of France, its principal support in the Jesuit Society. The progress of the theory roughly corresponded with the vicissitudes of this powerful community. The League against the succession in France exchanged monarchical and Gallican sentiments for Republican and Ultramontane. The theories of political independence and ecclesiastical absolutism flourished for a time. Ultramontanism even controlled for a time the very stronghold of Gallican doctrine—the Sorbonne itself. But this cannot be rightly regarded as anything more than a transient politically affected phase. The Sorbonne returned to its ancient loyalties. It possessed no longer the same authority and weight as in the disastrous days of the great Schism; but it still imposed a powerful check on the theories of the Ultramontane. Its influence was often compromised, sometimes counterbalanced, by the Jesuit Society which, supported by an Italian Queen Regent during the minority of Louis XIII., was enabled to effect gradual encroachments upon the ancient University, by founding colleges and, ultimately, granting degrees, even in Paris itself. Cardinal Richelieu, rebuilder and lavish