never suffered so many disappointments as were caused by his quarrel
with the Pope. There is no event in his life which more alienated the
people as his proceedings and conduct towards the Pope."

[119] Ultramontanism; a set of doctrines establishing the pope's
absolute authority.






CHAPTER II.

I. The Catholic System.

The effects of the system. - Completion of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy. - Omnipotence of the Pope in the Church. - Influence of the
French Concordat and other precedents from 1801 to 1870. - Why the
clergy becomes ultramontane. - The dogma of Infallibility.

In 1801, at Rome, pending the negotiations for the Concordat, when
Pius VII. still hesitated about the deposition in mass of the
survivors of the ancient French episcopacy, clear-sighted observers
already remarked, "Let this Concordat which the First Consul desires
be completed,[1] and you will see, on its ratification, its immense
importance and the power it will give to Rome over the episcopacy
throughout the universe." - In effect, through this "extraordinary,
nearly unexampled" act of authority, and certainly unequaled "in the
history of the Church,"[2] the ultramontane theory, contested up to