[Le Dran?].

[GALLICAN-LEGALIST POLEMIC AGAINST THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND FOR PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY – MANUSCRIPTS] Traité touchant la reception et l'autorité du Concile de Trente en France [Treatise concerning the reception and authority of the Council of Trent in France].

[France], early 18th century. Octavo (21.3 × 15.7 cm). Contemporary mottled calf; spine over five raised bands with gilt-tooling to compartments and two leather spine labels; dentelles to outer edges; marbled endpapers; manuscript table of contents in a somewhat later hand; 131 pp. of brown ink on laid paper, fair copy in a neat French cursive hand. Front hinge starting; else about very good. Item #55101

Fair copy of an unattributed treatise that takes a strongly Gallican-legalist stance in the continuing debate about the ramifications of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) – which crucially clarified and strengthened Catholic doctrine while condemning Protestant beliefs, but the decrees of which were never fully accepted in France. To begin with, the council was delayed, among other things, by a conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and King Francis I, who attacked Charles V and opposed the invocation of the council due to partial support of the Protestant cause in France. Following the conclusion of the council, France promulgated only those decrees which touched on pure doctrine, choosing to ignore those of a disciplinary nature and arguing that the council could not trump royal authority and the "Liberties of the Gallican Church." While the doctrine of Gallicanism was much older, its belief that the Pope held authority only in doctrinal matters, whereas all disciplinary and administrative matters concerning the Church in France lay within the realm of secular power and local administration, came to a head during the Counterreformation. Adherents of Gallicanism were now pitted against Ultramontanes who looked to the Pope's authority in all matters.

Among others, the author cites such figures as Charles Dumoulin (1500–1566), Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617), Pierre de Marca (1594–1662), and memoranda from the Estates of the League (1593) to establish his critique of the Council and the incompatibility of its decrees with French royal and parliamentary sovereignty. He also cites French bishops, such as Antoine de Créqui, Bishop of Nantes during the Council, to demonstrate that the episcopal hierarchy shared these objections to the Council and its decrees. Moreover, the author was trained in canon law, citing authorities ranging from medieval scholastics to modern canon laws, to support his legal conclusions. The text was likely written in the seventeenth century, possibly following the 1682 “Declaration of the Clergy of France”, which officially codified the principles of Gallicanism.

We can trace two copies of a manuscript by the same title, one at the library at Rouen (88 pp.) and one at the Archives of the Foreign Ministry of France, the latter with an attribution to "Le Dran." The text does not appear to have been published or translated previously.

As of December 2025, no copies found in KVK, OCLC.

Price: €1,500.00

other currencies