ultramontanism

The policy that absolute authority in the Church should be vested in the pope.

The doctrines of ultramontanes; the views of that party in the Church of Rome which places an absolute authority in matters of faith and discipline in the hands of the Pope, in opposition to the views of that party which would place the national churches, such as the Gallican, in partial independence of the Roman curia, and make the Pope subordinate to the statutes of an ecumenical council.

The principles of those within the Roman Catholic Church who maintain extreme views favoring the pope’s supremacy; — so used by those living north of the Alps in reference to the Italians; — rarely used in an opposite sense, as referring to the views of those living north of the Alps and opposed to the papal claims. Cf. Gallicanism.

A Roman Catholic philosophy that emphasises the prerogatives and powers of the Pope.

(Roman Catholic Church) the policy that the absolute authority of the church should be vested in the pope