Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges

1438. This was issued by Charles VII of France following the National Synod at Bourges, which had close links with the Council of Basle* (1431-49). It was a statement of Gallicanist principles, contained in twenty- three articles, which effectively reduced the power of the papacy in France. Councils were superior to the pope, nomination of bishops and high ecclesiastical dignitaries was to be in the hands of the French king and princes, and French ecclesiastical affairs were to be settled in France. When Louis IX repealed the sanction in 1461, the parliament of Paris refused to endorse his action; however, in 1516 an agreement known as the Concordat of Bologna,* between Pope Leo X and Francis I, ended the sanction but preserved many Gallicanist principles.