Gallicanism is the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the
monarchs' authority or the
State's authority—over the
Catholic Church is comparable to that of the
Pope's. Gallicanism is a rejection of
ultramontanism; it is akin to a form of
Anglicanism but is nuanced, however, in that it plays down the authority of the Pope in Church without denying that there are some authoritative elements to the office associated with being
primus inter pares (
first among equals). Other terms for the same or similar doctrines include
Erastianism,
Febronianism and
Josephinism.