Gallican Church

the distinctive title of the Roman pothelie Chureh in France. The Chr'Stian faith was. widely diffused in France or Gaul, even during the lifetime of the apostles; and it especially flourished among the descendants of the Greek colonies of the S., and in the numerous towns and cities on the Rhone and. its confluent rivers. In the persecutions to which the early profe ors of Christianity were subjected, the Christians of these churches had their full share. The hierarchical Coen ization also of the Church of Gaul was, at a very early period, among the: most complete and regular throughout the churches of Western Christen dom; and in the council at Arles in 814 may be recognized the titles of many bishops of sees still represented in the catalogue of the French episcopacy. The Gallican Church underwent very extensive modifications at the close of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, not merely by the enactment of what was called the “ civil constitution of the chee but by the concordat of Pius VII. with Bonaparte, which reduced the number of sees, brought the ecclesiastical divisions of the country into harmony with its new political distribution into departments, diminished the number of festivals, and confirmed the suppre ion. of the ancient religious establishments, —! confiscation of the church property.: