The heated struggle between the ultramontanes and the gallicans, which erupted with particular intensity in France between 1848 and 1853, marked one more episode in an ongoing docrinal debate over the centralization of the Catholic Church. The ultramontane campaign, which supported a strict and centralized Church, undermined and nearly destroyed the French gallican Church, which favored a Catholicism that was deeply rooted in national character and local institutions. By recalling the bitter memory of this debacle, this book offers the historical background essential for understanding the key issues of the Vatican Council of 1870.