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sent by General Acquaviva to all the provinces banning any discussion of tyrannicide halted
further publications. 83
For the first nine years of Louis XIII’s personal reign, the situation between the pro-
Gallican institutions and the Society of Jesus remained stable. The Parlement of Paris and other
supporters of Gallicanism continued to view the Society with suspicion, but the lack of
contentious Jesuit works prevented further confrontation between the two sides. Renewing the
debate, however, was the arrival in Paris in February 1626 of a publication that once again
challenged the sovereign authority of the king. Written in 1625 by the Italian Jesuit Antonio
Santarelli, the Tractatus de haeresi took up the earlier theses of authors such as Bellarmine on
the indirect power of popes over kings. 84
While Santarelli’s work avoided any discussion of tyrannicide, it was perceived in France
as furthering the ideas of Mariana and Suarez. An anonymous pamphlet described it as “a book
full of blood, to instruct and encourage assassins against sovereign kings and princes.” 85 The
Parlement of Paris immediately proceeded to censure the book, publicly burning the offensive
work and summoning the Jesuits to sign a written condemnation of it. 86 Threatened with
expulsion if they did not agree, the fathers consented to a declaration stating their rejection of the
ideas presented by Santarelli and their belief that the king held his power from God alone. The
Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne likewise voted to make its disapproval known, declaring the
work to be false, erroneous, and interfering with the supreme authority of the king. 87 The history
of similar Jesuit publications and the assassination of the two previous French kings simply made
the book too contentious.
The rising tide of Gallican sentiment against Santarelli’s book and the Society of Jesus
was countered by a faithful following of ardent French Catholics whose loyalty lay with Rome.
Included in this group was the ultramontane faction of the university faculty. Led by the well-
known dévot André Duval, this minority argued that while the views presented in the Tractatus
de haeresi were misguided, they were not entirely contrary to scripture as the faculty’s censure
claimed. 88 The general assembly of clergy, meeting in Paris in the spring of 1626, also debated
the issue, but like the university faculty, it too became divided between the Ultramontanists and
the Gallicans. 89 Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) was upset when the Paris fathers agreed to sign
Parlement’s condemnation of the book, but he was outraged when the Faculty of Theology voted
to place its own censure on Santarelli’s work. 90 Because of the faculty’s prestigious status in the
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