Note 24 — Front matter (continued 2)

The title of the Pragmatic Sanction was given to an assembly of the French clergy at Bourges, called by Charles VII. where in the presence of the princes of the blood, and of the chief nobility of the kingdom the canons of the council of Basil were examined and being found, for the most part, to be very wise and just, and perfectly calculated to extinguish the capital grievances that had been so long complained of, they were compiled into a law for the benefit of the gallican church. The power of nominating to ecclesiastical dignities was taken from the see of Rome; and those branches of the papal prerogatives which were not abolished were so curtailed as to be less injurious to the people and detrimental to the monarchy.