ultramontane means promoting the supremacy of the Pope. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 77 out of 100.
Why “ultramontane” is a great word
Favoring supreme and centralized papal authority over national or local church autonomy, especially in matters of faith and discipline. From the Medieval Latin ultramontanus, fusing ultra- ("beyond") and montanus ("of a mountain"), literally "beyond the mountains," it first crossed into English in the 1590s. Unlike "Gallican," which champions the independence of a national church, or "Cisalpine," which asserts local authority from this side of the mountains, ultramontane signifies an unwavering gaze turned toward Rome. It is the dogmatic chill of a seminary far from the Mediterranean sun, the precise language of a papal bull carried over the Brenner Pass, and the unyielding architecture of a doctrine that sees every local variation as a crack in its foundation—the conviction that unity, like a mountain range, is an immutable fact of geography.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French ultramontain, from Late Latin ultramontanus.
adj
- Promoting the supremacy of the Pope.“'Tis no wonder that a Council which had declar'd itſelf ſuperior to the Popes, which had undertaken to try, and even to depoſe them, and had given ſuch great Blows to the Privileges, and to the Authority of the Cardinals, was not relith'd by the Court of Rome, nor approv'd of by the Popes or tlieir Divines, nor by the Ultramontane Canonists.”
- From the other side of a mountain range, particularly the Alps.“He was slenderly provided with means for his ultramontane journey; and he resolved to save all he could in Italy, that he might not be restricted when among foreigners.”
noun
- Someone who holds to the supremacy of the Pope over the secular and ecclesiastical worlds