APPELLANTS

A name given to opponents of the bull unigenitus, who appealed against the papal decree to a general council; they thus logically applied the Gallican doctrine of the Four Articles of 1682 that affirmed the superiority of a general council over a pope. The first act of appeal was presented under the form of a notarized act lodged at the Sorbonne on the morning of March 5, 1717 by four bishops: Jean Soanen, of Senez; Joachim Colbert, of Montpellier; Pierre de la Broue, of Mirepoix; and Pierre de Langle, of Boulogne. Many members of the secular and regular clergy, an important segment of the faithful, as well as several corporate societies, among them the Sorbonne, adhered to the Appeal, which finally united 12 bishops and a little more than 3,000 priests and religious of the approximately 100,000 that made up the French clergy.

The Appellants thought that the bull condemned some authentic Christian truths, that consequently the pope had erred in faith, and that only a general council could remedy the situation. On Sept. 8, 1718 (day of publication), by the brief Pastoralis officii, Clement XI excommunicated the Appellants. In view of the opposition from the Gallican parliamentaries, this measure produced no practical effect. To guarantee the failure of any attempt at a compromise, the four bishops renewed their appeal on Sept. 10, 1720, and the "Reappellants" who joined them were numerous. The regent then embarked on a veritable campaign of police persecution against the Appellants, and their number decreased year by year; many of them, however, maintained their attitude until death.

See Also: jansenism; acceptants.

Bibliography: The most complete selection of the acts of appeal is that of g. n. nivelle, La Constitution "Unigenitus" déférée à l'église universelle, 3 v. in 4 (Cologne 1757).

[l. j. cognet]

appellants. Richard II's political opponents of 1387–8 are known as the appellants, for it was by means of the legal process of appeal that they proceeded in Parliament against the king's ministers and friends. The king had been humiliated in Parliament in 1386, when his chancellor Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, was impeached. Richard's attempts to restore royal authority in the next year led to a short civil war, in which his favourite Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, was defeated at Radcot Bridge. In the ‘Merciless Parliament’ of February 1388, Richard's five chief opponents, the earls of Gloucester, Arundel, Warwick, Derby, and Nottingham, appealed Suffolk, de Vere, the archbishop of York, Robert Tresilian (the chief justice), and Nicholas Brembre of London, accusing them of treason. The appeal was a long-established process in common law, but had not been employed in this way previously in Parliament. Legal argument was dismissed, and judicial combat rejected; the process permitted no right of reply. Tresilian and Brembre were promptly executed; the archbishop of York was translated to St Andrews, while Suffolk and de Vere both died in exile. In 1397 Richard II revenged himself on the appellants, engineering an appeal against Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel.

Michael Prestwich

APPELLANT

A person who, dissatisfied with the judgment rendered in a lawsuit decided in a lower court or the findings from a proceeding before anadministrative agency, asks a superior court to review the decision.

An appellant, sometimes called the petitioner, must demonstrate sufficient grounds for appeal, which are usually specified by statute, in order to challenge the judgment or findings.

Whether a party was a plaintiff or defendant in the lower court has no bearing on his or her status as an appellant.

ap·pel·lant / əˈpelənt/ • n. Law a person who applies to a higher court for a reversal of the decision of a lower court.

appellant XV. — (O)F. appelant, prp. of appeler APPEAL.
So appellation XV. appellative adj. XV; sb. XVI. — late L.