| First Vatican Council | |
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_%25C3%2589glise_Saint-Melaine_Vitrail_15-01.jpg) Window inDomalain, Brittany, showing the Proclamation of Papal Infallability | |
| Date |
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| Accepted by | Catholic Church |
Previous council | Council of Trent |
Next council | Second Vatican Council |
| Convoked by | Pope Pius IX |
| President | Pope Pius IX |
| Attendance | About 744 |
| Topics | Rationalism,materialism,liberalism,papal infallibility,biblical inspiration |
Documents and statements | Two constitutions: |
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TheFirst Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as theFirst Vatican Council orVatican I, was the 20thecumenical council of theCatholic Church, held three centuries after the precedingCouncil of Trent which was adjourned in 1563. The council was convoked byPope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, under the rising threat of theKingdom of Italy encroaching on thePapal States. It opened on 8 December 1869 and was adjourned on 20 September 1870 after the ItalianCapture of Rome. Its best-known decision is its definition ofpapal infallibility.[1][2]
The council's main purpose was to clarifyCatholic doctrine in response to the rising influence of themodern philosophical trends of the 19th century. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith (Dei Filius), the council condemned what it considered the errors ofrationalism,anarchism,communism,socialism,liberalism,materialism,modernism,naturalism,pantheism, andsecularism.[3]
Its other concern was the doctrine of theprimacy (supremacy) and infallibility of theBishop of Rome (thePope),[4] which it defined in the First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ (Pastor aeternus).[5]
As early as late 1864,Pope Pius IX had commissioned thecardinals resident in Rome to tender him their opinions as to the advisability of a council. The majority pronounced in favour of the scheme, dissenting voices being rare. After March 1865, the convocation of the council was no longer in doubt. Special bulls were reportedly issued with invitations toEastern Orthodox andProtestant clerics as well as to other non-Catholics, but apparently none accepted the invitations.[6]
The council was summoned by the pope by abull on 29 June 1868.[7] The first session was held inSt. Peter's Basilica on 8 December 1869.[8] Preliminary sessions dealt with general administrative matters and committee assignments.BishopBernard John McQuaid complained of rainy weather, inadequate heating facilities, and boredom.[9] BishopJames Roosevelt Bayley of Newark, New Jersey, noted the high prices in Rome.[9] WhenLord Houghton askedCardinal Manning what had been going on, he answered: "Well, we meet, and we look at one another, and then we talk a little, but when we want to know what we have been doing, we readThe Times."[10]
Unlike the five earlier general councils held inRome, which met in theLateran Basilica and are known asLateran councils, it met inSaint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, hence its name.
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| Papal primacy,supremacy andinfallibility |
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Catholic episcopal councils compared to popes |
Existing dogma compared to popes |
Objections and controversy
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The object of the council was a mystery for a while. The first revelation was given in February 1869 by an article inLa Civiltà Cattolica, aJesuit periodical. It claimed, as the view of many Catholics in France, that the council would be of very brief duration, since the majority of its members were in agreement, and mentionedinter alia the proclamation of papal infallibility. Factions around the proposal arose across Europe, and some Italians even proposed setting up a rival council inNaples. However, before the council met all became quiet in view of the studied vagueness of the invitation.[6]
Pope Pius defined asdogma theImmaculate Conception ofMary, the mother of Jesus, in 1854.[11] However, the proposal to define papal infallibility itself as dogma met with resistance, not because of doubts about the substance of the proposed definition, but because some considered it inopportune to take that step at that time.[11]Richard McBrien divides the bishops attending Vatican I into three groups. The first group, which McBrien calls the "active infallibilists", was led byHenry Edward Manning andIgnatius von Senestrey. According to McBrien, the majority of the bishops were not so much interested in a formal definition of papal infallibility as they were in strengthening papal authority and, because of this, were willing to accept the agenda of the infallibilists. A minority, some 10% of the bishops, McBrien says, opposed the proposed definition of papal infallibility on both ecclesiastical and pragmatic grounds, because, in their opinion, it departed from the ecclesiastical structure of theearly Christian church.[12] From a pragmatic perspective, they feared that defining papal infallibility would alienate some Catholics, create new difficulties for union with non-Catholics, and provoke interference by governments in ecclesiastical affairs. Those who held this view included most of the German and Austro-Hungarian bishops, nearly half of the Americans, one third of the French, most of theChaldaeans andMelkites, and a fewArmenians.[13] Only a few bishops appear to have had doubts about the dogma itself.[13]
On 24 April 1870, the dogmatic constitution on the Catholic faithDei Filius was adopted unanimously. The draft presented to the council on 8 March drew no serious criticism, but a group of 35 English-speaking bishops, who feared that the opening phrase of the first chapter, "Sancta romana catholica Ecclesia" ('Holy Roman Catholic Church'), might be construed as favouring theAnglicanbranch theory, later succeeded in having an additional adjective inserted, so that the final text read: "Sancta catholica apostolica romana Ecclesia" ('Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church').[14] The constitution thus set forth the teaching of the "Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church" on God, revelation and faith.[15]
There was stronger opposition to the draft constitution on the nature of the church, which at first did not include the question of papal infallibility,[3] but the majority party in the council, whose position on this matter was much stronger,[11] brought it forward. It was decided to postpone discussion of everything in the draft except infallibility.[11] The decree did not go forward without controversy; CardinalFilippo Maria Guidi, Archbishop of Bologna, proposed adding that the pope is assisted by "the counsel of the bishops manifesting the tradition of the churches". Pius IX rejected Guidi's view of the bishops as witnesses to the tradition, maintaining: "I am the tradition."[16]
On 13 July 1870, a preliminary vote on the section on infallibility was held in a general congregation: 451 voted simply in favour (placet), 88 against (non placet), and 62 in favour but on condition of some amendment (placet iuxta modum).[17] This made evident what the outcome would be, and some 60 members of the opposition left Rome so as not to be associated with approval of the document. The final vote, with a choice only betweenplacet andnon placet, was taken on 18 July 1870, with 533 votes in favour and only 2 against defining as a dogma the infallibility of the pope when speakingex cathedra.[3] The two votes in opposition were cast by BishopsAloisio Riccio andEdward Fitzgerald.[18]
The dogmatic constitution states, in chapter 4:9, that the pope has "full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church" (chapter 3:9); and that, when he:
speaksex cathedra, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals.
None of the bishops who had argued that proclaiming the definition was inopportune refused to accept it. Some Catholics, mainly of German language and largely inspired by the historianIgnaz von Döllinger, formed the separateOld Catholic Church in protest; von Döllinger did not formally join the new group himself.[19]
Discussion of the rest of the document on the nature of the church was to continue when the bishops returned after a summer break. In the meanwhile,France declared war on Prussia, but soon was losing territory. With the swift advance of Prussian and allied South German forces in August, leading to the capture of EmperorNapoleon III at Sedan in early September, French troops protecting papal rule in Rome withdrew from the city.[20] Italyoccupied Rome on 20 September 1870, but forces stayed away from theLeonine City, and Pope Pius IX considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican.
On 20 October 1870, one month after the newly foundedKingdom of Italy had occupied Rome, Pope Pius IX issued the bullPostquam Dei munere, adjourning the council indefinitely.[21] While some proposed to continue the council in the Belgian city ofMechlin, it was never reconvened.[22] The council was formally closed in 1960 byPope John XXIII, prior to the formation of theSecond Vatican Council.[23]
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In reaction to the political implications of the doctrine of infallibility on thesovereignty ofsecular states, some of the European kingdoms and republics took rapid action against the Catholic Church. TheAustrian Empire annulled theConcordat of 1855. In theKingdom of Prussia, the anti-CatholicKulturkampf broke out immediately afterwards, and in theFrench Third Republic the synod so accentuated the power ofultramontanism (an emphasis on the powers of the pope), that Republican France took steps to curb it by revoking theConcordat of 1801, and thereforecompletely separating the Church from the state.[24]
The dogma of papal infallibility raised considerable opposition in some liberal theological circles in theNetherlands,Austria,Germany andSwitzerland; the most notable theologian opposing the formulation of the dogma wasIgnaz von Döllinger, who was excommunicated in 1871 by ArchbishopGregor von Scherr ofMunich and Freising, for refusing to accept the council's decision.[25]
Following the council's decision, a minority of clergy and laity opposed to the newly proclaimed dogma united with theJansenists, which had maintained a somewhat precarious existence in separation from Rome since the 18th century but had preserved an episcopal succession recognized by Rome asvalid though illicit. The first consecration of the new order was that of Joseph H. Reinkens, who was made bishop in Germany by a sympathetic Jansenist bishopJohannes Heykamp ofUtrecht. Such new group referred to itself as theOld Catholic Church (or theChristian Catholic Church in Switzerland). Old Catholics in Europe united into theUnion of Utrecht in 1889, which entered into full communion with theAnglican Communion in 1931 through theBonn Agreement.[26]
The Union of Utrecht still exists to this day and includes theOld Catholic Church of the Netherlands, theCatholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany, theOld Catholic Church of Austria, theOld Catholic Church of the Czech Republic, thePolish-Catholic Church of the Republic of Poland and theChristian Catholic Church of Switzerland. TheUnion of Scranton, formed by more theologically conservative Old Catholics, was formed in 2008 and currently includes thePolish National Catholic Church and theNordic Catholic Church.[26]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Mirbt, Carl Theodor (1911). "Vatican Council, The". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 947–951.
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