VATICAN, COUNCIL of errs (Corer., ante). In 1867, more than 300 years after the council of Trent, pope Pius IX. announced his purpose of bolding another, the 20th ecumenical council. The period between this announcement and the publi cation of the pope's encyclical (June 29, 1868), definitely summoning the council, was replete with controversy regarding it, nor did the controversy become mute till the very date of the meeting. The liberal parties iu the church, specifically the Janscuist, Galilean, and Old Catholic parties, as opposed to the Jesuitical and tiltramontane section were opposed to the subordination of the state to the church and of councils to the pope, vigorously contested the expediency of holding a council. Many of the prelates and of the general body of the clergy, especially of France, Belgium, Germany, and Holland, as well as many Catholic statesmen, gave voice to their opposition. Notably the court of Bavaria, under the inspiration of Dr. Dollinger, the leader of the Old Catholic party, combated the proposition in a vigorous circular addressed to Roman Catholic courts, showing the political bearings of the question. Austria united in dis countenancing the projected meeting, and although Napoleon III. was not indisposed to it within certain limits, his ministry generally regarded it with distrust. Montalembert from his dying bed issued a voice of warning in opposition. The government of Italy opposed it openly. On the festival of the Immaculate conception, 1869, amid thunders of artillery from San Angelo, and universal church bells the council held its first session in the basilica of the Vatican. There were present 719 prelates, 49 of whom were cardinals. 9 patriarchs. 4 primates, 121 archbishops, 479 bishops, and 57 abbots and generals of monastic orders. This number gradually rose to 764, which was the greatest number of the 1,031 members invited who attended any one session. The deliberative sittings of the council, whether of the committees, or deputatory, or of the general congregation. were strictly private, but four public sessions, were held at differ ent times, when the decrees of the council were solemnly promulgated.
The subjects for discussion had been distributed by preparatory commissions under four heads (faith, discipline, religious orders, rites, including missions), each assigned to a separate committee of 26 members presided over by a cardinal; the reports of these committees on each specific point being laid before the general congregation, discussed, revised, adopted, and then. in public session and in presence and by authority of the pope, proclaimed to the public. Although the doctrine of infallibility had not been formally announced as a portion of the programme of the council till its actual convention, yet it may be said that the council had but two real objects. The solemn
ratification of this dogma. and the utterance of a protest against infidelity in all its *Rivets, whether of rationalism, pantheism, materialism. or atheism. "While the decrees setting forth the doctrines of the church regarding God, the creation, the relation of faith to reason, etc., were unanimously adopted in the third public session, April 24 1870, the decision in regard to infallibility was not arrived at so harmoniously, and not till a much later period.
It had been arranged that the committee on faith should consider all other matters lying within its sphere, relating to the church, before treating of its head and his prerogatives; but, April 29, the Italian bishops addressed a collective note to the council urging that all questions should give way to that of papal infallibility. The pope approved of this change, and ordered an inversion of the order of business accordingly. The debates on the subject agitated the council for some months, and the first vote was not arrived at till July 11, when, out of a court of 601 members, 88 voted " non placet," or adversely. Influences were brought to bear on the non-conforming members, and these, combined with the threatened outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, led many either to return to their dioceses, or, at least, to refrain from further attendance on meetings at which a vote was taken. On the final vote on the question, July 18, 1870, only two anti-infallible prelates recorded their votes; and even these, with all the rest of their recusant brethren, did ultimately, for the sake of unity and peace, acquiesce in the decrees of the church.
The decision on this matter arrived at by this great council may be summarized as follows: "The pope is superior to all councils; he is bishop of bishops, they being his vicars as he is vicar of Christ; when speaking on questions of faith and morals he is infallible, and his decisions i•reformable and irreversible." A decision of such historic .significance and so far-reaching in its consequences has not been issued by any former •council: by it the Jesuits and Ultramontanes have gained a triumph absolute and •decisive over their liberal opponents; but the ultimate fruits of such a victory can be developed only with the process of the ages. In the mean time it may be noted that it has placed the church and the government of Germany in direct antagonism. and one of the first results of the victory of the Jesuits was to procure their own expulsion from that country. The council was adjourned and indefinitely postponed, Oct. 20, 1870, in consequence of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war; and, from the fact that the pope combines in his own person qualities and functions setting him above. and render ing him independent of all councils, there seems no good reason why another should ever be summoned.