The First Vatican Council (Latin: Concilium
Vaticanum Primum) was convoked by Pope Pius
IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning
and preparation that began on 6 December 1864.
This, the twentieth ecumenical council of
the Catholic Church, held three centuries
after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December
1869 and adjourned on 20 October 1870.
Unlike the five earlier general councils held
in Rome, which met in the Lateran Basilica
and are known as Lateran councils, it met
in the Vatican Basilica, hence its name.
Its best-known decision is its definition
of papal infallibility.The council was convoked
to deal with the contemporary problems of
the rising influence of rationalism, liberalism,
and materialism.
Its purpose was, besides this, to define the
Catholic doctrine concerning the Church of
Christ.
There was discussion and approval of only
two constitutions: the Dogmatic Constitution
on the Catholic Faith and the First Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church of Christ, the
latter dealing with the primacy and infallibility
of the Bishop of Rome.
The first matter brought up for debate was
the dogmatic draft of Catholic doctrine against
the manifold errors due to rationalism.
== Background ==
This council was summoned by Pope Pius IX
by a bull on 29 June 1868.
The first session was held in St. Peter's
Basilica on 8 December 1869.
Preliminary sessions dealt with general administrative
matters and committee assignments.
Bishop Bernard John McQuaid complained of
rainy weather, inadequate heating facilities
and boredom.
Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley of Newark, New
Jersey, noted the high prices in Rome.
When Lord Houghton asked Cardinal 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 read the Times”.
== Papal infallibility ==
The doctrine of papal infallibility was not
new and had been used by Pope Pius in defining
as dogma, in 1854, the Immaculate Conception
of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
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.
Richard McBrien divides the bishops attending
Vatican I into three groups.
The first group, which McBrien calls the "active
infallibilists", was led by Henry Edward Manning
and Ignatius von Senestréy.
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 per cent 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 the early Christian church.
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 the Chaldaeans and Melkites, and a
few Armenians.
Only a few bishops appear to have had doubts
about the dogma itself.
== Dei Filius ==
On 24 April 1870, the dogmatic constitution
on the Catholic faith Dei 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" (the holy roman
catholic Church), might be construed as favouring
the Anglican branch theory, later succeeded
in having an additional adjective inserted,
so that the final text read: "Sancta catholica
apostolica romana Ecclesia" (the holy catholic
apostolic roman Church).
The constitution thus set forth the teaching
of the "Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church"
on God, revelation and faith.
== Pastor aeternus ==
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, but the majority party
in the council, whose position on this matter
was much stronger, brought it forward.
It was decided to postpone discussion of everything
in the draft except infallibility.
The decree did not go forward without controversy;
Cardinal Filippo Guidi, Archbishop of Bologna,
proposed adding that the Pope is assisted
by "the counsel of the bishops manifesting
the tradition of the churches."
The Pope rejected Guidi's view of the bishops
as witnesses to the tradition, maintaining
that "I am the tradition."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).
This made evident what the final 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 between
placet and non placet, was taken on 18 July
1870, with 433 votes in favour and only 2
against defining as a dogma the infallibility
of the pope when speaking ex cathedra.
The two votes in opposition were cast by Bishop
Aloisio Riccio and Bishop Edward Fitzgerald.The
dogmatic constitution states that the Pope
has "full and supreme power of jurisdiction
over the whole Church" (chapter 3:9); and
that, when he
speaks ex 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 [chapter 4:9]
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 historian Ignaz
von Döllinger, formed the separate Old Catholic
Church in protest; von Döllinger did not
formally join the new group.
== Suspension ==
Discussion of the rest of the document on
the nature of the church was to continue when
the bishops returned after a summer break.
However, in the meanwhile the Franco-Prussian
War broke out.
With the swift German advance and the capture
of Emperor Napoleon III, French troops protecting
papal rule in Rome withdrew from the city.
Consequently, on 20 September 1870, one month
after the Kingdom of Italy had occupied Rome,
Pope Pius IX, who then considered himself
a prisoner in the Vatican, issued the bull
Postquam Dei munere, adjourning the council
indefinitely.
While some proposed to continue the council
in the Belgian city of Mechlin, it was never
reconvened.
== See also ==
Second Vatican Council
== References ==
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Notes ===
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