But to them it was no hypothesis waiting to be verified, but an already existing truth, the possession of which no extraneous attacks could for a moment affect. On the 3rd of June the general debate was closed, and forty prospective orators compulsorily silenced.
In the special debate, which dealt with the proposal in detail, every important declaration with regard to the pope was impugned by one party and upheld by the other. The main assault was naturally directed upon the fourth section, “concerning the doctrinal authority of the pope,” and Archbishop Guidi of Bologna, in particular, incurred the resentment of the majority through his outspoken utterances on the subject. Immediately after the session he was summoned to the Vatican, and, on defending his attitude by an appeal to tradition, received from Pius IX. the celebrated answer, “I am the tradition.” From the beginning of July onwards it became increasingly evident that the council was on the verge of exhaustion: the great heat was positively dangerous to members accustomed to a colder climate, and the opinion gained ground that the spokesmen of both parties had sufficiently elucidated their views for the benefit of the conclave. Many delegates who had announced their intention of speaking relinquished the privilege, and on the 13th of July it was found possible to conclude the debate. On that day the voting in the 85th General Congregation, on the whole schema, showed that, out of 601 members present, 451 had voted placet, 88 non placet and 62 placet iuxta modum. That the number of prelates who rejected the placet would amount to 150 had not been expected. The question was now: Could the doctrine of infallibility be raised to dogmatic rank when it was repudiated by so formidable a minority? At the height of the crisis several leaders of the opposition attempted, by a direct appeal to the pope, to secure a modification in the terms of the dogma, which might enable them to give their assent. On the evening of the 15th of July six bishops were accorded an audience with Pius IX., in which they preferred their modest requests. Ketteler threw himself at the feet of the pope and implored, him to restore peace to the Church by a little act of compliance. The touching scene appeared to have made some impression on Pius IX.; but, after the deputation had left, opposing influences gained the ascendant, and the result was simply that the clauses on which everything hinged received an addition the reverse of conciliatory (General Congregation, 16th July). The bishops who had hitherto formed the recalcitrant minority were now face to face with the final decision. On the one hand was their loyalty to the pope, allied with the desire to avoid any demonstration calculated to impair the prestige of the Church; on the other, their conviction that the very doctrine which the council was about to proclaim as dogma was a gigantic error. There was but one way out of the impasse, — to leave Rome before the deciding session, — and on the 16th of July the pope met their wishes and accorded the leave of absence previously withheld. A section of the dissentient bishops reiterated their views in a letter to Pius IX., and agreed to direct their subsequent actions in common, — a compact which was not observed. On the 18th of July, in the fourth public session, the dogma was accepted by 535 dignitaries of the Church, and at once promulgated by the pope; only two members, repeated their non placet, and these submitted in the same session. The council continued its labours for a few more weeks, but its main achievement was over, and the remainder of its time was occupied with affairs of secondary importance. When, coincident with the outbreak of the Franco-German War, the papal state collapsed, the pope availed himself of the altered situation, and prorogued the council by the bull Postquam Dei munere (October 20). The Italian government at once protested against his statement that the liberties of the council would be prejudiced by the incorporation of Rome into the kingdom of Italy.
The resolutions of the Vatican Council entirely revolutionized the position of the pope within the Church. He is first accredited with “complete and supreme jurisdictionary authority over the whole Church, not simply in matters of faith and morality, but also in matters touching the discipline and governance of the Church; and this authority is a regular and immediate authority, extending over each and every Church and over each and every pastor and believer” (Sessio iv. cap. 3, fin.; Mirbt, Quellen, p. 380). These words conceded to the pope a universal episcopate in the entire Church, in virtue of which he may, at any time, in any diocese, exercise the functions of the regular bishop: the individual bishop forfeited the independence which he had formerly enjoyed, and the episcopate as a whole was dispossessed of that position which, in preceding centuries, had enabled it to champion the true welfare of the Church against a decadent papacy. Nor was this all: it is laid down “as a dogma revealed by God, that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, — that is to say, when, in virtue of his supreme apostolical authority, and in the exercise of his office as pastor and instructor of all Christians, he pronounces any doctrine touching faith or morality to be binding on the whole Church, — is, by reason of the divine assistance promised to him in the person of St Peter, endowed with that infallibility which, according to the will of the Redeemer, is vouchsafed to the Church when she desires to fix a doctrine of faith or morality; and that consequently all such decisions of the Roman pontiff are per se immutable and independent of the subsequent assent of the Church. But if any man, — which Heaven forefend!” proceeds the document, “shall venture to deny this definition, let him be accursed!” (Sessio iv. cap. 4; Mirbt, Quellen, p. 381). These clauses contain the doctrine of papal infallibility, and make the recognition of that doctrine incumbent on all Catholic Christians. But how are we to recognize whether the decision of the pope is given “in the exercise of his doctrinal office,” or not? No criterion is assigned, and no authentic interpretation has been accorded from the chair of St Peter. Thus great uncertainty prevails with regard to utterances ex cathedra; and the result has been that every papal declaration has tended to be invested with the halo of infallibility. Again, the dogma implies a fundamental change in the position of the ecumenical councils, which, in conjunction with the papacy, had till then been supposed to constitute the representation of the Roman Catholic Church. By the Vaticanum they lost every vestige of actual, independent authority, for their function of defining the doctrine of the Church now passed to the pope; and, though in the future they may still be convened, their indispensability is a thing of the past. They have ceased to form a constituent organ of the Church, and are sunk to the level of a decorative or consultative assembly. Thus the decrees of the council possess a double significance; they have not only erected the papacy into the sole tribunal for questions of belief, but have at the same time radically transformed the constitution of the Church. The two factors which previously served to check the papal ambition have been shorn of their strength, and the papacy has attained the status of an absolute monarchy. The concurrent loss of the papal states, so far from enfeebling this new absolutism, tended, in spite of the protests of the Curia, to increase its strength, for its position now became unassailable, and it was enabled to concentrate its energies on a purely international policy to a greater extent than formerly.
The bishops, who, on the council, had impugned the doctrine of papal infallibility, submitted without exception to the promulgated dogma. Confronted with the alternative of either seceding from the Church or adopting a theory which they had previously attacked, they resorted to the “sacrifice of reason,” many with bleeding hearts; many, as it would seem, without any pangs of conscience. But though they submitted they failed to carry with them the whole of the theologians and laymen who had ranged themselves at their side in the battle against the dogma; and after the conclusion of the council a new Church was formed, which, in contrast with the fin de siècle Catholicism which, by the Vatican Synod, had cut itself loose from the traditions of the past, was termed Old Catholic (see the special article).
In the sphere of politics also the Vaticanum was attended by important results. The secular governments could not remain
