First Vatican Council

General Information

The First Vatican Council, the 20th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church, is best known for its decree affirming the doctrine of papal Infallibility. After a lengthy series of deliberations by preparatory commissions, it was opened by Pope Pius IX in Saint Peter's Basilica on Dec. 8, 1869. Nearly 800 church leaders representing every continent attended, although the European members held a clear majority. Apparently the pope's primary purpose in convening the council was to obtain confirmation of the position he had taken in his Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemning a wide range of modern positions associated with the ideas of rationalism, liberalism, and materialism.

From the beginning, however, the question of infallibility dominated discussion. A vigorous minority opposed this doctrine both on theological and historical grounds and as being inopportune. Nonetheless, on July 18, 1870, the council solemnly accepted the proposition that when a pope speaks ex cathedra on faith or morals he does so with the supreme apostolic authority, which no Catholic may question or reject. About 60 members of the council effectively abstained by leaving Rome the day before the vote. Shortly after the vote on infallibility, the Franco-Prussian War and the successful invasion of the Roman state by the Italian army abruptly ended the council. The First Vatican Council marked the climax and triumph of the movement of Ultramontanism yet also helped stimulate a renewed wave of anticlericalism in several European states.

T. Tackett

Bibliography
Butler, E. C., ed., The Vatican Council, 2 vols. (1930); Hennesey, J. J., The First Council of the Vatican: The American Experience (1963).

First Vatican Council (1869-1870)

Advanced Information

The First Vatican Council, convened by Pope Pius IX in Rome, is reckoned by Roman Catholics to be the twentieth ecumenical church council. It was the first to meet since the Council of Trent (1545-63), which had responded to the sixteenth century Protestant movement. Vatican I sought to define authoritatively the church's doctrine concerning the faith and the church, especially in response to new challenges from secular philosophical and political movements and theological liberalism. However, its work was cut short by the Franco-Prussian War and the invasion and capture of Rome by the army of the Italian government in September, 1870. The council completed only two major doctrinal statements, leaving another fifty-one unfinished. Vatican I is remembered almost exclusively for its doctrinal definition of papal infallibility.

Context and Structure

The council befitted Pius IX's devout spirituality and expressed the aspirations of the papal-oriented revival of Catholic faith and practice in progress since the 1840s. It also reflected the wide-felt need of the hour to counteract the religious, philosophical, and political beliefs identified by the Syllabus of Errors (1864). Closest to home, the council sought to undergird the authority of the papacy that could appear to be damaged by the loss of the pope's temporal power, except for Rome and its surrounding region, to the kingdom of Italy (1859-61). The need was to regather the church and reaffirm its faith, its authority, and in particular its head, the papacy.

Pius first mentioned the possibility of a council in 1864, and he set some cardinals to work on it in 1865. He formally announced it in 1867 and issued a bill convening it in 1868. When it met in 1869, the council included 737 archbishops, bishops, and other clerical members. The council considered drafts of documents prepared in advance, debated them, and changed them. The results were undoubtedly the work of the council assembled, although what degree of freedom the council members enjoyed was questioned then as it continues to be today.

Constitution "De Fide Catholica."

The first doctrinal definition, "On the Catholic faith" (approved Apr. 1870; also called "Dei Filius"), expressed a consensus of the Catholic revival concerning God, faith, and reason. In its four chapters it defined as a doctrine of divine revelation the existence of a free, personal, creator God who was absolutely independent of the universe he created. The religious truth concerning the existence of this God, it affirmed, could be known by human reason alone, so that all people had no excuse for unbelieving. Nevertheless, other truths about God and this creation could only be known by faith through divine revelation via Scripture and the tradition of the church. Properly understood, faith and reason were not in conflict. The errors that were specifically mentioned in an appendix, notably atheism, pantheism, rationalism, fideism, biblicism, traditionalism, were either utterly wrong (atheism) or wrong in emphazing merely one element of the whole truth (rationalism). This definition provided the basis for Catholic theology and philosophy for the next several generations.

Constitution "On Papal Primacy and Infallibility."

The proposal of this second definition (also called Pastor aeternus) divided the council into a majority and a minority (140 at its fullest) and began a controversy that has troubled the Roman Catholic Church to this day. Originally the council was to discuss a well-rounded statement of fifteen chapters "On the Church of Christ", as body of Christ, as a true, perfect, supernatural society, as united under the primacy of the pope, as related to civil society, etc. But when a new section on papal infallibility was introduced later, the majority considered it urgent to treat immediately the sections on papal primacy and papal infallibility as a separate unit. The result was a statement of four chapters which defined both papal primacy and papal infallibility as doctrines of divine revelation.

The passage on papal infallibility, after crucial amendments, carefully circumscribed in what sense the magisterium (doctrinal authority) of the pope was infallible: "The Roman Pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, i.e., when, exercising the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, according to his supreme Apostolic authority, through the divine assistance promised to him in St. Peter, he defines doctrine concerning faith and morals to be held by the universal Church, then under those circumstances he is empowered with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to be equipped in defining doctrine concerning faith and morals." The statement concluded, against Gallicanism and conciliarism, that "such definitions by the Roman Pontiff were in themselves, and not by virtue of the consensus of the Church, not subject to being changed."

Eighty-eight bishops voted against the definition in the first round, and fifty-five bishops formally absented themselves at the final vote (July 18, 1870). Eventually, after the council, every bishop submitted to the definition, and the debate transmuted into differences over its interpretation. The definition encouraged Catholic revival, gave Protestants new evidence of papal superstition, and convinced secularists that the papacy was indeed utterly incompatible with modern civilization. To this day the doctrine of papal infallibility continues to trouble many Catholics and to complicate Roman Catholic consultations with Anglicans, Lutherans, and others.

C T McIntire
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
Pii IX P.M. Acta, Pt. I, Vol. 5, 177-94, 208-20 (the council documents); R. Aubert, Vatican I; C. Butler, The Vatican Council, 2 vols.; F.J. Cwiekowski, The English Bishops and the First Vatican Council; H. Kung, Infallible? an Enquiry; A.B. Hasler, How the Pope Became Infallible: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion; J. Hennessey, The First Vatican Council: The American Experience.

Also, see:
Ecumenical Councils

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