"We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedrâ, that is, when in discharge of the office of Pastor and Teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, through the divine assistance promised to him in St. Peter, is strong [pollere] with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be furnished in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves and not from the consent of the Church."
On this definition the Council voted in the general congregation of the 13th July, and with the following result: 400 placet, 88 non placet, and 61 placet juxta modum. About seventy others, though in Rome, abstained from voting. It was now a question with the minority what course they should take. Cardinal Rauscher proposed that they should all wait for the public session, which had been fixed for the 25th of July, and then vote non placet in the presence of the Pope. But more pacific counsels prevailed. A letter was prepared on the 17th inst., and signed by 110 bishops, in which, after adverting to the particulars of the voting on the 13th, they declared to the Pope that their hostility to the definition of the dogma remained unchanged, and that by the present writing they confirmed their previous suffrages, but that nevertheless, out of respect and affection for his Holiness, they had determined not to stay and vote openly, "in facie patris," on a question so nearly concerning the person of the Pope. The bishops of the minority accordingly took their departure from Rome.
The turmoil caused by the approach of war led to the anticipation of the date that had been fixed for the public session. On the 18th of July, the Pope himself presiding, the Constitution De Ecclesiâ, which included the definition of infallibility, was put to the vote and received 533 placets, and 2 non placets. The negative votes were given by Riccio, Bishop of Cajazzo, and Fitzgerald, Bishop of Little Rock, in the State of Arkansas in the United States. The Pope then read out the constitution to the assembled fathers, and confirmed it. During the reading a violent storm of thunder and lightning burst over St. Peter's, and the darkness became so great that the Pope was obliged to send for a candle. Little or no excitement was visible among the Romans; the Ambassadors of France, Prussia, and Austria pointedly stayed away. An analysis of the eighty-eight negative votes in the general congregation of the 13th of July, showed that thirty-two were given by German, Austrian, or Hungarian prelates, twenty-four by French, and seven by Oriental bishops. Two were Irish (Drs. MacHale and Moriarty, Bishop of Kerry); two English (Vaughan, Bishop of Plymouth, and Clifford, Bishop of Clifton); one Colonial (Conolly, Archbishop of Halifax), and five North Americans. Six Italian bishops, six bishops in partibus, and three whose names could not be ascertained, complete the list.
DR. DÖLLINGER. (From a Photograph by F. Müller, Munich.)
The importance of the definition of infallibility was considered by politicians and lay society in general to consist, not so much in the assertion and claim that the mere words of the decree contain, as in the retrospective force that it might be used to impart to Papal decisions dating from the Middle Ages, at a time when the power and pretensions of the Holy See were almost unbounded. If such a dogmatic utterance, for instance, as the Bull Unam sanctam of Boniface VIII., by which it was declared that, "if the temporal power errs, it is judged by the spiritual," and that "there are two swords—the spiritual and the temporal; ... both are in the power of the Church; ... the former that of priests, the latter that of kings and soldiers, to be wielded at the good pleasure and by the allowance of the priest,"—if such a Papal declaration, and others of a similar kind to be found in the Roman Bullarium, were held to be ex cathedrâ, and therefore infallibly true, what a prospect was opened for the non-Roman Catholic Sovereigns of Roman Catholic subjects, should the new definition come to be generally accepted by the human conscience throughout the Roman Catholic world. These fears proved, however, of an alarmist character, and the Roman Catholic populations were on the whole no less law-abiding than the Protestant.
PALACE OF THE QUIRINAL, ROME.
(From a Photograph by Alinari, Rome.)
So far as it was connected with temporal power, the supremacy asserted for the Pope by the Constitution De Ecclesiâ was about to receive a notable check and diminution. The declaration of war between France and Prussia had been speedily followed by an announcement (July 27th), on the part of the Ollivier Government, that France would withdraw all her troops from Rome, and this was soon afterwards effected. The Opposition in the Italian Parliament immediately began to attack the September Convention, and to urge the occupation of Rome; but Signor Lanzi replied that the Convention was still binding, and must be adhered to. But in September, after the fall of the Empire and the Regency, the Italian Government could not afford to overlook the opportunity which the prostration of France afforded of extending a kingdom which was itself in so large a measure the child of revolution. Already, on the 6th of September, the Chevalier Nigra sounded Jules Favre on the possibility of obtaining the approval and sanction of the new French Government to the King of Italy taking possession of Rome. M. Favre, though not personally opposed to the measure, was too well acquainted with the feeling that prevailed in France on the subject to give official countenance to the act. On the 8th of September the King addressed a letter to Pius IX., in which, grounding his determination on the critical condition of Italy, and also on the presence of foreigners among the troops composing the Papal army, he announced his intention to send Italian troops into the Roman territory, who should occupy those positions which should be "indispensable for the security of your Holiness," and for the maintenance of order. The Pope flatly declined to treat, and on the 20th of September the national army, after overcoming a brief show of resistance on the part of the Papal Zouaves, entered Rome. The Italian Government, desirous of covering the seizure of Rome under a show of legality, ordered an appeal to be made to the people of the Papal territory, who were invited to vote on the question whether or not they approved of the annexation of Rome to the kingdom of Italy, the spiritual rights of the Pope being preserved. The voting took place on the 2nd of October with the following result: Ayes, 133,681; Noes, 1,507. The Italian Parliament met in December and sanctioned the transfer of the capital from Florence to Rome. Victor Emmanuel made his public entry into Rome on the 31st of December.