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the council. Five special committees, each presided
over by a cardinal and having together eighty-eight
consultors, prepared the plan {sclifinata) to be laid
before the council. These commit tees were appointed
to consider respectively: (1) dogma; (2) church
discipline; (3) orders; (4) Oriental Churches and
missions; (5) ecclesiastico-political questions.
It may justly be doubted whether the preliminary preparations for any council had ever been made more thoroughly, or more clearly directed to the aim to be attained. As the day of its opening approached, the following drafts were ready for discussion: (1) three great dogmatic drafts, (a) on the Catholic doc- trine in opposition to the errors which frequently spring from Rationalism, (b) on the Church of Christ and, (c) on Christian marriage; (2) twentj'-eight drafts treating matters of church discipline. They had reference to bishops, episcopal sees, the differ- ent grades of the other clergy, seminaries, the ar- rangement of philosophical and theological studies, sermons, the catechism, rituals, impediments to marriage, civil marriage, mi.xed marriages, improve- ment of Christian morals, feast days, fasts and absti- nences, duelling, magnetism, spiritualism, secret societies, etc.; (3) eighteen drafts of decrees had reference to the religious orders; (4) two were on the Oriental Rites and missions; these subjects had also been considered in the other drafts of decrees. In addition a large number of subjects for discussion had been sent by the bishops of various countries. Thus, for instance, the bishops of the church provinces of CJuebec and Halifax demanded the lessening of the impediments to marriage, revision of the Breviary, and, above all, the reform and codification of the entire canon law. The petition of Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore treated, among other things, the relations between Church and State, religious indifference, secret societies, and the infallibility of the pope. The definition of this last was demanded by various bishops. Others desired a revision of the inde.x of forbidden books. No less than nine petitions bearing nearly two hundred signatures demanded the definition of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Over three hundred fathers of the council requested the elevation of St. Joseph as patron saint of the Universal Church.
II. PROCEEDiNfjs OF THE CouNCiL. — A. Presiding Officers, Order of Procedure, Number of Members. — On 2 Dec, 1869, the pope held a preliminary session in the Sistine Chapel, which was attended by about five hundred bishops. At this assembly the officials of the council were announced and the conciliar procedure was made known. The council received five presi- dents. The chief presiding officer was to ha\'e been Cardinal Reisach, but a-s he died on 22 Dec, Cardinal Filippo de Angelis took his place, 3 Jan., 1870. The other presiding officers were Cardinals Antonio de Luca, Andrea Bizarri, Aloisio Bilio, and Annibale Ca- palti. Bishop Joseph Fessler of Sankt Polten, Lower Austria, was secretary to the council, and Monsignor Luigi Jacobiunder-secretary. The Const it ut ion "I\Iul- tiplices inter" announcing the conciliar procedure contained ten paragraphs. According to this the sessions of the council were to be of two kinds: private sessions for discussing the drafts and motions, imder the presidency of a cardinal president, and public sessions, presided over by the pope himself for the promulgation of the decrees of the council. The first drafts of decrees debated were to be the dogmatic and disciplinary ones laid before the assembly by the pope. Proposals offerefl by members of the council were to be sent to a congregation of petitions; these petitions or postulates were to be examined by the committee and then recommended to the pope for admission or not. If the draft of a (lecree wius found by the gerieral congregation to need amendments, it was sent with the propo.sed amendments to the respec-
tive sub-committee or deputatio, either to the one for
dogmas, or for discipline, or religious orders, or for
Oriental Rites. Each of these four sub-committees
or deputations was to consist of twentj'-four persons
selected from the members of the council, and a
cardinal president appointed by the pope. The
deputation examined the proposed amendments,
altered the draft as seemed best, and presented to the
general congregation a printed report on its work
that was to be orally explained by a member of the
deputation. This procedure was to continue until
the draft met with the approval of the majority.
The voting in the congi'egation w'as by placet, placet jiixla modum (with the corresponding amend- ments), and ?ton placet. Secrecy was to be observed in regard to the proceedings of the council. In the public sessions the voting could only be by placet or 7ion placet. The Decrees promulgated by the pope were to bear the title, "Pius Episcopus, servus servo- rum Dei: sacro approbante Concilio ad perpetuam rei memoriam". The northern right transept of St. Peter's was arranged as the hall of sessions. Between 8 Dec, 1869, and 1 Sept., 1870, four public sessions and eighty-nine general congregations were held here. There were in the entire world approximately one thousand and fifty prelates entitled to take part in the council, and of these no less than seven himdred and .seventy-four appeared during the course of the proceedings. In attendance at the first public .ses- sion were 47 cardinals, 9 patriarchs, 7 primates, 117 archbishops, 479 bishops, 5 abbots nuUuis, 9 abbots general, and 25 generals of orders, making a total of 698. At the third public session votes were cast by 47 cardinals, 9 patriarchs, 8 primates, 107 archbishops, 456 bishops, 1 administrator Apostolic, 20 abbots, and 20 generals of orders, a total of 667. There was an attendance at the coimcil from the United States of America of all of the 7 archbishops of that time, 37 of the 47 bishops, and in addition2 vicars Apostolic. The oldest memiier of the council was Archbishop Mac- Hale, of Tuam, Ireland; the youngest, Bishop (now Cardinal) Gibbons.
B. From the Formal Opening to the Definition of the Constitution on the Catholic Faith in the Third Public Session. (1) The First Debates. — .\fter the formal opening of the council by the pope at the first public session on 8 Dec, 1869, the meetings of the general congregation began on lo Dec. Th(Mr sessions were generally held between the hours of nine and one. The afternoons were reserved for the sessions of the deputa- tions or sub-committees. First , the names of the mem- bers of the congregation of petitions were communi- cated; this was followed by the elections to the four deputations. The first matter brought up for debate was the dogmatic draft of Catholic doctrine against the manifold errors due to Rationalism, "De doctrina catholica contra multiplices errores ex rationalismo derivatos". The discussion of it was taken up on 28 Dec. in the fourth general congregation. After a debate lasting seven days, during which thirty-five members spoke, it was sent by the tenth general con- gregation held on 10 Jan., 1870, to the deputation on faith for revision. There had been held in the mean- time on 6 Jan. the second public session. This had been previoii.sly determined upon, on 26 Oct., 1869, by the central coniiiiission for the making of the con- fession of faith by the members of the council. The subjects discussed from the tenth to the twenty-ninth meeting of the general congregation (on 22 Feb.) were the drafts of four disciplinary decrees, namely, on bishops, on vacant episcojial sees, on the morals of ecclesiastics, and on the smaller Catechism. Finally they were all sent for further revision to the deputa- tion on discipline.
(2) The Parties. — Such slow progress of the work had probably not been expected. The reason of the disagreeable delay was to be found in the question
