Vatican I Ends, 1870

On this day in 1870, the First Vatican Council adjourned. Convened on December 8, 1869, By Blessed Pius IX, the council’s foremost accomplishment was the definition of papal in fallibility. Two dogmatic constitutions were voted on during the council, Dei Filius on the relationship between faith and reason; and Pastor Aeternus on the centrality of the Pope’s authority and his personal infallibility in matters of doctrine. The latter claimed that “a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole Church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter”, that “he lives and presides and exercises judgment in his successors the bishops of the Holy Roman See”, and that “in blessed Peter, full power has been given by our Lord Jesus Christ to tend, rule, and govern the universal Church” to the Popes of Rome. As the council proceeded, France and Prussia went to war. French troops stationed in Rome had been the only thing keeping Italian troops from taking over Rome. On September 20, 1870, Italian troops occupied Rome, and in October a plebiscite was held in which an overwhelming majority of the votes cast were for the incorporation of Rome in the kingdom of Italy. The council was suspended and never resumed.