And if any one shall presume, which God forbid, to con- tradict thisOur delinition, let him be anathema.
Given in Rome, in the public session, solemnly celebrat- ed in the Vatican Basilica, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, on the eighteenth day of July, in the twenty-fifth year of our pontificate. Ita est.
Joseph, Bishop op St. Poi.ten,
Secretary of the Council of the Vatican.
The expectation that some of the bishops who op- posed infallibility at the council would persist in their opposition, and decline to promulgate the new doctrine in their dioceses, ■was not fulfilled. The bishops not only submitted themselves, but forced also their dioceses to submit. In Germany a number of the most promi- nent theological scholars were removed from their chairs, and suspended from their priestly functions, for refusing to comply with the demands of Kome. Thus the creed of the Roman Catholic Church received a new doctrine wliich, in the opinion of many theologians who up to tliat time had been regarded throughotd. the Church as her ablest scholars, radically changes the character of the Church.
According to the opinion of Dr. Dnllingcr, more has been written on this subject during the last one hun- dred and thirty years than on any other point of Church history during fifteen hundred years. The most important work on the subject, thatof Janus {The Pope ami the Council), as well as the works of jMaret, DijUinger, Maistre, and several works of former centu- ries, have already been noticed. Other important works treating on the subject are Ballerini, l)e Vi ac liatione Primatus ; Schrader (Jesuit), l)e Um'tafe Romana (vol. i, Freiburg, 18G2; vol. ii, Vienna, 18GG) ; Philipp, Kirch- enrecht (vol. v) ; IJudis, /V/w Romana (Mentz, 18(1!)); Deschamps (archbishop of ^Malines), L'liifdHibHite iln Pape (Malines, 18G:)); V^ratxy, Leitres siir V [nfaltihUUe du Pape (Paris, ISGO, ISTO) ; Weninger (Jesuit), The In- faUihiliti/ of the Pup,- (( 'incinnati, 18G0) ; llergonriithcr, A iiti-.Iaiius (\\m7.\mr'j:. l.s7(M; Frohshammcr. /f«r 117//-- d!,p,m/d,r rnUhVuurhU dr^Papstrs nml d. Kirche O'lxx- nieb. ISt;;)): I>,i,-kell. Crnnde fur die VpfMharhit des Kin-JiDxih, rhmiptes (^Miinstcr, 1870); Kausclicr (cardi- nal arcbliisliop of Vienna), Obserrationes quo'dam de in- J(d/iliilit(i/is u'ch'sue siihjecfo (Naples, 1870, against the dogmatization of infallibility) ; Kleutgen (.lesuit), De Romani Pon/ifi^is Suprema poteslate docendi (Naples, 1870); Schmitz, 1st der Pcipst persdnlich inifehlhar'-f (^Itmich, 1870). The fullest account of the proceedings of the council relative to the dogmatization of infalli- bility is given in Quirinus, Romische Briefe vom Condi (iAIunich^ 1870). (A. J. S.)
IXFxVXT BAPTISM 5'
Infant Baptism. See Baptism.
Infant Communion. Notwithstanding the apos- tle's direct ii-ii, " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup" (1 Cor. xi, 28), which so clearly points to a mature age when man is capable of self-examination as a requisite in those who approach the Lord's table, we find infants admit- ted to holy communion as early as in the 3d century. The first instances of it occurred in the North-African Church. Cyprian, in his Tractatus de lapsis (p. 139, ed. Gersdorf), speaks of children who at their entrance into the world partook of the body and blood of the Lord (cibiim et pociilitm duminicum) ; he further gives the ex- ample of a girl (^puelki) whom a deacon had obliged to partake of tlie cup, but who could not retain what she had taken because she had previously, by her nurse's fault, partaken of bread dipped into wine, and had made an offering to idols. This practice of infant communion was undoubtedly connected with infant baptism, and, as a reason for it, Augustine lays down the principle that, unless we partake of the Supper of the Lord, to which no one can be regularly admitted who is not baptized, we can have no hfe in us (John vi, 53) ; and tliis, he maintains, applies as well to children as to men {Epist. 23, ad Bonif. ; Kp. lOG, contra diias epistolas Pelag. i, 22 ; Sermo viii, de i-erbis apostol. de peccat. meiit. i, 20). The same reasons are given by his contemporary. Innocent I, bishop of liome (41G), in his letter to Augustine and to the Council of jNIilevi : A ng. ep. 93, " Parvidos jeter- n£E vitaj pricmiis etiam sine baptismatis gratia donari posse perfatum est; nisi enim manducaverint carnem Christi et biberint sanguinem ejus, non habebunt vitam in se ii)sis." From a similar point of view, Gelasius I, pope of Rome, writes about A.D. 495, '• No one should venture to exclude any child from this sacrament, with- out which no one can attain to eternal hfe." But as early as the 9th century, Fulgentius, the Augustine of that century, advocated the rite of baptism, onlj' sug- gesting that by it "children were incorporated into Christ, and so partook of his flesh and blood." The cus- tom continued, however, in the Western Church, to the time of Charlemagne. In the Sacramentariiim of Greg- ory I, and in the old Ordo Romanus, we find passages in which it is expressly stated. Thus the latter recom- mends that after baptism children should not be permit- ted to taste food before partaking of the Eucharist, and should )K)t even be nursed except in case of absolute ne- cessity. We find the same in Alcuin's De AJ/ie., where it is expressly directed that, Avhenevcr a bishop is pres- ent, bajitism sluuild be immediately foUo^ved by confir- mation, and then by communion. In the synodal de- crees of Walter of Orleans, in the same century, we find that priests are always to have the Eucharist ready, so that if a child should be taken ill it should not be in danger of dying without the viaticum. In the 9th cen- tury this ciuestion of infant communion gave rise to con- troversies. Thus Paschasius Katbertus maintained that children dying before communion were not therefore in danger, since by baptism they had already entered into connnunion with Christ. Still, in the 12th century, we find l.'adulphus Ardens saying {Horn, in die Pascha: de Kuchar.necofs.) that it is prescribed {stutntum) tliat chil- dren should receive communion, at least with the cup, soon after being ba))tized, so that " they might not be in danger of dying without that necessary sacrament." Hugo of St. Victor also recommends infant communion, where it can take place without danger, but remarks that this Custom had already fallen into disuse in his time, the practice only remaining for the priest to give the newly-baptized child a little ordinary wine, instead of the blood of Christ, which practice he condemns. Soon after this, Odo, bishop of Paris, forbade giving children unconsecrated wafers, and thus the custom was lost in the (Jallican Church. In Germany traces are to be found of it at a still later period ; the thing ended in a mere senseless superstition. The Council of Trent condemns the principle of the necessity of infant com-