spread of ultra-papal tendencies, as the Orleans dj'nasty in France, and the Protestant governments of Germany, made little or no effort to prevent the elevation of the most zealous adherents of the papal theories to the episcopal sees, and the coercion of the lower priesthood to the same views. It soon became apparent that in the Catholic Church of the 19th century councils like those of Pisa, Constance, and Basle would be impossible, and the papacy, in its conflicts with the secular govern- ments, the representative assemblies, and the liberal spirit of the age, could at least rely on an almost unani- mous support of the episcopacy and the lower clergy. But the masses of the population in a number of Catho- lic countries, as was shown by elections and by revo- lutionary movements, preferred liberal institutions in spite of all declarations and even excommunications of the papacy. This was especially apparent in t;he states of the Church, where only Austrian bayonets could pre- vent the people from overthrowing the temporal power of the popes. — The elevation of Pius IX to the papal chair (.June 16, 1840) not onh' encouraged the hopes of those who believed that some concessions to the liberal tendencies of the political world would be compatible with the true interests of the papacy, but even called forth Utopian dreams of advanced liberals like the Ital- ian priest and philosopher Gioberti, who enthusiastically maintained that the papacy, at the head of a confeder- acv of liberal Italian states, might bring about a full reconciliation between political liberalism and the papal creed, and might place Italy in the front rank of Chris- tian nations. These hopes were bitterly disappointed when the pope first hesitated, and finally refused, in 1848, to take part in the Italian uprising against Austrian rule, and the republican government was established in Rome which decreed the deposition of the pope. It needed an interference of the French army to restore him to his throne (1850); but in 1859 and 1860 the larger part of the states of the Church concluded by popular vote to join the new kingdom of Italy, and the city of Rome itself was only prevented from following this example by French troops until 1870, when the withdrawal of the French garrison was at once followed by the declaration of the Romans in favor of annex- ation to Italy, and by the cessation of the temporal power of the pope.
IV. The Papaci/ since the Declaration of LifalUlnlifi/. — Only one year before the downfall of the temporal power, the pope convoked a general council at Rome, which was to elevate the ultra-papal theory to its cli- max by proclaiming the papal infallibility as a dogma of the Catholic Church. For many centuries, even be- fore the times of Gregory VII, the popes had acted as if they were infallible. They had not only de- manded, but, as far as lay in their power, enforced sub- mission to their doctrinal decisions. They had forbid- den appeals from their tribunal to a general council, and even disallowed the plea of the Jansenists and other censured schools that the popes had erred in under- standing the right sense of the censured books. The Church had practically submitted to these claims, but only from want of organized and efficient opposition, not from doctrinal concurrence, as the councils of the 15th century and the Gallican Assembly of the 17th irrefutably prove. See Infai.libilitv. The Jesuits, since the daj'S of Bellarmine, have been foremost in dis- cussing and defending the infallibility theory, but no pope until Pius IX had dared to solemnly declare it as a doctrine of the Church. Pius IX had given some in- dication of what might be expected from him by pro- claiming, in 1854, the opinion held by many Catholic theologians of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary as a doctrine of the Church, and by the syllabus of 1804— the most sweeping condemnation of the prin- ciples of modern civilization and progress that has em- anated from au}^ ])ope. Nevertheless, when the design of the pope to proclaim papal infallibility as a Church doctrine became known, many bishops, especially in the
PAPACY
634
PAPACY
Teutonic countries, earnestly declared against the in- tended measure, not so much because they professed a personal disbelief in the doctrine, but because they re- garded its promulgation as extremely inopportune, and fraught with ilangers to the best interests of the Church. The A'atican Council acceded, however, on July 18, 1870, to the wishes of the pope, 536 members of the council voting for, 2 against the proposition, and lOG being absent, most of whom were unwilling to vote fa- vorably. See Vatican Council. All the bishops of the opposition gradually submitted to the promulgated doctrine, except a few of the United Eastern churches. In Germany and Switzerland, however, a number of distinguished theologians persisted in their opposition, and originated the Old Catholic movement. See Old Catholics. The membership of the Old Catholic Church amounted at the close of 1876 to only about 200,000, a small number in proportion to the 200,000,000 at which the nominally Catholic population of the globe is estimated. But the papacy, with its new claims no less than with its old, lacks the recognition of the large- ly Catholic countries, as has been abundantly proved by the historj' of the years since the Vatican Council. Only a few months after the proclamation of the new doctrine, the city of Rome defied the papal excommuni- cation by voting for the abolition of the temporal power and annexation to the kingdom of Italy. The Italian government and Parliament have established their seat in the former capital of the Eomish Church, and, not- withstanding all the censures of the Church, the Italian people, in October, 1876, once more elected a Parliament pledged to defend the national unity against the pre- tensions of the papacy. In France, where the Ultra- montane party has undoubtedly made great progress even among the laity, the elections to the General As- sembly held in 1875 gave a majority which is openly unfavorable to the temporal power and other papal claims. In Austria, next to France the largest among the Catholic countries, the lower house of the Vienna Parliament has declared its sympathy with the princi- ple of religious liberty, and even with the Old Catho- lics. In all the other Catholic countries of Europe and America the papacy has but an uncertain hold of gov- ernments and parliaments. It has had, since 1870, more or less serious conflicts with Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Ven- ezuela, and the United States of Colombia, and, except in the little kingdom of Belgium, where the Parliament is under the complete control of the Ultramontane party, it cannot rely on the subserviency of a single secular government. And even Ultramontane Belgium finds it necessary to accredit an ambassador at the court of the Italian king, though he is under papal excommunica- tion for having overthrown the temporal power of the papacy. — The relations of the papacy to non-Cath- olic governments have been seriously affected by the Vatican Council. In view of the past history of the papacy, the governments of Germany and Switzerland have deemed it necessary to introduce new laws on the administration of the property of the Cinirch and on public education, which have kindled new and bitter contlicts with the papacy. Russia remains in the atti- tude of open hostility to the papacy in which it liad been for a considerable time previous to the Vatican Council. See Roman Catholic Chcucii. Although stripped of his secular power, the pope, in 1876, was still treated by most of the Catholic and some non-Catholic governments as a sovereign, the following states hav- ing diplomatic .agents accredited near the papal chair: Bavaria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, the (iernian Empire, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Monaco, the Austro-Hun- gariaii monarchy, Peru, Portugal, San Salvador, and Spain.