VATICAN (COUNCIL OF THE) 275 the reform of morals, and the restoration of discipline. Three other points are deserving of notice : the right and manner of proposing any matter to the council, the manner of pro- ceeding in general congregation or committee of the whole, and the ceremonial of the solemn 'or public sessions to be held in presence of the pope himself. As to the first, every bishop has a right to make a proposition to the council ; but this must be in accordance with the com- mon teaching of the church, and be previously submitted to the special committee or congrega- tion charged with examining such propositions. If approved by the committee, it is referred to the pope, who decides on the opportune- ness of bringing it before the council. As to the second, it is decreed that the doctrinal or disciplinary schemata or resolutions drawn up during the 18 previous months by the prepara- tory commissions shall be distributed among the members of the council in good time be- fore the general congregations ; that four depu- tations or special committees shall be estab- lished by the counbil, on faith, church disci- pline, religious orders, and oriental rites, each to consist of 24 members elected by ballot in the council; that in every general congrega- tion, after discussing the matters prepared and submitted, a vote shall be taken thereon, and decrees adopted to be promulgated afterward in public session ; in these, after the reading of the decrees thus prepared, the votes of all the members present shall be taken and count- ed before the pontifical throne, in presence of the pope, who will then sanction them. On Dec. 2 a prosynodal or preparatory assembly of all the prelates present in Rome was held, the pope presiding. On the evening of the 7th Pius IX. with a numerous cortege went to the church of the Apostles to inaugurate nine days of public prayer for the divine light on the ap- proaching deliberations. With the first break of day on the 8th, the artillery of the castle of Sant' Angelo and the bells of all the churches in Eome pealed forth. By 6 o'clock the naves of St. Peter were filled, as well as the piazza and the streets leading to it. At 9 the head of the procession began to appear on the square ; and more than an hour elapsed before it could reach the left arm of the transept, which had been partitioned off and furnished as the council hall. Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Pa- trizzi, vice dean of the sacred college, and Bishop Fessler of St. Polten in Austria, secre- tary of the council, then placed the book of the Gospels on a throne prepared for it on the altar ; the archbishop of Iconium and vicar of the Vatican basilica, Puecher-Passavalli, a determined inopportunist, preached the open- ing sermon, and an hour was consumed by the members in paying the prescribed homage to the pope. After appropriate devotional services all who had not a right to be present at the proceedings of the session left the council hall. Two decrees only were promulgated, the one declaring the oecumenical council of the Vatican duly opened, and the other appointing the next public session to be held on Jan. 6, 1870. There were present 49 cardinals, 9 pa- triarchs, 4 primates, 123 archbishops, 481 bish- ops, 6 privileged abbots, 22 abbots general, and 29 superiors general of religious orders; in all, 723 members of the council by right or by invitation. Seven general congrega- tions were held between Dec. 8 and Jan. 6, and were employed both in discussing the pre- pared schemata and in electing the members of the four deputations called for in the let- ters apostolic of Nov. 27. The deliberations on schemata began on Dec. 30, and were con- fined to questions of discipline. It became clear in the first days of January that among the persons connected with the various depu- tations and commissions, there were a few who did not scruple -to violate the oath of secrecy ; and in spite of an admonition to the members of the council, the Augsburg " Ga- zette" continued to publish letters from its Eoman correspondent professing to describe the most secret transactions of the committees. Still no place was given in the schemata to the question of infallibility at the beginning of March. Two memoirs presented to the mem- bers of the council about this time brought the question of opportuneness to a crisis. The first, bearing no date or printer's name, was entitled Postulata a pluribiis Galliarum Episcopis Sanctissimo D. nostro Pio Papae IX. et Sacrosancto Concilia Vaticano reverenter proposita, and concluded with the demand " that no new definitions of faith should be made, except such as were absolutely neces- sary." The names of the French bishops were not mentioned, but the document was freely circulated among them. The second memoir was a postulatiim signed by 40 pre- lates of various countries, asking for a for- mal and explicit definition of the pope's in- fallibility while exercising his teaching office toward the entire church; and on March 6 it was officially announced that the commis- sion on postulata had recommended and the pope had approved action on this petition, and that a special chapter on this subject should be introduced into the schema of the forthcom- ing constitution " On the Church of Christ." The first discussion on infallibility was fixed for March 18, and the prelates who intended to speak on it in general congregation sent in their names. Meanwhile the French minister of foreign affairs, Count Daru, yielding to the pressure of other governments, wrote to Count de Banneville, the French ambassador in Rome, calling the attention of the pontifi- cal government to the consequences likely to arise from the publication of certain doctrinal decrees on the church and the Roman pon- tiff, the schemata of which bad appeared in the Augsburg " Gazette." To this Cardinal Antonelli replied, March 19, that the proposed doctrinal decrees contained only a simple ex- position of the fundamental principles on
