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The First Vatican Council was summoned by Pope Pius IX by the bull Aeterni Patris of June 29, 1868. The first session was held in Saint Peter's Basilica on December 8, 1869. It was the 20th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church. Nearly 800 church leaders attended.
The pope's primary purpose was to obtain confirmation of the position he had taken in his Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemning a wide range of positions associated with rationalism, liberalism, and materialism.
The purpose of the council was, besides the condemnation, to define the doctrine concerning the church. In the three sessions, there was discussion and approval of only two constitutions: Dogmatic Constitution On The Catholic Faith and First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, the latter dealing with the primacy and papal infallibility of the bishop of Rome. About 60 members of the council effectively abstained by leaving Rome the day before the vote and the debate was still heated, Bishop (later canonized) Antonio Maria Claret suffered a fatal heart-attack during the debate shortly after condemning the "blasphemies and heresies uttered on the floor of this Council". The discussion and approval of the constitution gave rise to serious controversies which led to the withdrawal from the church of those known as Old Catholics.
The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War interrupted the council. It was suspended following the capture of Rome and never resumed. It was not officially closed until decades later, when it was formally brought to an end as part of the preparations for the Second Vatican Council. The results of the council marked the triumph of the Ultramontanism movement.
See also
Ecumenical council, Second Vatican Council.
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