Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
It is often asserted that the aggrandizement of the papacy during the nineteenth century reached its height with the definition of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council in 1870. A case can be made, however, for the view that that definition, with its careful delimitations, was in fact a kind of anticlimax, that the ultramontane high tide really had been reached, and checked, five years before with the issuance of the Syllabus of Errors and the fateful intervention of Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans.
1. See Aubert, Roger, Le pontificat de Pie IX (Paris, 1952),Google Scholar and the bibliographies listed there. Hales, E. E. G., Pio Nono (New York, 1962),Google Scholar is a sympathetic study. A recent brief biography, with a helpful bibliography, is Coppa, Frank J., Pope Pius IX (Boston, 1979).Google Scholar More critical are Hasler, August B., Pius IX (1846–1878);Google ScholarPäpstiliche Unfehlbarkeit und 1. Vatikaniches Konzil (Stuttgart, 1977),Google Scholar in two volumes, and its English synopsis, How the Pope Become Infallible (Garden City, 1981).Google Scholar For a discussion of Hasler, see Martina, Gracamo in Archivum Historiae Pontificiae, 16 (1978): 341–350.Google Scholar
2. For a dramatic description of the scene, see Mozley, Thomas, Letters from Rome, 2 vols. (London, 1891), 2:445–447.Google Scholar
3. Monti, Antonio, Pio IX net Risorgimento Italiano con Documenti Inediti (Bori, 1928), p. 196.Google Scholar
4. Both Cavour and Montalembert have been credited with this celebrated phrase. In a letter of 20 July 1863, Montalembert called it “la celebre formule que M. de Cavour m'a volee.” See Aubert, Roger, “L'intervention de Montalembert au congres de Malines en 1863,” Collectonea Mechliniensia 35 (1950): 527Google Scholar
5. Quoted in Ollivier, Emile, L'Eglise et l'État an concile du Vatican, 2 vols. (Paris, [1877]),1:314.Google Scholar
6. See [Delatte], Paul, Dom Gueranger, 2 vols. (Paris, 1909), 1:359–362.Google Scholar
7. For the best elaboration of this point, see Kselman, Thomas, Miracles and Prophecies in Nineteenth-Century France (New Brunswick, N.J., 1983), pp. 132–134.Google Scholar
8. See, for example, Pucell, E. S., The Life of Cardinal Manning, 2 vols. (London, 1896), 2:203–209.Google Scholar
9. Aubert, , Pie IX, p. 289.Google Scholar
10. Coppa, , Pius IX, p. 171.Google Scholar
11. Butler, Cuthbert, The Vatican Council, 1869–1870 (London, 1930), pp. 55–60.Google Scholar
12. Aubert, , Pie IX, pp. 184–185.Google Scholar
13. Newman to Dalgairns, , 22 11 1846, in The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, ed. Dessain, Stephen et al. , (London, 1961), 11:279–280.Google Scholar
14. Thibault, Pierre, Savior et pouvoir, 31 vols. (Quebec, 1961–), pp. 27–31.Google Scholar
15. See the perceptive remarks of Hughes, Philip, A Popular History of the Catholic Church (New York, 1949), pp. 216–217.Google Scholar See also Newman, to Arnold, Matthew, 3 01 1876, in Letters and Diaries, (Oxford, 1975), 28: 5.Google Scholar
16. Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, s.v. “Syllabus of Errors.”
17. For an instance in 1855 see Reardon, Bernard, Liberalism and Tradition (Cambridge, 1975), p.113.Google Scholar
18. Newman, to Oxenham, , 9 11 1865, in Letters and Diaries (London, 1972), 22:98–99.Google Scholar
19. Lagrange, François, Vie de Mgr. Dupanloup, 3 vols. (Paris, 1884) 2:455.Google Scholar
20. Hales, , Pio Nono, p. 268.Google Scholar
21. Text (Latin and French) in Les Actespontificaux (Paris, 1865), pp. 3–49.Google Scholar
22. See the perceptive remarks of Dru, Alexander, The Contribution of German Catholicism (New York, 1963), pp. 89–93.Google Scholar
23. Text in Enchiridion Symbolorium, ed. by Karl Rahner (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1952), pp. 483–490.Google Scholar English text in Documents in Church History, ed. by Colman J. Barry, III(Westminister, Md., 1965), pp. 70–74.Google Scholar
24. Baunard, Louis, Histoire du cardinal Pie, 3 vols. (Paris, 1886), 2: 229.Google Scholar
25. Blaikston, Noel, ed., The Roman Question (London, 1962), p. 303.Google Scholar
26. Himmelfarb, Gertrude, Lord Acton (Chicago, 1952), pp. 147–150.Google Scholar
27. The two best studies of the Syllabus and Dupanloup's pamphlet are by Roger Aubert. The more general one is “Le Syllabus décembre, 1864,” La Revue nouvelle 40 (1964): 369–385, 481–499.Google Scholar More detailed and containing much relevant correspondence is “Mgr. Dunpanloup et le Syllabus,” Revue d' histoire ecclésiastique 60 (1956): 79–142, 471–512, 837–915.Google Scholar
28. In the original edition this section took up pp. 85–157. See the translation by Hutchinson, William, The Convention of September and the Encyclical of 8 December (London, 1865).Google Scholar
29. Dupanloup (Hutchinson), p. 27.
30. Dupanloup (Hutchinson), p. 21.
31. The pope said this to the British agent in Rome, Odo Russell. See Blaikston, , ed., Roman Question, p. 307.Google Scholar
32. Text in Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 60 (1956): 913.Google Scholar
33. Aubert, , “Le Syllabus,” p. 495.Google Scholar
34. Dupanloup was among the bishops who absented themselves from the final vote on infallibility. See Butler, , Vatican Council, pp. 407–410.Google Scholar
35. Quoted in Ward, Wilfrid, The Life of John Henry Newman, 2 vols. (London, 1912), 2:101.Google Scholar
36. The text of the congratulatory letter is in Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, (1956) 60:915.Google Scholar