else (_b_) not sufficiently representative, or, finally, (_c_) not
unanimous in its decisions. But such utterly unsupported allegations
served only to accentuate the weakness of their cause and the
hopelessness of their position; since it would be difficult, from the
origin of the Church to the present time, to find any Council so free,
so representative, and so unanimous.

Pope Pius IX. (whom, it seems likely, we shall soon be called upon to
venerate as a canonised saint) convened the Vatican Council by the
Bull _Æterni Patris_, published on 29th June, 1868. It summoned all
the Archbishops, Bishops, Patriarchs, etc., throughout the Catholic
world to meet together in Rome on 8th December of the following year,
1869. When the appointed day arrived, and the Council was formally
opened, there were present 719 representatives from all parts of the
world, and very soon after, this number was increased to 769. On 18th
July, 1870--a day for ever memorable in the annals of the Church--the
fourth public session was held, and the constitution _Pater Æternus_,
containing the definition of the Papal Infallibility, was solemnly
promulgated. Of the 535 who were present on this grand occasion, 533
voted for the definition (_placet_) and only two, one from Sicily, the
other from the United States, voted against it (_non placet_).
Fifty-five Bishops, who fully accepted the doctrine itself, but deemed
its actual definition at that moment inopportune, simply absented
themselves from this session. Finally, the Holy Father, in the
exercise of his supreme authority, sanctioned the decision of the
Council, and proclaimed officially, _urbi et orbi_ the decrees and the
canons of the "First Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ".

It may be well here to clothe the Latin words of the Pope and the
assembled Bishops in an English dress. They are as follows: "We (the