Vatican 1: The Facts as Laid Out

Vatican 1 is the name given to a council of Roman Catholic Church leads that occurred in the 19th century.  It was at this meeting that the idea of Papal Infallibility was "defined".  Papal Infallibility is the idea that when the Pope says certain things in certain ways, these pronouncements can be taken to be what Christ would want the Church to believe.  Gary Wills tackles this in his book Papal Sin, and this is a really important issue.  This is a key part of the understanding of the Pope's power in the church.  All questions about what (if any) changes the Church could make come back to this.

So then, what does he say?

well, the bit about Pius IX (the pope who called Vatican 1) having epilepsy seems to be true :) (page 246).

 And Gary says:

When Pius IX called Vatican one, he told the Church leaders that "this was for the reform of the church and the considering of modern errors.  Nothing was said about using the council to declare the Pope infallible" (248).

Pius IX "planted" a story in Le Civilta Cattolica that claimed that someone in France asked the Council to declare the Pope infallible "by acclimation, with no debate or vote" (248).

Pius IX supported those who wanted to have a sweeping understanding of what Papal Infallibility covered (249).

a group of German bishops respectfully wrote to the Pope to ask him not to have infallibility defined at this time, and he made them kiss his foot when they got there (249).

The following:

"Since what the Pope wanted was so clear to his curia, it set up the rules of debate and voting, and drew up the questions for discussion, in such a way as to rig the outcome.  When it became clear that there would be some sizable dissent, it was declared that any discussion could be cut off by a mere motion on the part of 10 bishops, and that any decrees of the council could pass by a mere majority though other councils had aimed at consensus" (250).  

The Council of Trent "demanded passage of decrees by an overwhelming majority" and allowed more debate (250-251).

The Pope  tried to prevent the records of the Council of Trent from being used (251)

The definition that the Pope got was less than what he wanted (254-255)

The Pope rigged the selection of Bishops so that they did not represent Catholics from all over the Catholic world, and gave certain groups more representation than their numbers deserved (256)

So....how do the facts hold up?  Lets find out........