Vatican, see ROME, Vol. VIII. p. 785. The Vatican Council, which proclaimed the Infallibility (q.v.) of the Pope, met under the auspices of Pius IX. (q.v.) on the 8th December 1869, and was adjourned (but not dissolved, so that it might still reassemble) 18th July 1870. It is variously reckoned the 19th, 20th, or 21st of the Ecumenical Councils (see COUNCIL), and was attended by the largest number of ecclesiastics ever assembled at a council—by 764 out of 1037 entitled to attend. Of those present 276 were Italians. After the outbreak of the Franco-German war the attendance sunk to about 200. In the end Ultramontanism triumphed over the opposition of liberal bishops like Hefele and Strossmayer. The ecumenicity of the Council was denied by the Old Catholics (q.v.).
See the history by Ceconi (1873); Gladstone's Vatican Decrees (1874) and Vaticanism (1875), Manning's True Story of the Vatican Council (1877), and other controversial pamphlets; German works by Fessler (Catholic), Friederich and 'Janus' (Old Catholic), and Friedberg (Protestant); and the Acta et Decreta (new ed. 1892). For the Vatican MS. of the New Testament, see CODEX.