Pope Pius IX called for a Church Council today in 1868, the first in over 300 years. It has become known as the First Vatican Council (pictured above in a Punch cartoon), and its agenda was to respond to the big challenges of the 19th century, such as rationalism, liberalism and materialism, which it did by flatly condemning them. The headline event of the Council was the declaration that the Pope was infallible when he spoke ex cathedra – literally, ‘from the chair’, or in other words, when he spoke officially. Ten months after the Council opened, it had to be suspended, due to reality breaking in, in the form of an invasion of Rome by Italian troops. It stayed suspended until the Vatican finally got around to closing it 90 years later, in 1960.
This day is the feast day of St Paul and St Peter, who were both (according to tradition) martyred outside Rome in the year 64, during Nero’s persecution of the Christians. It is said that Peter was crucified upside down on the Vatican Hill, where St Peter’s now stands, while Paul was beheaded on the Via Laurentia, where his head bounced three times on the ground, each time creating a spring of water. No, really.
‘At Nero’s hands he received the crown of martyrdom, being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord.’ Jerome on the death of Peter, in his book, On Illustrious Men
Ignatius of Loyola, future founder of the Jesuits, started to get better today in 1521. A young man, looking for adventure and fame, he had been defending a fortress when a cannon ball broke one of his legs while wounding the other. He wasn’t expected to live, but today his health improved, and he started reading the lives of saints, which turned his ambition towards the spiritual life. The rest is (Jesuit) history.
The Great Schism between the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Churches was almost healed today in 1274, 220 years after they had got divorced. Both sides celebrated Mass together, led by the Pope, at a Church Council in Lyon, after the Orthodox side had made painful concessions in return for promises of Catholic military aid against the Muslims, who were invading the Orthodox lands. However, when the Eastern delegates got home, they found that almost everyone was furious with them for giving away too much. Nine years later, the patched-up divorce fell apart again. The two sides remain in schism 750 years later.
Image: Wellcome Collection