Letters from Rome on the Council

“Letters from Rome on the Council” is a compilation of letters written by three different bishops who were present during the First Vatican Council in 1870. They were all originally published in the “Allgemeine Zeitung” between 1869 and 1870. Ever trying to disprove Papal infallibility, von Döllinger, author of “The Pope and the Council” compiled these letters and published them in this volume together with several articles from the “Allgemeine Zeitung” that lead up to Vatican I.

The authors of the letters and their home countries are never identified, nor is the reader aware which of the three is writing, so the transition is sometimes a bit disjointed, and the same story is occasionally told twice. That aside, the letters are a treasure-trove of insights into the intrigue of Vatican I. Attempts by the Vatican to suppress, coerce, or otherwise overpower the opponents of Papal infallibility are laid out in detail. The reader is able to trace the evolution of the minority in how they attempted to combat Papal infallibility from becoming a dogma.

These letters frequently have French, Latin and Italian quotes which remain untranslated. Despite this, the majority of the letters are comprehensible to a layman with little background in the history of Vatican I. This work is a helpful introduction in that it frequently names the power players on both sides, allowing the student to know where to direct their research.


This book was created using OCR software, and was subsequently proof-read closely by a human. While we proof our texts carefully before selling them, occasionally errors do creep in. Please help us perfect our titles by submitting errors to corrections@pneuma-press.com.

Roman numerals for chapters and Bible quotations have been updated to modern numbers. Footnotes have been converted to end notes connected by hyperlinks.