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Rh women was questioned at that time; in 1868 these certificates were replaced by diplomas bestowing the degree of A.B. The present equipment includes more than twenty buildings, and the campus has an area of about 400 acres. The college confers the baccalaureate degree in arts (A.B.) upon the completion of the regular course of four years, and a second degree in arts (A.M.) upon Bachelors of Arts of Vassar or any approved college who have completed (by examination and thesis) a course of advanced non-professional study. In 1909-10 there were about ninety professors and instructors and 1040 students. The college had in 1909 total productive funds of about $1,360,000, yielding an income of about $600,000. James Monroe Taylor (b. 1848), a graduate of the university of Rochester and of Rochester Theological Seminary, became president of the college in 1886.

VASTO (anc. Histonium), a fortified town of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Chieto, situated high on an olive-clad slope, about a mile from the Adriatic, 32 m. direct S.E. by E. of Chieti and 131 m. by rail from Ancona, 525 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 10,090 (town); 15,542 (commune). It is surrounded by medieval walls, and commands fine views extending to the Tremiti Islands and Monte Gargano. The churches of S. Pietro and S. Giuseppe have Gothic façades. There is a medieval castle. The municipal buildings contain a collection of Roman antiquities and inscriptions. There are manufactures of earthenware, woolen cloth and silk; but the inhabitants are chiefly employed in the culture of the olive and in fishing.

The ancient Histonium was a town of the Frentani, and an Oscan inscription of the period of its independence speaks of censors there, probably officers of the whole community of the Frentani (see R. S. Conway, Italian Dialects, i. 208, Cambridge, 1897). Though hardly mentioned in history, it was a flourishing municipal town under the Roman Empire, as is shown by the numerous inscriptions found there. One of these mentions its Capitolium or temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. It lay on the line of the ancient road which prolonged the Via Flaminia to the S.E., and reached the coast here after having passed through Anxanum (Lanciano). It was, and still is, subject to severe earthquakes. (T. As)

VATICAN COUNCIL, THE, of 1869 and 1870, the last ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, and the most important event in her historical development since the Tridentine synod. The preliminaries were surrounded by the closest secrecy. As early as the end of the year 1864, Pius IX. had commissioned the cardinals resident in Rome to tender him their opinions as to the advisability of a council. The majority pronounced in favour of the scheme, dissentient voices being rare. After March 1865 the convocation of the council was no longer in doubt. Thirty-six carefully selected bishops of diverse nationalities were privately interrogated with regard to the tasks which, in their estimation, should be assigned to the prospective assembly. Some of them proposed, inter alia, that the doctrine of papal infallibility should be elevated to the rank of a dogma. In public, however, Pius IX. made no mention of his design till the 26th of June 1867, when Catholic bishops from every country were congregated round him in Rome on the occasion of the great centenary of St Peter. On the 29th of June 1868 the bull Aeterni Patris convened the council to Rome, the date being fixed for the 8th of December 1869. And since the Roman Catholic Church claims that all baptized persons belong to her, special bulls were issued, with invitations to the bishops of the Oriental Churches, to the Protestants and to the other non-Catholics, none of which groups complied with the request.

The object of the council was long a mystery. The Bull of Convocation was couched in perfectly general terms, and specified no definite tasks &mdash; a circumstance which at first ensured a favourable reception for the scheme, as it allowed ample scope to hope and imagination. But, among liberal Catholics,

this mood underwent a complete reversal when information began to leak out as to the object of the Curia in convening the council. The first &mdash; epoch-making &mdash; revelation was given, in February 1869, by an article in the Civiltà Cattolica, a periodical conducted under Jesuit auspices. It was there stated, as the view of many Catholics in France, that the council would be of very brief duration, since the majority of its members were in agreement. As a presumptive theme of the deliberations, it mentioned inter alia the proclamation of papal infallibility. The whole proceeding was obviously an attempt, from the Jesuit side, to gauge the prevalent opinion with regard to this favourite doctrine of ultramontanism. The repudiation was energetic and unmistakable, especially in Germany. Certain articles on &ldquo;The Council and the Civiltà,&rdquo; published by Döllinger in the Allgemeine Zeitung, worked like a thunderbolt. Unions of the laity, designed to repel the encroachments of ultramontanism, sprang up immediately; and all manner of old ideas for the remodelling of the clergy were broached anew. It must, however, be admitted that counter demonstrations were not lacking. The attitude adopted by the German episcopate well exemplifies the ecclesiastical situation of that period. The bishops tried to allay the excitement by publishing a pastoral letter drawn up in common; but in a written address to the pope they declared against the contemplated definition of infallibility. In France also a violent conflict broke out. Here it was principally the writings of Bishop Maret in Paris (Du concile général et de la paix religieuse, 2 vols., 1869), and of Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans, which gave expression to the prevalent unrest, and led to those literary controversies in which Archbishop Manning of Westminster and Dechamps of Mechlin came forward to champion the opposite cause. In Italy the free-thinkers considered the moment opportune for renewing their agitations on a larger scale. They even attempted &mdash; though with no success worth the name &mdash; to counteract the Vatican Council by a rival council in Naples. That the projected dogma had weighty opponents among the higher clergy of Austria-Hungary, Italy and North America was demonstrated during the progress of the council; but before it met all was quiet in these countries. The credit of inviting the European governments to consider their attitude towards the forthcoming synod belongs to the president of the Bavarian ministry, Prince Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, the future imperial chancellor. In his circular note to the Powers of the 9th of April 1869 he analysed the political import of the doctrine of papal infallibility, and proposed a common course of action. But his overtures met with no response. In view of the strained international situation, none of the Powers approached was willing to take a step which might easily have resulted in a bitter conflict with the Church; and the studied vagueness of the Curia in its official pronouncements on the council enabled them to assume an attitude of reserve and suspension of judgment. France was equally inactive, though it rested with her to decide whether the council could even meet in Rome: for the withdrawal of her troops from the papal state would have been the signal for a patriotic Italy to sweep this last impediment to national unity from the face of the earth.

On none of the previous ecumenical councils did the Roman see exercise so pronounced an influence as on the Vatican. As early as the year 1865 a committee of cardinals had been formed as a &ldquo;special directive congregation for the affairs of the future general council,&rdquo; a title which was usually abbreviated to that of &ldquo;Central Commission.&rdquo; Among the earliest preliminaries, a number of distinguished theologians and canonists were retained as consultors to the council. In the selection of these the preference for men of ultramontane tendencies was so pronounced &mdash; Döllinger, for instance, was not invited &mdash; that the influences at work in the convocation of the council were obvious long before its opening. Under the control of the Central Commission were six sub-commissions: (1) for dogma; (2) for matters of ecclesiastical discipline; (3) for the religious orders; (4) for the Oriental Churches and the missions; (5) for the secular policy of the Church;