Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/126

Rh 110 V A S V A T VASILKOFF, a district town of Russia, in the govern ment of Kieff, is situated 22 miles by rail to the south-west of that city. Its 16,600 inhabitants support themselves chiefly by agriculture and the transport of merchandise ; there is also some manufacture of tobacco and soap. Yasilkofi was founded in the 10th century, but laid waste during the Mongolian invasion. In 1320 it was taken by the Lithuanians, and later on by the Poles, under whom it remained until 1686, when it was annexed to Russia. VASTO, a fortified town of Italy, in the province of Chieti, stands high on an olive-clad slope, about a mile from the Adriatic and 131 miles south-east from Ancona. It is still surrounded by its medireval walls, and commands fine views extending to the Tremiti Islands and Monte Gargano. The cathedral, with a Gothic fagade, has no special interest ; the municipal buildings contain a collec tion of Roman antiquities and inscriptions. There are manufactures of earthenware, woollen cloth, and silk ; but the inhabitants are chiefly employed in the culture of the olive and in fishing. The population in 1881 was 9761 (commune 13,883). Vasto, the Histonium of the ancient geographers, was a flourish ing municipal town under the Roman empire, as is shown by the numerous remains of theatres, baths, and other public edifices. It was, and still is, subject to severe earth tremors. VATICAN COUNCIL. The Vatican Council is the first and only plenary council of the Latin Church held since the close of the Council of Trent in 1563. But it bears very slight resemblance to that assembly in the cir cumstances of its origin, objects, and proceedings. The Council of Trent was all but forced upon the Papacy by the demands of the principal Catholic states of Europe, and by the religious and political necessities of the time. It was convened for the purposes of endeavouring to secure the return of the Lutherans, Calvinists, and other revolted bodies to the Roman Church, and of applying stringent measures of reform to amend the numerous practical abuses and scandals which had mainly caused the revolt. And, while it failed conspicuously in the former of these objects, it did achieve a certain degree of success in the latter, by a variety of disciplinary enactments covering a large range of subjects, and was followed, in point of fact, by a marked improvement in clerical morals and diligence. The Vatican Council, contrariwise, originated with the Papacy alone, and was neither demanded nor desired by Roman Catholic Christendom. Its object was confined to securing the triumph of the hyper-Ultramontane school within the Roman obedience by establishing papal auto cracy as divine and infallible ; and it made no attempt whatever beyond a sterile discussion, not published in its Acts, to deal with any of the abuses and scandals which had either survived the Tridentine reforms or had sprung up since. While the Council of Trent did much to repair the damage done to the personal authority of the popes by the incidents of the &quot; great schism &quot; and the character of the pontiffs who sat during the close of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, it left several questions concerning the source and extent of papal authority un decided, which proved a fruitful cause of debate between the Gallican and Ultramontane schools of theology, the former minimizing the papal claims as far as is compatible with acceptance of the tenet of the Petrine privilege, and viewing the Papacy as a constitutional monarchy under strict limitations, the latter holding it to be an autocracy resting on a divine charter, and incapable of restraint on the part of its subjects. But the French Revolution, by breaking up the old Gallican Church, led to the substitu tion of a largely Ultramontane episcopate in France under the concordat between Pius VII. and Napoleon I., and thereby to the permanent declension of the moderate school, while, on the other hand, a variety of causes brought the Jesuits, recalled into corporate existence by the same Pius VII. in 1814, after forty years suppression, again into the same position of chief influence in the Latin Church which they had occupied in the heyday of the counter-Reformation. They have always held steadily to the military ideas of their founder, and have therefore unceasingly striven to centralize and concentrate ecclesi astical authority, to remove constitutional limitations upon its exercise, and to make it prompt, unfaltering, and trenchant in action. Clearly, if the Papacy could be con verted into an absolute monarchy, this end would be attained at a single stroke, because the mere fiat of the supreme pontiff would thenceforward suffice as warrant for all ecclesiastical action, thus dispensing with cumbrous and dilatory machinery of every kind ; and his delegated authority would enable any person wielding it to act with similar efficacy and despatch. With the accession of Pius IX. to the papal chair in 1846 a favourable opportunity for carrying out this pro gramme presented itself, for, weak in character and wholly unversed in theological learning, while strongly holding the very highest views of his own prerogatives and eagerly receptive of everything which tended to exalt them further, he was exactly the instrument suited for its execution. Two experiments, to test at once how far he was prepared to go, and how far Latin Christendom was prepared to submit in the matter of decrees on faith and morals issuing from himself singly, with no previous conciliar examina tion or decision, were tried in 1854 by the promulgation of the tenet of the Immaculate Conception and in 1864 by that of the Syllabus of Errors. The former of these met with little resistance, the latter with none, and it was therefore judged safe to proceed with the bolder and more far-reaching scheme which they but foreshadowed. Its success appeared to be almost a foregone conclusion ; for, not only could a compact and docile Italian majority be as surely reckoned on as it was at Trent, but the far larger number of Roman Catholic bishops all over the world had been virtually appointed by Pius IX. during his long pontificate, and that exclusively from the Ultramontane school. Nevertheless there was still a minority important enough to make some caution desirable in the earlier stages of the preliminaries, and the proposal to hold an ecumeni cal council was first laid privately before the congregation of rites by the pope himself in December 1864, con temporaneously with the issue of the Syllabus, and im mediately afterwards before all the cardinals then at Rome, who were desired to give their opinions as to the oppor tuneness of convoking the council at all and as to the subjects it should discuss if convoked. Nineteen cardinals approved the proposal; two opposed it; and one remained neutral. In March 1865 a congregation of direction was formed to take further steps towards the desired end, and private communications were made to various bishops and to the nuncios at the different courts, who were asked to send competent theologians to take part in the preliminary congregations. Some communications were also made privately in 1866 to bishops of the Oriental rite. The first directly public intimation of the approaching council was made in June 1867, through a circular letter of Cardinal Caterini to the 500 bishops present in Rome at the 18th centenary festival of the martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul, inviting their reply to a schedule of inquiries. In September 1868 an invitation to attend was despatched to the Oriental bishops not in communion with Rome, and also to &quot; Protestants and non-Catholics.&quot; But, as it was intended that no Oriental prelate should be admitted to a seat in the council till he had first made profession of the Roman Catholic system in its entirety, and as Pro testants were merely to be referred to &quot;experienced men&quot;