Page:The True Story of the Vatican Council.djvu/94

82 So much for the method and the regulations which were agreed to on the 3rd of November, 1869, by the commission of Direction, and confirmed by authority.

We now come to the last part of our narrative as to the events before the assembling of Council—namely, the matters to be discussed, of which it will be enough to give a list. They were six in number.

(1.) Schema on Catholic doctrine against the manifold errors flowing from Rationalism.

(2.) Schema on the Church of Christ.

(3.) Schema on the Office of Bishops.

(4.) Schema on the Vacancy of Sees.

(5.) Schema on the Life and Manners of the Clergy.

(6.) Schema on the Little Catechism.

On these, or at least on some of these, we shall have to speak hereafter. It will therefore be enough at this time to note one fact only.

6. In preparing the schema on the Church of Christ, which consisted of fifteen chapters, after a full treatment of the body of the Church the commission inevitably came to treat of its head. Two chapters were prepared: the one on the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, the other of his temporal power. In treating of the primacy it was likewise inevitable that the commission should come to treat of the endowments of the primacy, and, among these endowments, first of the divine assistance promised to Peter and in Peter