Preparatory to the second session of the council, various commissions were
constituted. That of postulates or propositions was appointed by the Pope,
and consisted of cardinals who had experience, both as residents of Rome
and formerly as nuncios at foreign courts, together with archbishops and
bishops selected from each of the chief nations in the council. Its
members were twelve cardinals, two patriarchs—Antioch and Jerusalem—ten
archbishops, among whom was the Archbishop of Westminster, and two
bishops.
It was resolved that the other commissions should be elected by the
universal suffrage of the council. The Commission of Faith was elected in
the Third General Congregation, on the 20th of December. It was composed
of twenty-five members, among whom were remarked the successor of Fenelon
in the archiepiscopal see of Cambrai, the Archbishop of Westminster and
the Archbishop of Cashel (Ireland), three American bishops, Baltimore, San
Francisco, Rio Grande.
The Commission of Discipline consisted of twenty-four members, who
represented as many nations—the Bishop of Birmingham, on the part of
England.
The Commission on Religious Orders was also chosen; the Bishop of Clifton
representing England.
No more being necessary at the earlier sittings of the council, the
nomination of all other commissions was postponed.
SECOND PUBLIC SESSION—PROFESSION OF FAITH BY ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE
COUNCIL.
The second public session was held on the feast of the Epiphany, January
6th, 1870. It had been always customary at general councils to make a
profession of faith. This custom was not departed from at the Vatican
Council. As at Constantinople, A. D. 381, and Chalcedon, A. D. 481, was
recited the Creed of Nicea, and at subsequent councils was solemnly
professed the faith as expressed by those which had preceded them; so at
the Council of the Vatican were repeated the articles of Catholic belief,
as handed down through Trent and the more ancient councils. First of all,
the Holy Father, rising from his seat, read, in a distinct voice, the
definitions of the Council of Trent, known as the Creed of Pope Pius IV.
The same profession of faith was then read from the _Ambo_ by the Bishop
of Fabriano. As soon as he had done so, the other Fathers of the Council
expressed their adhesion by kissing the Gospel at the throne of the Chief
Pastor. Seven hundred bishops of the church, representing more than thirty
nations and about(10) three hundred millions of Christians, thus solemnly
professed, with one heart and mind, the same faith in the same form of
words. In this wonderful unanimity there is more than nature and
philosophy. Through all the changes of nearly nineteen hundred years, this
intellectual unity of faith, although minutely defined at Nicea,
Constantinople and Trent, has endured unchanged. We cannot but behold in
this immutability of Divine faith something far beyond the power of human
wisdom. It is surely providential that, in the face of so much unbelief,
such witness should have been borne to the unity and universality of the
Catholic faith.
And now closed the second public session of the Vatican Council.