Why did it take so long for infallibility to be solemnly declared?

[JohnStrachan]

The doctrine of infallibility relies on one of the cornerstones of Catholic dogma: that of Petrine supremacy of the pope, and his authority as the ruling agent who decides what are accepted as formal beliefs in the Roman Catholic Church. The use of this power is referred to as speaking ex cathedra. The solemn declaration of papal infallibility by Vatican I took place on 18 July 1870. Since that time, the only example of an ex cathedra decree took place in 1950, when Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as an article of faith.

If it took some nineteen centuries for papal infallibility to be solemnly declared, why did the RC church wait so long and how did previous RC’s interpret teachings from the Pope?

 

[Genesis315]

To be fair, the infallibility of the Church in general has never been given an extraordinary definition–it has always been the common teaching of the Church. The Pope’s infallibility is simply a function of that and his relationship to the rest of the Church. The Church always received the Pope’s irreformable judgments as irreformable (and therefore infallible).

However, in the mid-19th century, the Rationalists opposed the concept of faith, subjecting everything to reason alone. The Church, on the other hand, teaches revealed truth must be believed by faith. This only makes sense if what we are believing with faith cannot be subject to error (something subject to error, should not be given absolute faith).

Therefore the Church needed to reiterate its infallibility, and which of its judgments were infallible, in relation to its defense of the virtue of faith.

The First Vatican Council had planned to have more documents on the rest of the episcopate and Church, which would have talked more about their infallibility (this was later done by Vatican II). It just happened to start with the documents on faith and on the Pope, and then didn’t get to finish because Rome was invaded and taken over.

The Pope’s infallibility was implied in the fact that he is, in the words of the Council of Florence, “the father and teacher of all Christians, and to him was committed in blessed Peter the full power of tending, ruling and governing the whole church.”

It is also tied to the fact that the Roman Church–the Apostolic See–cannot defect from the faith and Church, as then the Church would lose the constituent element of the primacy.

As Pope St. Agatho I put it in the 7th century:

…from the beginning [the Roman See] has received the Christian faith from her founders, the princes of the Apostles of Christ, and remains undefiled unto the end, according to the divine promise of the Lord and Saviour himself, which he uttered in the holy Gospels to the prince of his disciples: saying, Peter, Peter, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that (your) faith fail not. And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3813.htm

 

[steph03]

That would be like asking why the doctrine of the Trinity took over 3 centuries to be defined

It took a definition when it became an issue

 

[twf]

As Genesis315 says, infallibility is not limited to the Pope. The Church is infallible by Christ’s own promise. This infallibility can be exercised by the bishops as a whole, especially in the context of an ecumenical Council, or by the Pope as the head of that sacred college. Most dogmas have been defined by councils rather than by the Pope alone. The Pope does not work in a vacuum. He works with his brother bishops who, with him, comprise the Magisterium.

 

[JohnStrachan]

This is very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to provide a fulsome explanation.

 

[Genesis315]

Most dogmas have been defined by councils rather than by the Pope alone. The Pope does not work in a vacuum. He works with his brother bishops who, with him, comprise the Magisterium.

Good point. Even those instances where it is the Pope “alone” it almost never is. He either consults the bishops throughout the world, sometimes a partial gathering of bishops, sometimes the college of Cardinals, etc. As St. Francis de Sales said, the Holy Spirit leads, He does not carry–the Pope does not receive inspiration, but the Holy Spirit ensures what needs to be done to get to the right answer is done. The First Vatican Council put it this way:

1. The Roman pontiffs, too, as the circumstances of the time or the state of affairs suggested, sometimes by summoning ecumenical councils or consulting the opinion of the Churches scattered throughout the world, sometimes by special synods, sometimes by taking advantage of other useful means afforded by divine providence, defined as doctrines to be held those things which, by God’s help, they knew to be in keeping with Sacred Scripture and the apostolic traditions.