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Although Henry Edward Manning, archbishop and later cardinal of Westminster, often is labeled an extreme ultramontanist, he can be more accurately described as holding a "moderate" view of infallibility similar to the one defined at the First Vatican Council and held by Cardinal John Henry Newman. Manning thought that the Council's definition of papal infallibility came at an opportune moment; he also accepted a wider range of secondary objects that can be defined infallibly by the pope than did Newman.
Keywords: First Vatican Council; Manning, Cardinal Henry; papal infallibility; ultramontanism
The history of the First Vatican Council is presented frequently as a clash between the radical or absolute ultramontanists and the minority bishops who were able to thwart the majority from defining a recent and extreme doctrine of papal infallibility. It is now commonplace to list, as the most noted "radical" or "extreme" ultramontanists, theologians such as Louis Veuillot (1813-83); William G. Ward (1812-82); and Henry Edward Manning, archbishop and later cardinal of Westminster (1808-92; see figure 1). Although perhaps Ward and Veuillot can be labeled extreme ultramontanists, this article will show that Manning is more accurately described as holding a "moderate" view of infallibility similar to the one defined at the First Vatican Council and held by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-90; see figure 2). This thesis is based on Manning's published Catholic works both prior to and after the Council and therefore represents his constant view of the matter, a view that he thought was consistent with what had been explicitly taught since the sixteenth century. To this end this article will examine Manning's understanding of papal infal- libility, focusing on his view of the subject of papal infallibility, the object of papal infallibility, and the definitive nature of papal definitions.
Moderate Infallibilism and Extreme Infallibilism
In the early 1970s, the Lutheran theologian George A. Lindbeck reintroduced the terms moderate infallibilism and extreme or absolute infallibilism into the ecclesiological controversies following the Second Vatican Council.1 It was Jesuit theologian Avery Dulles, however, who was to give the term moderate infallibilism a distinctly Catholic meaning. Dulles explains that "moderate infallibilism" has two characteristics. It affirms, first, that the pope is infallible (otherwise it could not be moderate infallibility) and, second, that papal infallibility...