Sources

Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/pastor-aeternus-first-dogmatic-constitution-on-the-church-of-christ.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/pastor-aeternus-first-dogmatic-constitution-on-the-church-of-christ

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-pastor-aeternus-first-dogmatic-constitut,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Pastor Aeternus, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/pastor-aeternus-first-dogmatic-constitution-on-the-church-of-christ},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Pastor Aeternus is the First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, promulgated by the First Vatican Council in 1870, and this is the council's own primary text defining papal universal jurisdiction and papal infallibility when the pope speaks ex cathedra on faith and morals. As the conciliar document itself, it is the correct source for what Catholic teaching on papal authority actually states in its own words, rather than a later paraphrase or a critic's summary of it. Its limit is that it is a doctrinal constitution, not a historical account of the council's debates or of the dissent it provoked, most notably the Old Catholic schism that rejected the definition, so a claim about the controversy surrounding the doctrine needs a historical source in addition to the text of the constitution itself.

Facts

Citation

Author

First Vatican Council

Publication Year

1870

URL

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm

Source Type

primary-text

Custodian

Custodian Source

Yes

Custodian Body

First Vatican Council

Custodian Basis

Issued by an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church in its own name. Authoritative for what the Church defined about its own constitution.

Assessment

Reliability Tier

The First Vatican Council's own dogmatic constitution, the council's own primary conciliar text, treated at the top tier as that primary institutional record.

Notes

The constitution defining papal universal jurisdiction and infallibility.

Claims Backed By This Source (32 claims)

This source backs 32 claims across the atlas. As facts: 21 well-attested. As cited relationships: 5 holds. Plus 6 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Sources, 10 claims: 10 well-attested.
Religious Legal Instruments, 6 claims: 3 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
Beliefs & Restrictions, 5 claims: 4 well-attested, 1 general references.
Doctrines, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Councils and Synods, 2 claims: 1 holds, 1 general references.
Religious Organization & Structure, 2 claims: 1 holds, 1 general references.
Articles, 1 claims: 1 well-attested.
Denominations, 1 claims: 1 general references.