Papal infallibility was thus formally defined in 1870, although the tradition behind this view goes back much further. In the conclusion of the fourth chapter of "Pastor aeternus", the council declared the following:...We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks "ex cathedra", that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, irreformable.