Johann Döllinger, a nineteenth-century Catholic theologian who was excommunicated for rejecting papal infallibility, maintained his opposition to the dogma mainly on historical grounds. In a letter recounting his concern he wrote, “We are still waiting the explanation how it is that, until 1830 years had passed, the Church did not formulate into an article of faith a doctrine which the Pope . . . calls the very foundation principle of Catholic faith and doctrine?”
