Papal infallibility
French religious life blossomed under Pius IX. Many French Catholics wished the dogmatization of Papal infallibility and the assumption of Mary in the forthcoming ecumenical council. The French bishops, with some notable exceptions were faithful to the Holy See. During the pontificate of Pius IX, some five Catholic Universities were founded in the cities of Lille, Angers, Lyon and Toulouse, in which the clerics were educated in a strict, although some argued, scientifically less than desirable manner.