Editing Independent Catholicism (section)

===First departure from the Catholic Church===
The sharing of apostolic succession in the west outside the Catholic Church was largely confined to the [[Church of Utrecht]] for over a century. After the (First) [[First Vatican Council|Vatican Council]] in 1870, many [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]], [[Imperial Germany|German]] and [[Switzerland|Swiss]] Catholics rejected assertions of universal jurisdiction of the pope and the declaration of [[papal infallibility]], and their bishops, inspired by earlier acts in [[Utrecht]], decided to leave the Catholic Church to form their own churches, independent of Rome. Now independent of the [[Pope]], these bishops were sometimes referred to as autocephalous (or self-governing) bishops from within their circles or ''[[Episcopi vagantes|episcopi vaganti]]'' (wandering bishops) from outside of their circles. These validly-consecrated bishops could claim apostolic succession, and they continued to share valid lines of apostolic succession with the [[Priest (Catholic)|priests]] and [[Deacon (Catholic Church)|deacons]] they ordained. In 1889, they formally united as part of the [[Union of Utrecht (Old Catholic)|Utrecht Union of Churches]] (UU).<ref name="Kemp">{{cite web|publisher=Ascension Alliance|website=concentric.net|editor-last=Kemp|editor-first=Alan R.|title=A Brief History of Independent Catholicism in North America|url=http://www.concentric.net/~Cosmas/indcath.htm|access-date=2014-06-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928173447/http://www.concentric.net/~cosmas/indcath.htm|archive-date=28 September 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>