When the German bishops returned to their homeland after the Council Vatican I, which proclaimed the universal supremacy of the Pope and his infallibility, the German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck mocked them. He told them that they had become simply foot-soldiers and officers of the pope and had no power of their own. The following one hundred years of history until Vatican II bore witness to the juridically diminutive role of bishops. Balancing the power of papal office and that of bishops was one of the important tasks of Vatican II which, following the New Testament data and early Christian tradition, banked on the concept of collegiality.