"college" or "stable group" of the apostles(19) and is "the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church, provided we understand this body together with its head, the Roman Pontiff."(22) Conservative bishops in the council were fearful that the idea of the College of Bishops would be interpreted as a new conciliarism, a fifteenth-century idea that an ecumenical council was the supreme authority under Christ in the Catholic Church. Of the members of the council, 322, a substantial minority, voted against any mention whatever in the document of a "college" of bishops), and were now proposing 47 amendments to chapter III. Accordingly, a "Preliminary Note of Explanation" (in Latin, Nota explicativa praevia", often referred to as "the Nota praevia") intended to reconcile them with the text was added on 16 November 1964. The Note reaffirmed that the college of bishops exercises its authority only with the assent of the pope, thus safeguarding the primacy and pastoral independence of the pope. The Note achieved its purpose: on the following day, 17 November, the No votes against chapter III dropped to 46, a number that may have included some who opposed it because they felt the Preliminary Note of Explanation had weakened the concept of collegiality. In the final vote on 18 November only five of the 2200+ participants voted against the dogmatic constitution as a whole. The Note is introduced by the following words: "A preliminary note of explanation is being given to the Council Fathers from higher authority, regarding the Modi bearing on Chapter III of the Schema de Ecclesia; the doctrine set forth in Chapter III ought to be explained and understood in accordance with the meaning and intent of this explanatory note." "Higher authority" refers to the Pope, Paul VI, and "the Schema de Ecclesia" to the draft text for the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium. By "the Modi" is meant the proposals for amendments of that draft text which some of the Council participants had presented. The Note was thus added by papal authority, consistently with the idea that the consent of the Pope, as head of the College of Bishops was necessary, and that he had the "right to make his consent dependent on an interpretation determined in advance". The Preliminary Note of Explanation did not in fact alter the value of the statement on collegiality in the text of Lumen gentium: it "strengthened the