^^«%^ g lltRAKIES -• THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Being a Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ BY JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS Archbishop of Baltimore Ninety-first Carefully Revised and Enlarged Edition One Million Six Hundred Thousand Copies JOHN MUEPHY COMPANY PUBLISHERS BALTIMORE. MD. NEW YORK R. & T. WASHBOURNE, Ltd. 10 Paternoster Row. London, and at Manchesthr, blkminghau and glasgow Entered according to Act of Consrreas, in the year IWt, By JOHN MURPHY COMPANY. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Entered according: to Act of Conerresa, in the year 1904, By JOHN MURPHY COMPANY. In the Office of the Librarian of Consrrcss, at WashinKtoa. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the srear 1895. By JOHN MURPHY & CO.. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, By JOHN MURPHY & CO.. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876. By JOHN MURPHY & CO.. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. D b b TBADB MARK REOISTEKED IN U. B. PATENT OFFICE. rrr AFFECTIONATELY DEDICA TED TO THE Clexd^ anD Xaiti? OF THE ARCHDIOCESE AND PROVINCE OF BALTIMORE PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION. The first edition of ''The Faith of Our Fathers'' was issued in December, 1876. From that time to the present fifty thousand copies of the work have been disposed of in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, and in the British Colonies of Oceanica. This gratifying result has surpassed the au- thor's most sanguine expectations, and is a con- soling evidence that the investigation of religious truths is not wholly neglected even in this iron age, so engrossed by material considerations. Besides carefully revising the book, the author has profited by the kind suggestion of some friends, and inserted a chapter on the prerogatives and sanctity of the Blessed Virgin, which, it is hoped, will be not less acceptable to his readers than the other portions of the work. He is also happy to announce that German edi- tions have been published both in this country and in Germany. He takes this occasion to return his hearty thanks to the editors of the Catholic periodicals, as well as of the secular press, for their favorable notices, which have no doubt contributed much to the large circulation of the book. Baltimore, Feast of 8t. Thomai Aqmnaa, 187fc PREFACE TO THE FORTY-SEVENTH EDITION. It is very gratifying to the author to note the large increase in the sale of "The Faith of Our Fathers.'* Apart from personal considerations, it is pleasing to know that the popular interest in the Catholic Church and whatever pertaias to her doctrines and discipliue, is growing more wide- spread and earnest. Since 1879, when the eleventh revised edition was given to the public, there have been thirty-five editions, and the number of copies sold reaches nearly a quarter of a million. This desire to understand the teachingv, of the Church of our Fathers is not confined to our own country. It is manifest in other lands, as shown by the translations that have been made of this exposition of Catholic belief into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish. In the hope that they will add to the usefulness of the book, several passages upon doctrinal sub- jects have been inserted. "With these few remarks, the forty-seventh edi- tion of **The Faith of Our Fathers" is presented to the sincere and earnest seeker after religious truth by Thb Ain:HOB, Feast of St. Anselm, 1895. n PREFACE The object of this little volume is to present in a plain and practical form an exposition and vindi- cation of the principal tenets of the Catholic Church. It was thought sufficient to devote but a brief space to such Catholic doctrines and prac- tices as are happily admitted by Protestants, while those that are controverted by them are more elab- orately elucidated. The work was compiled by the author during the uncertain hours which he could spare from the more active duties of the ministry. It substan- tially embodies the instructions and discourses de- livered by him before mixed congregations in Vir- ginia and North Carolina. He has often felt that the salutary influence of such instructions, especially on the occasion of a mission in the rural districts, would be much aug- mented if they were supplemented by books or tracts circulated among the people, and which could be read and pondered at leisure. As his chief aim has been to bring home the truths of the Catholic faith to our separated brethren, who generally accept the Scripture as the only source of authority in religious matters, he has endeavored to fortify his statements by abundant reference to the sacred text. He has thought proper, however, to add frequent quota- tions from the early Fathers, whose testimony, at ?«ast as witnesses of the faith of their times, must vii viii PREFACE be accepted even by those who call in question their personal authority. Though the writer has sought to be exact in all his assertions, an occasional inaccuracy may have inadvertently crept in. Any emendations which the venerated Prelates or Clergy may deign to propose will be gratefully attended to in a subse- quent edition. Richmond, 'November 21at, 1876. PREFACE TO EIGHTY-THIRD REVISED EDITION. Tlie new edition of ''The Faith of Our Fathers" has been carefully revised, and enriched with sev- eral pages of important matter. It is gratifying to note that since the first edition appeared, in 1876, up to the present time, fourteen hundred thousand copies have been published, and the circulation of the book is constantly increasing. The work has also been translated into near?y all the languages of Europe. ^' /l*^ ^^^^u-^-f*^*^ Baltimore, May 1st, 1917. CONTENTS. Introduction, Chapter I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII, XXIII, XXIV. The Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, etc., Unity of the Church, .... Holiness of the Church, , Catholicity, Apostolicity, Perpetuity of the Church, . Infallible Authority of the Church, The Church and the Bible, The Primacy of Peter, The Supremacy of the Popes, Infallibility of the Popes, Temporal Power of the Popes— How they acquired Temporal Power — Validity and Justice of their Title— What the Popes have done for Rome, Invocation of Saints, Is it Lawful to Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as a Saint to Invoke her as an Intercessor, and to Imitate her as a Model'i Sacred Images, Purgatory, and P .layers for the Dead, Civil and Religious Liberty, . Charges of Religious Persecution, . Grace — The Sacraments — Original Sin — Baptism— Its Necessity — Its Effects- Manner of Baptizing, The Sacra'^ent of Confirmation, . The Holy Eucharist, Communion under One Kind, . . . . The Sacrifice of the Mass, . . . . The Use of Religious Ceremonies Dictated by Right Reason — Approved by Almighty God in the Old Law — Sanctioned by Jesus Christ in the New, . . . . PAOB Xl 1 16 29 38 50 65 77 95 108 121 136 152 163 196 210 226 248 265 280 287 300 307 320 CONTENTS PAsn XXV. Ceremonies of the Mass — The Missal — Lanu Language — Lights — Flowers — Incense — Vestments, 327 XXVI. The Sacrament of Penance 330 XXVII. Indulgences, 375 XXVIII. Extreme Unction, 384 XXIX. The Priesthood . . 387 XXX. Celibacy of the Clergy, 399 XXXI. Matrimony, , . 40» INTRODUCTION. My Dear Reader : — Perhaps this is the first time in your life that you have handled a book in which the doctrines of the Catholic Church are ex- pounded by one of her own sons. You have, nq doubt, heard and read many thuigs regarding oui Church; but has not your information come from teachers justly liable to suspicion? You asked for bread, and they gave you a stone. You asked for fish, and they reached you a serpent. Instead of the bread of truth, they extended to you the serpent of falsehood. Hence, without intending to be un- just, is not your mind biased against us because you listened to false witnesses? This, at least, is the case with thousands of my countrymen whom I have met in the brief course of my missionary career. The Catholic Church is persistently mis- represented by the most powerful vehicles of in- formation. She is assailed in romances of the stamp of Maria Monk, and in pictorial papers. It is true that the falsehood of those illustrated periodicals has been fully exposed. But the antidote often comes too late to counteract the poison. I have seen a picture representing Columbus trying to demonstrate the practicability of his design to discover a new Con- tinent before certain monks who are shaking theix' fists and gnashing their teeth at him. It matters not to the artist that Columbus could probably never have undertaken his voyage and discovery, as the explorer himself avows, were it not for the benevolent zeal of the monks, Antonio de Mar- chena and Juan Perez, and other ecclesiastics, as well as for the munificence of Queen Isabella and the Spanish Court. zi xii in^troductio:n" The Churcli is misrepresented in so-called His- tories like Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It is true that he has been succesfully refuted by Lingard and Gairdner. But, how many have read the fictitious narratives of Foxe, who have never perused a page of Lingard or Gairdner? In a large portion of the press, and in pamphlets, and especially in the pulpit, which should be consecrated to truth and charity, she is the victim of the foulest slanders. Upon her fair and heavenly brow her enemies put a hideous mask, and in that guise they exhibit her to the insults and mockery of the public; just as Jesus, her Spouse, was treated when, clothed with a scarlet cloak and crowned with thorns, He was mocked by a thoughtless rabble. They are afraid to tell the truth of her, for "Truth has such a face and such a mien, As to be loved needs only to be seen." * It is not uncommon for a dialogue like the fol- lowing to take place between a Protestant Minister and a convert to the Catholic Church : Minister. — You cannot deny that the Eoman Catholic Church teaches gross errors — the wor- ship of images, for instance. CoNVEET. — I admit no such charge, for I have been taught no such doctrines. Minister. — But the Priest who instructed you did not teach you all. He held back some points which he knew would be objectionable to you. Convert. — He withheld nothing; for I am in possession of books treating fully of all Catholic doctrines. Minister. — Deluded soul ! Don't you know that in Europe they are taught differently? Convert. — That cannot ba, for, the Church teaches the same creed all OT/er the world, a»d -Dryden, Hind and Panther. INTEODUCTION xiii most of tlie doctrinal books which I read, were originally published in Europe. Yet ministers who make these slanderous state- ments are surprised if we feel indignant, and ac- cuse us of being too sensitive. We have been vil- lified so long, that they think we have no right to complain. We cannot exaggerate the offense of those who thus wilfully malign the Church. There is a com- mandment which says: ''Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." If it is a sin to bear false testimony against one individual, how can we characterize the crime of those who calumniate three hundred millions of human beings, by attributing to them doctrines and practices which they repudiate and abhor. - I do not wonder that the Church is hated by those who learn what she is from her enemies. It is natural for an honest man to loathe an institution whose history he believes to be marked by blood- shed, crime and fraud. Had I been educated as they were, and sur- rounded by an atmosphere hostile to the Church, perhaps I should be unfortunate enough to be breathing vengeance against her today, instead of consecrating my life to her defence. It is not of their hostility that I complain, but because the judgment they have formed of her is based upon the reckless assertions of her enemies, and not upon those of impartial witnesses. Suppose that I wanted to obtain a correct esti- mate of the Southern people, would it be fair in me to select, as my only sources of information, cer- tain Northern and Eastern periodicals which, during our Civil War, were bitterly opposed to the race and institutions of the South? Those papers have represented you as men who always dv INTEODUCTION- appeal to the sword and pistol, instead of tlie law, to vindicate your private grievances. They heaped accusations against you which I will not here re- peat. Instead of taking these publications as the basis of my information, it was my duty to come among you; to live with you; to read your life by studying your public and private character. This I have done, and I here cheerfully bear witness to your many excellent traits of mind and heart. Now I ask you to give to the Catholic Church the same measure of fairness which you reason- ably demand of me when judging of Southern character. Ask not her enemies what she is, for they are blinded by passion; ask not her ungrate- ful, renegade children, for you never heard a son speaking well of the mother whom he had aban- doned and despised. Study her history in the pages of truth. Ex- amine her creed. Read her authorized catechisms and doctrinal books. You will find them every- where on the shelves of booksellers, in the libraries of her clergy, on the tables of Catholic families. There is no Freemasonry in the Catholic Church ; she has no secrets to keep back. She has not one set of doctrines for Bishops and Priests, and another for the laity. She has not one creed for the initiated and another for outsiders. Every- thing in the Catholic Church is open and above board. She has the same doctrines for all — for the Pope and the peasant. Should not I be better qualified to present to you the Church's creed than the unfriendly witnesses whom I have mentioned ? I have imbibed her doctrine with my mother's milk. I have made her history and theology the study of my life. What motive can I have in mis- leading you? Not temporal reward, eincs I ge«k INTRODUCTION xv not your money, but your soul, for which Jesus Christ died. I could not hope for an eternal re- ward by deceiving you, for I would thereby pur- chase for myself eternal condemnation by gaining proselytes at the expense of truth. This, friendly reader, is my only motive. I feel in the depth of my heart that, in possessing Catho- lic faith, I hold a treasure compared with which all things earthly are but dross. Instead of wishing to bury this treasure in my breast, I long tc v^hare it with you, especially as I lose no part of my spiritual riches by comunicating them to others. It is to me a duty and a labor of love to speak the truth concerning my venerable Mother, so much maligned in our days. Were a tithe of the accusations which are brought against her true, I would not be attached to her ministry, nor even to her communion, for a single day, I know these charges to be false. The longer 1 know her, the more I admire and venerate her. Every day she develops before me new spiritual charms. Ah ! my dear friend, if you saw her as her chil- dren see her, she would no longer appear to you as typified by the woman of Babylon. She would be revealed to you, ''Bright as the sun, fair as the moon ; ' ' with the beauty of Heaven stamped upon her brow, glorious "as an army in battle array.'" You would love her, you would cling to her and embrace her. With her children, you would rise up in reverence "and call her blessed." Consider what you lose and what you gain in embracing the Catholic religion. Your loss is nothing in comparison with your gain. You do not surrender your manhood or your dignity or independence or reasoning powers. You give up none of those revealed truths which you may possess already. The c:ily restraint ini' xvi INTRODUCTION" posed upon you is tlie restraint of tlie Gospel, and to this you will not reasonably object. You gain eveiything that is worth having. You acquire a full and connected knowledge of God's revelation. You get possession of the whole truth as it is in Jesus. You no longer see it in frag- ments, but reflected before you in all its beauty, as in a polished mirror. While others are outside criticising the architecture of the temple, you are inside worshiping the divine Architect and saying devoutly with the Psalmist : * ' I have loved Lord, the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.'* While others from without find in the stained-glass windows only blurred and con- fused figures without symmetry or attraction or meaning, you from within, are gazing with silent rapture on God's glorified saints, with their out- lines clearly defined on the windows, and all illumi- nated with the sunlight of heaven. Your knowl- edge of the truth is not only complete and har- monious, but it becomes fixed and steady. You exchange opinion for certainty. You are no longer ^ ' tossed about by every wind of doctrine, ' ' but you are firmly grounded on the rock of truth. Then you enjoy that profound peace which springs from the conscious possession of the truth. In coming to the Church, you are not entering a strange place, but you are returning to your Father's home. The house and furniture may look odd to you, but it is just the same as your forefather's left it three hundred years ago. In coming back to the Church, you li'ou'ship where your fathers worshiped before you, you kneel be- fore the altar at which they knelt, you receive the Sacraments which they received, and respect the authority of the clergy whom they venerated. You 'jome back like the Prodigal Son to the home of INTRODUCTION" xvii your father and mother. The garxnent of joy is placed upon you, the banquet of love is set before you, and you receive the kiss of peace as a pledge of your filiation and adoption. One hearty em- brace of your tender Mother will compensate you for all the sacrifices you may have made, and you will exclaim with the penitent Augustine: "Too late have I known thee, O Beauty, ever ancient and ever new, too late have I loved thee. ' ' Should the perusal of this bookbring one soul to the knowledge of the Church, my labor will be amply rewarded. Eemember that nothing is so essential as the sal- vation of your immortal soul, "for what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in ex- change for his soul ? " ^ Let not, therefore, the fear of offending friends and relatives, the perse- cution of men, the loss of earthly possessions, nor any other temporal calamity, deter you from in- vestigating and embracing the true religion. ' ' For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. ' ' ^ May God give you light to see the truth, and, having seen it, may He give you courage and strength to follow it I *Matt. xvi. 26. *II. Cor. iv. 17. THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS. CHAPTER I. THE BLESSEX) TRINITY, THE INCARNATION. ETC. THE Catholic Churcli teaches that there is but one God, who is infinite in knowledge, in power, in goodness, and in every other per- fection; who created all things by His omni- potence, and governs them by His Providence. In this one God there are three distinct Persons, —the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are perfectly equal to each other. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Second Per- son of the Blessed Trinity, is perfect God and per- fect Man. He is God, for He *'is over all things, God blessed forever." ^ "He is God of the sub- stance of the Father, begotten before time; and He is Man of the substance of His Mother, born in time." - Out of love for us, and in order to rescue us from the miseries entailed upon us by the dis- obedience of our first parents, the Divine Word descended from heaven, and became Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. He was born on Christmas day, in a stable at Bethlehem. After having led a life of obscurity for about thirty years, chiefly at Nazareth, He commenced *Rom. ix. S. 'Athanasian Creed. 9 THE FAITH OF OUP. FATHERS His public career. He associated with Him a number of men who are named Apostles, whom He instructed in the doctrines of the religion which He established. For three years He went about doing good, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, heal- ing all kinds of diseases, raising the dead to life, and preaching throughout Judea the new Gospel of peace.^ On Good Friday He was crucified on Mount Cal- vary, and thus purchased for us redemption by His death. Hence Jesus exclusively bears the titles of Savior and Redeemer, because ** there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved." ^ <'He was wounded for our iniquities; He was bruised for our sins, . , . and by His bruises we are healed." ^ We are commanded by Jesus, suffering and dying for us, to imitate Him by the crucifixion of our flesh, and by acts of daily mortification. "If any- one," He says, ''will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." 4 Hence we abstain from the use of flesh meat on Friday — the day consecrated to our Savior's suf- ferings — not because the eating of flesh meat is sinful in itself, but as an act of salutary mortifica- tion. Loving children would be prompted by filial tenderness to commemorate the anniversary of their father's death rather by prayer and fasting than by feasting. Even so we abstain on Fridays from flesh meat that we may in a small measure testify our practical sympathy for our dear Lord by the mortification of our body, endeavoring, like St. Paul, ' ' to bear about in our body the mortifica- * Matt. xi. => Acts iv. 12. 8 Isaiah Ilii. 5, • Luke ix. 28. THE TRIXITY 3 ticn of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may bo made manifest in our bodies." ^ The Ci'oss is held in the highest reverence by Catholics, because it was the instrument of our Savior's crucifixion. It surmounts our churches and adorns our sanctuaries. We venerate it as the emblem of our salvation. "Far be it from me," says the Apostle, "to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' ' ^ We do not, of course, attach any intrinsic virtue to the Cross; this would be sinful and idolatrous. Our venera- tion is referred to Him who died upon it. It is also a very ancient and pious practice for the faithful to make on their person the sign of the Cross, saying at the same time : "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Tertullian, who lived in the second cen- tury of the Christian era, says: "In all our ac- tions, when we come in or gc out, when we dress, when we wash, at our meals, before retiring to sleep, ... we form on our foreheads the sign of the cross. These practices are not commanded by a formal law of Scripture; but tradition teaches them, custom confirms them, faith observes them." ^ By the sign of the cross we make a pro- fession of our faith in the Trinity and the Incarna- tion, and perform a most salutary act of religion. We believe that on Easter Sunday Jesus Christ manifested His divine power by raising Himself to life, and that having spent forty days on earth, after His resurrection, instructing His disciples. He ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives. On the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, ten days after His Ascension, our Savior sent, as Ha had promised. His Holy Spirit to His disciples, while they were assembled together in prayer. Hh Cor. iv. 10, *Gal vl. 14. «De Corena, C, lU. 4 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS The Holy Ghost purified their hearts from sin, and imparted to them a full knowledge of those doc- trines of salvation which they were instructed to preach. On the same Feast of Pentecost the Apostles commenced their sublime mission, from which day, accordingly, we date the active life of the Catholic Chui ch. Our Eedeemer gave the most ample authority to the Apostles to teach in His name ; commanding them to "preach ^.he Gospel to every creature."* and directing all, *^mder the most severe penalties, to hear and obey them: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that dispiseth you, despiseth Me. And He that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me." 2 And lest we she aid be mistaken in distinguish- ing between the trne Church and false sects, which our Lord predicted would arise, He was pleased to stamp upon Hi^ Church certain shining marks, by which every sincere inquirer could easily recognize her as His only Spouse. The principal marks or chara'c*teristics of the true Church are, her Unity, Sanctity, Catholicity, and Apostolicity,^ to which may be added the Infallibility of her teaching and the Perpetuity of her existence. I shall treat successively of these marks. 1 Mark xvl. 15. 2 Luke x. 16. 3 gymb. Constantinop. CHAPTER II. THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. I Y unity is meant that the members of th« true Church must be united in the belief of the same doctrines of revelation, and in the ac- knowledgment of the authority of the same pas- tors. Heresy and schism are opposed to Christian unity. By heresy, a man rejects one or more arti- cles of the Christian faith. By schism, he spurns the authority of his spiritual superiors. That our Savior requires this unity of faith and govern- ment in His members is evident from various passages of Holy Writ. In His admirable prayer immediatsly before His passion He says: "I pray for them also who through their word shall be- lieve in Me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me," ^ because the unity of the Church is the most luminous evidence of the Divine mis- sion of Christ. Jesus prayed that His followers may be united in the bond of a common faith, as He* and His Father are united in essence, and cer- tainly the prayer of Jesus is always heard. ^ St. Paul ranks schism and heresy with the crimes of murder and idolatry, and he declares that the authors of sects shall not possess theKing- »John xvii. 20, 21. C THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS dom of God.^ He also addresses a letter to the Ephesians from his prison in Eome, and if the words of the Apostle should always command onr homage, with how much reverence are they to be received when he writes in chains from the Impe- rial City! In this Epistle he insists upon unity of faith in the following emphatic language: "Be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; one body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.'" As you all, he says, worship one God, and not many gods ; as you acknowledge the same Divine Mediator of redemption, and not many mediators ; as you are sanctified by the same Divine Spirit, and not by many spirits ; as you all hope for the same heaven, and not different heavens, so must you all profess the same faith. Unity of government is not less essential to the Church of Christ than unity of doctrine. Our Divine Saviour never speaks of His Churches, but of His Church. He does not say : * ' Upon this rock I will build my Churches," but "upon this rock I will build My Church,"^ from which words we must conclude that it never was His intention to establish or to sanction various conflicting denomi- nations, but one corporate body, with all the mem- bers united under one visible Head; for as the Church is a visible body, it must have a visible head. The Church is called a kingdom: "He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. ' ' * Now in every well-regulated kingdom there is but one king, one form of government, one uniform body of laws, I Gal. V. 20, 21. 2 Ephes. iv 3-6. 3 Matt. xvi. 18, 4 Luke i. 32, 33. UNITY OF THE CHURCH t wliich all are obliged to observe. In like manner, in Christ's spiritual kingdom, there must be one Chief to whom all owe spiritual allegiance; one form of ecclesiastical government ; one uniform body of laws which all Christians are bound to ob- serve; for, ''every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate." ^ Our Savior calls His Church a sheepfold. "And there shall be made one fold and one shep- herd." 2 What more beautiful or fitting illustra- tion of unity can we have than that which is sug- gested by a sheepfold? All the sheep of a flock cling together. If they are momentarily separated, they are impatient till reunited. They follow in the same path. They feed on the same pastures. They obey the same shepherd, and fly from the voice of strangers. So did our Lord intend that all the sheep of His fold should be nourished by the same sacraments and the same bread of life; that they should follow the same rule of faith as their guide to heaven; that they should listen to the voice of one Chief Pastor, and that they should carefully shun false teachers. His Church is compared to a human body. *' As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one mem- bers one of the other. " ^ In one body there are many members, all inseparably connected with the head. The head commands and the foot instantly moves, the hand is raised and the lips open. Even so our Lord ordained that His Church, composed of many members, should be all united to one supreme visible Head, whom they are bound to obey. iMatt. xii. 25. 3 John x 16. 3 Rom. xii. 4, 5- 8 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS The Church is compared to a vine. ''I am the Vine, ye the branches; he that abideth in Me and 1 in him, the same beareth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing. ' ' ^ All the branches of a vine, though spreading far and wide, are neces- sarily connected with the main stem, and from its sap they are nourished. In like manner, our Saviour will have all the saplings of His Vineyard connected with the main stem, and all draw their nourishment from the parent stock. The Church, in fine, is called in Scripture by the beautiful title of bride or spouse of Christ,^ and the Christian law admits only of one wife. In fact, our common sense alone, apart from revelation, is sufficient to convince us that God could not be the author of various opposing sys- tems of religion. God is essentially one. He is Truth itself. How could the God of truth affinn, for instance, to one body of Christians that there are three persons in God, and to another there is only one person in God? How could He say to one individual that Jesus Christ is God, and to another that He is only man. How can He tell me that the punishments of the wicked are eternal, and tell another that they are not eternal ? One of these contradictory statements must be false. *'God is not the God of dissension, but of peace." ^ I see perfect harmony in the laws which govern the physical world that we inhabit. I see a mar- velous unity in our planetary system. Each planet moves in its own sphere, and all are con- trolled by the central Sun. Why should there not be also harmony and con- cord in that spiritual world, the Church of God, the grandest conception of His omnipotence, and the most bounteous manifestation of His goodness and love for mankind! s John XV. 5. 2 Apoc. xxi. 9. 3 i. Cor. xiv. 33. XJNITY OF THE CHURCH 9 Hence, it is clear that Jesus Christ intended that His Church should have one common doctrine which all Christians are bound to believe, and one uniform government to which all should be loyally attached. With all due respect for my dissenting brethren, truth compels me to say that this unity of doctrine and government is not to be found in the Prot- estant sects, taken collectively or separately. That the various Protestant denominations differ from one another not only in minor details, but in most essential principles of faith, is evident to every one conversant with the doctrines of the different Creeds. The multiplicity of sects in this country, with their mutual recriminations, is the scandal of Christianity, and the greatest obstacle to the con- version of the heathen. Not only does sect differ from sect, but each particular denomination is divided into two or more independent or conflict- ing branches. In the State of North Carolina we have several Baptist denominations, each having its own dis- tinctive appellation. There is also the Methodist Church North and the Methodist Church South. There was the Old and the New School Presby- terian Church. And even in the Episcopal Com- mimion, which is the most conservative body out- side the Catholic Church, there is the ritualistic, or high church, and the low church. Nay, if you question closely the individual members compos- ing any one fraction of these denominations, you will not rarely find them giving a contradictory view of their tenets of religion. Protestants differ from one another not only in doctrine, but in the form of ecclesiastical govern- ment and discipline. The church of England ac- knowledges the reigning Sovereign as its Spiritual 10 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Head. Some denominations recognize Deacons, Priests, and Bishops as an essential part of their hierarchy; while the great majority of Protestants reject such titles altogether. Where, then, shall we find this essential unity of faith and government ? I answer, confidently, no- where save in the Catholic Church. The number of Catholics in the world is com- puted at three hundred millions. They have al] ''one Lord, one faith, one baptism," one creed. They receive the same sacraments, they worship at the same altar, and pay spiritual alle- giance to one common Head. Should a Catho- lic be so unfortt/v*ate as contumaciously to deny a single article of faith, or withdraw from the com- munion of his le/jitimate pastors, he ceases to be a member of th':^. Church, and is cut off like a withered bra»i^h. The Church had rather sever her right har>^i than allow any member to corrode her vitals. I^. was thus she excommunicated Henry VIII. beca-J7.fle he persisted in violating the sacred law of mr^rriage, although she foresaw that the lustful /iionarch would involve a nation in his spiritual ruin. She anathematized, more recently, Dr. Dollinger, though the prestige of his name threatened to engender a schism in Germany. She says to her children: ''You may espouse any political party you choose ; with this I have no con- cern." But as soon as they trench on matters of faith she cries out: "Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no farther; and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves " ^ of discord. The temple of faith is the asylum of peace, concord and unity. How sublime and consoling is the thought that whithersoever a Catholic goes over the broad world, whetii*'' he enters his Church in Pekin or in iJob xxsviii. I^. UNITY OF THE CHUECH 11 Melbourne, in London, or Dublin, or Paris, or Rome, or New York, or San Francisco, he is sure to hear the self-same doctrine preached, to assist at the same sacrifice, and to partake of the same sacraments. This is not all. Her Creed is now identical with what it was in past ages. The same Gospel of peace that Jesus Christ preached on the Mount; the same doctrine that St. Peter preached at An- tioch and Rome; St. Paul at Ephesus; St. John Chrysostom at Constantinople; St. Augustine in Hippo; St. Ambrose in Milan; St. Remigius in France; St. Boniface in Germany; St. Athanasius in Alexandria ; the same doctrine that St. Patrick introduced into Ireland; that St. Augustine brought into England, and St. Pelagius into Scot- land, and that Columbus brought to this American Continent, and this is the doctrine that is ever preached in the Catholic Church throughout the globe, from January till December — ''Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, and the same forever. " ^ The same admirable unity that exists in matters of faith is also established in the government of the Church. All the members of the vast body of Catholic Christians are as intimately united to one visible Chief as the members of the human body are joined to the head. The faithful of each Parish are subject to their immediate Pastor. Each Pas- tor is subordinate to his Bishop, and each Bishop of Christendom acknowledges the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, and Head of the Catholic Church. But it may be asked, is not this unity of faith impaired by those doctrinal definitions which the Church has promulgated from time to time ? We answer : No new dogma, unknown to the Apostles, »Heb. xiii. 8. 13 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS not contained in the primitive Cliristian revela- tion, can be admitted. (John xiv. 26 ; xv. 15 ; xvi. 13.) For the Apostles received the whole deposit of God's word, according to the promise of our Lord: ''When He shall come, the Spirit of truth. He L^shall teach you all truth." And so the Church proposes the doctrines of faith, such as came from the lips of Christ, and as the Holy Spirit taught them to the Apostles at the birth of the Christian law — doctrines which know neither variation nor decay. Hence, whenever it has been defined that any point of doctrine pertained to the Catholic faith, it was always understood that this was equivalent to the declaration that the doctrine in question had been revealed to the Ap/'/stles, and had come down to us from them, either by Scripture or tradition. And as the acts of all the Councils, and the history of every definition of faith evidently show, it was never contended that a new revelation had been made, but every inquiry was directed to this one point — whether the doctrine in question was con- tained in the Sacred Scriptures or in the Apostolic traditions. A revealed truth frequently has a very extensive scope, and is directed against error under its many changing forms. Nor is it necessary that those who receive this revelation in the first instance should be explicitly acquainted with its full im- port, or cognizant of ail its bearings. Truth never changes; it is the same now, yesterday, and for- ever, in itself; but our relations towards truth may change, for that which is hidden from us today may become known to us tomorrow. "It often happens," says St. Augustine, "that when it be- comes necessary to defend certain points of Catho- lic doctrine against the insidious attacks of UNITY OF THE CHURCH 13 heretics they are more carefully studied, they be- come 7nore clearly understood, they are more earnestly inculcated; and so the very questions raised by heretics give occasion to a more thor- ough knowledge of the subject in question. '' ^ Let us illustrate this. In the Apostolic revela- tion and preaching some truths might have been contained implicitly, e. g., in the doctrine that grace is necessary for every salutary work, it is implicitly asserted that the assistance of grace is required for the inception of every good and salu- tary work. This was denied by the semi-Pelagi- ans, and their error was condemned by an explicit definition, ^ind so in other matters, as the rising controversies or new errors gave occasion for it, there were more explicit declarations of what was formerly implicitly believed. In the doctrine of the supreme power of Peter, as the visible founda- tion^ of the Church, we have the ifnplied assertion of mar-y rights and duties which belong to the centre of unity. In the revelation of the super- eminent dignity and purity of the Blessed Virgin there is implied her exemption from original sin, et«., etc. >So, too, in the beginning many truths might have been proposed somewhat obscurely or less clearly; they might have been less urgently insisted upon, because there was no heresy, nb contrary teaching to render a more explicit declaration necessary. Now, a doctrine which is implicitly, less clearly, not so earnestly proposed, may be overlooked, mis- understood, called in question; consequently, it may happen that some articles are now universally believed in the Church, in regard to which doubts and controversies existed in former ages, even withm the bosom of the Church. ' ' Those who err iDe Civitate Dei, Ub. 1$, Cap. ii., No. 1. 14 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHEES in belief do but serve to bring out more clearly the soundness of those who believe rightly. For there are many things which lay hidden in the Scrip- tures, and when heretics were cut off they vexed the Church of God with disputes ; then the hidden things were brought to light, and the will of God was made known." (St. Augustine on the 54th Psalm, No. 22.) This kind of progress in faith we can and do admit; but the truth is not changed thereby. As Albertus Magnus says : ''It would be more correct to style this the progress of the believer in the faith, than of the faith in the believer." To show that this kind of progress is to be ad- mitted only two things are to be jDroved : 1 : That some divinely revealed truths should be contained in the Apostolic teaching implicitly, less clearly explained, less urgently pressed. And this can be denied only by those who hold that the Bible is the only rule of Faith, that it is clear in every part, and could be readily understood by all from the beginning. This point I shall consider farther on in this work. 2. That the Church can, in process of time, as occasions arise, declare, explain, urge. This is proved not only from the Scriptures and the Fathers, but even from the conduct of Prot- estants themselves, who often boast of the care and assiduity with which they ' ' search the Scrip- tures," and study out their meaning, even now that so many Commentaries on the sacred Text have been published. And why? To obtain more light ; to understand better what is revealed. ^ It would appear from this that the only question which could arise on this point is, not about the possibility of arriving by degrees at a clearer im- derstanding of the true sense of revelation, as cir- cumstances may call fc successive developments, UNITY OP TPTE CHURCH U but about the authority of the Church to propose and to determine that sense. So that, after all, we are always brought back to the only real point of division and dispute between those who are not Catholics and ourselves, namely, to the authority of the Church, of which I shall have more to say hereafter. I cannot conclude better than by quot- ing the words of St. Vincent of Lerins: ''Let us take care that it be with us in matters of religion, which affect our souls, as it is with material bodies, which, as time goes on, pass through successive phases of growth and development and multiply their years, but yet remain always the same in- dividual bodies as they were in the beginning. . . . It very properly follows from the nature of things that, with a perfect agreement and consistency be- tween the beginnings and the final results, when we reap the harvest of dogmatic truth which has sprung from the seeds of doctrine sown in the spring-time of the Church's existence, we should find no substantial difference between the grain which was first planted and that which we now firather. For though the germs of the early faith have in some respects been evolved in the course of time, and still receive nourishment and culture, yet nothing in them that is substantial can ever suffer change. The Church of Christ is a faithful and ever watchful guardian of the dogmas which have been committed to her charge. In this sacred deposit she changes nothing, she takes nothing from it, she adds nothiag to it." CHAPTER III. THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH. OLINESS is also a mark of the true Chnrch; for in the Creed we say, "I believe in the Jioly Catholic Church." Every society is founded for a special object. One society is formed with the view of cultivating social intercourse among its members ; a second is organized to advance their temporal interests ; and a third for the purpose of promoting literary pur- suits. The Catholic Church is a society founded by our Lord Jesus Christ for the sanctification of its members ; hence, St. Peter calls the Christians of his time "a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a purchased people." ^ The example of our Divine Pounder, Jesus Christ, the sublime moral lessons He has taught us, the Sacraments He has instituted — all tend to our sanctification. They all concentre themselves in our soul, like so many heavenly rays, to en- lighten and inflame it with the fire of devotion. When the Church speaks to us of the attributes of our Lord, of His justice and mercy and sanctity and truth, hev object is not merely to extol the Divine perfections, but also to exhort us to imitate them, and to be like Him, just and merciful, holy and truthful. Behold the sublime Model that is placed before us! It is not man, nor angel, noi» *I P»t ii. a. 16 HOLINESS OF THE CHUECH 17 archangel, but Jesus Clirist, the Son of God, *'who is the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance. ' ' ^ The Church places His image over our altars, admonishing us to "look and do according to the pattern shown on the Mount. ' ' ^ And from that height He seems to say to us : * ' Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. " ^ ' ' Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is per- fect."^ *'Be ye followers of God as most dear children."^ We are invited to lead holy lives, not only be- cause our Divine Founder, Jesus Christ, was holy, but also because we bear His sweet and venerable name. We are called Christians. That is a name we would not exchange for all the high-sounding titles of Prince or Emperor. We are justly proud of this appellation of Christian; but we are re- minded that it has annexed to it a corresponding obligation. It is not an idle name, but one full of solemn significance; for a Christian, as the very name implies, is a follower or disciple of Christ — one who walks in the footsteps of his Master by observing His precepts; who reproduces in his own life the character and virtues of his Divine ' Model. In a word, a Christian is another Christ i It would, therefore, be a contradiction in terms, if • a Christian had nothing in common with his Lord ; except the name. The disciple should imitate his I Master, the soldier should imitate his Commander, \ and the members should be like the Head. ' The Church constantly allures her children to holiness by placing before their minds the Incarna- tion, life and death of our Savior. What appeals more forcibly to a life of piety than the contempla- tion of Jesus born in a stable, living an humble life ' Heb. I. 3. '■ Exod, xxv. m. » Lev. xix. 2. •Matt. V. 48. «^Eph. v. 1. 18 THE FAITH OF OUE FATHERS in Nazareth, dying on a cross, that His blood might purify nsl If He sent forth Apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world; if in His name temples are built in every nation, and mission- aries are sent to the extremities of the globe, all this is done that we may be Saints. "God," says St. Paul, "gave some Apostles, and some Proph- ets, and others Evangelists, and others Pastors and Doctors, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of- the body of Christ, until we all meet unto the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. ' ' * The moral law which the Catholic Church incul- cates on her children is the highest and holiest standard of perfection ever presented to any peo- ple, and furnishes the strongest incentives to virtue. The same Divine precepts delivered through Moses to the Jews, on Mount Sinai, the same salutary warnings which the Prophets uttered throughout Judea, the same sublime and consoling lessons of morality which Jesus gave on the Mount — these are the lessons which the Church teaches from January till December. The Catho- lic preacher does not amuse his audience with speculative topics or political harangues, or any other subjects of a transitory nature. He preaches only "Christ, and Him crucified." This code of Divine precepts is enforced with as much zeal by the Church as was the Decalogue of old by Moses, when he said: "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt tell them to thy children; ind thou shalt meditate upon them, sitting in thy * Epheis. iv. 11, la HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH 19 house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. ' ' * The first lesson taught to children in our Sun- day-schools is their duty to know, love and serve God, and thus to be Saints ; for if they know, love and serve God aright they shall be Saints indeed. Their tender minds are instructed in this great truth that though they had the riches of Dives, and the glory and pleasures of Solomon, and yet fail to be righteous, they have missed their vocation, and are ' ' wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." ^ "For, what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own souH" ^ On the contrary though they are as poor as Laza- rus, and as miserable as Job in the days of his ad- v^ersity, they are assured that their condition is a happy one in the sight of God, if they live up to the maxims of the Gospel. The Church quickens the zeal of her children for holiness of life by impressing on their minds the rigor of God's judgments, who "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts," by reminding them of the terrors of Hell and of the sweet joys of Heaven. Not only are Catholics instructed in church on Sundays but they are exhorted to peruse the Word of God, and manuals of devotion, at home. The saints whose lives are there recorded serve like bright stars to guide them over the stormy ocean of life to the shores of eternity ; while the history of those who have fallen from grace stands like a beacon light, warning them to shun the rocks against which a Solomon and a Judas made ship- wreck of their souls. Our books of piety are adapted to every want *Deut. vi. 6, 7 ^Apoe. iii. 7. ^ Matt. xvl. 26. 20 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS of the human soul, and are a fruitful source of sanctification. Who can read without spiritual profit such works as the almost inspired Following of Christ by Thomas a Kempis ; the Christian Per- fection of Eodriguez; the Spiritual Combat of Scupoli ; the writings of St. Francis de Sales, and a countless host of other ascetical authors ? You will search in vain outside the Catholic Church for writers comparable in unction and healthy piety to such as I have mentioned. Com- pare, for instance, Kempis with Bimyan's Pil- grim's Progress, or Butler's Lives of the Saints with Foxe 's Book of Martyrs. You lay down Butler with a sweet and tranquil devotion, and with a profound admiration for the Christian heroes whose lives he records ; wliile you put aside Foxe with a troubled mind and a sense of vindictive bit- terness. I do not speak of the Booh of Com7non Prayer, because the best part of it is a translation from our Missal. Protestants also publish Kem- pis, though sometimes in a mutilated form; every passage in the original being carefully omitted which alludes to Catholic doctrines and practices. A distinguished Episcopal clergyman of Balti- more once avowed to me that his favorite books of devotion were our standard works of piety. In saying this, he paid a merited and graceful tribute to the superiority of Catholic spiritual literature. The Church gives us not only the most pressing motives, but also the most potent means for our sanctification. These means are furnished by prayer and the Sacraments. She exhorts us to frequent communion with God by prayer and meditation, and so imperative is this obligation iil our eyes that we woTild justly hold ourselves guilty of grave dereliction of duty if we neglected HOLINESS OF THE CHUKCH 21 for a considerable time the practice of morning and evening prayer. The most abundant source of graces ia also found in the seven Sacraments of the Church. Our soul is bathed in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ at the font of Baptism, from which we come forth "new creatures." We are then and there incorporated with Christ, becoming "bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh;" "for as many of you," says the Apostle, "as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ."^ And as the Holy Ghost is inseparable from Christ, our bodies are made the temples of the Spirit of God and our souls His Sanctuary. "Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water, in the word of life ; that He might present it to Him- self a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. ' ' ^ In Confirmation we receive new graces and new strength to battle against the temptations of life. In the Eucharist we are fed with the living Bread which cometh down from Heaven. In Penance are washed away the stains we have contracted after Baptism. Are we called to the Sacred Ministry, or to the married state, we find in the Sacraments of Orders and Matrimony ample graces corresponding with the condition of life which we have embraced. And our last illness is consoled by Extreme Unc- tion, wherein we receive the Divine succor neces- sary to fortify and purify us before departing horn this world. In a word, the Church, like a watchful mother, ' in- crease the commotion. And they overturn the very altars before which they previously sacrificed as consecrated priests.^ They sanctioned rebel- lion by undermining the principle of authority. What a noble opportunity they lost of earning for themselves immortal honors from God and man! If, instead of raising the standard of re- volt, they had waged war upon their own passions, and fought with the Catholic reformers against impiety, they would be hailed as true soldiers of the cross. They would be welcomed by the Pope, the Bishops and clergy, and by all good men. They might be honored today on our altars, and might have a niche in our temples, side by side with those of Charles Borromeo and Ignatius Loyola; and instead of a divided army of Christians, we should behold today a united Christendom, spread- ing itself irresistibly from nation to nation, and bringing all kingdoms to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. * Luther, Zuinglius, and Knox had been ordained priests. Calvin had studied for the priesthood, but did not receive Orders. CHAPTER IV. CATHOLICITY. THAT Catholicity is a prominent note of the Church is evident from the Apostles' Creed, which says: "I believe in the Holy CatJwlic Church. ' ' The word Catholic, or Universal, signi- fies that the true Church is not circumscribed in its extent, like human empires, nor confined to one race of people, like the Jewish Church, but that she is diffused over every nation of the globe, and counts her children among all tribes and peoples and tongues of the earth. This glorious Church is foreshadowed by the Psalmist, when he sings: ''All the ends of the earth shall be converted to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall adore in His sight ; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall have dominion over the nations." * The Prophet Malachy saw in the distant future this world-wide Church, when he wrote: "From the rising of the sun, to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles ; and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation ; for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of Hosts." 2 When our Savior gave commission to his Apos- tles He assigned to them the whole world as the theatre of their labors, and the entire human race, without regard to language, color, or nationality, »P8. xU. 'Mai. 1. 11. 30 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS as the audience to whom they were to preach. Unlike the religion of the Jewish people, which was national, or that of the Mohammedans, which is local, the Catholic religion was to be cosmopoli- tan, embracing all nations and all countries. This is evident from the following passages: ''Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations/'^ "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."^ "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth." " These prophecies declaring that the Church was to be world-wide and to embrace even the Gentile nations may not strike us today as specially re- markable, accustomed as we are now to meet with Christian civilization everywhere, and to see the nations of the world bound so closely together by social and commercial relations. But we must re- member that when they were uttered the true God was known and adored only in an obscure, almost isolated, corner of the earth, while triumphant idolatry was the otherwise universal religion of the world. The prophecies were fulfilled. The Apostles scattered themselves over the surface of the earth, preaching the Gospel of Christ. "Their sound,'* says St. Paul, "went over all the earth and their words unto the ends of the whole world." ^ Within thirty years after our Savior's Crucifixion the Apostle of the Gentiles was able to say to the Eomans : " I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ because your faith is spoken of in the en- tire world" ^ — spoken of assuredly by those who were in sympathy and communion with the faith of the Romans. "Matt xxviii. 19. ^Mark xvi. 15. 'Acts 1. 8. - *Rom. X 18. »Rom. i 18, I CATHOLICITY 31 St. Justin, Martyr, was able to say, about one hundred years after Christ, that there was no race of men, whether Barbarians or Greeks, or any other people of what name soever, among whom the name of Jesus Christ was not invoked. St. Irenaeus, writing at the end of the second century, tells us that the religion so marvelously propagated throughout the whole world was not a vague, ever-changing form of Christianity, but that "this faith and doctrine and tradition preached throughout the globe is as uniform as if the Church consisted of one family, possessing one soul, one heart, and as if she had but one mouth. For, though the languages of the world are dissim- ilar, her doctrine is the same. The churches found- ed in Germany, in the Celtic nations, in the East in Egypt, in Lybia, and in the centres of civiliza- tion, do not differ from each other; but as the sun gives the same light throughout the world, so does the light of faith shine everywhere the same and enlighten all men who wish to come to the knowl- edge of the truth." ^ "We are but of yesterday," says Tertullian, "and already have we filled your cities, towns, is- lands, your council halls and camps, . . . the palace, senate, forum; we have left you only the temples."^ Clement of Alexandria, at the end of the second century, writes : ' ' The word of our Master did not remain in Judea, as philosophy remained in Greece, but has been poured out over the whole world, per- suading Greeks and Barbarians alike, race by race, village by village, every city, Whole houses and hearers one by one — nay, not a few of the philoso- phers themselves. ' ' And Origen, in the early part of the next century, observes : " In all Greece, and in all barbarous races within our world, there are tens of thousands who Udv. Hier., 1. h •^^ologet, tk 87. 32 THE FAITH OF OFR FATHERS lia\e left their national law and customary gods for the law of Moses and the Word of Jesus Christ, though to adhere to that law is to incur the hatred of idolaters and the risk of death besides to have embraced that Word; and considering how, in so few years, in spite of the attack made on us, even to the loss of life or property, and with no great store of teachers, the preaching of that Word has found its way into every part of the world, so that Greek and Barbarian, wise and unwise, ad- here to the religion of Jesus, doubtless it is a work greater than any work of man." This Catholicity, or universality, is not to be found in any, or in all, of the combined commu- nions separated from the Roman Catholic Church. The Schismatic churches of the East have no claim to this title because they are confined within the Turkish and Russian dominions, and number not more than sixty million souls. The Protestant churches, even taken collectively, (as separate communions they are a mere hand- ful) are too insignificant in point of numbers, and too circumscribed in their territorial extent, to have any pretensions to the title of Catholic. All the Protestant denominations are estimated at sixty-five million, or less than one-fifth of those who bear the Christian name. They repudiale, moreover, and protest against the name of Cath- olic, though they continue to say in the Apostles' Creed ' ' I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. ' ' That the Roman Catholic Church alone deserves the name of Catholic is so evident that it is ridicu- lous to deny it. Ours is the only Church which adopts this name as her official title. We have pos- session, which is nine-tenths of the law. We have exclusively borne this glorious appellation in trou- CATHOLICITY 33 bled times, when the assumption of this venerable title exposed iis to insult, persecution and death; and to attempt to deprive us of it at this late hour, would be as fruitless as the efforts of the French Revolutionists who sought to uproot all traces of the old civilization by assigning new names to the days and seasons of the year. Passion and prejudice and bad manners may affix to us the epithets of Romish and Papist and Vltramontane, but the calm, dispassionate mind, of whatever faith, all the world over, knows us only by the name of CatJiolic. There is a power in this name and an enthusiasm aroused by it akin to the patriotism awakened by the flag of one's country. So great is the charm attached to the name of Catholic that a portion of the Episcopal body sometimes usurp the title of CatJiolic, though in their official books they are named Protestant Episcopalians. If they think that they have any just claim to the name of CatJiolic, why not come out openly and write it on the title-pages of their Bibles and Prayer-Books ? Afraid of going so far, they gratify their vanity by privately calling themselves Catholic. But the delusion is so trans- parent that the attempt must provoke a smile even among themselves. Should a stranger ask them to direct him to the Catholic Church t^iey would instinctively point out to him the Roman Catholic Church. The sectarians of the fourth ana fifth centuries, as St. Augustine tells us, used to attempt the same pious fraud, but signally failed; ''We must hold fast to the Christian religion and to the communion of that Church which is Catholic, and which is called Catholic not only by those who belong to her, but also by all her ene- 34 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS mies. Whether they will it or not^ the very here- tics themselves and followers of schism, when they converse, not with their own bu^. with outsiders, call that only Catholic which is really Catholic. For they cannot be understood unless they dis- tinguish her by that name, by which ehe is known throughout the whole earth. ' ' ^ We possess not only the name, but also the reality. A single illustration will suffice to exhibit in a strong light the widespread dominion of the Catholic Church and her just claims to the title of Catholic. Take the Ecumenical Council of the Vat- ican, opened in 1869 and presided over by Pope Pius IX. Of the thousand Bishops and upwards now comprising the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, nearly eight hundred attended the open- ing session, the rest being unavoidably absent. All parts of the habitable globe were represented at the Council. The Bishops assembled from Great Britain, Ire- land, France, Germany, Switzerland and from al- most every nation and principality in Europe. They met from Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America, and from the islands of the Atlantic and the Pacific. They were gathered to- gether from different parts of Africa and Ocean- ica. They went from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of the human race, and from the banks of the Jordan, the cradle of Christianity. They traveled to Rome from Mossul, built near ancient Nineveh, and from Bagdad, founded on the ruins of Babylon. They flocked from Damas- cus and Mount Libanus and from the Holy Land, sanctified by the footprints of our blessed Re- deemer. Those Bishops belonged to every form of gOF *St Aug. de Ver. Rel„ c. 7. n. 12. CATHOLICITY 35 eminent, from the republic to the most absolute monarchy.^ Their faces were marked by almost every shade and color that distinguished the hu- man family. They spoke every civilized language under the sun. Kneeling together in the same great Council-Hall, truly could those Prelates ex- claim, in the language of the Apocalypse: *'Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, to God in Thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. - What the Catholic Church lost by the religious revolution of the sixteenth century in the old world she has more than regained by the immense accessions to her ranks in the East and West Indies, in North and South America. Never, in her long history, was she numerically so strong as she is at the present moment, when her chijdren amount to about three hundred millions, or double the number of those who bear the name of Christians outside of her communion. In her alone is literally fulfilled the magnificent prophecy of Malachy; for in every clime, and in every nation under the sun, are erected thousands of Catholic altars upon which the "clean obla- tion" ^ is daily offered up to the Most High. It is said, with truth, that the sun never sets on British dominions. It may also be affirmed, with equal assurance, that wherever the British drum- beat sounds, aye, and wherever the English lan- guage is spoken, there you will find the English- speaking Catholic Missionary planting the cross—" *Does not this fact conclusively demonstrate the truth that the Catholic Church can subsist under every form of govern- ment? And is it not an eloquent refutation of the oft-repeated calumny that a republic is not a favorable soil for her develop- ment? *Apoc. V, 9i- 'Malachy i. 11. 36 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS the symbol of salvation — side by side witb the banner of St. George. Quite recently a number of European emigrants arrived in Richmond. They were strangers to our country, to our customs and to our language. Every object that met their eye sadly reminded them that they were far from their own sunny Italy. But when they saw the cross surmounting our Cathedral they hastened to it with a joyful step. I saw and heard a group of them giving earnest expression to their deep emotions. Enter- ing this sacred temple, they felt that they had found an oasis in the desert. Once more they were at home. They found one familiar spot in a strange land. They stood in the church of their fathers, in the home of their childhood; and they seemed to say in their hearts, as a tear trickled down their sun-burnt cheeks, "How lovely are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts ! My soul long- eth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. ' ' ^ They saw around them the paintings of familiar Saints whom they had been accustomed to reverence from their youth. They saw the baptismal font and the confessionals. They be- held the altar and the altar-rails where they re- ceived their Maker. They observed the Priest at the altar in his sacred vestments. They saw a multitude of worshipers kneeling around them, and they felt in their heart of hearts that they were once more among brothers and sisters, with whom they had *'one Lord, one faith, one bap- tism, one God and Father of all." Everywhere a Catholic is at home. Secret socie- ties, of whatever name, form but a weak and counterfeit bond of union compared with the *Ps. Ixxxiii. CATHOLICITY 37 genuine fellowship created by Catholic faith, hope and charity. The Eoman Catholic Church, then, exclusively merits the title of Catholic, because her children abound in every part of the globe and comprise the vast majority of the Christian family. God forbid that I should write these lines, or that mj Catholic readers should peruse them in a iDoasting' and vaunting spirit. God estimates men not by their numbers, but by their intrinsic worth. It is no credit to us to belong to the body of the Church Catholic if we are not united to the soul of the Church by a life of faith, hope and charity. ^ It I will avail us nothing to be citizens of that King- dom of Christ which encircles the globe, unless the Kingdom of God is within us by the reign of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. One righteous soul that reflects the beauty and perfections of the Lord, is more precious in His sight than the mass of humanity that has no spir- itual life, and is dead to the inspirations of grace. The Patriarch Abraham was dearer to Jehovah than all the inhabitants of the corrupt city of Sodom. Elias was of greater worth before the Almighty than the four hundred prophets of Baal who ate at the table of Jezabel. The Apostles with the little band of disciples that were assembled in Jerusalem after our Lord's ascension, were more esteemed by Him than the great Roman Empire, which was seated in dark- ness and the shadow of death. While we rejoice, then, in the inestimable bless- ing of being incorporated in the visible body of the Catholic Church, whose spiritual treasures are inexhaustible, let us rejoice still more that we have i>ot tT'^cei^"'*:*^ that blessing in vain. CHAPTER V. APOSTOLICITY. THE true Church must be Apostolical. Hence in the Creed framed in the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, in the year 325, we find these words : ' ' I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." This attribute or note of the Church implies that the true Church must always teach the iden- tical doctrines once delivered by the Apostles, and that her ministers must derive their powers from the Apostles by an uninterrupted succession. Consequently, no church can claim to be the true one whose doctrines differ from those of the Apos- tles, or whose ministers are unable to trace, by an unbroken chain, their authority to an Apostolic source ; just as our Minister to England can exer- cise no authority in that country unless he is duly commissioned by our Government and represents its views. The Church, says St. Paul, is ''built upon the foundation of the Apostles," ^ so that the doc- trine which it propagates must be based on Apos- tolic teachings. Hence St. Paul says to the Gala- tians: "Though an angel from heaven preach a Gospel to you beside that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. ' ' - The same Apos- tle gives this admonition to Timothy : * ' The things » Eph. ii. 20. ' Gal. i. 8. 38 APOSTOLICITY 35 which thou hast heard from me before many wit- nesses the same commend to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also." ^ Timothy must transmit to his disciples only such doctrines as he heard from the lips of his Master. Not only is it required that ministers of the Gospel should conform their teaching to the doc- trine of the Apostles, but also that these ministers should be ordained and commissioned by the Apostles or their legitimate successors. "Neither doth any man," says the Apostle, "take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was." 2 This text evidently condemns all self- constituted preachers and reformers; for, "how shall they preach, unless they be sent?"^ Sent, of course, by legitimate authority, and not di- rected by their own caprice. Hence, we find that those who succeeded the Apostles were ordained and commissioned by them to preach, and that no others were permitted to exercise this function. Thus we are told that Paul and Barnabas "had ordained for them priests in every church."* And the Apostle says to Titus: "For this cause I left thee in Crete, .... that thou shouldst or- dain Priests in every city, as I also appointed thee. ' ' ^ Even St. Paul himself, though miracu- lously called and instructed by God, had hands imposed on him,^ lest others should be tempted by his example to preach without Apostolic war- rant. To discover, therefore, the Church of Christ among the various conflicting claimants we have to inquire, first, which church teaches whole and entire those doctrines that were taught by the Apostles; second, what ministers can trace back, ' II. Tim. il. 2. » Ileb. v. 4. » Rom. x. 15. Actsxiv. 22, "Tit. i. 5. 'Acts xiii. 2, 3. 40 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS in an unbroken line, their missionary powers to the Apostles. The Catholic Church alone teaches doctrines which are in all respects identical with those of the first teachers of the Gospel. The following parallel lines exhibit some examples of the de- parture of the Protestant bodies from the primi- tive teacliings of Christianity, and the faithful ad- hesion of the Catholic Church to them. Apostolic Church. 1. Our Savior gives pre-eminence to Peter over the other Apos- tles: "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." ^ "Confirm thy breth- ren. "= "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep." ^ 2. The Apostolic Church claimed to be infallible in her teach- ings. Hence the Apos- tles spoke vv'ith unerr- ing authority, and their words were received not as human opinions, but as Divine truths. 'When you have receiv- ed from us the word of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the M'ord of God." * "It hath seemsd good to the Holy Gho.st and to us," say the as- sembled Apostles, "to lay no further burden upon you than these necessary things." = "Though an angel from heaven preach a gosjtel to you besides that which we have Dreached to you, let Mm be anathema." ' Catholic Church. The Catholic Church gives the primacy of honor and jurisdiction to Peter and to his successors. The Catholic Church alone, of ail the Chris- tian communions, claims to exercise the prerogative of infalli- bility in her teaching. Her ministers always speak from the pulpit as having authority, and the faithful re- ceive with implicit confidence what the Church teaches, with- out once questioning her veracity. Protestant Churches. All other Christian communions practi- cally deny Peter's su- premacy over the other Apostles. AH the Protestant churches repudiate the claim of infalliliility. They deny that such a gift is possessed by ^^y teachers of relig- ion. The ministers pronounce no authori- tative doctrines, but advance opinions as embodying their pri- vate interpretation of the Scripture. And their hearers are never required to believe them, but are expect- ed to draw their own conclusions from the Bible. »Matt. svi. 18. *Thess. li. 13. 2 Luke xxli. 32. s Acts XV. 28. * ,Iohn xxi. 15. • "^al. i. 8. APOSTOLICITY 41 Apostolic Church. Catholic Church. Protestant Churches, 3. Our Savior en- joins and prescribes rules for fasting : "When thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast . . . and tliy Fa- ther, who seeth in se- cret, will repay thee." ^ The Apostles fasted before engaging in sa- cred functions: '"They ministered to the Lord, pad fasted."- "And when they ordained Priests in every city, they prayed with fast- ing." 3 4. "Let women," says the Apostle, "keep si- lence in the churches. For, it is not permitted them to speak. . . It is a shame for a woman to speak in the church." * 5. St. Peter and St. John confirmed the newly baptized in Sa- maria : "T h e y 1 a i d hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost." 6 6. Our Savior and His Apostles taught that the Eucharist con- tains the Bodv and Blood of Christ : "Take ye, and eat ; this is My Body .... Drink ye all of this, for this is my Blood." » "The chalice of bene- diction which we bless, is it not the commu- nion of the Blood of Christ; and the bread which we break, is it not the participation of the Body of the Lord?"' The Church pre- scribes fasiing to the faithful at stated sea- sons, particularly dur- ing Lent. A Catholic Priest is always fasting when he o/Hciates at the al- tar. He breaks his fast only after he says Mass. When Bishops ordain Priests they are always fasting, as well as the candidates for ordination The Catholic Church never permits women to preach in the house of God. Every Catholic Bish- op, as a successor of the Apostles, likewise imposes hands on bap- tized persons in the Sacrament of Confir- mation, by which they receive the Holy Ghost. Protestants have no law prescribing fasts, though some may fast from private devotion. They even try to cast ridicule on fasting as a work of supereroga- tion, detracting from the merits of Christ. Neither candidates for ordination, nor the ministers who ordain them, ever fast on such occasions. Women, especially in this country, publicly preach in Methodist and other churches with the sanction of the church elders. No denomination per- forms the ceremony of imposing hands in this country except Epis- copalians, and even they do not recognize Confirmation as a Sac- rament. The Catholic Church! teaches, with our Lord | and His Apostles, that! the Eucharist contains renlly and indeed the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. The Protestant churches (except, per- haps, a few Ritualists) condemn the docti-ine of the Real Presenile as idolatrous and say that, in partaking of the communion, we receive only a memo- rial of Christ. ''Xatt. vi. 17. *Acts xiii. 2. 'Acts xiv. 22. •Acts viii. 17. 'Matt. xxvi. 26-2». ♦ T. Cor. xiv. 34, 35. ' I. Cor. X. 16. 42 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Apostolic Church. Catholic Chdrch. Protestant Chdrches. 7. The Apostles ^ye^e empowered by our Sa- vior to forgive sins: — "Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are for- given." ^ "God," says St. Paul, ■^hath given to us the ministry of reconcilia- tion." » I The Bishops and Priests of the Catholic Church, as the inherit- ors of Apostolic prer- ogatives, profess to exercise the ministry of reconciliation, and to forgive sins in the name of Christ. 8. Regarding the sick, St. James gives this instruction: "Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."^ 9. Of marriage our Savior says: "Who- ever shall put away his wife and marry an- other committeth adul- tery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband and be married to another she committeth adul- tery." * And again St. Paul says: "To them that are married . . . the Lord commandeth that the wife depart not from her husband, and If she depart that she remain unmarried . . . And let not the hus- band put away his wife." ' One of the most or- dinary duties of a Catholic Priest is to anoint the sick in the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. If a man is sick among us he is careful to call in the Priest of the Church, that he may anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Protestants aflBrm, on the contrary, that God delegates to no man the power of par- doning sin. No such ceremony as that of anointing the sick is practised by any Protestant denom- ination, notwithstand- ing the Apostle's In- junction. Literally following the Apostle's injunc- tion, the Catholic Church forbids the husband and wife to separate from one an- other; or, if they sep- arate, neither of them can marry again dur- ing the life of the other. 10. Our Lord recom- mends not only by word, but by His ex- ample, to souls aiming at perfection, the state Like the Apostle and his Master, the Catho- lic clergy bind them- selves to a life of per- petual chastity. The The Protestant churches, as is well known, have so far relaxed this rigorous law of the Gospel a» to allow divorced per- sons to remarry. And divorce a vin- culo is granted on va- rious and even trifling pretenses. All the ministers of other denookinations, with very rare excep- tions, marry. And far from inculcating tha »John XX. 28. •Mark x. 11, 12. 2 II. Cor. V. 18. 5 I. Cor. vii, 10, 11. ' James v. 14. APOSTOLICITY 43 Apostolic Church. Catholic Chuech. Peotestant Chdrchkb. »f perpetual virginity. St. Paul also exhorts the Corinthians by rounsel and his own example to the same angelic virtue: "fie that griveth his virgin in marriage," he says, "doeth well. And he that giveth her not doeth better." ^ Inmates of our con- vents of men and wo- men voluntarily con- secrate their virginity to God. Apostolic counsel of celibacy to any of their flock, they more than insinuate that the virtue of perpetual chastity, though rec- ommended by St. Paul, is impracticable We now leave the reader to judge for himself which Church enforces the doctrines of the Apos- tles in all their pristine vigor. To show that the Catholic Church is the only lineal descendant of the Apostles it is sufficient to demonstrate that she alone can trace her pedi- gree, generation after generation, to the Apostles, while the origin of all other Christian communi- ties can be referred to a comparatively modern date. The most influential Christian sects existing in this country at the present time are the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. The other Protestant denominations are comparatively insignificant in point of num- bers, and are for the most part offshoots from the Christian communities just named. Martin Luther, a Saxon monk, was the founder of the church which bears his name. He was born at Eisleben, in Saxony, in 1483, and died in 1546. The Anglican or Episcopal Church owes its origin to Henry VIII. of England. The imme- diate cause of his renunciation of the Roman Church was the refusal of Pope Clement VIL to grant him a divorce from his lawful wife, Cath- *I. Cor. vii. 44 THE FAITH OP OUR FATHERS arine of Aragon, that he might be free to be joined in wedlock to Anne Boleyn. In order to legalize his divorce f^'om his virtuous queen the licentious monarch divorced himself and his kingdom froni the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. "There is a close relationship," says D'Au- bigne, "between these two divorces," meaning Henry's divorce from his wife and England's di- vorce from the Church. Yes, there is the rela- tionship of cause and effect. Bishop Short, an Anglican historian, candidly admits that "the existence of the Church of Eng- land as a distinct body, and her final separation from Kome, may he dated from the period of the divorce. ' ' ^ The Book of Homilies, in the language of ful- some praise, calls Henry "the true and faithful minister," and gives him the credit for having abolished in England the Papal supremacy and established the new order of things.- John Wesley is the acknowledged founder of the Methodist Church. Methodism dates from the year 1729, and its cradle was the Oxford Univer- sity in England. John and Charles Wesley were students at Oxford. They gathered around them a number of young men who devoted themselves to the frequent reading of the Holy Scriptures and to prayer. Their methodical and exact mode of life obtained for them the name of Methodists. The Methodist Church in this country is the off- spring of a colony sent hither from England. As it would be tedious to give even a succinct history of each sect, I shall content myself with presenting a tabular statement exhibiting the * History of the Church of England, by Thomas ^, Short, Bishop of St. Asaph's, p. 44. * Book of Homilies. APOSTOLICITY 45 name and founder of each denomination, the place and date of its origin, and the names of the au- thors from whom I quote. My authorities in every instance are Protestants. 46 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS n o CD 00 a a aa;; ca o I- S a -o ^"2 G o i t«a ?§§ 60 2 to a S a H Wo "3 S a a H5 I -^ a a fe ' E- a « 1 i^l^'^ to we a ■•-' I o ^ . , 02 *" -< K H < ^21 ,3 • CO • p^ t-l U o p o a s ,_ H ^ a H OJ 03 ^ ■S S M K Ph H a 5"o -a OS S S a a cj -j a 5 5 S " g 60 to S g S a a a J; O W H -< t^ 5" » m in CQ "^ a s a r< o n Ec* Ei^i +2 -a o, aU o * ti ^ C3 o 5 a a2 g a2 02 O a f^m S 2 ^ DO to O) o .^ ,^ f.^ a -O -O t> (D 01 b f-> P>> o CD W W d) d today, fifteen hundred years after his time J 1 Psalm cii. 3. PEEPETUITY 57 But far be it from iis to ascribe to any liuraan cause tliis marvelous survival of tlie Church. Her indestructibility is not due, as some suppose, to her wonderful organization, or to the far-reach- ing policy of her Pontiffs, or to the learning and wisdom of her teachers. If she has survived, it is not because of human wisdom, but often in spite of human folly. Her permanence is due not to the arm of the flesh, but to the finger of God. * ' Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory. ' ' I would now ask this question of all that are hostile to the Catholic Church and that are plot- ting her destruction : How can you hope to over- turn an institution which for more than nineteen centuries has successfully resisted all the com- bined assaults of the world, of men, and of the powers of darkness? What means will you em- ploy to encompass her ruin? I. Is it the power of Kings, and Emperors, and Prime Ministers? They have tried in vain to crush her, from the days of the Roman Caesars to those of the former Chancellor of Germany. Many persons labor under the erroneous im- pression that the crowned heads of Europe have been the unvarying supporters of the Church, and that if their protection were withdrawn she would soon collapse. So far from the Church being sheltered behind earthly thrones, her worst ene- mies have been, with some honorable exceptions, so-called Christian Princes who were nominal chil- dren of the Church. They chafed under her salu- tary discipline ; they wished to be rid of her yoke, because she alone, in time of oppression, had the power and the courage to stand by the rights of the people, and place her breast as a wall of brass against the encroachments of their rulers. With calm confidence we can say with the Psalm- r>8 THE FAITH OF OUE rATHET?,S ist: ''Why have the Gentiles raged, and the peo- ple devised vain things? The kings ol' the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord, and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us. "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them and the Lord shall deride them." ^ IL Can the immense resources and organized power of rival religious bodies succeed in absorb- ing her and in bringing her to naught ! I am not disposed to undervalue this power. Against any human force it would be irresistible. But if the colossal strength, and incomparable machinery of the Roman Empire could not prevent the estab- lishment of the Church; if Arianism, Nestorian- ism, Eutychianism could not check her develop- ment, how can modern organizations stop her progress now, when in the fulness of her strength f It is easier to preserve what is created, than to create anew. in. But we have been told: ''Take from the Pope his Temporal power and the Church is doomed to destruction. This is the secret of her strength; strip her of this, and, like Samson shorn of his hair, she will betray all the weakness of a poor mortal. Then this brilliant luminary will wax pale and she will sink below the horizon, never more to rise again," For more than seven centuries after the es- tablishment of the Church the Popes had no sov- ereign territorial jurisdiction. How could she have outlived that period, if the temporal power were essential to her perpetuity? And even since 1870 the Pope has been deprived of his temporali- 1 Psalm ii. 1-4. PEEPETUITY 59 ties. This loss, however, does not bring a wrinkle on the fair brow of the Church, nor does it retard one inch her onward march. IV. Is she unable to cope with modern inven- tions and the mechanical progress of the nine- teenth century? We are often told so; but far from hiding our head, like the ostrich in the sand, at the approach of these inventions we hail Ihem as messengers of God, and will use them as Providential instruments for the further propa- gation of the faith. If we succeeded so well before, when we had no ships but frail canoes, no compass but our eyes; when we had no roads but eternal snows, virgin forests and trackless deserts; when we had no guide save faith, and hope, and God — if even then we succeeded so well in carrying the Gospel to the confines of the earth, how much more can we do now by the aid of telegraph, steamships and railroads'? Yes, men of genius, we bless your inventions ; we bless you, ye modern discoveries; and we will impress you into the service of the Church and say: ''Fire and heat bless the Lord. Lightnings and clouds bless the Lord; all ye works of the Lord bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever."^ The utility of modern inventions to the Church has lately been manifested in a conspicuous man- ner. Tlie Pope called a council of all the Bishops of the world. Without the aid of steam it would have been almost impossible for them to assem- ble; by its aid they were able to meet from the uttermost bounds of the earth. V. But may not the light of the Church grow paJe and be extinguished before the intellectual i Daniel, iii. 60 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS blaze of the nineteenth century? Has she not much to fear from literature, the arts and sciences? She has always been the Patroness of literature, and the fostering Mother of the arts and sciences. She founded and endowed nearly all the great universities of Europe. Not to mention those of the continent, a bare catalogue of which would cover a large space, I may allude to the Universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge, the two most famous seats of learning in' England, which were established under Catholic auspices centuries before the Eeformation. The Church also founded three of the four uni- versities now existing in Scotland, viz: St. An- drew's in 1411, Glasgow in 1450 and Aberdeen in 1494. Without her we should be deprived to-daj?" of the priceless treasures of ancient literature; for, in preserving the languages of Greece and Eome from destruction, she rescued classical writers of those countries from oblivion. Hallam justly ob- serves that, were it not for the diligent labors of the monks in the Middle Ages, our knowledge of the history of ancient Greece and Eome would be as vague today as our information regarding the Pyramids of Egypt. And as for works of art, there are more valu- able monuments of art contained in the single museum of the Vatican than are to be found in all our country. Artists are obliged to go to Eome to consult their best models. Our churches are not only temples of worship, but depositories of sacred art. For our intellectual progress we are in no small measure indebted to the much- abused Middle Ages. Tyudail has the candor to observe that "The nineteenth century strikes its roots into the centuries gone by and draws nutri- ment from them. ' ' ^ iTyndall. Study of Physics. PERPETUITY Gl VI. Is it liberty that will destroy tlie CIj^'cLi? The Church breathes freeh^ aud expands with giant gi'owth, where true liberty is found. She is always cramped in her operations wherever des- potism casts its dark shadow. Nowhere does she enjoy more independence than here; nowhere is she more vigorous and mare prosperous. Children of the Church, fear nothing, happen what will to her. Christ is with her and therefore iihe cannot sink. CaBsar, in crossing the Adriatic, said to the troubled oarsman: "Quid times? CcBsarem vehis." "VVTiat Caesar said in presumption Jesus says with truth: What fearest thou? Christ is in the ship. Are we not positive that the sun will rise tomorrow and next day, and so on to the end of the world? Why? Because God so ordained when He established it in the heav- ens; and because it has never faibd to run its course from the beginning. Has not Christ prom- ised that the Church should always enlighten the world? Has He not, so far, fulfilled His promise concerning His Church? Has she not gone stead- ily on her course amid storm and sunshine? The fulfilment of the past is the best security for the future. Amid the continual changes in human institu- tions she is the one Institution that never changes. Amid the universal ruins of earthly monuments she is the one monument that stands proudly pre- eminent. Not a stone in this building falls to the ground. Amid the general destruction of king- doms her kingdom is never destroyed. Ever an- cient and ever new, time writes no wrinkles on her Divine brow. The Church has seen the birth of every govern- ment of Europe, and it is not at all improbable that she shall also witness the death of them all 62 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS and cliant their requiem. She was more than four- teen hundred years old when Columbus discovered our continent, and the foundation of our Eepublic Is but as yesterday to her. She calmly looked on while the Goths and the Visigoths, the Huns and the Saxons swept like a torrent over Europe, subverting dynasties. She has seen monarchies changed into republics, and republics consolidateenesis to Revelation, and yoirwill not find a single line authorizing the sanc- tification of Sunday. Tl^e Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify. The Catholic Church correctly teaches that our Lord and His Apostles inculcated certain import- ant duties of religion which are not recorded by the inspired writers.^ For instance, most Chris- tians pray to the Holy Ghost, a practice which is nowhere found in the Bible. We must, therefore, conclude that the Scrip- tures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith because they cannot, at any time, be within the reach of every inquirer; because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance, and because 1 See .John xxi. 25 ; II. Thess. li. 14. 90 THE FATTH OF OFR FATHERS they do not contain aJl the truths necessary for salvation. ^' God forbid that any of my readers should be tempted to conclude from what I have said that the Catholic Church is opposed to the reading of the Scriptures, or that she is the enemy of the Bible. The Catholic Church the enemy of the Bible! Good God! "What monstrous ingratitude! What base calumny is contained in that assertion! As well might you accuse the Virgin Mother of trying to crush the Infant Savior at her breast as to accuse the Church, our Mother, of attempt- ing to crush out of existence the W^ord of God. As well might you charge the patriotic statesman with attempting to destroy the constitution of his country, while he strove to protect it from being mutilated by unprincipled demagogues. For fifteen centuries the Church was the sole 5'^5' giiardian and depository of the Bible, and if "sEe really feared that sacred Book, who was to pre- vent her, during that long period, from tearing it in shreds and scattering it to the winds! She could have thrown it into the sea, as the unnat- ural mother would have thrown away her off- spring, and who would liave been the wiser? "\¥liat has become of those millions of once famous books written in past ages? They have nearly all perished. But amid this wreck of an- cient literature, the Bible stands almost a soli- tary monument like the Pyramids of Egypt amid the surroimding wastes. That venerable Volume has survived the wars and revolutions and the barbaric invasions of fifteen centuries. Who res- cued it from destruction? The Catholic Church. Without her fostering care the New Testament weuTd probably be as little known today as ''the Book of the days of the kings of Israel." * 1 III. ICmgs xivr \f). THE CHUECH AND THE BIBLE 91 Little do we imagine, in our age of steam print- ing, how much labor it cost the Church to preserve and perpetuate the Sacred Scriptures. Learned monks, who are now abused in their graves by thoughtless men, were constantly employed in copying with the pen the Holy Bible. When one monk died at his post another took his place, watching like a faithful sentinel over the treasure of God's Word Let me give you a few plain facts to show the pains which the Church has taken to perpetuate the Scriptures. The Canon of the Bible, as we have seen, was framed in the fourth century. In that same cen- tury Pope Damasus commanded a new and com- plete translation of the Scriptures to be made into the Latin language, which was then the living tongue not only of Eome and Italy, but of the civilized world. If the Popes were afraid that the Bible should see the light, this was a singular way of mani- festing their fear. The task of preparing a new edition of the Scriptures was assigned to St. Jerome, the most learned Hebrew scholar of his time. This new translation was disseminated throughout Chris- tendom, and on that account was called the Vul- gate, or popular edition. In the sixth and seventh centuries the modern languages of Europe began to spring up like so many shoots from the parent Latin stock. The Scriptures, also, soon found their way into these languages. The Venerable Bede, who lived in England in the eighth century, and whose name is profoundly reverenced in that country, trans- lated the Sacred Scriptures into Saxon, which was 92 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS then the language of England. He died while dic- tating the last verses of St. John's Gospel. Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a funeral discourse on Queen Anne, consort of Richard II., pronounced in 1394, praises her for her diligence in reading the four Gospels. Tlie Head of the Church of England could not condemn in others what he commended in the queen. Sir Thomas More affirms that, before the days of Wycliffe, there was an English version of the Scriptures, ''by good and godly people with de- votion and soberness well and reverently read. ' ' ^ If partial restrictions began to be placed on the circulation of the Bible in England in the fifteenth century, these restrictions were occasioned by the conduct of Wycliffe and his followers, who not only issued a new translation, on which they en- grafted their novelties of doctrine, but also sought to explain the sacred text in a sense foreign to the received interpretation of tradition. While laboring to diffuse the Word of God it is the dut}^, as well as the right of the Church, as the guardian of faith, to see that the faithful are not misled by unsound editions. Printing was invented in the fifteenth century, and almost a hundred years later came the Ref- ormation. It is often triumphantly said, and I suppose there are some who, even at the present day, are ignorant enough to believe the assertion, that the first edition of the Bible ever published after the invention of printing was the edition of Martin Luther. The fact is, that before Luther put his pen to paper, no fewer than fifty-six edi- tions of the Scriptures had appeared on the con- tinent of Europe, not to speak of those printed in ' Olaloff. 3, 14. THE CHURCH AXD THE BIBLE 93 Great Britain. Of those editions, twenty-one were published in German, one in Spanish, four in French, twenty-one in Italian, five in Flemish and four in Bohemian. Coming down to our own times, if you open an English Catholic Bible you will find in the preface a letter of Pope Pius Vl, in which he strongly recommends the pious reading of the Holy Scrip- tures. A Pope's letter is the most weighty au- thority in the Church. You will also find in Hay- dock's Bible the letters of the Bishops of the United States, in which they express the hope that this splendid edition would have a wide cir- culation among their flocks. These facts ought, I think, to convince every candid mind that the Church, far from being op- posed to the reading of the Scriptures, does all she can to encourage their perusal. A gentleman of North Carolina lately informed me that the first time he entered a Catholic book- store he was surprised at witnessing on the shelves an imposing array of Bibles for sale. Up to that moment he had believed the unfounded charge that Catholics were forbidden to read the Scriptures. He has since embraced the Catholic faith. And perhaps I may be permitted here to record my personal experiences during a long course of study. I speak of myself, not because my case is exceptional, but, on the contrary, because my example will serve to illustrate the system pur- sued toward ecclesiastical students in all colleges throughout the Catholic world in reference to the Holy Scriptures. In our course of Humanities we listened every day to the reading of the Bible. When we were advanced to the higher branches of Philosophy 94 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS and Theology the study of the Sacred Scriptures formed an important part of our education. We read, besides, every day a chapter of the New Testament, not standing or sitting, but on our knees, and then reverently kissed the inspired page. We listened at our meals each day to selec- tions from the Bible, and we always carried about with us a copy of the New Testament. So familiar, indeed, were the students with the sacred Volume that many of them, on listening to a few verses, could tell from what portion of the Scriptures you were reading. The only dread we were taught to have of the Scriptures was that of reading them without fear and reverence. And after his ordination every Priest is obliged in conscience to devote upwards of an hour each day to the perusal of the Word of God. I am not aware that clergymen of other denominations are bound by the same duty. AVhat is good for the clergy must be good, also, for the laity. Be assured that if you become a Catholic you will never be forbidden to read the Bible. It is our earnest wish that every word of the Gospel may be imprinted on your memory and on your heart. CHAPTER IX. THE PRIMACY OF PETER. THE Catholic Church teaches also, that our Lord conferred on St. Peter the first place of honor and jurisdiction in the government of His whole Church, and that the same spiritual supremacy has always resided in the Popes, or Bishops of Rome, as being the successors of St. Peter. Consequently, to be true followers of Christ all Christians, both among the clergy and the laity, must be in communion with the See of Rome, where Peter rules in the person of nis successor. Before coming to any direct proofs on this sub- ject I may state that, in the Old Law, the High Priest appointed by Almighty God filled an office analogous to that of Pope in the New Law. In the Jewish Church there were Priests and Levites ordained to minister at the altar; and there was, also, a supreme ecclesiastical tr'.bunal, with the Pligh Priest at its head. All matters of religious controversy were referred to this tribunal and in the last resort to the High Priest, whose decision was enforced under pain of death. "If there be a hard matter in judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, . . . thou shalt conae to the Priests of the Levitical race and to the judge, . . . and they shall show thee true judgment. And tkou shalt do whatever 95 96 THE FAITH OF OUE FATHERS they say who preside in the place which the Lord shall choose, and thou shalt follow their sentence. And thou shalt not decline to the right hand, or to the left. . . . But he that . . . will refuse to obey the commandment of the Priest, who min- istereth at the time, . . . that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel. ' ' ^ From this passage it is evident that in the He- brew Church the High Priest had the highest jurisdiction in religious matters. By this means unity of faith and worship was preserved among the people of God. Now the Jewish synagogue, as St. Paul testi- fies, was the type and figure of the Christian Church; for ''all these things happened to them (the Jews) in figure."^ We must, therefore, find in the Church of Christ a spiritual judge, exereising the same supreme authority as the High Priest wielded in the Old Law. For if a supreme Pon- tiff was necessary, in the Mosaic dispensation, to maintain purity and uniformity of worship, the same dignitary is equally necessary now to pre- serve unity of faith. Every well-regulated civil government has an acknowledged head. The President is the head of the United States Government. Queen Vic- toria is the ruler of Great Britain. The Sultan sways the Turkish Empire. If these nations had no authorized leader to govern them they would be reduced to the condition of a mere mob, and anarchy, confusion and civil war would inevitably follow, as recently happened to France after the fall of Napoleon III. Even in every well-ordered family, domestic peace requires that someone preside. Now, the Church of Christ is a visible society-^ »©eut xvii, 'I. Cor. x. 11. THE PRIMACY OF PETER 97 tliat is, a society composed of human beings. She has, it is true, a spiritual end in view ; but having to deal with men, she must have a government as well as every other organized society. This government, at least in its essential elements, our Lord must have established for His Church. For was Pie not as wise as human legislators'? And shall we suppose that, of all lawgivers, the Wis- dom Incarnate alone left His Kingdom on earth to be governed without a head? But someone will tell me: ''We do not deny that the Church has a head. God himself is its Euler." This is evading the real question. Is not God the Euler of all governments ? ' ' By Me, ' ' He says, ''kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things." ^ He is the recognized Head of our Re- public, and of every Christian family in the land ; but, nevertheless, there is always presiding over the country a visible chief, who represents God on earth. In like manner the Church, besides an invisible Head in heaven, must have a visible head on earth. The body and members of the Church are visible; why not also the Head? The Church with- out a supreme Ruler would be like an army with- out a general, a navy without an admiral, a sheep- fold without a shepherd, or like a human body without a head. The Christian communities separated from the Catholic Church deny that Peter received any au- thority over the other Apostles, and hence they reject the supremacy of the Pope. The absence from the Protestant communions of a Divinely appointed, visible Head is to them an endless source of weakness and dissension. It is an insuperable barrier against any hope of a iProv. viii. 15. 98 THE FAITH OF OUE FATHERS permanent reunion among themselves, because they are left without a common rallying centre or basis of union and are placed in an unhappy state of schism. The existence, on the contrary, of a supreme judge of controversy in the Catholic Church is the secret of her admirable unity. This is the key- stone that binds together and strengthens the im- perishable arch of faith. From the very fact, then, of the existence of a supreme Head in the Jewish Church; from the fact that a Head is always necessary for civil gov- ernment, for families and corporations; from the fact, especially, that a visible Head is essential to the maintenance of unity in the Church, while the absence of a Head necessarily leads to anarchy, we are forced to conclude, even though positive evidence were wanting, that, in the establishment of His Church, it must have entered into the mind of the Divine Lawgiver to place over it a primate invested with superior judicial powers. But have we any positive proof that Christ did appoint a supreme Ruler over His Cliurch? To those, indeed, who read the Scriptures with the single eye of pure intention the most abundant evidence of this fact is furnished. To my mind the New Testament establishes no doctrine, unless it satisfies every candid reader that our Lord gave plenipotentiary powers to Peter to govern the whole Church. In this chapter I shall speak of the Promise, the Institution, and the exercise of Peter's Primacy, as recorded in the New Tes- tament. The next chapter shall be devoted to its perpetuity in the Popes. Promise of the Primacy. Our Saviour, on a cer- tain occasion, asked His disciples, saying: ''Whom ao men say that the Son of Man is? And they THE PRIMACY OF PETER 99 said: Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; and others, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets. Jesus saith to them : But whom do ye say that I am?" Peter, as usual, is the leader and spokesman. ''Simon Peter answering, said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatso- ever thou shalt loose on earth shall lae loosed also in heaven."^ Here we find Peter confessing the Divinity of Christ, and in reward for that con- fession he is honored with the promise of the Primacy. Our Savior, by the words "thou art Peter," clearly alludes to the new name which He Himself had conferred upon Simon, when He received him into the number of His followers (John i. 42); and He now reveals the reason for the change of name, which was to insinuate the honor He was to confer on him, by appointing him President of the Christian Republic; just as God, in the Old Law, changed Abram's name to Abraham, when He chose him. to be the father of a mighty nation. The word Peter, in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue, which our Savior spoke, means a rock. The sen- tence runs thus in that language: ''Thou art a rock, and on this rock I will build My Church.'* Indeed, all respectable Protestant commentators have now abandoned, and even ridicule, the ab- iMatt. xvi. 13-19. 100 THE FAITH OF OUH FATHERS surdity of applying tlie word roch to anyone but to Peter; as tlie sentence can bear no other con- struction, unless our Lord's good grammar and common sense are called in question. Jesus, our Lord, founded but one Churcli, wliich He was pleased to build on Peter. Therefore, any church that does not recognize Peter as its founda- tion stone is not the Church of Christ, and there- fore cannot stand, for it is not the work of God. This is plain. Would to God that all would see it aright and with eyes free from prejudice. He continues: "And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, ' ' etc. In ancient times, and particularly among the Hebrew people, kej^s were an emblem of jurisdiction. To affirm that a man had received the keys of a city was equivalent to the assertion that he had been ap- pointed its governor. In the Book of Revelation our Savior says that He has "the keys of death and of hell,"* which means that He is endowed with power over death and hell. In fact, even to this day does not the presentation of keys convey among ourselves the idea of authority? If the proprietor of a hojise, on leaving it for the sum- mer, says to any friend: "Here are the keys of my house," would not this simple declaration, without a word of explanation, convey the idea, "I give JOM full control of my house; you may admit or exclude whom you please ; you represent me in my absence?" Let us now apply this inter- pretation to our Redeemer's words. When He says to Peter: "I will give to thee the keys," etc.. He evidently means: I will give the supreme au- thority over My Church, which is the citadel of faith. My earthly Jerusalem. Thou and thy suc- cessors shall be My visible representatives to the ^Rev. i. 18. THE PEIMACY OF PETER 101 end of time. And be it remembered that to Peter alone, and to no other Apostle, were these solemn words addressed. Fulfillment of the Promise. The promise which our Eedeemer made of creating Peter the supreme Ruler of His Church is fulfilled in the following passage: ''Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these ? He saith to Him: Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him: Feed My lambs. He saith to him again : Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? He saith to Him: Yea, Lord, Thou know'ist that I love Thee. He saith to him : Feed My Iambs. He saith to him the third time : Simon, son of John, lovest thou Mel Peter was grieved because He had said to him the third time : Lov- est thou Me ? And he said to Him : Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. He said to him : Feed My sheep. ' ' ^ These words were addressed by our Lord to Peter after His resurrection. The whole sheep- fold of Christ is confided to him, without any ex- ception or limitation. Peter has jurisdiction not only over the lambs — the weak and tender portion of the flock — by which are understood the faith- ful; but also over the sheep, i. e., the Pastors themselves, who hold the same relations to their congregations that the sheep hold to the lambs, because they bring forth unto Jesus Christ, and nourish the spiritual lambs of the fold. To other Pastors a certain portion of the flock is assigned ; to Peter the entire fold; for, never did Jesus say to any other Apostle or Bishop what He said to Peter: Feed My whole flock. Candid reader, do you not profess to be a mem- ber of Christ's flock? Yes, you answer. Do you *J©hii xxi. 15 -17. 102 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS take your spiritual food from Peter and his suc- cessor, and do you hear the voice of Peter, or have you wandered into the fold of strangers who spurn Peter 's voice ? Ponder well this momentous question. For if Peter is authorized to feed the lambs of Christ's flock, the lambs should hear Peter's voice. Exercise of the Primacy. In the Acts of the Apostles, which contain almost the only Scripture narrative that exists of the Apostles subsequent to our Lord's ascension, St. Peter appears before us, like Saul among the tribes, standing head and shoulders over his brethren by the prominent part he takes in every ministerial duty. The first twelve chapters of the Acts are de- voted to Peter and to some of the other Apostles, the remaining chapters being chiefly occupied with the labors of the Apostles of the Gentiles. In that brief historical fragment, as well as in the Gospels, the name of Peter is everywhere pre- eminent. Peter's name always stands first in the list of the Apostles, while Judas Iscariot is invariably mentioned last.^ Peter is even called by St. Matthew the first Apostle. Now Peter was first neither in age nor in priority of election, his elder brother Andrew having been chosen before him. The meaning, therefore, of the expression must be that Peter was first not only in rank and honor, but also in authority. Peter is the first Apostle who performed a mira- cle.2 He is the first to address the Jews in Jeru- salem while his Apostolic brethren stand respect- fully around him, upon which occasion he con- verts three thousand souls. ^ 'Matt. X. 2; Mark iii. 16; Luke vi. 14; Acts 1. 14. *Actsiii. 'Actsii. THE PEIMACY OF PETER 103 Peter is the first to make converts from the Gentile world in the persons of Cornelius and his friends.* "IVhen there is question of electing a successor to Judas Peter alone speaks. He points out to the Apostles and disciples the duty of choosing another to succeed the traitor. The Apostles si- ilently acquiesce in the instructions of their leader.- In the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem Peter is the first whose sentiments are recorded. Before his discourse ''there was much disputing." But when he had ceased to speak ''all the multitude held tkeii' peace. ' ' ^ St. James and the other Apostles concur in the sentiments of Peter without a single dissenting voice. St. James is cast into prison by Herod and af- terward beheaded. He was one of the three most favored Apostles. He was the cousin of our Lord and brother of St. John. He was most dear to the faithful. Yet no extraordinary efforts are made by the faithful to rescue him from death. Peter is imprisoned about the same time. The whole Church is aroused. Prayers for his de- liverance ascend to heaven, not only from Jersu- ■salem but also from every Christian family in the land.^ The army of the Lord can afford to lose a chief- tain in the person of James, but it cannot yet spai-e the commander-in-chief. The enemies of the Church had hoped that the destruction of the chief shepherd would involve the dispersion of the whole flock; therefore they redoubled their fury against the Prince of the Apostles, just as her modem enemies concentrate their shafts against *Acts X. »Arfs i. •Acts XV. *Acts xli. 104 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS the Pope, his successor. Does not this incident eloquently proclaim Peter's superior authority? In fact Peter figures so conspicuously in every page that his Primacy is not only admissible, but is forced on the judgment of the impartial reader. "What are the principal objections advanced against the Primacy of Peter? They are chiefly, I may say exclusively, confined to the three fol- lowing: First — That our Lord rebuked Peter. Second — That St. Paul criticised his conduct on a point not affecting doctrine, but discipline. The Apostle of the Gentiles blames St. Peter because he withdrew for a time from the society of the Gentile converts, for fear of scandalizing the newly-converted Jews. * Third — That the su- premacy of Peter conflicts with the supreme do- minion of Christ. For my part I cannot see how these objections can invalidate the claims of Peter. Was not Jesus Peter's superior? May not a superior rebuke his servant without infringing on the servant's pre- rogatives ? Ajid why could not St. Paul censure the conduct of St. Peter without questioning that superior's authority? It is not a very uncommon thing for ecclesiastics occupying an inferior position in the Church to admonish even the Pope. St. Bernard, though only a monk, wrote a work in which, with Apostolic freedom, he administers counsel to Pope Eugenius III., and cautions him against the dan- gers to whiok his eminent position exposes him. Yet no Man had more reverence for any Pope than Bernard had for this great Pontiff. Cannot our Governor animadvert upon the President's con- duct without impairing the President's jurisdic- tion? 'Gal. ii. 11. THE PRIMACY OF PETER 105 Nay, from this very circumstance, I draw a confirming evidence of Peter's supremacy. St. Paul mentions it as a fact worthy of record that he actually ivithstood Peter to his face. Do you think it would be worth recording if Paul had re- buked James or John or Barnabas ? By no means. If one brother rebukes another, the matter ex- cites no special attention. But if a son rebukes his father, or if a Priest rebukes his Bishop to his face, we understand why he would consider it a fact worth relating. Hence, when St. Paul goes to the trouble of telling us that he took exception to Peter's conduct, he mentions it as an ex- traordinary exercise of Apostolic freedom, and leaves on our mind the obvious inference that Peter was his superior. In the very same Epistle to the Galatians St. Paul plainly insinuates St. Peter's superior rank. "I went," he says, ''to Jerusalem to see Peter, and I tarried with him fifteen days."^ Saints Chrysostom and Ambrose tell ns that this was not an idle visit of ceremony, but that the object ©f St. Paul in making the journey was to testify his re- spect and honor for the chief of the Apostles. St. Jerome observes in a humorous vein that *'Paul went not to behold Peter's eyes, his cheeks or his countenance, whether he was thin or stout, with nose straight or twisted, covered with hair or bald, not to observe the outward man, hut to show honor to the first Apostle.'* There are others who pretend, in spite of our Lord's declaration to the contrary, that loyalty to Peter is disloyalty to Christ, and that,^ l^y ac- knowledging Peter as the rock on which the Church is built, we set our Savior aside. So far from this being the case, we acknowledge Jesus iGal. i. 18. 106 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHEKS Otrist as the "chief cornerstone/' as well as the Bivine Architect of the huilding. The true test of loyalty to Jesns is not only to worship Him, but to venerate even the rep- resentatives whom He has chosen. Will anyone pretend to say that my obedience to the Gover- nor's appointee is a mark of disrespect to the Gov- ei-nor himself? I think our State Executive would have little faith in the allegiance of any citizen who would say to him: "Governor, I honor you personally, but your official's order I shall disre- gard. ' ' St. Peter is called the first Bishop of Rome because he transferred his see from Antioch to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom with St. Paul. We are not surprised that modern skepticism, which rejects the Divinity of Christ and denies even the existence of God, should call in question the fact that St. Peter lived and died in Rome. The reason commonly alleged for disputing this well-attested event is that the Acts of the Apostles make no mention of Peter's labors and martyrdom in Rome. For the same reason we might deny that St. Paul was beheaded in Rome ; that St. John died in Ephesus, and that St. Andrew was cruci- fied. The Scripture is silent regarding these his- torical records, and yet they are denied by no one. The intrinsic evidence of St. Peter's first Epis- tle, the testimony of his immediate successors in the ministry, as well as the avowal of eminent Protestant commentators, '\11 concur in fixing the See of Peter in Rome. ** Babylon," from which Peter addresses his first Epistle, is understood by learned annotators, Protestant and Catholic, to refer to Rome — the word Babylon being symbolical of the corruption then prevailing in the city of the Caesars. THE TRIMACY OF PETER 307 Clement, tlie fourth Bishop of Rome, who is mentioned in terms of praise by St. Paul ; St. Igna- tius, Bishop of Antioch, who died in 105; Irenaeus, Origen, St. Jerome, Eusebius, the great historian, and other eminent writers testify to St. Peter's residence in Rome, while no ancient ecclesiastical writer has ever contradicted the statement. John Calvin, a witness above suspicion; Cave, an able Anglican critic; Grotius and other distin- guished Protestant writers, do not hesitate to re- echo the unanimous voice of Catholic tradition. Indeed, no historical fact will escape the shafts of incredulity, if St. Peter's residence and glorious martyrdom in Rome are called in question. CHAPTER X. THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPES. ^pHE Chureli did not die with Peter. It was L destined to continue till the end of time ; con- sequently, whatever official prerogatives were conferred on Peter were not to cease at his death, but were to be handed down to his successors from generation to generation. The Church is in all ages as much in need of a Supreme Ruler as it was in the days of the Apostles. Nay, more; as the Church is now more widely diffused than it was then, and is ruled by frailer men, it is more than ever in need of a central power to preserve its unity of faith and uniformity of discipline. Whatever privileges, therefore, were conferred on Peter which may be considered essential to the government of the Church are inherited by the Bishops of Rome, as successors of the Prince of the Apostles; just as the constitutional powers given to George Washington have devolved on the present incumbent of the Presidential chair. Peter, it is true, besides the prerogatives inher- ent in his office, possessed also the gift of inspira- tion and the power of working miracles. These two latter gifts are not claimed by the Pope, as they were personal to Peter and by no means es- sential to the government of the Church. God acts toward His Church as we deal with a tender sapling. When we first plant it we water it an^^ 108 THE SUPEEMACY OP THE POPES 109 soften the clay about its roots. But wlien it takes deep root we leave it to the care of Nature's laws. In like manner, when Christ first planted His Church He nourished its infancy by miraculous agency ; but when it grew to be a tree of fair pro^ portions He left it to be governed by the general laws of His Providence. From what I have said you can easily infer that the arguments in favor of Peter's Primacy have equal weight in demonstrating the supremacy of the Popes. As the present question, however, is a subject of vast importance, I shall endeavor to show, from incontestable historical evidence, that the Popes have always, from the days of the Apostles., con- tinued to exercise supreme jurisdiction not only in the Western Church till the Reformation, but also throughout the Eastern Church till the great schism of the ninth century. j^irst — Take the question of appeals. An appeal is never made from a superior to an inf erie-r court, nor even from one court to another of co-ordinate jurisdiction. We do not appeal from Washing- ton to Richmond, but from Richmond to Washing- ton. Now, if we find the See of Rome from the foundation of Christianity entertaining and decid- ing cases of appeal from the Oriental churches^ if we find that her decision was final and irrevoca- ble, we must conclude that the supremacy of Rom(» over all the churches is an imdeniable faet. Let me give you a few illustrations : To begin with Pope St. Clement, who was the third successor of St. Peter, and who is laudably mentioned by St. Paul in one of his Epistles.^ Some dissension and scandal having occurred in the church of C@rinth, the matter is brought to the notice of Pope Clement. He at once exercises his 110 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHEES supreme authority by writing letters of remon- strance and admonition to the Corinthians. And so great was the reverence entertained for these Epistles by the faithful of Corinth that, for a century later, it was customary to have them pub- licly read in their churches. Why did the Cor- inthians appeal to Rome, far away in the West, and not to Ephesus, so near home in the East, where the Apostle St. John still lived? Evidently because the jurisdiction of Ephesus was local, while that of Kome was universal. About the year 190 the question regarding the proper day for celebrating Easter was agitated in the East, and referred to Pope St. Victor I. The Eastern Church generally celebi'ated Easter on the day on which the Jews kept the Passover, while in the West it was observed then, as it is now, on the first Sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox. St. Victor directs the East- ern churches, for the sake of uniformity, to con- form to the practice of the West, and his instruc- tions are universally followed. St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, was martyred in 258. From his appeals to Pope St. Cornelius and to Pope St. Stephen, especially on the subject of bap- tism, from his writings and correspondence, as well as from the whole tenor of his administration, it is quite evident that Cyprian, as well as the African Episcopate, upheld the supremacy of the Bishop of Kome. Pionysius, Bishop of Rome, about the middle of the third century, having heard that the Patriarch of Alexandria erred on some points of faith, de- mands an explanation of the suspected Prelate, who, in obedience to his superior, promptly vindi' cates his own orthodoxy. THE SUPREMACY OP THE POPES 111 St. Athanasius, the great patriarch of Alexan- dria, appeals in the fourth century to Pope Julius I. fi^om an unjust decision rendered against him by the Oriental Bishops, and the Pope ^ reverses the sentence of the Eastern Council. St. Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea, In the same century has recourse in his afflictions to the pro- tection of Pope Damasus. St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constanti- nople, appeals in the beginning of the fifth century to Pope Innocent I. for a redress of grievances in- flicted on him by several Eastern Prelates, and by the Empress Eudoxia of Constantinople. St. Cyril appeals to Pope Celestine against Nes- torius; Nestorius, also, appeals to the same Pon- tiff, who takes the side of Cyril. In a Synod held in 444, St. Hilary, Archbishop of Aries, in Gaul, deposed Celidonius, Bishop of Bes» ancon, on the ground of an alleged canonical im- pediment to his consecration. The Bishop ap< pealed to the Holy See, and both he and the Metro- politan personally repaired to Rome, to submit their cause to the judgment of Pope Leo the Great. After a careful investigation, the Pontiff declared the sentence of the Synod invalid, revoked the cen- sure, and restored the deposed Prelate to his See. The same Pontiff also rebuked Hilary for having irregularly deposed Projectus from his See. The judicial authority of the Pope is emphasized from the circumstance that Hilary was not an ar- rogant or a rebellious churchman, but an edifying and a zealous Prelate. He is revered by the whole Church as a canonized Saint, and after his death, Leo refers to him a^ "^Tilary of happy memory, 1 Socrates* Ecclesiastical History. B, II., c. xv. 112 THE FAITH OE OUPt FATHERS Thedoret, the illustrious liistoriau and Bislioj. of Cyrrhus, is condemned by the pseudo-council of Ephesus in 449, and appeals to Pope Leo in the fol- lowing touching language: "I await the decision of your Apostolic See, and I supplicate your Holi- ness to succor me, who invoke your righteous and just tribunal; and to order me to hasten to you, and to explain to you my teaching, which follows the steps of the Apostles. ... I beseech you not to scorn my application. Do not slight my gray hairs. . . . Above all, I entreat you to teach me whether to put up with this unjust deposition or not; for I await your sentence. If you bid me rest in what has been determined against me, I will rest, and will trouble no man more. I will look for the righteous judgment of our God and Savior. To me, as Almighty God is my Judge, honor and glory are no object, but only the scan- dal that has been caused ; for many of the simpler sort, especially those whom I have rescued from diverse heresies, considering the See which has condemned me, suspect that perhaps T really am a heretic, being incapable themselves of distinguish- ing accuracy of doctrine.'** Leo declared the deposition invalid and Theoderet was restored to his See. John, Abbot of Constantinople, appeals from the decision of the Patriarch of that city to Pope St. Gregory L, who reverses the sentence of the Patriarch. In 859 Photius addressed a letter to Pope Nicholas I., asking the Pontiff to confirm his elec- tion to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In consequence of the Pope's conscientious refusal Photius broke off from the communion of the Catholic Church and became the author of the Greek schism. JEpist 113. THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPES 113 Here are a few examples taken at random from Cliurcli History. We see Prelates most eminent for their sanctity and learning occupying the high- est position in the Eastern Church, and conse- quently far removed from the local influences of Rome, appealing in every period of the early Church from the decisions of their own Bishops and their Councils to the supreme c^rbitration of the Holy See. If this does not constitute superior jurisdiction, I have yet to learn what superior au- thority means. Second — Christians of every denomination ad- mit the orthodoxy of the Fathers of the first five centuries of the Church. No one has ever called in question the faith of such men as Basil, Chry- sostom, Cyprian, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Leo. They were the acknowledged guardians of pure doctrine, and the living representatives ''of the faith once delivered to the Saints." They were to the Church in their generation what Peter and Paul and James were to the Church in its infancy. We instinctively consult them about the faith of those times; for, to whom shall we go for the Words of eternal life, if not to them? Now, the Fathers of the Church, with one voice, pay homage to the Bishops of Rome as their su- periors. The limited space I have allowed myself in this little volume will not permit me to give any extracts from their writings. The reader who may be unacquainted with the original language of the Fathers, or who has not their writings at hand, is referred to a work entitled, ''Faith of Catholics, ' ' where he will find, in an English trans ^ lation, copious extracts from their writings vindi • eating the Primacy of the Popes. Third — Ecwnenical Councils afford another elo- quent vindication of Papal supremacy. An Ecu- 114 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS menical or General Council is an assemblage of Prelates representing the whole Catholic Church. A General Council is to the Church what the Ex- ecutive and Legislative bodies in Washington are to the United States. Up to the present time nineteen Ecumenical Councils have been convened, including the Coun- cil of the Vatican. The last eleven were held in the West, and the first eight in the East, I shall pass over the Western Councils, as no one denies that they were subject to the authority of the Pope. I shall speak briefly of the important influence which the Holy See exercised in the eight Oriental Councils. The first General Council was held in Nicaea, in 325; the second, in Constantinople, 381; the third, in Ephesus, in 431; the fourth, in Chalee- don, in 451; the fifth, in Constantinople, in 553; the sixth in the same city, in 680; the seventh, in Nicsee,, in 787, and the eighth, in Constantinople, in 869. The Bishops of Rome convoked these assem- blages, or at least consented to their convocation; they presided by their legates over all of them, except the first and second Councils of Constan- tinople, and they confirmed all these eight by their authority. Before becoming a law the Acts of the Councils required the Pope's signature, just as our Congressional proceedings require the Presi- dent's signature before they acquire the force of law. Is not this a striking illustration of the Pri- macy ? The Pope convenes, rules and sanctions the Synods, not by courtesy, but by right. A digni- tary who calls an assembly together, who presides over its deliberations, whose signature is essen- THE SUPREMACY OP THE POPES 115 tial for confirming its Acts has surely a higher authority than the other members. Fourth — I shall refer to one more historical point in support of the Pope's jurisdiction over the whole Church. It is a most remarkable fact that every nation hitherto converted from Pagan- ism to Christianity since the days of the Apostles, has received the light of faith from missionaries who were either especially commissioned hy the See of Rome, or sent hy Bishops in open commu- nion with that See. This historical fact admits of no exception. Let me particularize. Ireland's Apostle is St. Patrick. Who commis- sioned him? Pope St. Celestine, in the fifth cen- tury. St. Palladius is the Apostle of Scotland. Who sent him? The same Pontiff, Celestine. The Anglo-Saxons received the faith from St. Augustine, a Benedictine monk, as all historians, Catholic and non-Catholic, testify. Who empow- ered Augustine to preach? Pope Gregory I., at the end of the sixth century. St. Remigius established the faith in France, at the close of the fifth century. He was in active communion with the See of Peter. Flanders received the Gospel in the seventh cen- tury from St. Eligius, who acknowledged the su- premacy of the reigning Pope. Germany and Bavaria venerate as their Apostle St. Boniface, who is popularly known in his native England by his baptismal name of Winfrid. He was commissioned by Pope Gregory II., in the be- ginning of the eighth century, and was consecrated Bishop by the same Pontiff. In the ninth century two saintly brothers, Cyril and Methodius, evangelized Russia, Selavonia, Moravia and other parts of Northern* Europe. Iia THE FAITH OF OUR FxVTHERS They recognized the supreme authority of Pope Nicholas I. and of his successors, Adrian II. and John VIII. In the eleventh century Norway was converted by missionaries introduced from England by the Norweigian King, St. Olave. The conversion of Sweden was consummated in the same century by the British Apostles Saints IJlfrid and Eski'll. "^Both of these nations imme- diately after their conversion commenced to pay Romescot, or a small annual tribute to the Holy See — a clear evidence that they were in commu- nion with the Chair of Peter.^ All the other nations of Europe, having been converted before the Eeformation, received like- wise the light of faith from Roman Catholic Mis- sionaries, because Europe then recognized only one Christian Chief. Passing from Europe to Asia and America, it is undeniable that St. Francis Xavier and the other Evangelists who, in the sixteenth century, ex- tended the Kingdom of Jesus Christ through India and Japan, were in communion with the Holy See; and that those Apostles who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, converted the aboriginal tribes of South America and Mexico re- ceived their commission from the Chair of Peter. But you will say: The people of the United States profess to be a Christian nation. Do you also claim them? Most certainly; for, even those American Christians who are unhappily severed from the Catholic Church are primarily indebted for their knowledge of the Gospel to missionaries in communion with the Holy See. The white races of North America are descended from England, Ireland, Scotland and the nations 1 See Butler's Lives of the Saints— St. Olave, July 29th. THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPES 117 of Continental Europe. Those European nations having been converted by missionaries in subjec- tion to the Holy See, it follows that, from what- ever part of Europe you are descended, whatever may be your particular creed, you are indebted to the Church of Rome for your knowledge of Christianity. Do not these facts demonstrate the Primacy of the Pope? The Apostles of Europe and of other countries received their authority from Rome. Is not the power that sends an ambassador greater than he who is sent? Thus we see that the name of the Pope is in- delibly marked on every page of ecclesiastical his- tory. The Sovereign Pontiff ever stands before us as commander-in-chief in the grand army of the Church. Do the bishops of the East feel them- selves aggrieved at home by their Patriarchs or civil Rulers? They look for redress to Rome, as to the star of their hope. Are the Fathers and Doctors of the early Church consulted? With one voice they all pay homage to the Bishop of Rome as to their spiritual Prince. Is an Ecumeni- cal Council to be convened in the East or West? The Pope is its leading spirit. Are new nations to be converted to the faith? There is the Holy Father clothing the missionaries with authority, and giving his blessing to the work. Are new er- rors to be condemned in any part of the globe? All eyes turn toward the oracle of Rome to await Ms anathema, and his solemn judgment reverber- ates throughout the length and breath of the Chris- tian world. "You might as well shut out the light of day and the air of heaven from your daily walks as exclude the Po]:»e from, his legitimate sphere in the hierarchy of the Church. - The history of the 118 THE PAITH OF OUR PATHERS United States with the Presidents left out would be more intelligible than the history of the Church to the exclusion of the Vicar of Christ. How, I ask, could such authority endure so long if it were a usurpation 1 But you will tell me: *'The supremacy of the Pope has been disputed in many ages." So has the authority of God been called in question — nay, His very existence has been denied; for, *Hhe fool hath said in his heart there is no God."^ Does this denial destroy the existence and dominion of God? Has not parental authority been impugned from the beginning? But by whom? By unruly children. Was David no longer king because Ab- salom said so? It is thus also with the Popes. Their parental sway has been opposed only by their undutiful sons who grew impatient of the Gospel yoke. Photius, the leader of the Greek schism, was an obedient son of the Pope until Nicholas refused to recognize his usurped authority. Henry VIII. was a stout defender of the Pope 's supremacy un- til Clement VII. refused to legalize his adultery. Luther professed a most abject submission to the Pope till Leo X. condemned him. You cannot, my dear reader, be a loyal citizen of the United States while you deny the constitu- tional authority of the President. You have seen that the Bishop of Rome is appointed not by man, but by Jesus Christ, President of the Chrisjfeian commonwealth. You cannot, therefore, be a true citizen of the Republic of the Church so long as you spurn the legitimate supremacy of its Di- vinely constituted Chief. ''He that is not with Me is against Me," says our Lord, ''and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth." How can you IPs, 111. THE SUPREMACY OF TKE POPES 119 be with Christ if you are against His Vicar? The great evil of our times is the unhappy di- vision existing among the professors of Christian- ity, and from thousands of hearts a yearning cry goes forth for unity of faith and union of churches. It was, no doubt, with this laudable view that the Evangelical Alliance assembled in New York in the fall of 1873. The representatives of the different religious communions hoped to effect a reunion. But they signally and lamentably failed. Indeed, the only result which followed from the alliance was the creation of a new sect under the auspices of Dr. Cummins. That reverend gentle- man, with the characteristic modesty of all re- ligious reformers, was determined to have a hand in improving the work of Jesus Christ; and, like the other reformers, he said, with those who built the tower of Babel: "Let us make our name famous before"^ our dust is scattered to the wind. The Alliance failed, because its members had no common platform to stand on. There was no voice in that assembly that could say with authority: "Thus saith the Lord." I heartily join in this prayer for Christian unity, and gladly would surrender my life for such a consummation. But I tell you that Jesus Christ has pointed out the only means by which this unity can be maintained, viz: the recognition of Peter and his successors as the Head of the Church. Build upon this foundation and you will not erect a tower of Babel, nor build upon sand. If all Christian sects were united with the centre of unity, then the scattered hosts of Christendom would form an army which atheism and infidelity could not long withstand. Then, indeed, all could exclaim with Balaam: "How beautiful are thy iGen. xi. 4. 120 THE PAITH OF OUR FATHERS tabernacles, Jacob, and thy tents, Israel!"^ Let us pray that the day may be hastened when religions dissensions will cease; when all Chris- tians will advance with united front, under one common leader, to plant the cross in every region and win new kingdoms to Jesus Christ. Numb. xxiv. S. CHAPTER XI. INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPES. AS the doctrine of Papal Infallibilitj is strangely misapprehended by our sepa- rated brethren, because it is grievously misrepresented by those who profess to be er lightened ministers of the Gospel, I shall begin by stating what Infallibility does not mean, and shall then explain what it really is. First— The infallibility of the Popes does not signify that they are inspired. The Apostles were endowed with the gift of inspiration, and we ac- cept their writings as the revealed Word of God. No Catholic, on the contrary, claims that the Pope is inspired or endowed with Divine revela- tion properly so called. ''For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter in order that they might spread abroad new doctrine which He reveals, but that, under His assistance, they might guard in- violably, and with fidelity explain, the revelation or deposit of faith handed down by the Apos- tles." ^ Second— Infallibility does not mean that the Pope is impeccable or specially exempt from lia- bility to sin. The Popes have been, indeed, with few exceptions, men of virtuous lives. Many of them are honored as martyrs. Seventy-nine out * Cone. Vat. Const. Paster JEternus, c. 4. 121 158 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS of the two hundred and fifty-nine that sat on thd chair of Peter are invoked upon our altars as saints eminent for their holiness. The avowed enemies of the Church charge only five or six Popes with immorality. Thus, ever admitting the truth of the accusations brought against them, we have forty-three virtuous to one bad Pope, while there was a Judas Iscariot among the twelve Apostles. But although a vast majority of the Sovereign Pontiffs should have been so unfortunate as to lead vicious lives, this circumstance would not of itself impair the validity of their prerogatives, which are given not for the preservation of their morals, but for the guidance of their judgment; for, there was a Balaam among the Prophets, and a Caiphas among the High Priests of the Old Law. The present illustrious Pontiff is a man of no ordinary sanctity. He has already filled the high- est position in the Church for upwards of thirty years, "a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men," and no man can point out a stain upon his moral character. And yet Pius IX., like his predecessors, con- fesses his sins every week. Each morning, at the beginning of Mass, he says at the foot of the altar, ''I confess to Almighty God, and to His Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed." And at the Offertory of the Mass he says: *' Receive, Holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, this oblation which I, Thy un- worthy servant, offer for my innumerable sins, offences and negligences." With these facts before their eyes, I cannot comprehend how ministers of the Gospel betray %o much ignorance, or are guilty of so much malice, INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPES 123 as to proclaim from their pulpits, wliicli onglit to be consecrated to truth, that Infallibility means exemption from sin. I do not see how they can benefit their cause by so flagrant perversions of truth. Third — Bear in mind, also, that this Divine as- sistance is guaranteed to the Pope not in his ca- pacity as private teacher, but only in his official capacity, when he judges of faith and morals as Head of the Church. If a Pope, for instan<^e, like Benedict XIV. were to write a treatise on Oanoa Law his book would be as much open to criticism as that of any Doctor of the Church. Fourth — Finally, the inerrability of the Popes, being restricted to questions of faith and morals, does not extend to the natural sciences, such as astronomy or geology, unless where error is pre- sented under the false name of science, and ar- rays itself against revealed truth. ^ It does not, therefore, concern itself about the nature and mo- tions of the planets. Nor does it regard purely political questions, such as the form of govern- ment a nation ought to adopt, or for what can- didates we ought to vote. The Pope's Infallibility, therefore, does not in any way trespass on civil authority; for the Pope's jurisdiction belongs to spiritual matters, while the duty of the State is to provide for the temporal welfare of its subjects. What, then, is the real doctrine of Infallibility? It simply means that the Pope, as successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, by virtue of the promises of Jesus Christ, is preserved from error of judgment when he promulgates to the Church a decision on faith or morals. The Pope, therefore, be it known, is not the * Cone. Vat. Const. Dei Films, cap. 4 ; Coloss. ii. 8. 124 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS maker of the Divine law ; he is only its exponnder. He is not the author of revelation, but only its in- terpreter. All revelation came from God alone through His inspired ministers, and it was com- plete in the beginning of the Church. The Holy Father has no more authority than you or T to break one iota of the Scripture, and he is equally with us the servant of the Divine law. In a word, the Sovereign Pontiff is to the Church, though in a more eminent degree, what the Supreme Court is to the United States. "We have an instrument called the Constitution of the United States, which is the charter of our civil rights and liberties. K a controversy arise regard- ing a constitutional clause, the question is referred in the last resort, to the Supreme Court at Wash- ington. The Chief Justice, with his associate judges, examines into the case and then pronounces judgment upon it; and this decision is final, irre- vocable and practically infallible. If there were no such court to settle constitu- tional questions, the Constitution itself would soon become a dead letter. Every litigant would con- scientiously decide the dispute in his own favor and anarchy, separation and civil war would soon follow. But by means of this Supreme Court dis- putes are ended, and the political union of the States is perpetuated. There would have been no civil war in 1861 had our domestic quarrel been submitted to the legitimate action of our highest court of judicature, instead of being left to the arbitrament of the sword. The revealed Word of God is the constitution of the Church. This is the Magna Cliarta of our Christian liberties. The Pope is the official guar- IN"FALLTBILITY OF TTTE POPES 125 dlan of our religious constitution, as the Chief Justice is the guardian of our civil constitution. When a dispute arises in the Church regarding the sense of Scripture the subject is referred to the Pope for final adjudication. The Sovereign Pontiff, before deciding the case, gathers around him his venerable colleagues, the Cardinals of the Church; or he calls a council of his associate judges of faith, the Bishops of Christendom ; or he iias recourse to other lights which the Holy Ghost may suggest to him. Then, after mature and prayerful deliberation, he pronounces judgment and his sentence is final, irrevocable and infallible. If the Catholic Church were not fortified by this Divinely-established supreme tribunal, she would be broken up, like the sects around her, into a thousand fragments and religious anarchy would soon follow. But by means of this infallible court her marvellous unity is preserved throughout the world. This doctrine is the keystone in the arch of Catholic faith, and, far from arousing opposi- tion, it ought to command the unqualified admira- tion of every reflecting mind. These explanations being premised, let us now briefly consider the grounds of the doctrine itself. The following passages of the Gospel, spoken at different times, were addressed exclusively to Peter: "Thou art Peter; and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall^ not prevail agamst it." ^ ''I, the Supreme Architect of the universe," says our Savior, ''will establish a Church which is to last till the end of time. I will lay the foimdation of this Church so deep and strong on the rock of truth that the winds and storms of error shall not prevail against it. Thou, Peter, shalt be the foimdation of this I Matt. xvi. 126 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Church. It shall never fall, because thou shalt never be shaken ; and thou shalt never be shaken, because thou shalt rest on Me, the rock of truth.'* The Church, of which Peter is the foundation, is declared to be impregnable — that is, proof against error. How can you suppose an immovable edi- fice built on a tottering foundation? For it is not the building that sustains the foundation, but it is the foundation that supports the building. "And I will give to thee the keys of the King- dom of Heaven." ^ Thou shalt hold the keys of truth with which to open to the faithful the treas- ures of heavenly science. ' ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven. ' ' ^ The judgment which thou shalt pronounce on earth I will ratify in heaven. Surely the God of Truth is incapable of sanctioning an untruthful judg- ment. "Behold, Satan hath desired to have you (My Apostles), that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee (Peter) that thy faith fail not; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren."^ It is worthy of note that Jesus prays only for Peter. And why for Peter in par- ticular? Because on his shoulders was to rest the burden of the Church. Our Lord prays for two things: First — That the faith of Peter and of his successors might not fail. Second — That Peter would confirm his brethren in the faith, ' ' m order," as St. Leo says, "that the strength given by Christ to Peter should descend on the Apos- tles." We know that the prayer of Jesus is always heard. Therefore the faith of Peter will always be firm. He was destined to be the oracle which all were to consult. Hence we always find him the 1 ilntt. xvi. 2 Ibid, 3 Luke sxU. 31, 32. IXFALLTBILTTY OF THE POPES 127 prominent figure among the Apostles, the first to speak, the first to act on every occasion. He was to be the guiding star that was to lead the rest of the faithful in the path of truth. He was to be in the hierarchy of the Church what the sun is in the planetary system — the centre around which all would revolve. And is it not a beautiful spectacle, in harmony with our ideas of God's providence, to behold in His Church a counterpart of the starry system above us? There every planet moves in obedience to a uniform law, all are regulated by one great luminary. So, in the spiritual order, we see every member of the Church governed by one law, controlled by one voice, and that voice subject to God. * ' Feed My lambs ; feed My sheep. ' ' ^ Peter is appointed by our Lord the universal shepherd of His flock — of the sheep and of the lambs — that is, shepherd of the Bishops and Priests as well as of the people. The Bishops are shepherds, in reference to their flocks ; they are sheep, in refer- ence to the Pope, who is the shepherd of shep- herds. The Pope, as shepherd, must feed the flock not with the jDoison of error, but with the healthy food of sound doctrine; for he is not a shepherd, but a hireling, who administers pernicious food to his flock. Among the General Councils of the Church al- ready held I shall mention only three, as the acts of these Councils are amply sufficient to vindicate the unerring character of the See of Kome and the Eoman Pontiffs. I wish also to call your attention to three facts: First — That none of these Councils were held in Rome,; Second — That one of them assembled in the East, viz: in Con- stantinople; and, Third — That in every one of *Jobn sxi. 16, 17, 1.3R THE FAITH OF OTTR FATHERS them the Oriental and the Western Bishops met for the purpose of reunion. The Eighth General Council, held in Constanti- nople in 869, contains the following solemn pro- fession of faith: ''Salvation primarily depends upon guarding the rule of right faith. And since we cannot pass over the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says, 'Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will buiid My Church,' what was said is confirmed by facts, because in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved immaculate, and holy doctrine has been pro- claimed. Not wishing, then, to be separated from this faith and doctrine, we hope to merit to be in the one communion which the Apostolic ^ See preaches, in which See is the full and true solidity of the Christian religion." This Council clearly declares that immaculate doctrine has always been preserved and preached in the Roman See. But how could this be said of her, if the Eoman See ever fell into error, and how could that See be preserved from error, if the Roman Pontiffs presiding over it ever erred in faith? In the Second General Council of Lyons (1274), the Greek Bishops made the following profession of faith: "The holy Eoman Church possesses full primacy and principality over the universal Cath- olic Church, which primacy, with the plenitude of power, she truly and humbly acknowledges to have received from our Lord Himself, in the per- son of Blessed Peter, Prince or Head of the Apos- tles, whose successor the Roman Pontiff is; and as the Eoman See, above all others, is boimd to defend the truth of faith, so, also, if any ques- tions on faith arise, they ought to he defined hy her judgment," INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPES 129 Here the Council of Lyons avows that the Ro- man Pontiffs have the power to determine defi- nitely, and without appeal, any questions of faith which may arise in the Church; in other words, the Council acknowledges them to be the supreme and infallible arbiters of faith. ''We define," says the Council of Florence (1439), at which also were present the Bishops of the Greek and the Latin Church, "we define that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and the true Vicar of Christ, the Head of the whole Church, the Father and Doctor of all Christians, and we declare that to him, in the person of Blessed Peter, was given, by Jesus Christ our Savior, full power to feed, rule and govern the universal Church. ' ' The Pope is here called the trtie Vicar or repre- sentative of Christ in this lower kingdom of His Church militant — that is, the Pope is the organ of our Savior, and speaks His sentiments in faith and morals. But if the Pope erred in faith and morals he would no longer be Christ's Vicar and true representative. Our minister in England, for instance, would not truly represent our Govern- ment if he was not the organ of its sentiments. The Reman Pontiff is called the Head of the whole Church — that is, the visible Head. Now the Church, which is the Body of Christ, is infallible. It is, as St. Paul sa^^s, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." But how can you suppose an infallible body with a fallible head? How can an erring head conduct a body in the unerring ways of truth and justice? He is declared by the same Council to be the Father and Doctor of all Christians. How can you expect an unerring family under an erring 130 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Father ? The Pope is called the universal teacher or doctor. Teacher of what? Of truth, not of error. Error is to the mind what poison is to the body. You do not call poison food; neither can you call error doctrine. The Pope, as universal teacher, must always give to the faithful not the poisonous food of error, but the sound aliment of pure doctrine. In fine, the Pope is also styled the Chief Pilot of the Church. It was not without a mysterious significance that our Lord entered Peter's bark instead of that of any of the other Apostles. This bark, our Lord has pledged Himself, shall never sink nor depart from her true course. How can you imagine a stormproof, never-varying bark un- der the charge of a fallible Pilot? But did not the Vatican Council in promulgating the definition of Papal Infallibility in 1870, create a new doctrine of revelation! And did not the Church thereby forfeit her glorious distinction of being always unchangeable in her teaching? The Council did not create a new creed, but rather confirmed the old one. It formulated into an article of faith a truth which in every age had been accepted by the Catholic world because it had been implicitly contained in the deposit of revela- tion. I may illustrate this point by referring again to our Supreme Court. When the Chief Justice, with his colleagues, decides a constitutional question his decision, though presented in a new shape, can- not be called a new doctrine, because it is based on the letter and spirit of the Constitution. In like manner, when the Church issues a new dogma of faith, that decree is nothing more than a new form of expressing an old doctrine, because the decision must be drawn from the revealed Word of God. IXFALLIBTLITY OF THE POPES IDl Tlie course pursued by the Churcli, regarding tlie infallibility of tlie Pope was practiced by lier in reference to tlie Divinity of Jesus Christ. Our Savior was acknowledged to be God from the be- ginning of the Church. Yet His Divinity was not formally defined till the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century, and it would not have been defined even then had it not been denied by Arius. And who will have the presumption to say that the be- lief in the Divinity of our Lord had its origin in the fourth century? The following has always been the practice pre- vailing in the Church of God from the beginning of her history. Whenever Bishops or National Councils promulgated doctrines or condemned er- rors they always transmitted their decrees to Rome for confirmation or rejection. What Rome approved, the universal Church approved; what Rome condemned, the Church condemned. Thus, in the third century, Pope St. Stephen reverses the decision of St. Cyprian, of Carthage, and of a council of African bishops regarding a question of baptism. Pope St. Innocent I., in the fifth century, con- demns the Pelagian heresy, in reference to which St. Augustine wrote this memorable sentence: "The acts of two councils were sent to the Apos- tolic See, whence an answer was returned. The question is ended. Would to God that the error also had ceased." In the fourteenth century Gregory XI. con- demns the heresy of Wycliffe. Pope Leo X., in the sixteenth, anathematizes Luther. Innocent X., in the seventeenth, at the solicita- tion of the French Episcopate, condemns the sub- tle errors of the Jansenists, and in the nineteenth 1.32 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS century Pins IX. promulgates the doctrine of tlie Immaculate Conception. Here we find the Popes in various ages con- demning heresies and proclaiming doctrines of faith; and they could not in a stronger manner assert their infallibility than by so defining doc- trines of faith and condemning errors. We also behold the Church of Christendom ever saying Amen to the decisions of the Bishops of Rome. Hence it is evident that, in every age, the Church recognized the Popes as infallible teachers. Every independent government must have a su- preme tribunal regularly sitting to interpret its laws, and to decide cases of controversy likely to arise. Thus we have in Washington the Supreme Court of the United States. Now the Catholic Church is a complete and in- dependent organization, as complete in its spirit- ual sphere as the United States Government is in the temporal order. The Church has its own laws, its own autonomy and government. The Church, therefore, like civil powers, must have a permanent and stationary supreme tribunal to interpret its laws and to determine cases of religious controversy. What constitutes this permanent supreme court of the Church? Does it consist of the Bishops assembled in General Council? No; because this is not an ordinary but an extraordinary tribun-al which meets, on an average, only once in a hun- dred years. Is it composed of the Bishops scattered through- out the world? By no means, because it would be impracticable to consult all the Bishops of Chris- tendom upon every issue that might arise in the Church. The poison of error would easily spread through the body of the Church before a decision INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPES 133 could be rendered by the Prelates dispersed throughout the globe. The Pope, then, as Head of the Catholic Church, constitutes, with just rea- son, this supreme tribunal. And as the office of the Church Is to guide men into all truth, and to preserve them from all error, it follows that he who is appointed to watch over the constitution of the Church must be infallible, or exempt from error in his official capacity as judge of faith and morals. The prerogatives of the Pope must be commensurate with the nature of the constitution which he has to uphold. The constitution is Divine and must have a Divinely protected interpreter. But you will tell me that infallibility is too great a prerogative to be conferred on man. I answer: Has not God, in former times, clothed His Apostles with powers far more exalted ? They were endowed with the gifts of working miracles, of prophecy and inspiration; they were the mouth- piece communicating God's revelation, of which the Popes are merely the custodians. If God could make man the organ of His revealed Word, is it impossible for Him to make man its infallible guar- dian and interpreter! For, surely, greater is the Apostle who gives us the inspired Word than the Pope who preserves it from error. If, indeed, our Saviour had visibly remained among us, no interpreter would be needed, since He would explain His Gospel to us; but as He with- drew His visible presence from us, it was eminent- ly reasonable that He should designate someone to expound for us the meaning of His Word. A Protestant Bishop, in the course of a sermon against Papal Infallibility, recently used the fol- lowing language: ''For my part. I have an in- 134 THE FAITH OF OUE FATHERS fallible Bible, and this is the only infallibility that I require." This assertion, though plausible at first sight, cannot for a moment stand the test of sound criticism. Let us see, sir, whether an infallible Bible is sufficient for you. Either you are infallibly cer- tain that your interpretation of the Bible is cor- rect or you are not. If you are infallibly certain, then you assert for yourself, and of course for every reader of the Scripture, a personal infallibility which you deny to the Pope, and which we claim only for him. You make every man his own Pope. If you are not infallibly certain that you under- stand the true meaning of the whole Bible — and this is a privilege you do not claim — then, I ask, of what use to you is the objective infallibility of the Bible without an infallible interpreter! If God, as you assert, has left no infallible in- terpreter of His Word, do you not virtually accuse Him of acting unreasonably? for would it not be most unreasonable in Him to have revealed His truth to man without leaving him a means of as- certaining its precise import? Do you not reduce God's word to a bundle of contradictions, like the leaves of the Sybil, which gave forth answers suited to the wishes of every inquirer ? Of the hundred and more Christian sects now existing in this country, does not each take the Bible as its standard of authority, and does not each member draw from it a meaning different from that of his neighbor? Now, in the mind of God the Scriptures can have but one meaning. Is not this variety of interpretations the bitter fruit of your principle: ''An infallible Bible is enough for me," and does it not proclaim the absolute INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPES 135 necessity of some authorized and unerring inter- preter? You tell me to drink of the water of life; but of what use is this water to my parched lips, since you acknowledge that it may be poisoned in passing through the medium of your interpreta- tion* How satisfactory, on the contrary, and how rea- sonable is the Catholic teaching on this subject ! According to that system, Christ says to every Christian: Here, my child, is the Word of God, and with it I leave you an infallible interpreter, who will expound for you its hidden meaning and make clear all its difficulties. Here are the waters of eternal life, but I have created a channel that will communicate these waters to you in all their sweetness without sedi- ment of error. Here is the written Constitution of My Church. But I have appointed over it a Supreme Tribunal, in the person of one "to whom I have given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," who will pre- serve that Constitution inviolate, and will not per- mit it to be torn into shreds by the conflicting opinions of men. And thus my children will be one, as I and the Father are one. CHAPTER XII. TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES— HOW THEY ACQUIRED TEMPORAL POWER— VALIDITY AND JUSTICE OF THEIR TITLE— WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE FOR ROME. I. HOW THE POPES ACQUIRED TEMPORAL POWER. OR the clearer understanding of the origin and the gradual growth of the Temporal Power of the Popes, we may divide the history of tho Church into three great epochs. The first embraces the period which elapsed from the establishment of the Church to the days of Constantine the Great, in the fourth century; the second, from Constantine to Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor in the year 800; the third, from Charlemagne to the present time. When St. Peter, the first Pope in the long, un- broken line of Sovereign Pontiffs, entered Italy and Rome he did not possess a foot of ground which he could call his own. He could say with his Divine Master: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man hath not whereon to lay his head." ^ The Apos- tle died as he had lived, a poor man, having noth- ing at his death save the affections of a grateful people. » Matt. viii. 20. 136 TEMPORAL POWER OP TTTE POPES 137 But, altliongh the Prince of the Apostles owned nothing that he could call his personal property, he received from the faithful large donations to be distributed among the needy. For in the Acts of the Apostles we are told that ''neither was any- one among them (the faithful) needy; for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things which they sold and laid them before the feet of the Apostles, and distribution was made to everyone according as he had need." ^ Such was the filial attaclunent of the early Christians towards the Pontiffs of the Church ; such was the confidence reposed in their personal integrity, and in their discretion in dis- pensing the charity of the faithful. During the first three hundred years the Pas- tors of the Church were generally incapable of holding real estate in Rome ; for Christianity was yet a proscribed religion, and the faithful were exposed to the most violent and unrelenting per- secutions that have ever darkened the annals of history. The Christians of Rome worshiped for the most part in the catacombs. These catacombs are subterranean chambers and passages under the city of Rome. They extend for miles in diiferent directions, and are visited to this day by thou- sands of strangers. Here the primitive Christians prayed together, here they encouraged one an- other to martyrdom, here they died and were buried; so that these caverns served at the same time as temples of worship for the living and as tombs for the dead. At last Constantine the Great brought peace to the Church. The long night of Pagan persecution was succeeded by the bright dawn of religious lib- 1 Acts iv. 34, 35. 138 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS erty, and as our Blessed Savior rose triumphant from the grave, after having lain there for three days, so did our early brethren in the faith emerge from the tombs of the catacombs, after havingbeen buried, as it were, in the bowels of the earth for three centuries. Constantino gave to the Eoman Church munifi- cent donations of money and real estate, which were augmented by additional grants contributed by subsequent emperors. Hence the patrimony of the Eoman Pontiffs soon became very consider- able. Voltaire himself tells us that the wealth which the Popes acquired was spent not in satis- fying their own avarice and ambition, but in the most laudable works of charity and religion. They expended their patrimony, he says, in sending mis- sionaries to evangelize Pagan Europe, in giving hospitality to exiled Bishops at Rome and in feed- ing the poor. And I may here add that succeed- ing Popes have generously imitated the munifi- cence of the early Pontiffs. An event occurred in the reign of Constantino which paved the way for the partial jurisdiction which the Roman Pontiffs commenced to enjoy over Rome, and which they continued to exercise till they obtained full sovereignty in the days of King Pepin of France. In the year 327 the Emperor Constantino trans- ferred the seat of empire from Rome to Constanti- nople, the present capital of Turkey. The city was named after Constantino, who founded it. A subsequent emperor appointed a governor, or exarch, to rule Italy, who resided in the city of Ravenna. This new system, as is manifest, did not work well. The Emperor of Constantinople referred all matters to his deputy in Ravenna, and the deputy was more anxious to conciliate the TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES 139 Emperor than to satisfy the people of Rome. Italy and Rome were tlien in a political condition analogous to that in which the Irish were placed for several centuries. Abandoned to itself, Rome became a tempting prey to those numerous hordes of Barbarians from the North that then devastated Italy. The city was successively attacked by the Goths under Alaric, and by the Vandals under Genseric, and was threatened by the Huns under Attila. Unable to obtain assistance from the Emperor^ in the East, or the Governor at Ravenna, the citizens of Rome looked up to the Popes as their only Gov- ernors and protectors, and their only salvation in the dangers which threatened them. The confi- dence which they reposed in the Pontiffs was not misplaced. The Popes were not only devoted spiritual Fathers, but firm and valiant civil Gov- ernors. When Attila, who was surnamed *'the Scourge of God," approached the city with an army of 500,000 men, Pope Leo the Great went out to meet him unattended by troops. His mild elo- quence disarmed the indomitable chieftain and in- duced him to retrace his steps. Thus he saved the city from pillage and the people from destruc- tion. The same Pope Leo also confronted Gense- ric, the leader of the Vandals; and although he could not this time protect Rome from the plunder of the soldiers he saved the lives of the citizens from slaughter. Such acts as these were naturally calculated to bind the Roman people more strongly to the Popes and to alienate them from their nominal rulers. In the early part of the eighth century Leo Isauricus, one of the successors of Constantine on the imperial throne, not content with his civil au- thority, endeavored, like Henry VIH., to usurp 140 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS spiritual jurisdiction, aud, like the same English monarch, sought to rob the people of their time- honored sacred traditions. A civil ruler dabbling in religion is as reprehensible as a clergyman dab- bling in politics. Both render themselves odious as well as ridiculous. The Emperor commanded all paintings of our Savior and His saints to be re- moved from the churches on the assumption that such an exhibition was an act of idolatry. Pope Gregory II. wrote to the Emperor an energetic remonstrance, reminding him that "dogmas of faith are to be interpreted by the Pontiffs of the Church and not by emperors," and begging him to spare the sacred paintings. But the Pope's remonstrance and entreaties were in vain. This conduct of the Emperor tended to widen still more the breach between himself and the Eoman people. Soon after an event occurred which abolished forever the authority of the Byzantine Emperors in Italy, and established on a sure and lasting basis the temporal sovereignty of the Popes. In 754 Astolphus, King of the Lombards, in- vaded Italy, captured some Italian cities and threatened to advance on Eome. Pope Stephen IIL,^ who then ruled the Church, sent an urgent appeal to the Emperor Constantino Copronymus, successor of Leo the Isaurian, im- ploring him to come to the relief of Eome and his Italian provinces. The Emperor manifested his usual apathy and indifference and received the message with coldness and neglect. In this emergency Stephen, who sees that no time is to be lost, crosses the Alps in person, ajj- 1 Sometimes callerl Stephen II., as Stephen, his predecessor, die