(&mu\\ Uttteti^itg pihatg THE GIFT OF '\Orirt-'yt>^f^l(r^.'>^ f\.\%%^%-l.. !t(M'\^ »»«.. Cornell University Ubrary BX946 .C23 1885 ^^■ii!iMjiM!miiiiiir?in..S,?^^""^' 3nd exclusive olln 3 1924 029 384 884 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029384884 7 S^f »B 7/ Cornell Catholic Union Library. "CATHOLIC:" An Essential and Exclusive Attribute or THE True Church, BY Right Revd. Monsignor CAPEL, D. D. THIRD EDITION. NEW YORK : Wilcox & 0'Donnei.l Co., Pubushees, 131 William St. D. & J. Sadlieb & Co., ai Barclay St. 1884. PRICE, 80 CENTS. BY THE SAME AUTHOR: Confession and Absolution. 2cl Edition. The Pope : To which is added the Propaganda Question. In preparation. Cornell CathoUc Union Library. ^'CATHOLIC:" An Essential and Exclusive Attribute of THE True Church. BY Right Revd. Monsignor CAPEL, D. D. Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, Leo XIII., happily reigning, Member of the Roman Congregation of the Segnatura, Priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster. * Christianus mihi nomen est; Catholicus vero cognomen." s. Pooien, A. D. 373. NEW YORK : Wilcox Sl O'Donnell Co., Publishers, 131 William St. * D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 31 Barclay St. 1884. Copyright, D. & J. Sadlier, 1884. TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CONVENTION, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA IN THE YEAR OF GRACE 1 883, AND TO THOSE WHOM THEY REPRESENTED, IS THIS LITTLE WORK DEDICATED BY THEIR SERVANT IN XT, THE AUTHOR. CHRISTIANUS MIHI NOMEN EST; CATHOLICUS VERO COGNOMEN < ILLUD ME NUNCUPAT, ISTUD OSTENDIT; HOC PROBOR, INDE SIGNIFICOR.* * St. Pacien, Bishop of Barcelona A. D. S7S. PREFACE. The God of Truth cannot have revealed contradictory doctrines. Sects proclaiming contradictory doctrines can- not all be right, though all may be wrong. In like manner the same essential attribute cannot be predicated in the same sense of two religious societies having funda- mentally different principles of belief and of worship. " Catholic " was decreed to be a note of the Christian Church fifteen hundred years ago by its teachers assembled in General Council. "The Protestant Episcopal Church " in the United States created in the year 1789, now lays claim to the name Catholic. But this is already in the possession of the Roman Church. To try and establish who is the lawful possessor, is the object of this little work. The importance of the issue will be seen from the fol- lowing passage written by St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, no less than fifteen hundred and thirty years ago. "The Church is likewise one, though she be spread abroad, and multiplies with the increase of her progeny ; even as the sun has rays many, yet one light ; and the tree boughs many, yet its strength is one seated in the deep-lodged root; and as, when many streams flow down from one source, though a multiplicity of waters seem to be diffused from the bountifulness of the overflowing abuhdance, unity is pre- served in the source itself. Part a ray of the sun from its orb, and its unity forbids the division of light ; break a branch from the tree, once broken it can bud no more ; cut the stream from its fountain, the remnant will be dried up. Thus the Church, flooded with the light of the Lord, puts forth her rays through the whole world, with yet one light, which is spread upon all places, while its unity of body is not infringed. She stretches forth her branches over the universal earth, in the riches of plenty, and pours abroad her bountiful and onward streams ; yet is there one head, one source, one mother abundant in the results of her fruitful- ness. . . . Whoever parts company with the Church and joins himself to an adultress, is estranged from the promises of the Church. He who leaves the Church of Christ attains not Christ's rewards. He is an alien, an outcast, an enemy. He can no longer have God for a Father who has not the Church for a Mother." Calm, honest investigation of the matter cannot be other than an olive branch of peace, leading prayerful, earnest souls into the Ark of Salvation. For the advantage of those who have not a library of the Fathers, there have been appended the Treatise of St. Cyp- rian on the Unity of the Church written in 25 1 ; the eighteenth of the Catechetical Instructions of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, written in 347, and the letter of St. Pacien, Bishop of Barce- lona, on the name Catholic, written in 373. It is thought these treatises, of a dogmatic nature, repre- senting Africa, Asia Minor, Western Europe, and emanating from Saint Bishops of the " Undivided Church," will prove to be voices to which a deaf ear will not be turned. The Oxford translations have for obvious reasons been selected. To these authors have been added the strong opinion of Lord Macaulay. His words have weight inasmuch as he, a Protestant, sees in the Roman Catholic Church, merely a human Body Politic. Pentecost-day, 1884. New York, PART I, THE ARGUMENT. CATHOLIC: AN ESSENTIAL AND EXCLUSIVE ATTRIBUTE OF THE TRUE CHURCH. The Protestant Episcopal Church held its Convention, in October last, at Philadelphia. While in session, among other questions discussed, was that of changing the title of the Book of Commofl' Prayer " according to the use of the Pro- testant Episcopal Church in the United States of America." It was proposed that the words " Protestant Episcopal " be struck out, and that in lieu thereof, the words " Holy Cath- olic " be inserted. To this was made an amendment, to suppress " Protestant Episcopal " and merely leave " The Church." The amendment was lost. The original motion was then put and was defeated by 252 nays against 21 yeas. This decision of the House of Deputies, sitting as Commit- tee of the whole House, together with a report thereon was carried to the House of Bishops. Their Lordships de- cided, in face of the vote, that it was inexpedient to alter the title page of the Book of Common Prayer. The discussion was animated, and was marked, as is usual whenever any Protestant sect holds an assembly, by sundry thrusts at the "errors of the Roman Catholic Church," or as one of the speakers described it " that foreign body which impudently called itself the Catholic Church." However painful such assertions may be, they ought not to warp the judgment, or lessen the charity and interest of those who lO sincerely believe in the Master's words : " Other sheep I have that are not of this Fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one Fold and one Shepherd."^ That in the representative body of the Protestant Epis- copalians, there should have been found one-twelfth of its members claiming the name, " Catholic," for their religious Society, is a remarkable sign of the times, and one worthy of the most earnest consideration. It has increased importance if there be added the undeni- able fact that the so-called High Church movement has gained a sure footing, and is making steady progress among the Protestant Episcopalians. The doctrines of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, of Confession and Priestly Absolution, of prayers and honor to the Saints, more especially to the Queen of Saints : are now more or less openly taught in a number of the Episcopalian Churches."^ Why the teachers and believers in such doctrines do not 1 St. John X. 16. 2 While passing this work through the press, the following appeared in the New York Herald of May 5th: " This Church of ours, said the new pastor of St. Igna- tius, Fortieth street, in this city, is the Catholic, and there is a vast difEerence between the spirit of the Catholic Church and the spirit of Protestantism. - In the Protestant Church the all-important factor of successful work is the personal power of the minis- ter, but in the Catholic Church it is the faithful ministering of the means of grace that gives our power." In sneaking of auricular confession and the sacrifice of the mass, he said: '*What we believe of the blessed Sacrament is that in it the Son of God is present in the very flesh which he took of the Virgin Mary, His mother, and in the very blood which He pours out so freely for us upon the cross, and we believe that he will abide there under the sensible form of bread and wine as long as this world shall last. And of the confessional, we believe that our auricular confession is a part of the preaching of pod's ministers. I should be unfaithful to my trust if I held back from pro- claiming by my words and by my practice that confession is necessary to salvation, and that Qod'§ ministers Jiave the power to forgive sins." return to the Old Church, seeing that these were the very doctrines repudiated at the so-called Reformation, as the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Homilies shew, is to any intelligent mind inexplicable. Naturally with belief in these doctrines, have come prac- tices which were unknown to the Episcopalians of the past generations ; such as reservation of the sacrament, auricu- lar confession, tfie use of vestments, ritual, confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Blessed Virgin, proces- sions, blessings of palms, and many other practices, some of which are in plain language, devotions generated in the Roman Church in the last few centuries. In like manner our books of piety and Catholic works on the spiritual life even of the post-reformation period are, after excision and adaptation, appropriated by the High Church party. There is no city of any size in the States where such re- ligious belief and practices have not a fair, sometimes even a large following. And if the descriptions of the press be accurate the conformity with Roman Catholic liturgy and doctrines is complete.' Of those who do believe and so practise, the greater num- ber are verily convinced their Church is not Protestant but Catholic. They are in simple honest faith; they act with good conscience, and accordingly they receive of God grace, and joy, and peace. This memorable movement, begun some forty-five years 1 yidt the local papers of the next morning on the last Palm Sunday and Good Fnday tervices in St. Clement's Chwch, Philadelphia, 12 ago in the Established Church of England, has been the means of turning the minds of many to the Faith of their Forefathers, to the belief in a Sacramental System, to sounder knowledge of the great truths of the Christain religion, to more accurate ideas concerning the Church and Church authority, to the proper administration of bap- tism, to some idea of the Christian Altar and Sacrifice and above all to a truer knowledge of the Incarnation. If in half a century so great a change has been brought about where protestant bigotry was rampant, what may not be expected in the next generation of those who will suc- ceed the present holders of High Church teaching, many of whom are now validly baptized. Personally I feel that God's providence created, and is directing the movement, and that it is leading souls un- consciously but none the less certainly to the One Fold under the One Shepherd. And in venturing to treat the question " Catholic : an essential and exclusive attri- bute of the True Church," I am anxious to contribute, however modestly, to advancing the movement to its true goal — the One Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church. In doing this I have no contentious or controversial spirit. And when it was suggested in November last, by the public press that I was to make an attack on the Protestant Epis- copalians, I felt it wiser to postpone till later the publication of the question now to be treated. Unity of mind and heart is far more easily produced by frank explanation than by heated cpntentipn. Many misunderstandings would 13 disappear if men would state precisely their respective posi- tions. To do so in this case it is proposed to treat in outline : (i) of the nature of the Church ; (ii) of the true idea of Catholicity; (iii) of the formation of the Anglican Commun- ion ; (iv) of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. I. It is of paramount importance that a clear idea be ob- tained of the nature of the Church of Christ. Of the sacred writers, one only, St. Paul defines the Church. Writing to the Colossians the Apostle says : "He (Christ) is the Head of the Body, the Church" and in the same Epistle : "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for His Body which is the Church. " To the Ephe- sians he writes still more explicitly : "He hath put all things under his feet, and hath made Him Head over all the Church which is His Body and the fulness of him who is filled all in all." ^ In each instance St. Paul writes in the Greek lan- guage which has not the figurative expression Body; nor is Body used therein ambiguously as it is in English. The Apostle whenever he so defines the Church, invariably selects the word swfxa which is never used in Greek to express mere association, or aggregation, but usually implies the superadded idea of an organism. The full meaning of St. Paul will be realized in the passage given above from the (1), Eph. i, 23. (S), 2 Colossians i, ISand 24. 14 Ephesians, where Christ is described as the "Head" in which KE he was selected specially to be the Confirmer of the faith of all his brethren ; = and to him alone was given the fulness of authority to feed the lambs and the sheep — the whole Flock of Christ. Thus was the unalterable Constitution of the Church formed. All teaching power was in Jesus Christ, the Head, who imparted it to the Apostolic College, reser- ving special offices to Peter, the Visible Head. It is well to bear in mind the distinction of meaning in the word ' Head ' as applied to Christ, and as applied to Peter. From the invisible Head Christ, does the Mystical Body receive its spiritual life, imparting feeling and motion to the members. Peter is constituted by Christ visible Head to be the spring, origin and source of external communion and government in the Visible Church. So that "in him," as St. Augustine has it, "being one. He forms the Church — in quo una {Petro) format Ecclesiam;" to which St. Jerome's words may be added: "For this reason out of the twelve one is selected, that by the appointment of a Head, the occasion of schism may be taken away." To these teacherPdid Jesus before ascending to heaven make known the whole of that doctrine which He had received of His Father, and in doing this He completed and closed the Revelation made to man. He made the Apostles partici- pators in His power of signs and wonders ; cooperators 1 Matt, xvi 18. 19, S {.uke xxvii, 31, I8 with Him in pardoning sin by baptism and the sacrament of reconciliation ; to them He imparted the power to con- secrate : " Do this in commemoration of me." And as the Father had sent Him so did He send them to preach His Gospel. This 'Ecclesia docens' or Teaching Body was thus fitted with divine powers for the Ministry of the Gospel, and was duly commissioned by divine authority to 'go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Yet these teachers were commanded by Jesus at the mo- ment of His Ascension that "they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father which you have heard, said He, by my mouth." And He continued : " It is not for you to know the times or mo- ments which the Father hath put in His own power ; but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Samaria and even to the uttermost part of the earth.". ' The promise herein referred to was made at the last sup- per in these words : "And I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete (Comforter) that he fnay abide with you forever j the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeeth him not nor knoweth Him ; but you shall know Him, because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you. ***** xhe Paraclete (the lActsi, 7, . 19 Comforter), the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you * * * * * When the Paraclete (the Comforter) shall come whom I will send you from the Father, He shall give testimony of jjjg * * * * j(. ig expedient for you that I go ; for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you ; but if I go I will send Him to you. And when He shall come, He will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. ***** When He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come He will teach you all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but what things soever He shall hear. He shall speak ; and the things that are to come He will shew you." *. It is plain the promise refers to a new office which would be superadded to that which the Holy Ghost already holds. He was the inspirer of Prophets. He is the Sanctifier of Men. But the promise declares him to be from that time and forever the Vivifier of the Body of Christ. The promise thus made was fulfilled ten days after the Ascension : "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind coming and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.' And there appeared to them cloven tongues as it were of fire ; and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they be- gan to speak with divers tongues according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak." I 1 John xiv, 16-88; xvi, 7 and IS, • 8 Acts ii, 8-4, So was born the Church of the living God: Pentecost day is her birthday. Her organization was conceived and fash- ioned by divine wisdom; She receives a divine life; She has to fulfill a divine mission; She is possessed of divine power; She is the appointed guardian of the divine revelation. From that moment and henceforth to the consummation of ages is this Human-divine Society to have a continuous life in this world. No power of earth or of hell can destroy it, for Jesus is its invisible Head, the Holy Spirit its invisible and active principle of life, and God's power is pledged that "against it the gates of hell shall not prevail." Indestructible because of the divine element within, yet composed of human beings without, it bears outwardly the manifestation of man's weakness. Hence is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to ten Virgins, five of whom were foolish ; to a Net wherein are the clean and the unclean ; to a Mar- riage feast at which all have not on a marriage garment. In other words in the outward visible body of the Church the good and the bad will ever be commingled till the harvest come. But this destroys not her divine life no more than sickly or delicate flesh destroys the life of the human being. In the language of Origen we affirm that ' the Sacred Scrip- tures assert the whole Church of God to be the Body of Christ, endowed with life by the Son of God. Of this Body, which is to be regarded as a whole, the members are individ- ual believers. For as the soul gives life and motion to the body, which of itself could have no living motion, so the Word giving a right motion and energy moves the whole 21 Body, the Church, and each one of its members." '. On Pentecost night this Visible Human-divine Society having perfect organization was commensurate with Chris- tianity. None other save itself had the doctrine of Christ ; it alone was the duly appointed Organ for teaching Revela- tion to men and for dispensing the Mysteries of God. Or as Klee well puts it, "the Church considered internally — natura naturam— is Christianity. Christianity considered externally — natura naiurata — is the Church. The Church and Christianity are Christ in us, and we in Christ. The creature is therefore a Mystical Body, animated by the Spirit of Christ." * This is the Kingdom of Christ, the City seated on a Mountain, the Pillar and Ground of Truth, the Temple and Church of the living God, the Bride of the Lamb. The law of her growth is fixed by God, it is by incorpora- tion, not by accretion. Of the food taken by the human body, are blood, bone and tissue made ; these by assimilation expand or augment the already existing members. So the Mys- tic Body of Christ absorbs by holy baptism the souls of men receiving them by ones or in numbers. But these additions in- crease without altering the organization ; they are assimilated to the Body of the Church. Thus is preserved the identity of her being, although the individuals composing the visible body are ever varying by death and by spiritual birth. As truly as man, notwithstanding the varying change of the particles of his body, is able to say Ego of every day of life. \ Origeo c Celsum VI., 48. 8 Klee, Hist. Christ. Dog. C. on Church. so too can the Church, the Spouse of Christ speak of her unchanging quasi-personality. With the growth of her disciples, there was necessarily a growth of her ministers, the ecclesia docens ; but here again it is by a fixed law. " How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? Or how shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard ? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? And how can they preach unless they be sent." ' As the Father sent the Son to preach the Gospel, so did the Son send the Apostles ; they in turn sent others, bishops and priests and deacons, commissioned with the same divine authority to preach and fulfill the Min- istry. Accordingly St. John speaking of himself and other pastors could say: "We are of God ; he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us : in this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error." ^ And St. Paul in like manner says : "We are ambassadors for Christ, God as it were exhorting by us." ' To the chief pastors at Ephesus does St. Paul address these words : " Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole fiock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the Church of God." * And the Apostles acting in their corporata capacity could pro- claim their decree in the name of themselves and of the Holy Ghost. Knowing that they were possessed of this divine authority in virtue of which Christ had said: "He that heareth you 1, Romans X., U. 2, 1 John IV., 6. 3, 2 Cor. V., 19. 4, Acts XX., 28. 23 heareth me; he that despiseth you despiseth me;" the pas- tors were able to speak as men having power and to exact subjection to their teaching and government in things spiritual. Their Master's words were in their minds: "Who- soever shall not hear you or receive your words when you depart out of that City, shake off the dust from your feet ; verily, I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Goinorrah in the day of judgment than for that city." Hence could St. Paul say : " Remember your Prelates who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow,"' and again: " Obey your. Prelates and be sub- ject to them, for they watch as being to render an account of your souls." ' It will be remarked that in appointing these pastors there was (i) 'imposition of hands;' and (2) * the being sent.' ^ For instance, when the seven deacons were chosen they "were placed in the presence of the apostles, and they pray- ing imposed hands on them." ' Appointed at first stew- ards of the Church and distributors of her goods, a part of their office was attendance on the Priests at the divine offices. Later, as we learn, of the seven Stephen was sent to preach; and Philip both preached and baptised. The * imposition of hands,' is the sacrament of Orders, and in common with the other sacraments, its effect is conferred direct by God. For this reason, could St. Paul write to Timothy: "I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of 1, Heb. XIII, 7 and 17 8, Acts XIII. 3, Acts VL, 6. 24 God which is in thee by the imposition of hands." But the "Commission" or "being sent" is derived direct from the Apostles. It specifies where, how, and when the divine authority is to be exercised by the individual pastor. " For this cause," writes St. Paul to Titus, " I left thee at Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldst ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee." ^ These two powers are distinguished as the power of Order, the power of Jurisdiction. Both are of God: the one comes direct through the sacrament of Orders ; the other indirectly from God through the Church by Ap- pointment. In the early church they were often conferred simultaneously ; still they were looked upon as distinct operations. The power of Jurisdiction is not necessarily attached to Orders; though for some acts, such as absolution from sin, both are necessary. The Apostles and the Seven- ty, who were sent out at first two and two, had jurisdiction but not orders. A man may be a bishop and yet not be a bishop of a diocese. On the other hand, a duly and canon- ically confirmed Bishop Elect possesses jurisdiction without the Episcopal power to confirm and to ordain ; a deposed bishop is still possessed of his Episcopal power derived from consecration, but he is deprived of jurisdiction or cure of souls. His ordinations would be valid ; his absolutions null and void. The power of order gives capacity; the power of jurisdiction 1, Titos I., 5. 25 permits the use of authority. The distinction between 'can' and 'may,' the former expressing inherent, the latter dependent power — affords a good illustration of the subject. The dis- penser of the power of order is but an instrument; the grantor of the power of jurisdiction exercises authority and dominion. The first coming directly from Christ is abiding, unchangeable and is conferred in equal measure on each priest or bishop. The second not coAing immediately but through the Church from Christ to individuals, is conferred in varying propor- tions as may be deemed expedient for the good of souls. In the instances mentioned above, Timothy and Titus had neither more nor less of Episcopal character than had any of the Apostles: as bishops they were equal. But the Apostles had universal jurisdiction directly from Christ. Timothy and Titus received their commission from the Apostles ; it was restricted to the Church at Ephesus, and to the Church in Crete ; and it was neither sovereign nor independent. Timothy and Titus were consecrated bishops, but the Episcopate of Authority, in which they were partici- pators, was one, indivisible, sovereign, and independent. It was given first in its fulness to Peter separately; later the power of binding and loosing was given collectively to the Apostolic College. Thus was granted to the Head 'fulness of supreme power, ordinary and immediate, over all and each of the pastors and of the faithful ' in the whole Church, while immediate and ordinary jurisdiction apper- tains to each bishop in his diocese, but in union and sub- ordination to the Head. By the existence of such 26 One Episcopate is secured, the living cohesion of the Church consisting : " first, of its unicity by which there is not, and cannot be a plurality of Christian or co- ordinate churches. Secondly, of its oneness, according to which the Church in all its members and parts form one en- tire connected whole." ^ It is not a large crystal, con- structed of smaller crystals, but a living organism. The parable of the Mustard Seed and the metaphor of the Vine admirably illustrate the point. " I am the vine, you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, beareth much fruit ; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone re- maineth not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither." The authority to be Teachers in the Body ot Christ, im- plies proclaiming the Gospel taught by Christ. He said of Himself that He came to teach not His own doctrine but the doctrine of Him that sent Him. And again, whatever the Father had made known to Him did he communicate to the Apostles. The Spirit of God was to bring to their minds all things whatsoever He had taught them. These doctrines, and these alone were they to teach ; even were " an angel from heaven " to bring any other he was to be anathematized. As there is but One Lord, and one baptism, so is there but one faith says St. Paul. And writing to the Romans » " Now I beseech you brethren to 1, Klee on the Church. 3, Rom. xiv. 17. 27 mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrines which you have learned, and to avoid them." St. Jude writes his Epistle "to beseech the faithful to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints," and in the strong- est language condemns the wickedness of those who corrupt this true faith by false doctrine. And St. Paul is able to say : " We have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit of God : that we may know the things that are given us from God : which things also we speak not in the leav- ened words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."' Indeed, this is the very raison d'etre of the Church : to dispense the mysteries of God ; to conserve in all its purity the deposit of faith ; to preach it with divine authority to all of the sons of men. She is the sole divine and there- fore unerring interpreter of Revelation. Hence, when considerable discussions arose at Antioch between the Jewish and Gentile converts concerning the obligation of being circumcised according to the law of Moses, it was determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of the other side should go up to Jerusalem. And on their arrival "the Apostles and ancients came together to con- sider of this matter." The question was fully discussed, and finally the decree was drawn in these words : " it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no fur- ther burden on you than these necessary things : that you 1 Cor. ii., 18. 28 abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication : from which things keeping yourselves you shall do well. Fare ye well." ' The decree was then sent to the brethren of the Gentiles that are at Antioch, and in Syria and Cilica by the hands of Judas and Silas chief men among the brethren who accom- panied Barnabas and Paul. These who had been sent re- ceived jurisdiction to tell by word of mouth the same things. In making this decision there was made no addition to the Faith ; the true interpretation of the Revelation already given was alone proclaimed, and this not by the wisdom of the Apostles, but by the influence of the Holy Ghost Whom they declared^to be with them. And so has it ever been : the decisions concerning the Divine personality of Jesus Christ, the procession of the Holy Spirit, the two na- tures of the Son of God, are not revelations nor additions to the Christian Religion : they are but explicit declara- tions of what that Faith contains ; they do but disclose in detail the Truths of Revelation. It will be remarked that Judas and Silas were to confirm by word of mouth the decision. This was at first the way in which Christianity was propagated. The Church sent forth her ministers who preached the faith. Six years elapsed before the earliest gospel, that of St. Matthew, was written, and some sixty-three years had passed by, when the Gospel of St. John made its appearance. All teaching was viva (1) Acts XV., 88. 29 voce; and the inspired books of the New Testament were ad- dressed to those who were already Christians and who had received "the faith once delivered to the Saints." In other words the Gospel was propagated by Tradition. Scarcely had the Church been born, before there were found those who revolted against her authority and her doc- trine. Such revoTlt in either case severed individuals from the communion of the Church. They took with them fragments of Christian teaching. Their revolt was con- sidered the greatest of crimes. It is numbered among the sins which exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven. Per- haps no stronger condemnations can be found in the New Testament and the very earliest Christian writers, than those directed against schism which is revolt against the authority of the Church and heresy which destroys the one- ness of faith. " A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition avoid : knowing that he that is such a one is subverted and sineth, being condemned by his own judgment." * So writes St. Paul guiding Titus. The same Apostle writing to the Galatians' groups these crimes with ' murders, fornication, and generally the works of the flesh.' And the tender Apostle of love, St. John writes : " For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; this is a seducer and an anti-Christ. Look to yourselves that you lose not the 1 Titus iii., 10. 2 Gal. v., 19. 3° things which you have wrought ; but that you may receive a full reward. Whosoever receiveth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God ; he that continueth in the doctrine, he hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him God speed you. For he .that saith to him God speed you communicateth with his wicked works" ' St. Clement, whose name St. Paul says is written in the book of life writes to the Corinthians : " Wherefore are there contentions, and swellings, and dissensions, and schisms and war among you ? ' Have we not one God and one Christ, and one Spirit of Grace poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ ? Wherefore do we rend and tear in pieces the members of Christ and raise a sedition against our own body, and come to such a height of folly as to for- get that we are members one of another ? " ^ St. Irenseus, disciple of St. Polycarp, whose master was the Apostle St. John, writes : " He will also judge those who cause schisms — men destitute of the love of God, and who have in view their own interest, but not the oneness of the Church ; and who, on account of slight and exagger- ated causes, rend and divide, and, as far as in them lies, destroy the great and glorious Body of Christ ; men who have peace on their lips but war in their actions ; who truly strain at a gnat but swallow a camel. But no correc- r ^' *'.(te5° I- ■ ?' V'S '^}^}}°'^. f™" '^^^ «^^ly Christian writers are througliout Uken jrora The Fajth pf Catholics," 31 tion can be effected by them so great as is the pernicious- ness of schism." * The same Apostolic Father says : " The Church, though spread over the whole world, to the earth's boundaries, hav- ing received, both from the Apostles and their disciples, the faith in one God, the Father Almighty * * * and in one Christ Jesus, that Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit * * * having, as I have said, received that preaching and this Faith, the Church, though spread over the whole world guards (it) sedulously, as though dwelling in one house ; and these truths she uniformly holds as having but one soul, and one and the same heart ; and these she proclaims and teaches, and hands down uniformly, as though she had but one mouth. For though throughout the world the languages are various, still the force of the tradition is one and the same. And neither do the Churches founded in Germany, nor those of Spain, in Gaul, in the East, in Egypt, in Africa, nor in the regions in the middle of the earth, believe or de- liver a different faith ; but as God's handiwork, the sun, is one and the same throughout the universe, so the preach- ing of the truth shines everywhere, and enlightens all men that wish to come to the knowledge of the truth. Nor does he, who amongst the rulers in the Churches is more power- ful in word, deliver a different doctrine from the above (for no one is above his teacher) nor does he who is weak in 1 Adv. Hoer. Bk. iv, c. 32 speech weaken the tradition. For the Faith being one and the same, neither he who has ability to say much concerning it hath anything over, nor he that speaketh little anything lack." » St. Cyprian, a.d. 251, writes in his treatise on the Unity of the Church : — " The Enemy has made heresies and schisms wherewith to subvert faith, to corrupt truth, and rend unity. Those whom he cannot detain in the blindness of the old way he compasses and deceives by misleading them on their new journey. He snatches men from out of the Church itself. * * * * " He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he think that he holds the faith ? He who strives against and resists the Church, he who abandons the Chair of Peter, upon whom the Church was founded, does he feel confident that he is in the Church ? m * * if " He is an alien, he is an outcast, he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for a Father who has not the Church for a Mother." " If any one was able to escape who was without the ark of Noah, then can he escape who is out of the doors beyond the Church. * * ^ it: " There is one God and one Christ, and His Church is one, and the faith one, and a people one, joined into a solid oneness of body by a cementing concord. Unity 1 Serm. John xvii, 1 33 cannot be sundered, nor can one body be divided by the dissolution of its structure, nor be cast piecemeal abroad with vitals torn and lacerated. Whatever is parted from the womb cannot live and breathe in its separated state; it loses its principle of life." Such then is the nature, the constitution, the principle of life, and the law of growth of that Body of Christ divinely appointed to be the Sole Guardian and Teacher of the Christian Revelation. A living Divine Organism whose unity is to be the criterion of the mission of Jesus, and a visible mark whereby his disciples might be known ; " And not for them only, do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me ; that they all may be one, as thou Pather in me and I in thee : that they also may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them ; that they may be one, as we also are one." ^ . Fashioned during our Lord's Public Life, as to its exter- nal organization; born, with its divine internal principle of life, on Pentecost day, the Church is ever to live, sitting in the midst of the nations, day by day instructing and train- ing souls in the way of salvation. Thus is her Life to be in- defectible, her Voice infallible, and her Presence visible. In glowing terms does the late Archbishop Spalding state what her life has been, during the past eighteen cen- 1, John xvii,, SO and xiii., 35, 34 turies and a half. " The Church has triumphantly stood the test of Gamaliel.* Empires have arisen, flourished for a time, and then crumbled into ruin, along her pathway in history. Dynasties have changed and been extin- guislied; thrones have tottered and fallen ; sceptres have been broken; crowns have mouldered into dust; but she has survived all; and she still stands up erect and vigorous in the world, not an antique, but a living and breathing existence, having a vitality not sickly, not waning but superabundant ; not only living herself, but bountifully bestowing of her exuberant life upon the nations of the earth, and giving without losing any of it herself; even as the sun giveth forth his light and heat, without im- pairing his own exhaustless store. She lives, and she will live, all days even to the consummation of the world." She lives, the only divine and immortal institution of the earth. Christ is Head, and Christ is God, and He stands pledged that she shall share in his own immortality. Christ is Her Bridgroom, and she is His chosen Bride, with- out spot, without wrinkle, all glorious and undefiled; a divine and blooming Bride, who knows no old age and feels no decay, doomed to death, but fated not to die. She has walked the world patiently and longingly, bearing her crown of thorns like her heavenly Bridegroom ; She has been often scourged through it as He was ; but like Him, * Opposing the persecution raised by the Jews he said of the Christian Church : *' If this worker design be of men, it will fall to nothing ; but if it be of God, you are not able to destroy it, lest, perhaps, you are found to oppose God." Acts v., 38. 35 She bears a charmed life; and cannot be conquered by death. Immortality is written upon her brow, and She will Wear the Wreath for ever more, in spite of the world, the devil, and the flesh ! A pilgrim of faith and love with her home in the heavens. She asks only a free passage through this world ; and her Omnipotent Bridegroom will see that She obtain it, whetjjer men will it or not." ' II. The Redemption is limited to no one people. The Pre- cious Blood was shed for all the sons of men. And through its infinite merit every man receives grace sufficient to work out his salvation. To Jesus our Redeemer was given the na- tions as an inheritance. "A child is born to us. * * * He shall be called Wonderful, God the Mighty. His empire shall be multiplied. He shall sit upon the throne of David to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with jus- tice, from henceforth and for ever." ' The prophet Daniel says : " In the days of those Kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed and His Kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people : and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these Kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever." * And the Evan- gelical Prophet declares, " And in the last days the moun- tain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all 1 Introduction to Darras General History of the Church. J Isaiah ix„ 6, 7. 2 Dan. ii., 35-44, 36 nations shall flow into it."^ And Micheas says: "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains and high above the hills, and people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come in haste and say : Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob. "2 So spoke the language of prophecy in clearer and clearer notes as the time approached for the coming of the Saviour. His own presence is ushered in almost the same words by the Angel Gabriel: "Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of David his father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end." ' And as Lactantius wrote fourteen centuries ago : " From all this it is manifest, that all the prophets foretold of Christ, that the time would come that being born in the flesh of the family of David, he would build up to God an everlast- ing temple called the Church, and would summon all na- tions to the true religion of God. This is the faithful house, this the immortal temple, wherein if a man sacrifice not, he shall not have the reward of immortality. Of which great and everlasting temple, since Christ was the builder, the same must needs have therein an everlasting priest- hood."* (1) Isaiah ii., 8. (2) Mich, xiv., 1. 3 Luke i, 31-33. i Divin. Inst., lib. iv., >,. U. 37 And after having spent three and a half years in laying the foundations of the Kingdom, Jesus sent those whom he had selected and appointed to extend and rule it. " All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth. Going there- fore teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I"am with you all days even to the consum- mation of the world." * Thus was it they were to "go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature." " And as our Lord said to them : " You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth." ' These Scripture statements bear ample evidence that the Church, the Kingdom of Christ, is to be (i) universal in time or duration, (2) universal in extension, (3) universal in doctrine. In these is the Catholicity of the Church. The Universality in time flows from the identity of life of the quasi-personality of the Church from the moment of birth onwards throughout time. So that of necessity, it can only appertain to the Human-Divine Creature that was born on Pentecost-day to which perpetual duration is promised. The Universality in extension is the consequence of the Church's mission to teach all nations. That for which she has to labor to the end of time, is to bring all men to the light of truth. And were this accomplished she would have 1 Matt, xxviii., 18-20. 3 Mark xvi. 1, 5. 3 Acts i, S. 38 an actual total and absolute physical universality. But she needs time for growth, and unceasing labor to effect con- version and thus extend over the whole world, while conserving her living union in every part. On Pentecost evening she was Catholic, though probably she numbered only some three thousand five hundred souls. They were all converts from Judaism, but they joined not a national movement, they had become members of an organization which, in posse, though not in esse was world-wide. The Universality in doctrine follows from the Church being the depository and guardian of the whole of that Gospel or Deposit of Faith which was in Jesus Christ, and which He committed exclusively to the Human-Divine Creature born on Pentecost day, " to be preserved throughout the ages in its unity and integrity, in its completeness and its purity." ' The members of the Church received a name for the first time at Antioch, where, the Scripture narrates, they were called " Christian." This may have been done in derision by the Jews or Romans, or it may have been the name chosen by the Disciples themselves. The outer world called the children of the Church Nazarenes, Galilseans, Jesseans, Therapeutae ; and in the writings of the first Fathers are they spoken of as the Believers, the Saints, the Elect. But of all their titles that of Catholic was applied to them from the earliest period, and has remained to them as an exclus- ive and inalienable name. 1 Humphrey "Other Gospels," p. 62. 39 Long before the formal symbol of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople — "I believe in the One-Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church " — had the name Catholic been used. Before the Apostles died, their sound had gone forth to the furthermost parts of the earth, and the Church had ex- tended far and wide throughout the Roman Empire from the very household of Csesar wherein the bonds of St. Paul were manifest in*all the palace.' And TertuUian, whose death is put at the latest a. d. 240 is able to write: "Men cry out that the State is beset, that the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their islands. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, and now even rank, is gone over to this sect." ^ It is not surprising, therefore, that the name Calhollc should, of all others, have been applied to them. It appears for the first time, so far as can be ascertained, in a passage of a letter of St. Ignatius: " Where the bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be ; even where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." And this same writer, in the Introduction to the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, writes : "The Church of God which dwelleth in Smyrna, to the Church of God which dwelleth in Thilomelium and all the districts in every place of the Holy and Catholic Church mercy, peace and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." In the body of the piece occurs twice the same phrase: "After he had done praying having made 1 Phil, iv., 22 and i, 13. 8 Apol. n. i, p. 2. 40 mention of all with whom he had ever met, great and small, noble and obscure, and after the whole Catholic Church throughout the world " (n. 8). "He Christ is both the Gov- ernor of our bodies and the Shepherd of the Catholic Church throughout the world (n. 19). This document is written about A. D. 147." ^ St. Irenseus writes in the same century in his work against Heresies : " When they believed not, last of all he sent his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom, when the wicked hus- bandmen had slain, they cast him out of the vineyard, Wherefore did the Lord God deliver it, now no longer fenced in, but opened unto the whole world, to other hus- bandmen, who give in the fruits in their season ; the tower of election being everywhere exalted and beautiful. For everywhere is the Church distinctly visible, and everywhere is there a wine press dug ; for everywhere are those who receive the Spirit." * S. Cyril of Jerusalem A. D. 347, in his Catechetical Dis- courses, says : "When you go to any city do not ask merely for the House of God or for the Church merely for all heretics pretend to have this : but ask which is the Catholic Church, for this title belongs to our Holy Mother alone.'" And again : " The faith which we rehearse contains in order the following : ' And into one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and into one holy Catholic Church.' . . . . Now it is called Catholic, because it is through- 1 Faith of Catholics, Vol. I. p. 288. S Ibid. 3 Cat. Dis. XVIII, 27. 41 out the whole world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because it teaches universally (catholically) and com- pletely all the doctrines which ought to come to men's know- ledge concerning things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it subjugates unto godliness (or, to the true religion) the whole race of men, both governors and governed, learned and unlearned, and because it uni- versally treats and*heals every sort of sins committed by soul and body, and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and every kind of spiritual gifts. And it is rightly called Church, because it calls forth and assembles together all men." Eusebius, the Ecclesiastical Historian, writes in the same century : " The false accusations invented by our Pagan enemies quickly disappeared self-refuted, whilst fresh sects sprang up anew upon sects ; the first always passing away, and corrupted, in a variety of ways, into other views of many modes and forms. But the splendor and solemnity and sincerity and liberty of the Catholic and alone true church, — a church always holding uniformly to the same things, — still went on increasing and magnifying." St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, fifteen centuries ago wrote a short treatise on the name " Catholic.'' Therein does he use these words: "My brother, fret not yourself; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. That names me, this describes me; by this I am approved; by that designated. And if at last we must give an account of the word Catholic,, and express it, from the Greek 48 by a Latin interpretation, "Catholic is everywhere one, or as the more learned think, obedience in all " — all the command- ments of God. . . , Therefore he who is a Catholic, the same is obedient to what is right. He who is obedient, the same is a Christian. And thus the Catholic is a Christian. Wherefore our people, when named Catholic, are separated by this appellation from the heretical name. But if also the word Catholic means ' everywhere one ' as those first think, David indicates this very thing when he says : ' The Queen stood in a gilded clothing, surround with variety, (Ps. xliv, lo), that is one amidst all' ... Amidst all, she is one, and one over all. If thou askst the reason of the name, it is manifest.'' And not to weary with extracts, the following from the great St. Augustine will suffice; " In the Catholic Church, not to mention that most sound wisdom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it in a very small measure, indeed for they are but men, but still to know it without doubtfulness — for not quickness of un- derstanding, but simplicity in believing, that make the rest of masses most safe — not to mention therefore this wisdom which you Maniehees do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, many other reasons there are which most justly keep me in her bosom. The agreement of peoples and nations keeps me; an authority begun with miracles, nourished with hope, increased with charity, strengthened by antiquity, keeps me; the succession of priests from the chair itself of the Apos- tle Peter — -unto whom the Lord after his resurrection com- 43 mitted His sheep to be fed — down even to the present bishop, keeps me; finally, the name itself of the Catholic Church keeps me — a name, which in the midst of so many heresies, this Church alone has not without cause so held possession of, as that, though all heretics would fain have themselves called ' Catholics,' yet to the enquiry of any stranger 'where is the meeting of the Catholic Church held?' no heretic would dare point out his own basilica or house. Those, therefore, so numerous and so powerful ties of the Christian name, ties most dear, justly keep a believing man in the Catholic Church, even though through the slowness of our understanding or the deservings of our lives, truth shew not herself as yet in her clearest light. Whereas, amongst you, where are none of these things to invite and keep me ; there is only the loud promise of truth." Wondrous delineation of the great Bishop of Hippo, though written fifteen centuries ago, it is as fresh in its truthfulness as if it were but of yesterday. Newman's words do but re-echo the touching words of St. Augustine : " There is one, and only one religion such (i. e. having priests and sacrifices, and mystical rites, and the monastic rule, and care for the souls of the dead, and the profession of an ancient faith, coming through all ages from the Apos- tles): it is known everywhere; every poor boy in the street knows the name of it; there never was a time, since it first was, that its name was not known, and known to the multi- tude. It is called Catholicism, a world wide name, and in- communicable; attached to us from the first; accorded to 44 us by our enemies; in vain attempted, never stolen from us, by our rivals." ° Both writers must have had in mind the inspired passage of the prophet Isaias: ' " My spirit that is in thee, and my words that I have put into thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever." III. Distant as were the British Isles from the seat of the gov- ernment of Imperial Rome, yet at an early period in the History of the Church was the Gospel proclaimed to their inhabitants. Venerable Bede informs us that as early as the second century, a British King, Lucius by name, sent to Pope Elutherius, then governing the Church, to ask for in- structions in the Christian law. Missioners were accord- ingly sent, and the Church was planted in Britain. The same historian tells us that "Palladius was sent by Celestine, the Roman Pontiff, to the Scoti, who believed in Christ, to be their first Bishop." This statement is confirmed by St. Prosper, in ,his Chronicle, a. d. 429, who further adds that when the Christian faith was endangered by the heresy of the Pelagians, the same Pope Celestine sent as his deputy, or his representative, or in his stead, Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, accompanied by Lupus, bishop of Troyes, into a li *■'• ^' 1;< ^°°" ^*'''' °' Catholics; " Chaps, on Church. 5 Occ. Serm., p. 118 D C lix.. SI. ' 45 Britain to defend the faith and arrest if possible the grow- ing evil. Of the success of that mission Venerable Bade gives tes- timony that "the triumph of orthodoxy was complete, and Germanus before he quitted the scene of victory visited the tomb of S. Alban, where he deposited a. small box of relics that he broi^^ht with him from Gaul, taking in ex- change a handful of dust from the grave, that he might place it in a new church at Auxerre which he afterwards dedicated in honor of the British martyr." ' It is well known that at the Council of Aries, France, held in 314, three British Bishops, York, Lincoln and London were of the assembled fathers, they shared in the delibera- tions of the Council, took part in the Acta, and signed the Synodal letter addressed to the Pope, wherein it is declared the chief part of the government of the Church devolves according to ancient usage on the Roman Pontiff. And S. Athanius tells us ' that at the Council of Sardica, held in 347, in which he himself was so prominent a figure, there were Bishops of Britain who participated in its work. They, with the other bishops, addressed Pope Julius in these words : "It will seem to be best and most proper if the bishops from each particular province report to the Head, that is to the See of Peter the Apostle." ' But however incontrovertibly these and similar facts bear evidence that the Church in Roman Britain received its m 1 Beda, i. c. 18. 8 Apol. u. Arian, i. vol. i, p. 123. 3 Ep. Synd. Sard., Hard. Col, con. Vol. I. 46 doctrine from the Holy See ; that it was subject to the au- thority of the Pope ; and that it was in full communion with the Universal Church, still it must be remembered the present Anglican Communion can claim no descent from the British Church. Its parentage, like that of the English nation, is Anglo-Saxon. For when the barbarous hordes of Angles, Jutes and Sax- ons in the fifth century invaded Britain, they drove the in- habitants into the western parts of the island, and then located themselves on the depopulated lands. The Britons with their Catholicism were driven to the mountainous dis- tricts of the West. England was once more a land of heathens. Its conversion was to be effected a second time. Again did Rome undertake the arduous work. St. Gregory the Great sent in 596 St. Augustine to convert the Anglo- Saxons to the true and living God. The zealous Apostle found. the whole of the Saxon part of the country in a state of paganism, and the conquered Britons in the West under the rule of one Archbishop and seven Bishops. In a few years Christianity made such progress that the Hierarchy was established with St. Augustine as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. At the command of St. Gregory the Great, Augustine received Episcopal consecration from Virgilius the Primate of Aries ; but the Archiepiscopal jurisdiction, and mission in the See of Canterbury Augustine received from Pope Gregory himself. A little later the same Roman Pon- tiff empowered Augustine to erect two provinces, Canter- 47 bury and York, each with its suffragan Bishops. Thus was the Hierarchy of the Church in England fashioned by the hand of Pope Gregory the Great, and maintained by him. What was given in the first instance by Gregory was granted to each Archbishop of Canterbury by the Roman Pontiffs, successors of St. Gregory. And so mission and jurisdiction to govern the whole Church in England pro- ceeded perpetually from St. Peter's Chair. The isolation of the British Bishops caused by the Saxon invasion had, as Gildas, a British author of the middle of the sixth century, informs us, brought about the most de- plorable results ; hence, in instituting Augustine Arch- bishop, Pope Gregory the Great writes ; "We commit to your brotherly care all the Bishops of Britain, that the un- learned may be taught, the weak strengthened by persua- sion, the perverse corrected by authority." ' And later the Pope writes : "We give you no authority over the Bishops of Gaul, because from the ancient times of my predecessors the Bishop of Aries received the pallium, whom we must not deprive of the authority with which he is invested." ' By the way, these acts and statements of St. Gregory the Great throw much light on the sense in which he rejected the title of "Universal Bishop." He himself tells us because it appeared to imply the idea that he alone was bishop: " Solus conetur appellari Episcopus." But this did not pre- vent him believing and acting on the belief as we here see, that as Pope he was Bishop of Bishops. 1. Bede, i, 27. 2. Ep., bdv. 48 The work begun under Pope Gregory was completed in little more than half a century later by Theodore the Greek- Monk nominated Archbishop by Pope Vitalian. "We learn your desire," says Vitalian, "for the confirmation of the dio- cese subject to you because you desire to shine by our privilege of apostolic authority. Wherefore we have thought good at present to commend to your most wise Holiness all the Churches in the Island of Britain. But now by authority of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles to whom power was given by our Lord to bind and to loose in Heaven and on earth, we however unworthy holding the place of that same Blessed Peter who bears the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, grant to you Theodore and your successors, all that from old time was allowed, forever to remain unim- paired in that, your Metropolitan See in the City of Canter- bury." ' The Church of England thus was duly organized and re- ceived the Episcopal and Parochial form which the Angli- can Communion retains till this day. So solid were the fruits of Archbishop Theodore's labors that as Stubbs, the distinguished living Protestant historian says: "In a single century England became known to Christendom as a foun- tain of light, as a land of learned men, of devout and un- wearied missions, of strong and pious Kings."* And another Protestant historian, Guizot, says: "As to the Anglo-Saxon Church, you know that having been founded by the Popes 1 M»nsi, vol. xi„ S4, % Const,. Hist., Vol. i, 351, 49 themselves, it was placed from the commencement under their most direct influence."^ Sixty-eight Archbishops succeeded St. Augustine in the See of Canterbury. Each received the pallium — the em- blem of Metropolitan power — from the Pope of Rome. " Pope Agatho limited the number of bishops to one Metro- politan and eleven Suffragans. Leo II established a second Metropolitan at York ; Adrian a third at Lichfield, and confirmed to the Church of Canterbury that preced- ence of rank and authority which it has since possessed down to the present day."' From this fountain-head of jurisdiction, spiritual authority flowed through the hier- archy of the Church to the people of England. In disputes concerning doctrine or ecclesiastical disci- pline, the English Kings, Bishops and people had recourse to the Holy See as the final court of appeal, and to the Roman Pontiff as the Vicar of Christ and Supreme Judge on earth in matters ecclesiastical. The famed case of S. Wilfred, appealing in 676 from his Metropolitan, Theodore, to the Pope, is known to every student of history. There were, it is true, at times, conflicts with Rome. Sundry acts in the Statute Book bear evidence that the English nation resisted claims made by some of the Popes to interfere in the civil affairs of the country, to certain revenues, to the appointment of foreigners to benefices, and the like. Such claims clearly enough sprang not from 1. Cours d' Histoire Modern, iii, p. 67. 2. Lingard, Ant, of Ang-Sax. Ch. Vol, i, c,8. so the Divine and essential character of the Papacy, but from the civil position and rights created by the nations of Europe, and conferred by them on the Sovereign Pontiff in the Middle Ages at a time when Feudalism was the governing spirit, and the Pope was not only held to be the divinely appointed Head of the Church, but also was the unanimously elected Father of the Christian nations. The English people knew well how to separate the Spiritual from the Temporal Authority of the Pope, and, while ques- tioning some of the feudal claims of the latter, rendered dutiful and filial obedience to the former. The English people knew, as Venerable Bede said : " Gregory was in- vested with the first, that is, supreme pontificate, in the whole world, and was set over the Churches converted to the true Faith, he made our nation, till then given up to idols, the Church of Christ."^ And in the prayer of their Anglo- Saxon Pontifical for the consecration of a new Pope, he is described as " This Thy servant whom Thou hast made Prelate of the Apostolic See, and Primate of all the priests in the world, and Teacher of Thy Universal Church, and whom Thou hast chosen for the ministry in the High Priesthood." During the rule of these sixty-nine Archbishops of Can- terbury, monasteries were founded in every part of Eng- land. Public schools and universities, guilds and charitable institutions were called into existence. Every parish had erected its church, every diocese its cathedral : these still 1 Bede Hist., ii, c, I. 51 remain living monuments of the generosity and faith of our Catholic Forefathers. In such Temples of the living God, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin or some Saint, were the altars on which was offered the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass for the living and for the dead. There was the Tabernacle in which dwelt the Holy of Holies under the sacramental spe- cies. From the pufpits of such Temples One same Faith was preached with spiritual and divine authority by those duly commissioned, directly or indirectly, by Rome. The people held living communion with Christendom, and, as is witnessed by the Chantry and Ladye Chapels of the Sacred Edifices, they held practical communion with the Souls in Purgatory and with the Saints in Paradise. Begotten by Pope Gregory the Great, nurtured and gov- erned by Papal Power, the Church in England covered the whole land and grew for nine hundred and sixty years. Its independence of the State was secured by Magna Charta, in these words : " The English Church is of Divine right, free, and its laws and liberties are not to be violated." Church and State grew side by side in harmony, render- ing mutual aid, and formed " Merrie England." So was it until the accession of the Tudors, under whom a mighty and radical change was effected. With the Wars of the Roses ended in great measure the power of the nobles. Henry VII and his successors de- termined to hold absolute power. " What the first of the Tudors," says the late distinguished historian, Green, a 52 clergyman of the Church of England, " had done for the pofitical independence of the Kingdom, the second was to do for its ecclesiastical independence. * * * * The last check on Royal absolutism which had survived the Wars of the Roses, lay in the wealth, the independent synods and jurisdiction and claims of the Church ; and for the success of the new policy it was necessary to reduce the great eccle- siastical body to a mere department of the State, in which all authority should flow from the sovereign alone, his will be the only law, his decision the only test of truth." Most thoroughly was this accomplished. To attain the end, separation from Rome, the fountain of Spiritual gov- erning power was absolutely necessary. At the outset the movement appeared to be but an individual act inspired by Cromwell ; the divorce of Queen Catherine was but a pre- text for it ; the real purpose in establishing the Royal Su- premacy was to make the sovereign absolute. How this was effected we shall now see. In 1533 an Act of Parliament was passed in which it was declared that the King " is Supreme Head of the Church of England, as the Prelates and Clergy of your Realm repre- senting the said Church in said Synods and Convocations have recognized." ^ And again : The King " is the Supreme Head of the Church of Eng- land, and so is recognized by the Clergy of this Realm in 1 Henry VIII., 31. S3 this Convocation " ' ; and the Statute declares that as Head in Earth of the Church of England, the King has all " pre- eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities to the said dignity belonging, and especially full power to repress, cor- rect and amend all heresies and abuses which by any man- ner, spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought to be repressed, corrected or amended." And later still was it asserted by Parliament: "Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons and other ecclesiastical persons have no manner of jurisdiction eccle- siastical, but by, under and from your Royal Majesty." " These atrocious claims were put forward by the King ; and a time-serving Parliament assigned his behests. To the honor of the English people, be it said, they took no part in the matter. Then and throughout they were robbed of their Faith and of the Church, their birthright. The aris- tocracy had been almost annihilated, and the power of the people had not been developed. The new order of things was thrust upon them, and, as has been well said, " Henry Vni fixed his supremacy on a reluctant Church by the axe, the gibbet, the stake, and laws of premunire and forfeit- ure." Bishop Burnet, the laudatory historian of the so-called reformation, confessed that all the efforts of the Government to overcome the dislike of the people to Protestantism had been in vain, and that a troop of German mercenaries had to be brought over from Calais in 1549 to conquer their resistance. " With eleven-twelfths of the peo- 1 26 Henty VIII.,.3. a 37 Henry VIII., 17. 54 pie," said at that time Paget to the Duke of Somerset the Protector, "the new religion has found no entrance." There were men who would not bend their knee to Baal, and died martyrs because they could not accept Royal Supremacy, but stood true to the supreme authority of the Pope in things spiritual. Among them Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas Moore, the Chancellor. "This indict- ment," says the latter in his memorable defence, "is ground- ed upon an Act of Parliament directly repugnant to the laws of God and His Holy Church, * * * * and there- fore, my Lord, I do not think myself bound to conform my conscience to the counsel of one Kingdom against the gen- eral consent of all Christendom." The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his commendatory let- ter, introducing the Bishop of Rochester from England to the last Convention at Philadelphia as the successor of the first Bishop of Rochester, ought in common honesty, to have added — but with Bishop Fisher of Rochester beheaded in 1535 under Henry VIII for boldly upholding the faith and authority of the iirst Bishop of this See, ended the suc- cession in doctrine and jurisdiction brought from Rome. The Bishops of Rochester since have been mere agents of the English Sovereign. Commenting on the Statute 26 Henry VIII, assigning the King the Headship of the Church of England, Coke and Blackstone say that by it "all that power which the Pope ever exercised within the realm in spirituals is now annexed to the Crown." Henry determined it should be so, 55 and exacted an Oath of Supremacy of his subjects, whereby they "from henceforth utterly renounce, refuse, relinquish or forsake the Bishop of Rome his authority," and "shall accept, repute and take the King's Majesty to be the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England." The boy King, Edward VI, walked in the steps of his father, re-asserted the spiritual claims of his parent, and acted on them. Eisten to the words of his Parliament : "His Highness * * * * hath appointed the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of the realm to * * * * make one convenient and meet, order, rite and fashion of common prayer." ' Read His Majesty's patent or the appointment of bishops: "We name, make, create, constitute and declare N Bishop of N, to have and to hold to himself the said bishopric during the term of his natural life, if for so long a time he behave himself well therein ; and empower him to confer order, to institute to livings, to exercise all manner of jurisdiction, and to do all that apper- tains to the episcopal or pastoral office, over and above the things known to have been committed to him by God in the Scriptures, in place of us, in our name, and by our authority." The Statutes of Henry and Edward, levelled at Papal jurisdiction, and attributing all ecclesiastical authority to the Crown, though repealed under Mary were at the very outset of Elizabeth's reign re-enacted and enforced in all 1 Edward VI.. 1. 56 their vigor. Her Majesty's obsequious Parliament declared in different acts that the spiritual authority of every foreign prelate within the realm should be utterly abolished ; that the jurisdiction necessary for the correction of errors, here- sies, schisms and abuses should be annexed to the Crown, with the power of delegating such jurisdiction to any persori or persons whatever at the pleasure of the Sovereign ; that the penalty of asserting the Papal authority should ascend; on the repetition of the offence from the forfeiture of real and personal property to perpetual imprisonment, and from perpetual imprisonment to death. And that all clergymen should, under pain of deprivation, take an oath declaring the Queen to be Supreme Governor in all ecclesiastical and spiritual things in causes, renouncing all foreign, ecclesiasti- cal, and spiritual jurisdiction or authority whatsoever within the realm." ' We have thus ample proof that the jurisdiction and authority of the Pope were denied, rejected and repudiated by Acts of Parliament, and that the Civil Power reduced the Church in England to be the Church of England. Thus was it made a Department of State, deriv- ing its authority and jurisdiction from the Crown, just as do the Army and the Judges. Ever since that power was asserted to be conferred on Elizabeth in 1558 by the Parliament, every clergyman of the Established Church who has received ecclesiastical pre- ferment, or has graduated at the universities, has indirectly 1 Ives: Trials of a Mind, p. 139. 57 approved of these claims to spiritual authority made and acted on by Henry, Edward and Elizabeth. For every such clergyman takes the Oath of Supremacy, wherein he sol- emnly declares that the Sovereign of the British Isles " is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other of His Highness dominions and countries as well in all spirit- ual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal." The taker of such an oath ought to know that such a claim to Spirit- ual jurisdiction has the warranty neither of Scripture nor of Tradition. To the Apostles and their successors, but not to Kings and Rulers was it said by Jesus Christ: "As the Father hath Ji?«/ me so send I you;" "Go teach all na- tions." Therefore no Act or Acts of Parliament could con- fer on the Sovereign, power in things Spiritual — What would be thought of Congress declaring the President to be pos- sessed of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ? Of this, then, there can be no doubt, even from the few facts adduced, that as truly as the American Colonies with- drew their allegiance from the Sovereign of England and created a new government and centre of authority, so as truly did the Tudor Sovereigns, aided by a subservient Par- liament, compel the Church in England to reject allegiance to the Roman Pontiff, and made it the Church of England, insisting that whatever ecclesiastical or spiritual power it had, flowed from the Crown of England, to which conse- quently the Church became subject, as in any other depart- ment of State. Hooker says : " There is required an uni- versal power which reacheth over all, imparting supreme 58 authority of government over all courts, all judges, all causes, the operation of which power is as well to strengthen, maintain, and uphold particular jurisdictions, which happily might else be of small effect, as also to rem- edy that which they are able to help, and to redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought to do. This power being some time in the Bishop of Rome, who by sinister practices had drawn it into his hands, was for just considerations by public consent annexed unto the King's Royal Seat and Crown." ^ Making every allowance for Hook- er's extraordinary hallucination in not apparently realizing that civil power appertains to the State and Spiritual power to the Church, his statement of the Royal Supremacy in things Spiritual is lucid, and coming from so distinguish an Angli- can, has additional weight. It clearly expresses separation from and protest against the spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff. Whether the Bishop of Rome had drawn this spiritual power by sinister practice into his own hands, we have examined previously. It is unnecessary to follow the efforts made to pervert the doctrines of the Church during the period beginning in 1534, when Henry VIII was voted Spiritual Head of the Church, and ending with 1558, when by Act of Parliament the said Headship was decreed to be perpetual in Elizabeth and her successors. It is suflficient for our purpose to see the decisions concerning faith made in the first Convocation 1 Eccles. Pol. VIII., 8, 4. •59 after the Church of England had been fully established by law. As Supreme Governor in matters spiritual and ecclesiasti- cal, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, convoked the Arch- bishops and Bishops. They accordingly met in London from both provinces and were presided over by Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Parker had been instituted and invested with metropolitan power by the Queen. The Con- vocation was therefore duly summoned, it was composed of the teaching body of the Church of England, and it pos- sessed in its plentitude, subject to the Sovereign's final approval of its deeds, whatever authority the Crown could confer. The Articles of Doctrine were taken into serious consid- eration, they were duly discussed ; and finally the Thirty- nine Articles almost in their present form were adopted by Convocation in 1562. They became the legal standard of doctrine, symbol of the newly established Church. Sub- scription to them by the Clergy was enacted by Parliament in 1570; and the Laity are obliged by the sth Canon of the Church to abstain from asserting that "any of the. Nine and Thirty Articles are erroneous or such as may not be subscribed to with a good conscience." By the 36th Canon 1603, the Clergy are required to declare their assent not only to all the Articles and to the Supremacy, but like- wise to the Book of Common Prayer ; and finally, by Act of Parliament passed in 1662, all beneficiaries are to declare their " unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things 6o therein contained and prescribed." " His Majesty's Declar- ation," standing as preface to this new symbol, asserts : "that the Articles of the Church of England do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to God's Word : which we do therefore ratify and confirm, re- quiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohibiting the least difference from the said articles." Now, interpreting each of the Thirty-nine articles as pre- scribed in the Declaration of Charles the First, "in the plain and full meaning thereof, and not to put one's own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Article, but take it in the literal and grammatical sense," we see how thoroughly they are at variance with, and in opposition to the doctrines taught by St. Augustine which were held by the Church in England during the nine and a half centuries preceding the accession of Henry VIII. In this new Code, the principle of an infallible authority and unerring testimony on which heretofore Christian Rev- elation had been accepted is rejected, and there is substi- tuted private judgment. The field of Revelation is re- stricted to the Written Word without Apostolic Tradition. The Sacrifice of the Mass is henceforward to be regarded as "a blasphemous fable and a dangerous deceit." Its correlative doctrine of the Real Presence of Transubstan- tiation is to be held as " repugnant to the plain words of Scripture." The Sacraments are reduced to two, the other five being discarded as rather " of the corrupt following of 6i the Apostles" than as "Sacraments of the Gospel." The worship of the Blessed Virgin, of the Saints, of Relics, and the doctrine of Purgatory are all summarily repudiated as "fond things vainly invented." The Book of Common Prayer, first put forth in 1549 and settled in its present form in 1662, became the Liturgy of the Church established by Act of Parliament. Compiled in the main* from Catholic Missals, it is necessarily saturated with Catholic teaching and is accordingly oftentimes in open contradiction with the Thirty-nine Articles. On one funda- mental question, that of a Sacrificing Priesthood, the decla- rations of the Articles prevailed. In the Book of Common Prayer thg Mass became a Communion Service, the Altar a Communion Table and the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament explicitly and formally denied in the so-called Black Rubric in these terms : " Whereas it is ordained in this Ofiice for the Administra- tion of the Lord's Supper, that the Communicant should re- ceive the same kneeling; (which order is well meant, for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receiv- ers, and for the avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy Communion, as might otherwise ensue) ; yet, lest the same kneeling should by any persons, either out of ig- norance or infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy, be mis- construed and depraved; it is hereby declared. That thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received, or Cornell Catholic Union Library. 62 unto any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored; (for that were Idolatry, to be abhorred of the faith- ful Christians) ; and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one." From the forms for "the ordering of priests and bish- ops," the words expressing the essential work and office of a priest namely, the offering of sacrifice were deliberately expunged. It is true that a century later. Convocation did insert in the form of ordination "/or the office and work of a Priest J " "for the office and work of a Bishop." But this addition could not restore the lost succession of a Sacri- ficing Priesthood ; nor did it as a matter of fact prevent the utter destruction in the Established Communion, and in the minds of the People of England, of the idea of the Christain Sacrifice and Altar. To justify the assumption of Spiritual Supremacy by Henry VIII, it is asserted that the Pope of Rome had dur- ing successive ages usurped the universal headship in spirit- ual matters. To justify the rejection of doctrines held by the Roman Church and by the Greek Sects, it is necessary to say that the Church had corrupted the Gospel ; or in the graphic but horrible words of the Homilies : « Laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects and degrees of 63 men, women and children of the whole of Christendom had been at once drowned in abominable idolatry ; and that for the space of eight hundred years and more." It will be remarked that this proves too much ; for if it be accepted, then did "the Gates of Hell prevail against the Church," and Christian Truth was destroyed. See to what straits men are driven to justify their evil deeds and their revolt. • Henceforth to profess the Faith planted by Augustine was penal; it could only be done at the loss of civil rights. It was felony for a foreigner to teach the Faith of our Fathers, and High Treason if it were done by a subject of the Realm. These and sundry other penal laws remained in force till the Emancipation Act of 1829. They had sent many a ma.TtyT to heaven. In the reign of Elizabeth alone, 129 priests, 59 laymen, and 3 women sacrificed their lives rather than deny the Old Faith. Clearly the Church of England rejected, repudiated and protested against the Faith of Rome as formally as she did against Rome's Spiritual Jurisdiction. Rightly therefore is she designated Protestant. She broke with Rome on Authority and on Doctrine. By her separation she severed herself from the divine jurisdiction of the Catholic Church and lost every claim to Catholicity. "We see," says Cardinal Newman, "in the English Church, I will not merely say no descent from the first ages, and no relationship to the Church in other lands, but we see no Body Politic of any kind, we see nothing more or less than an Establishment, 64 a department of government, or a function or operation of the State— without substance— a mere collection of officials depending on and living in the supreme Civil Power." J Engendered by Henry VIII and brought to maturity in the early years of Elizabeth's reign the State Church retained the Cathedrals and Churches and the present divisions into dioceses and parishes. Outwardly the form was that of the Old Church, but inwardly the living divine authority was substituted by that of the human power of the Crown of England. It was a new creation— the "Church of England." The Anglican Communion became one aspect of the State or mode of civil government ; it is responsible for nothing ; it depends on the will of its supreme power whom it repre sents. The consequence is, it has no identity of existence nor unity of faith. And as Newman aptly remarks the Church of England " is as little bound by what it said or did formerly as this morning's newspaper by its former numbers except as it is bound by Law. ***** Elizabeth boasted that she tuned her pulpit ; Charles forbade discussions on Predesti- nation ; George on the Holy Trinity; Victoria allows differ- ences on Holy Baptism." To this may be added that the Queen permits irreconcilable divergencies concerning the Inspiration of Scripture, the Presence of Christ in the Eu- charist, and the practice of Confession — all of which, may be taught or rejected in the Church of England without danger of expulsion. If Anglican difticulties, p. 5, 6s Three dynasties, the Tudor, the Stuart and the Hanover- ian have ruled England since the Establishment was born, and what naturally might have been expected has come to pass. It has been well said, "under the Tudors royal authority predominated, under the Stuarts episcopal; Cran- mer was type of the one, and Andrewes and Overall of the other. * * * * Elizabeth was despotic, the Stuarts Anglo-Ca^olic, their successors essentially Protestant. The Tudors required all persons to agree with themselves, the Stuarts with their Bishops, and William of Orange was indifferent what men believed so long as they differed from the Pope." Her present gracious Majesty, aided by her Privy Council, has on different occasions decided grave controversies of Faith — notably on Baptism, the Eucharist and Confession. By Letters Patent, like Bulls of Popes, has the Queen created Ecclesiastical hierarchies in her own dominions. Not content with this, beyond the limit of her own dominions has she erected the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem, and some other ten missionary bishoprics. In virtue of Her Majesty's Commission the Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar ex- ercises a roving jurisdiction on the seaboard of countries around the Mediterranean. Similarly by virtue of the same royal authority, the Archbishop of Canterbury exercises pas- toral care over the Anglican communities scattered through Northern and Central Europe. By 5 Victoria, Cap. 6, it is enacted that the Archbishop of Canterbury and York may consecrate British subjects or foreigners to be Bishops in 66 foreign countries and it is declared that such "Bishops so consecrated may exercise, within such limits as may from time to time be assigned for that purpose in such foreign countries by Her Majesty, spiritual jurisdiction over the min- isters of British congregations of the United Church of England and Ireland, and over such other Protestant con- gregations as may be desirous of placing themselves under their authority." Even were the Queen possessed of such divine spiritual power, this enactment is made ignoring that the intrusion of bishops into the dioceses of others is formally condemned by the first Ecumenical Council of the Church, held at Nice in 325. The action of the Queen in our own day is a tangible proof that the Supremacy claimed over doctrine and in jurisdiction by the Tudors in the i6th century is vigorously acted on by the Hanoverians in the 19th century. This exercise of Spiritual Supremacy is by no means an en- forced imposition on the Protestant Bishops of England. Assembled in Convocation in 1854, their Lordships voted an address to her present Majesty, Queen Victoria, in these words: " we not only recognize but highly prize your Majesty's Supremacy in all causes ecclesiastical over all persons, and every part of your Majesty's Dominions, as it was maintained in ancient times, against the usurpation of the See of Rome, and was recovered and re-asserted at the Reformation." The Anglican Communion remains as it ever was the Creature of the State, begotten by Act of Parliament, ani- mated by the civil authority of the Crown, and at the mefcy 67 of Act of Parliament for the continuance of its life. Here is Cardinal Newman's opinion of it, given in his Apologia ;! "I am bound to cornfess that I felt a great change in my view of the Church of England. I cannot tell how soon there came on me — ^but very soon — an extreme astonishment that I had ever imagined it to be a portion of the Cathqjic Church. For the first time I looked at it from without, and (as I should myself say) saw it as it was. Forth- with I could not get myself to see in it anything else, than what I had so long fearfully suspected, from as far back as 1836 — a mere national institution. As if my eyes were sud- denly opened, so I saw it — spontaneously, apart from any definite act or reason or any argument ; and so I have seen it ever since. * * * * When I looked upon the poor Anglican Church, for which I had labored so hard, and upon all that appertained to it, and thought of our various attempts to dress it up doctrinally and aesthetically, it seemed to me to be the veriest of nonentities. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. * * * * I am not speaking of the Anglican Church with disdain though to people I seem contemptuous. To them it is of course " Aut Csesar aut nuUus, but not to me. It may be a great creation though it be not divine, and this is how I judge Jt. * * * * I recognize in the Anglican. Church a time honored institution of noble historical mem- ories, a monument of ancient wisdom, a momentous arm of political strength, a great national organ, a source of vast \ Apologia p. 339, 68 popular advantage, and, to a certain point a witness and teacher of religious truth. * * * * -g^^ ^jjat it is some- thing sacred, that it is an -oracle of revealed doctrine, that it can claim a share in St. Ignatius or St. Cyprian, that it can take the rank, contest the teaching, and stop the path of the Church of St. Peter, that it can call itself the ' Bride of the Lamb,' this is the view of it which simply disappeared from my mind on my conversion, and which would be almost a miracle to reproduce. ' I went by and lo ! it was gone ; I sought it but its place could nowhere be found ; ' and noth- ing can bring it back to me. And as to its possession of an Episcopal succession from the time of the Apostles, well, it may have it, and if the Holy See ever so decide, I will be- lieve it as being the decision of a higher judgment than my own ; but, for myself I must have St. Philip's gift, who saw the sacerdotal character on the forehead of a gaily attired youngster, before I can by own wit acquiesce in it, for anti- quarian arguments are altogether unequal to the urgency of visible facts." To sum up : — I. The Established Church of England rejected the divine and spiritual authority of the successors of St. Peter; took in its stead human authority from the Sovereign of England, and so constituted itself a State Department of the Crown. II. The Established Church of England rejected the divine and therefore infallible teaching authority of the Church; it substituted private judgment; it created the 69 Thirty-nine Articles as the boundary and symbol of its doctrine ; it accepted the Crown, aided later by the Coun- cil, which may be composed of men of any or no religion, as the ultimate judge of its doctrine. III. The result has been that England which for nine centuries believed in one Church and had one faith, is at present, according to Whitaker's Almanac for this year, split up mto some one hundred and fifty sects. The Church of England herself boasts of a comprehensiveness ranging from the most attenuated latitudinarinism to the extremest ritualistic doctrine ; and were it not for the iron hand of the State, which grasps her firmly, she would fall to pieces by the warring elements of High, Low and Broad existing within. IV. The Protestant Episcopalian Church in the United States is daughter of the Church established by Law in England. The daughter has the same symbol of Faith, the Thirty-nine Articles ; the same Liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, toned down by allowing the article in the Apostles' Creed on the Descent into Hell, to be considered unimportant, by the omission of the Athanasian Creed, as well as of every trace of auricular confession, together with the suppression of the form of absolution from -the office of the Visitation of the Sick, and augmented by sundry "Enrichments." She has her doctrine, her discipline, her worship from the English Es- tablishment. In common with her Mother she protests 70 against the supremacy of St. Peter and his successors ; she protests against the teaching brought from Rome by Augustine. Rightly therefore does the daughter bear the name Protestant. She holds no communion with Rome ; she has no jurisdiction from the See of Peter ; consequently she forms no part of the Organic Body of Christ, nor indeed of any other organism, for, like her Mother, and apart from that Mother, she forms a separate and inde- pendent Corporation possessed of human authority and bereft of every shred of the divine jurisdiction which appertains to the Catholic Church. There are of her pastors a limited but increasing number who, relying on the Book of Common Prayer aind ignoring the Thirty-nine Articles to which they ex animo pledged themselves by oath, teach in contradiction to the Doctrinal Code of their Communion, the characteristic doctrines of the Catholic Church. , These clergymen insist on a blind obedience to their teaching and direction, the like of which is unknown in the Church which claims the gift of infallibil- ity. These call themselves Catholic, and stigmatize as Prot- estant their brother clergy and bishops who are pleased to follow the more logical procedure of taking doctrine from the Articles, to explain the devotional expressions of the Prayer Book. But to arrogate the name Catholic does oot generate Catholicity. None are louder in their denunciation of an " Infallible Pope " than are holders of these tenets. Surely they ought to realize that they themselves act as though they are the unerring expounders of the Book 71 of Common Prayer and of the Articles. They ought to know that Bishops and not priests constitute the "Eccle- sia docens." The words of St. Ignatius, of the second century, are as true now as then. He says : " Apart from the Bishop it is neither lawful to baptize nor to hold an agape ; but whatever he judges right, that also is well pleasing unto God, that all which is done may be safe and sure."i Clergymen who act otherwise must not be surprised that men of common sense finally prefer subjec- tion to one canonically elected Pope, instead of to many self-constituted Popes. In one particular the absence of Catholicity in the Prot- estant Episcopal Church of the United States is more pa- tent than in her Mother. For the English Church at least claims authority, whatever be its nature, from the Sover- eign ; but her American daughter draws hers from no- where. She is an authority to herself. Allow for the sake of argument that her Orders derived from Scotland and England are valid — a fact extremely dubious, seeing that in our own day a large number of the Anglican clergy holding benefices in England, alarmed by the evidence brought against their Orders, have been not only re-ordained but conditionally baptized, re-confirmed, and have secured some five properly consecrated bishops who actively continue this work of re-ordination. Admit the validity of the orders, whence does the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States derive its mission and jurisdiction ? 1 £p. ad Smyr. n. 8. 72 The Sovereign of England claimed a century ago to be the fountain head of spiritual jurisdiction only within the British Realm. In the reign of the present Queen, Parlia- ment has given greater extension to this claim. Previous to the Independence there were no Anglican bishops in the present United States. The only supervision of the clergy was done by the Bishop of London, appointed by the Sov- ereign of England to be overseer of the Colonies. Eight years elapsed before Dr. Seabury was elected to be the first bishop and was consecrated by certain bishops in Scot- land. Three years later two others, Dr. White and Dr. Provost, consecrated in England, were added. It was not till 1789 that the union and settlement of the Protestant Episcopalians into one ecclesiastical corporation was ef- fected. The time of its creation is thus determined to be seventeen and a half centuries after the birth of the "Body of Christ." It could not have received iurisdiction from England; there is no pretension that jurisdiction was obtained from the President of the United States, who by the way has as much right to accord it as has the Sover- eign of England ; clearly therefore the authority of the Protestant Episcopal Church has no origin outside of itself. It is a corporation possessed of such authority' as its own members may create, define and accept. This authority is but human, and depends for extension, restric- tion, existence and validity on the will of the majority. The complete autonomy of the Protestant Episcopal Church is secured ; it is not one in government with its mother, 73 for in an evil moment it introduced lay representation, " an unfortunate example, set in a bad time," wrote the late Doctor Pusey. This isolation of the " Protestant Episcopal Church " deprives it of Catholicity, and makes it stand to the Church of Christ in the same relation that the United States do to England, namely, separated and independent. The position of the " Protestant Episcopal Church " is, so far as self-government is concerned, one with that of the "Methodist Episcopal Church." John Wesley was but a presbyter of the Anglican Communion. He without any sanction of the Established Church, and much against his will, called into existence another corporation or sect differ- ing in doctrine and discipline. The Church of England had been separated from Rome not more than two centu- ries, and already were the poor neglected and the middle class lost to the National Establishment. And indeed it has to be added, they have never been regained. Wesley was deeply moved by their spiritual wants. He labored very earnestly and was pre-eminently successful. It is said that before his death his followers numbered 80,000. Wesley perceived that the consequence of American Inde- pendence to his followers would be the formation of an inde- pendent Society. To meet the emergency Wesley convinced himself that presbyter and bishop were one and the same order in the early ages of the Church. And thereupon he laid hands on, and set aside Coke as bishop of the nascent community of Methodists in the States. Of this mode of creating Episcopal orders, there is no need of discussion 74 here. For our purpose it is sufScient to know that Coke came in Wesley's name and with Wesley's authority to the Conference at Baltimore in 1784 to announce that a separate and independent Methodist Church might be created under Episcopal rule. The organization was formed, the body has grown and prospered. It has numerically threefold more clergy and laity than have the Protestant Episcopalians. The spiritual authority to which it lays claim, is derived from no external source, it was begotten by its own clergy, and can be restricted, extended or destroyed by the acts of the Body. The authority is indubitably human. The "Protestant Episcopal Church" of the United States has no other title to its authority in things spiritual. It cannot produce any credentials to show that it derives au- thority from the living Mystic Body of Christ. In common with its Methodist sister it can claim only that authority which was created by its members, an authority purely human, not divine. At the Convention one of the speakers, Mr. Stewart, is reported to have said : " Is this Church to call itself Hhe Catholic Church' of the United States ? Was it universal ? He thought that the proposition savored a good deal of vanity. He thought that it would be an act of assumption which would render them ridiculous in the eyes of the religious and civilized world." Rev. Dr. Fulton, in the course of the same debate is re- ported to have said that " He lived in a city of 350,000 in- habitants, and he did not think the church had more than 75 2,5 oo communicants there. Honestly computed he sup- posed that the whole membership of the Protestant Episco- pal Church in this country was not more than two per cent. of the population. It might be three per cent, but he doubted it. * * * * In view of the single fact which he had mentioned, would it be modest or truthful to call the Protestant Episcopalian The Holy Catholic Church of the United Stafts of America." " The Holy Catholic Church" universally admitted to be the Mother and Mistress of Churches, which planted the Faith in England and established there thirteen centuries ago a Hierarchy of Order and Jurisdiction, and which a second time, in 1850, erected the Hierarchy for the small remnant who stood true to the Old Faith, did, as soon as America was discovered, duly commission her Priests to bear to the new continent the light of the Gospel. The proc- lamation made to the natives by the discovering Spaniards bears these remarkable words: "the Church: the Queen and Sovereign of the World." Cplumbus and his crew having been absolved after con- fession, received the Blessed Sacrament, heard Holy Mass, and embarked in the Santa Maria and two small vessels. Night and morning from off the unknown deep did they chant Ave Maris Stella. When the long-looked for land hove in sight, the indomitable Columbus and his now joy- ous crew on bended knee sang Te Deuni to God the Mighty. Next day, Oct. 14, X492, Columbus as Lord 76 High Admiral, and bearing the Royal Standard of Spain, landed, and in the beautiful words of Washington Irving, "threw himself upon his knees, kissed the earth and re- turned thanks to God with tears of joy. Then rising, he drew his sword, displayed the royal standard and took pos- session in the names of the Castilian Sovereigns." The soil and island he consecrated with the name of the Holy Redeemer, San Salvador. Columbus returned to Spain, and on his next journey across the Atlantic, he brought with him a Vicar-Apostolic and twelve priests. These erected their fir-st church at Isabella, Hayti in 1494. This may be regarded as the oc- casion when ' the Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Roman' was planted in America. She is the oldest institution in the new continent, and from the day of her establishment has ever increased. Along the seaboard, from the West Indies down to Cape Horn, thence up the whole of the Pacific Coast to Beh- ring's Straits, inland into South America, into Mexico and among the Aborigines, did missionaries armed with the au- thority of Rome, erect the cross and preach the glad tidings of salvation. The very names of the towns bear evidence to the faith of the colonists. " The Dominicans, Francis- cans, and Jesuits of Spain share between them the South from Florida to California; the Recollects and Jesuits of France traverse the country in every direction, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the shores of the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay; and finally. 77 the English Jesuits plant the Cross for a time amid the tribes of Maryland, during the short time of Catholic supremacy in that colony. The Spaniards were the first to preach the Gospel in the territory now actually comprised in the United States." ' Within fifty years of the discovery, America could count her martyrs, her bishops and dioceses. In 1529 the See of Sta. Marta m New Granada was erected; in 1531 that of Caraccas in Venezuela; in 1539 that of Lima; in 1551 that of Chiquisca in Bolivia; in 1561 at Santiago; inis6iatBahia in the Brazils; in 1570 at Cardova. In North America the soil was well purpled with the blood of martyr missionaries, and as usual the Church increased. The conquest of Mex- ico was followed by the formation of a diocese. With the expedition of Narvaez in 1528 into Florida were mission- aries, one of whom was Juan Juarez, appointed by the Pope, Bishop of Florida, the first Bishop in the States. Sees were erected in Montreal and Quebec in 1659 and 1674. It will be remembered that the Church of England was established or created in 1533, — that is five years after the first Bishop was appointed to Florida, and the " Protestant Episcopalian Church" does not appear as a corporate body till two hundred and sixty years later. An English expedi- tion landed at the site of the present Jamestown, May 13, 1607, on which occasion Revd.Dr. May, a member of the 1, See Mr. Gilmary Shea's most interesting " New Hist, of Cath. Ch. in the United States," and Mr. W. H. Sadlier's admirable School History of the United States. 78 party, and clergyman of the Church of England, adminis- tered communion ; probably the second time the Anglican rite was performed on American soil. The first occasion was by Master Wolf all in Frobisher's Expedition of 1578, which failed to get a footing. After the settlement of Virginia, Sir George Yeardly convened the first Legislative Assembly. It enacted immediately that the Church of England should be established in the colony; and measures were taken for the formation of a convention of clergy. The first was held in 1621, and from the account left, there were in the whole colony only five clergymen. The Bishop of Lon- don, England, undertook to procure others. And as was said previously, it was not till 1784 that the Protestant Episcopalians had bishops, or dioceses, and a corporate ex- istence in 1789. The current of immigration has brought a host of Catho- lics to the Eastern seaboard of North America fleeing before persecution, or seeking in a new land the fortune denied them in their country. Of all nations and tribes, and peo- ples, yet one in the blessed gift of Faith, they are inde- pendent witnesses from every clime of the uniform doctrine of the Roman Church, though taught in many tongues. It is said that in the two Americas there are at present fifty-five million Catholics under the spiritual government of one hundred and ninety Bishops or Vicars Apostolic. Of these about eight millions are in the United States. They are governed by Pastors constituted by the Roman Pontiff in hierarchical order. The first diocese was created in 1789; and now ten archiepiscopal provinces having seventy- 79 one Bishops and six thousand eight hundred Priests, form the great and only artery through which divine spirit- ual authority in faith, morals and discipline flows from the fountain-head, the See of Peter, to the inhabitants of the United States. As citizens of the great American Republic joyfully do Catholics render obedience, for conscience sake, to the au- thorities thafcbe. They rejoice and gratefully acknowledge there is neither let nor hindrance in the exercise of their re- ligion. In their conduct they show that while permitted to render freely to God and His Church, their service, they the more heartily render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. They are for this very reason a solid moral power in the States. On the other hand, their unity of faith, their obedience to pastors, their attachment to Holy Church, their many insti- tutions founded mainly by the generous sacrifices of the poor, their undying efforts to secure religious education: are so many tongues loudly proclaiming to all the presence and the living power of the Church One, Holy, Catholic and Roman in the United States. * The hearts of these millions of Catholics earnestly long and pray that all their fellow-citizens may enter the One Fold. Faithful Catholics, masters and servants, poor and rich, day by day appeal to the Throne of Mercy that light to know the truth, and strength to follow it, may be given to all Americans, but more especially to those with whom they are brought in personal contact. * The Methodist Convention now sitting passed a resolution to send Missionaries among these as among the heathen !! 8o The pastors of the nascent church in the States placed, with the approval of Rome, the country under the patron- age of Mary Immaculate anxious that her Son may be served in spirit and in truth on a soil which is not sullied by its people having revolted against the Church and her doctrine. They repeat to the Episcopalians of the United States as S. Augustine of Hippo, did to the Do- natists of North Africa, who prided themselves on their religious national unity, and relied on the number and succession of their Bishops : " Come, brethren, if you wish to be inserted in the vine ; for we grieve when we see you lie thus, cut off from it. Number the Bishops from the very Seat of Peter, and in that list of fathers see what has been the succession ; this is the rock against which the proud gates of hell do not prevail." The world without stigmatizes this Church as "Roman- ist," and, thtr^iort, foreign. It is an appeal to the passions of the people. Do those who so speak forget that Jesus Christ and his twelve Apostles were of the Jewish race, and therefore foreigners ? Obedience of the children of the Church in matters spiritual to the fountain-head of authority, the Holder of which may be of any nationality residing in Rome, is no more foreign than is obedience to the Apostles, who abode in Palestine. As we have seen, the Church of Christ is to be universal, and not national ; therefore to it nothing can be foreign. 1 Psalm C. PQn S. Aug 1 and 7, 8i In calling the Church Roman it is not by way of con- trast to " Protestant Episcopal," to " English," to " Meth- odist," to "Anglo or Old Catholics." The term is used to express the source whence all divine authority flows to every part of the Church. As the historian Lingard has well said : " There is nothing offensive in this appellation, as in other jiames with which we are frequently honored. If, then, we refuse to adopt it, the reason is^ because it imports what is irreconcilable with our principles, that Churches which have separated from the ancient Catholic Church may still have a right to the title of Catholic."^ And it has to be remembered " Roman " is not of yester- day, though persecution has necessitated accentuating the name in certain countries in our times. "It will be anticipated,"* says Newman, "that the dura- tion of error had not the faintest tendency to deprive the ancient Church of the West of the title of Catholic ; and it is needless to produce evidence of a fact which is on the very face of the history. The Arians seem never to have claimed the Catholic name. // is more than remarkable that the Catholics during this period" (that is, from the be- ginning of the fifth to the end of the sixth century) "were denoted 6y the additional title of ^Romans' Of this there are many proofs in the history of St. Gregory of Tours, Victor of Vite, and the Spanish Councils. * * * This appellation had two meanings; one which will readily \ Cwechism, p. So, 2 Development, p. 729, 82 suggest itself, is its use in contrast to the word 'bar- barian' as denoting the faith of the Empire, as 'Greek' occurs in St. Paul's Epistle. In this sense it would more naturally be used by the Romans themselves than by others. * * * * gyj- ^ijg -v^ord certainly contains also an allusion to the faith and communion of the Roman See. In this sense the Emperor Theodosius, in his letter to Accasius of Bercea, contrasts it with Nestorianism, which was within the Empire as well as Catholicism ; during the controversy raised by that heresy, he exhorts him and oth- ers to shew themselves ' approved priests of the Roman reli- gion.' " Newman continues citing facts and phrases from several authors, among others the Emperor Gratian and St. Jerome, so as to support his statement. It would be too long to quote these in full ; the following will sufifice for the purposes of this pamphlet. " The chief ground of the Vandal Huneric's persecution of the African Catholics seems to have been their connec- tion with their brethren beyond the sea, which he looked at with jealousy as introducing a foreign power into his ter- ritory. Prior to this he had published an edict calling on the Homousian Bishops (for on this occasion he did not call them Catholics) to meet his own bishops at Carthage, and treat concerning the Faith that ' their meetings to the seduction of Christian souls might not be held in the pro- vinces of the Vandals.' Upon this invitation Eugenius of Carthage replied that all transmarine Bishops of the Or- thodox Communion ought to be summoned, ' in particular 83 because it is a matter for the whole world, not special to the African provinces,' that ' they could not undertake a point of faith sine universitatis assensu.' Huneric answered that if Eugenius would make him sovereign of the orbis terrarum he would comply with his request. This led Eugenius to say that the orthodox faith was 'the only true faith ;' that the king ought to write to his allies abroad, if he wished to know it; and that he himself would write to his brethren for foreign bishops, 'who,' he says, 'may assist us in setting before you the true faith, common to them and to us, and especially to the Roman Church, which is the head of all Churches' Morcr over the African Bishops in their banishment to Sardinia, to the number of sixty, with S. Fulgentius at their head, quote with approbation the words of Pope Hormisdas, to the effect that they hold on 'the point of free will and divine grace what the Soman, that is the Catholic, Church follows and preserves." * * * * " Nor was the association of Catholocism with the See of Rome an introduction of that age. The Emperor Gra- tian, in the fourth century, had ordered that the Churches, which the Arians had usurped, should be restored (not to those who held 'the Catholic faith,' or 'the Nicene creed,' or were ' in communion with the orbis terrarum ' ) but ' who chose the communion of Damasus,' the then Pope. It was St. Jerome's rule also in some well-known passages. Writing against Ruffinus, who had spoken of 'our faith,' he says: What does he mean by 'his faith'? That which is the 84 strength of the Roman Church, or that which is contained in the works of Origen ? If he answer ' the Roman,' then we are Catholics who have borrowed nothing of Origen's error ; but if Origen's blasp'hemy be his faith, then while he is charging me with inconsistency he proves himself to be an 'heretic' The other passage is still more ex- actly to the point, because it was written on occasion of a schism. The divisions at Antioch had thrown the Cath- olic Church into a remarkable position ; there were two bishops in the See — one in connection with the East, the other with Egypt and the West — with which was there ' Catholic Communion.' St. Jerome had no doubt on the subject. Writing to St. Damasus he says: 'Since the East tears into pieces the Lord's coat, * * * therefore by me is the chair of Peter to be consulted, and that faith which is prized by the Apostle's mouth. * * * Though your greatness terrifies me, yet your kindness invites me. From the Priest I ask the salvation of the victim, from the Shepherd the protection of the sheep. Let us speak without offence : I court not the Roman height : I speak with the successor of the Fisherman and the disciple of the Cross. I who follow none as my chief but Christ, am associated in communion with thy blessedness, that is, with the See of Peter. On the rock the Church is . built. Whoso shall eat the Lamb outside that House is profane. * * * I know not this Vatalis ' (the. Apolinarian) ; ' Meletius I re- ject ; I am ignorant of Paulinus. Whoso gathereth not with thee, scattereth; that is, he who is not of Christ is of 85 Anti-Christ.' Again: ' The ancient authority of the monks dwelling round about, rises against me; I meanwhile cry out, if any be joined to Peter's chair he is mine.' " " Here was what may be considered a dignus vindice nodus, the Church being divided, and an arbiter wanted. Such a case had also occurred in Africa in the controversy with the Donatists. Four hundred bishops, though in but one region, weje a fifth part of the whole Episcopate of Christen- dom, and might seem too many for a schism, and in them- selves too large a body to be cut off from God's inheritance by a mere majority, even had it been overwhelming. St. Augustine, then, who so often appeals to the orbis terrarutn, sometimes adopts a more prompt criterion. He tells cer- tain Donatists to whom he writes that the Catholic Bishop of Carthage " was able to make light of the thronging mul- titude of his enemies, when he found himself by letters of credence joined both to the Roman Church, in which ever had flourished the principality of the Apostolical See, and to the other lands whence the gospel came to Africa itself." And Newman concludes : " There are good reasons then for explaining the Gothic and Arian use of the word ' Ro- man,' when applied to the Catholic Church and faith, of something beyond its mere connection with the Empire, which the barbarians were assaulting ; nor would ' Roman ' surely be the most obvious word to denote the orthodox faith, in the mouths of a people who had learned their her- esy from a Roman Emperor and Court." In unmistakable terms do the voices of these great ser- 86 vants of God come to us from the fourth arid fifth centuries declaring the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church to be Roman. And the Old Church of St, Augustine planted in England gives no uncertain note. The voice of St. Aldhelm, first Bishop of Sherbun in England, who died 709 proclaims : " To conclude everything in the casket of one short sen- tence. In vain of the Catholic faith do they vainly boast, who follow not the teaching and rule of St. Peter. For the foundation of the Church and ground of the faith primar- ily in Christ and then in Peter, unrocked by the stress of tempests, shall not waver, the Apostle so pronouncing (i Cor. iii, 11;) other foundation no one can lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But to Peter has the Truth thus sanctioned the Church's privilege (Matt, xvi.) ' Thou art Peter, and upon his this Rock I will build my Church." And Alcuin the most distinguished English scholar of the latter half of the Eighth century writes : "Lest he be found to be a schismatic or a non-Catholic, let him follow the most approved authority of the Roman Church, that whence we have received the seeds of the Catholic faith that we may find the exemplars of salvation, lest the members be severed from the head, lest the Key-bearer of the Heavenly King- dom exclude such as he shall recognize as alien from his teaching." ' And St. Anselm, the famous scholastic philosopher and 1 Ep. 75. 87 Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1089, informs us : " It is certain that he who does not obey the ordinances of the Roman Pontiff, which are issued for the maintenance of the Christian religion, is disobedient to the Apostle Peter, whose Vicar he is, nor is he of that flock which was given to him (Peter) by God. Let him then find some other gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, for by those he shall not go in, of which t^e Apostle Peter holds the Keys." ' And the holy abbot of Ridal in Yorkshire, St. Aelred, whom Butler says died in 1167, earnestly exhorts : * " Breth- ren, let no one seduce you with vain words. Let no one say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there, since Christ ever abides in the faith of Peter, which the Holy Roman Church has especially received from Peter, and retains in the Rock, which is Christ. * * * Of this Church Peter was the first Prince, to whom it was said, ' Upon this Rock I will build My Church ; ' and again, ' Feed My sheep ; ' and again, ' To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be boiind too in heaven,' and the rest. This is the Church which the Holy Apostle calls of the first-born, the plentitude of- whose power in the person of its Prince passing over from the East to the West by the authority of the Holy Spirit established itself in the Roman Church. * * * This is the Roman Church, with whom he who communicates not is a heretic. To her it belongs to ad- 1 Lib. iv., Ep. xiii. 2 Serra. 83— cited from Ryder's Catholic Controversy. 88 vise all, to judge of all, to provide for all, to whom in Peter that word was addressed, ' And thou, some time con- verted, confirm thy brethren.' Whatsoever she decrees I receive ; I approve what she approves ; what she condemns I condemn." In the nineteenth century in the days in which we live the Roman Church is One : (i) — All her members, though of all tongues, and political parties, and forms of govern- ment, are united in closest communion under the Visible ,Head, who, together with the one Episcopate held by the successors of the Apostolic College — the Bishops dis- persed through the whole communion, whom the Holy Ghost appoints — rule and govern this Body Politic, this living Organization. (2) — There is one and the same prin- ciple of faith, namely, divine authority and testimony for one body of doctrines held by her pastors and people individually and collectively. (3) — There is one sacra- mental system and worship, receiving the same explanation and producing the same effects in the possession of all her children. The Roman Church is ZTf^/i' .• (i) Because her doctrine is in itself holy, ever inviting men to ascend higher and higher in virtue. (2) She is Aoly because she has begotten a mighty army of heroic saints, and martyrs, and virgins. On every soil has she planted and founded institutions created and directed by those who wishing to be perfect, give up home and wealth to labor for their Master in suffering humanity. {3) She is /lo/y because consumed by the desire to enkindle 89 the fire of divine love on earth ; she is instant in season, and out of season in preaching the gospel to those who are in sin or in darkness. The glory of converting Pagan na- tions is hers. This no Protestant sect, backed by illimited wealth or the greatest political power, has ever been able to effect. The Roman Church is Catholic: (i) because she is of no one nation jind in her constitution and her teaching she is fitted to all people and forms of government. (2) Because her principle of faith is applicable to all, young and old, learned and unlearned. (3) Because her identity of existence from Pentecost day till now can be plainly traced. (4) Because she alone has the whole of Revelation — the Faith delivered to the saints. Circumstances have obliged her to formu- late' the Faith in dogmatic decisions and creeds so as to bear witness to what is contained in the deposit of faith ; but such authoritative declarations are no additions to the Faith, they do but unwrap what it contains and explicitly expose its separate doctrines. (5) Because she admits of no rival; she is ever aggressive, condemning schism and her- esy; by friend and by foe she is known as the Catholic Church. The tide of indifference, of agnosticism, of infidelity, of socialism, of civil disorder is rapidly rising. God's Church can alone stem it. Numbers and influence and wealth co- operating with the Spouse of Christ can help to do great things to aid in saving humanity from the growing ills. 90 She is the Church of your Baptism, to whom you owe allegiance and obedience; for the saving waters of regen- eration are the portal to but one Church. They made you not members of Protestantism, but children of the Church of God. To you then who fondly believe your religious society to be Catholic, and wish it to be so called, allow me to address, in sincerest affection, the earnest Apostolic words of Pius IX. of glorious memory : "We conjure and beseech you, with all the warmth of our zeal, and in all charity, to consider and seriously examine whether you follow the path marked out for you by Jesus Christ our Lord, which leads to eternal salvation. No one can deny or doubt that Jesus Christ himself, in order to apply the fruit of His redemption to all generations of men, built His only Church in this world on Peter; that is to say, the Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic ; and that He gave to it all the necessary power, that the deposit of faith might be preserved whole and inviolable, and that the same faith might be taught to all peoples, kindreds and nations ; that through baptism, all men might become members of this Mystical Body, and that the new life of grace without which no one can ever merit and attain to life eternal might always be preserved and perfected in them ; and that this same Church which is His Mystical Body might always remain in its own nature, firm and immovable to the end of time ; that it might flourish and supply to all its children all the means of salvation. 91 " Now, whoever will carefully examine and reflect upon the condition of the various religious societies, divided among themselves, and separated from the Catholic Church, which from the days of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apos- tles, has never ceased to exercise by its lawful pastors, and still continue, to exercise, the divine power committed to it by this same Lord ; cannot fail to satisfy himself that neither any one of these societies by itself, nor all of them together, can in any manner constitute and be that One Catholic Church which our Lord built and established, and willed should continue ; and that they cannot in any way be said to be branches or parts of that Church, since they are visi- bly cut off from Catholic unity. " For, whereas such societies are destitute of that living authority established by God, which especially teaches men what is of faith, and what the rules of morals, and directs and guides them in all those things which pertain to eternal salvation ; so they have continually varied in their doctrines, and this change and variation is ceaselessly going on among them. " Every one must perfectly understand, and clearly and evidently see, that such a state of things is directly opposed to the na!ture of the Church instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ ; for in that Church truth must always continue firm and ever inaccessable to all change, as a deposit given to that Church to be guided in its integrity, for the guardian- ship of which the presence and aid of the Holy Ghost have been promised to the Church forever." PART II. I. ST. CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage, " On the Unity of the Church." a. d. 251. 3. ST. CYRIL, Bishop of Jerusalem, Lecture 18, " On the Catholic Church." a. d. 347. 3. ST. PACIAN, Bishop of Barcelona, " On the Name Catholic." a. d. 373. 4. MACAULAY, Extracts from Essay on Rank6. a. d. 1840. I. ST. CYPRIAN ON THE UNITY OF THK CHURCH. For as much as the Lord warns us, saying, Ye are the salt of the earth, and bids us to possess an innocent simplicity, yet bein^ simple, to be also prudent, is it not befitting, dearest brethren, to hold ourselves in wariness, and by keeping watch with an anxious heart, to become forewarned and withal forearmed, against the snares of our subtle ene- my ? lest we, who have put on Christ, the Wisdom of God the Father, should yet be found to lack wisdom, for the making sure of our salvation. That persecution is not the only one to be feared, which advances by open assault to the ruin and downfall of God's servants; caution is easy, where the danger is manifest; and the mind is in readiness for the battle, when the enemy makes himself known. More to be feared and more to be watched is a foe, who creeps upon us unawares, who deceives under the image of peace, and glides forward with those stealthy movements, which hath given him the name of Serpent. Such always is his deceitfulness; such the dark and backward artifices, by which he compasses man; thus in the first beginning of the world he wrought his deceit, and by lying words of flattery, led away unformed souls in their incautious cre- dulity. Thus when he would tempt the Lord Himself, he came unawares upon Him, as if to creep on him a second II time and deceive ; yet he was seen through and driven back : beaten down was he, by reason that he was discov- ered and exposed. Herein is the example given us, to flee from the way of the old man, and to tread in the footsteps of Christ who conquered; lest we slide back by incaution into the toil of death, instead of, through foresight of dan- ger, partaking the immortality that has been gained for us. Yet how can we partake immortality, unless we keep those commandments of Christ, by which death is taken prisoner and overcome ? For Himself admonishes us, and says, If thou will enter into life, keep the commandments ; and again. If ye do the things I command you, henceforth I call you not servants but friends. It is such persons, in fine, that He declares to be stable and enduring; founded in massive strength upon a rock, and settled with firmness untroubled and untouched, amidst all the storms and winds of this world. Whosever, saith He, heareth these sayings of Mint and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, that built his house upon a rock j the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. We ought therefore to have our footing in His words, to learn and to do all that He taught and did. But how can he say he believes in Christ, who does not that which Christ has bade him do ? or how come to the reward of faith, who will keep no faith with the commandment ? Needs must he totter and fall astray ; caught by a spirit of terror, he will be wafted up like dust Ill in a whirlwind ; nor will his walk lead forward to salvation, who does not hold the truth of the saving way. 2. We must be warned then, dearest brethren, not only against things open and manifest, but also against those which deceive us, through the guile of craft and fraud. What now can be more crafty, or what more artful, than for this enemy, detected and downfallen by the advent of Christ, now«that light is come to the nations, and the beams of salvation shine forth unto the health of man, that the deaf may hear the sound of spiritual grace, the blind may open their eyes upon God, the sick regain the strength of an eternal healing, the lame run to church, the dumb lift on high their voices to speak and worship, for him, thus seeing his idols left, his seats and temples deserted by the manifold congregation of believers, to invent the new de- ceit, whereby to carry the incautious into error, while re- taining the name of the Christian profession? He has made heresies and schisms, wherewith to subvert faith, to corrupt truth, and -rend unity. Those whom he cannot detain in the blindness of the old way, he compasses and deceives by misleading them on their new journey. He snatches men from out the Church itself, and while they think themselves come to the light, and escaped from the night of this world, he secretly gathers fresh shadows upon them; so that stand- ing neither with the Gospel of Christ, nor with His ordi- nances, nor with His law, they yet call themselves Chris- tians, walking among darkness, and thinking that they have light; while the foe flatters and misleads, transforms him- IV self, according to the word of the Apostle, into an Angel of light, and garbs his ministers like ministers of righteous- ness: these are the maintainors of night for day, of death for salvation, giving despair while they proffer hope, faithless- ness clothed as faith, Antichrist under the name of Christ ; that by putting false things under an appearance of true, they may with subtilty impede the truth. 3. This will be, most dear brethren, so long as there is no regard to the source of truth, no looking to the Head, nor keeping to the doctrine of our heavenly Master. If any one consider and weigh this, he will not need length of comment or argument. Proof is ready for belief in a short statement of the truth. The Lord saith unto Peter, / say unto thee, (saith He) 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 unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. To him again, after His resurrec- tion, He says, Feed My sheep. Upon him being one He builds His Church; and though He gives to all the Apos- tles an equal power, and says, As My Father sent Me, even so send I you J receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosoever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted to him, and whosoever sins ye re- tain, they shall be retained ; — yet in order to manifest unity, He has by His own authority so placed the source of the same unity, as to begin from one. Certainly the other Apostles also were what Peter was, endued with an equal fellowship both of honour and power; but a commencement is made from unity, that the Church may be set before us as one; which one Church, in the Song of Songs, doth the Holy Spirit design and name in the Person of our Lord : My dove. My spotless one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her. 4. He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he think that lie holds the faith ? He who strives against and resists the Church, is he assured that he is in the Church ? For the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this same thing, and manifests the sacrament of unity thus speaking ; There is One Body, and One Spirit, even as ye are called in One Hope of your calling ; One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God. This unity firmly should we hold and maintain, especially we Bishops, presiding in the Church, in order that we may approve the Episcopate itself to be one and undivided. Let no one deceive the Brotherhood by falsehood ; no one cor- rupt the truth of our faith, by a faithless treachery. The Episcopate is one; it is a whole, in which each enjoys full possession. The Church is likewise one, though she be spread abroad, and multiplies with the increase of her pro- geny: even as the sun has rays many, yet one light ; and the tree boughs many, yet its strength is one, seated in the deep-lodged root; and as, when many streams flow down from one source, though a multiplicity of waters seems dif- fused from the bountifulness of the overflowing abundance, unity is preserved in the source itself. Part a ray of the sun fronj its orb, and -its unity forbids this division of light; VI break a branch from the tree, once broken it can bud no more; cut the stream from its fountain, the remnant will be dried up. Thus the Church, flooded with the light of the Lord, puts forth her rays through the whole world, with yet one light, which is spread upon all places, while its unity of body is not infringed. She stretches forth her branches over the universal earth, in the riches of plenty, and pours abroad her bountiful and onward streams; yet is there one head, one source, one Mother, abundant in the results of her fruitfulness. 5. It is of her womb that we are born; our nourishing is from her milk, our quickening from her breath. The spouse of Christ cannot become adulterate, she is undefiled and chaste; owning but one home, and guarding with virtuous modesty the sanctity of one chamber. She it is who keeps us for God, and appoints unto the kingdom the sons she has borne. Whosoever parts company with the Church, and joins himself to an adultress, is estranged from the promises of the Church. He who leaves the Church of Christ, attains not Christ's rewards. He is an alien, an outcast, an enemy. He can no longer have God for a Father, who has not the Church for a Mother. If any man was able to escape, who remained without the ark of Noah, then will that man escape who is out of doors beyond the Church. The Lord warns us, and says, He wJw is not with Me is against Me, and he who gathereth not with Me, scattereth. He who breaks the peace and concord of Christ, sets himself against Christ. He who gathers elsewhere but in the .Church, scatters the VII Church of Christ. The Lord saith, T and the Father are one; and again of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, it is written, and these three are one; and does any think, that one- ness, thus proceeding from the divine immutability, and co- hering in heavenly sacraments, admits of being sundered in the Church, and split by the divorce of antagonist wills? He who holds not this unity, holds not the law of God, holds not the faifli of Father and Son, holds not the truth unto salvation. 6. This sacrament of unity, this bond of concord insepar- ably cohering, is signified in the place in the Gospel, where the coat of our Lord Jesus Christ is in no-wise parted nor cut, but is received a whole garment, by them who cast lots who should rather wear it, and is posessed as an inviolate and individual robe. The divine Scripture thus speaks, But for the coat because it was not sewed, but woven from the top throughout, they said one to another. Let us not rend It, but cast lots whose it shall be. It has with it a unity descending from above, as coming, that is, from heaven and from the Father; which it was not for the receiver and owner in any wise to sunder, but which he received once for all and indivisibly as one unbroken whole. He cannot own Christ's garment who splits and divides Christ's Church. On the other h^d, when, on Solomon's death, his kingdom and people were split in parts, Abijah the Prophet, meeting king Jeroboam in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying. Take thee ten pieces, for thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomom, and will give VIII ten tribes unto thee; and two tribes shall be to him, for my ser- vant David's sake, and for Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to place My Name there. When the twelve tribes of Israel were torn asunder, the Prophet Abijah rent his gar- ment. But because Christ's people cannot be rent,His coat, woven and conjoined throughout, was not divided by those it fell to. Individual, conjoined, coentwined, it shews the coherent concord of our people who put on Christ. In the sacrament and sign of His garment, He has declared the unity of his Church. 7. Who then is the criminal and traitor, who so inflamed by the madness of discord, as to think aught can rend, or to venture on rending, God's unity, the Lord's garment, Christ's Church ? He Himself warns us in His Gospel, and teaches, saying. And there shall be one flock, and one Shepherd. And does any think that there can in one place be either many shepherds, or many flocks ? The Apostle Paul likewise, intimating the same unity, solemnly exhorts, / beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that th^re be no schisms among you; but that ye be joined together in the same mind, and and in the same judgment. And again he says, Forbearing one another in love; endeavoriug to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Think you that any can stand and live, who withdraws from the Church and forms himself a new home, and a different dwelling ? Whereas it was said to Rahab, in whom was prefigured the Church, Thy father and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all the house of thy IX father, thou shalt gather unto thee into thine house ; and it shall come to pass, whosoever shall go abroad beyond the door of thine house, his blood shall be on his own head. And likewise the sacrament of the Passover doth require just this in the law of Exodus, that the lamb which is slain for a figure of Christ, should be eaten in one house. God speaks and says, In one house shall ye eat it ; ye shall not send its flesh abroad froh the house. The Flesh of Christ, and the Holy Thing of the Lord, cannot be sent abroad ; and believers have not any dwelling but the Church only. This dwelling, this hostelry of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designs and be- tokens in the Psalms, thus saying, God who maketh men to dwell with one mind in an house. In the house of God, in the Church of Christ, men dwell with one mind, in concord and singleness enduring, 8. For this cause the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove: a simple and pleasant creature, with no bitterness of gall, no fierceness of bite, no violence of rending talons : loving the houses of men, consorting within one home, each pair nurturing their young together, when they fly abroad hanging side by side upon the wing, leading their life in mutual intercourse, giving with the bill the kiss of peace in agreement, and fulfiling a law of unanimity, in every way. This singleness of heart must be found, this habit of love be attained to in the Church; brotherly affection must make doves its pattern, gentleness and kindness must emulate lambs and sheep. What doth the savageness of wolves, in a Christian breast? or the fierceness of dogs, or the deadly poison of serpents, or the cruel fury of wild beasts? We must be thankful when such become separate from the Church, that so their fierce and poisoned contagion may not cause a havoc among the doves and sheep of Christ ; there cannot be fellowship and union of bitter with sweet, dark- ness with light, foul weather with fair, war with peace, famine with plenty, drought with fountains, or storm with calm. 9. Let no one think that they can be good men, who leave the Church. Wind does not take the wheat, nor do storms overthrow the tree that has a solid root to rest on. It is the light straw that the tempest tosses, it is trees emptied of their strength that the blow of the whirlwind strike down. These the Apostle John curses and smites, saying, They went forth from us j but they were not of us; for if they had been of us surely they would have remained with us. Thus is it that heresies both often have been caused, and still continue ; while the perverted mind is estranged from peace, and unity is lost amongst the faithless discord. Neverthe- less, the Lord permits and suffers these things to be, preserving the power of choice to individual free-will, in order that while the discrimination of truth is a test of our hearts and minds, the perfect faith of them that are ap- proved may shine forth in the manifest light. The Holy Spirit admonishes us by the Apostle and says. It is needful also that heresies should be, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Thus are the faithful approved, thus the false detected ; thus even here, before the day of XI judgment, the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are divided, the chaff separated from the wheat. 10. These are they who, with no appointment from God, take upon them of their own will to preside over the presump- tuous persons they have brought together, establish themselves as rulers without any lawful rite or ordination,and assume the name of Bishop, though no man gives them a Bishopric. These the floly Spirit in the Psalms describes, as sitting in the seat of pestilence, a plague and infection of the faith, deceiv- ing with the mouth of a serpent, cunning to corrupt truth, vomiting out deadly poisons from pestilential tongues. Whose words spread as doth a canker ■ whose writings pour a deadly poison into men's breast and hearts. Against such the Lord cries out ; from these he curbs and recalls His straying people, saying. Hearken not unto the words of the Prophets which prophesy falsely, for the vision of their heart maketh them vain. They speak, but not out • of the mouth of the Lord; they say to those who cast away the word of God, Ye shall have peace; and every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon him. I have not spoken to them, yet they proph- esied ; if they had stood in my substance and heard My words, and taught My people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts. These same persons the Lord designs and signi- fies, saying, They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and hewed them out broken cisterns, that can hold no water. While there can be no Baptism save one only, they think that they can baptize. They forsake the fountain of XII life, yet promise the gift of a vital and saving water. Men are not cleansed by them, but rather made foul; nor their sins purged away, but even heaped up : it is a birth that gives children not to God, but to the Devil. Born by a lie, they cannot receive the promises of truth. Gendered of misbelief, they lose the grace of faith. They cannot come to the reward of peace, because they have destroyed the peace of the Lord, in reckless discord. II. Neither let certain persons beguile themselves by a vain interpretation, in that the Lord hath said, Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am with them. Those who corrupt and falsely interpret the Gospel, lay down what follows, but omit what goes before; giving heed to part, while part they deceitfully suppress; as them- selves are sundered from the Church, so they divide the purport of what is one passage. For when the Lord was impressing agreement and peace upon His Disciples, He said, I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, touching any thing that he shall ask, it shall be given you by My Father which is in heaven. For wheresoever two or three shall be gathered together in My Name, I am with them. Shewing that most is given, not to the many in number when they pray, but to oneness of heart. If, He saith, two of you shall agree together on earth ; He places agreement first ; hearts at peace are the first condition ; He teaches that we must agree together faithfully and firmly. Yet how can he be said to be at agreement with other, who is at dis- agreement v/ith the body of the Church itself, and with the XIII universal brotherhood ? How can two or three be gathered together in Christ's name, who are manifestly separate from Christ and from His Gospel ? We did not go out from them, but they went out from us. And whereas heresies and schisms have a later rise, from men's setting up separate meetings for worship, they have left the fountain head and origin of truth. But it is of His Church, that the Lord is speaking ; and in respect of those who are in His Church, He says, that if they are of one mind, if according to what he bade and admonished, two or three though they be, they gather together with agreement of the heart ; then (though but two or three) they will be able to obtain from the majesty of God the things which they asked for. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My Name I, saith He, am with them: that is with the single-hearted, and them that live in peace, fearing God and keeping his command- ments. With these though they be two or three, He has said that He is. So was He with the Three Children in the fiery furnace : and because they continued in singleness of heart toward God, and at unity with themselves, He re- freshed them in the midst of the encircling flames with the breath of dew. So too was He present when the two Apostles who were shut in prison, because they continued in singleness and agreement of heart ; and undoing the prison- bolts. He placed them again in the market-place, that they might deliver to the multitude that Word which they were faithfully preaching. When therefore He sets it forth in His commandment, and says, Where two or three are XIV gathered together tn My Name, I am with them. He does not divide men from the Church, Himself the institutor and maker of it, but rebuking the faithless for their discord, and by His voice commending peace to the faithful, He shews that He is more present with two or three which pray with one heart, than with many persons disunited from one another ; and that more can be obtained by the agreeing prayer of a few persons, than from the petitioning of many where discord is amongst them. For this cause when He gave the rule of prayer. He added, When ye stand praying, forgive if ye have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your tresspasses; and one who comes to the Sacrifice with a quarrel He calls back from the altar, and commands Him first to be reconciled with his brother, and then, when he is at peace, to return, and offer his gift to God ; for neither had God respect unto Cain's offering ; for he could not have God at peace with him, who through envy and discord was not at peace with his brother. 12. Of what peace then are they to assure themselves, who are at enmity with the brethren? What Sacrifice do they believe they celebrate, who are rivals of the Priests ? Think they Christ is still in the midst of them when gath- ered together, though gathered beyond Christ's Church? If such men were even killed for confession of the Christian Name, not even by their blood is this stain washed out. In- expiable and heavy is the sin of discord, and is purged by no suffering. He cannot be a Martyr, who is not in the XV Church; he can never attain to the kingdom, who leaves her, with whom the kingdom shall be. Christ gave us peace; He bade us be of one heart and one mind; He com- manded that the covenant of affection and charity should be kept unbroken and inviolate; he cannot shew himself as a Martyr, who has not kept the love of the brotherhood. The Apostle Paul teaches this, thus witnessing; And though I have faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing : and though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not, charity acteth not vainly, is not puffed up, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; is pleased with all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; charity never faileth. Charity, he saith, never faileth ; for she will reign for ever, she will abide evermore in the unity of a brotherhood which entwines itself around her. In the kingdom of heaven discord cannot enter; it cannot gain the reward of Christ who said, This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. It will never be his to belong to Christ, who has violated the love of Christ by un- faithful dissension. He who has not love, has not God. It is the word of the blessed Apostle John, God, saith he, is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. They cannot dwell with God, who have refused to be of one mind in God's Church; though they be given over to be burnt in flame and fire, or yield their lives a prey to wild beasts, theirs will not be the crown of faith, but the XVI penalty of unfaithfulness ; not the glorious issue of dutiful valour, but the death of despair. A man of such sort may indeed be killed, crowned he cannot be. 13. He professes hinlself a christian after the manner in which the Devil oftentimes feigns himself to be Christ, as the Lord himself forwarns us, saying, Many shall come in my Name, saying, J am Christ, and shall deceive many. No more than he is Christ, though he deceive beneath His Name, can he be looked upon as a Christian, who does not abide in the truth of His Gospel and of faith. To prophesy, to cast out devils, to perform great miracles on earth, is a high, doubtless, and a wonderful thing ; yet the man who is found in all these things attains not to the heavenly kingdom, un- less he walk in an observance of the straight and righteous way. The Lord speaks this denunciation ; Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name done many wonderful works ? And then will I prof ess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Righteousness is the thing needful, before any one can find grace with God the Judge. We must obey his in- structions and warnings, in order that our deserts may receive their reward. When the Lord in the Gospel would direct the path of our hope and faith in a summary of words ; The Lord thy God, He saith, is one : and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment; and the second is like unto it; Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hangs all the Laws and XVII the Prophets. Unity and love together is the instruction which He teaches us ; in two commandments He has in- cluded all the Prophets and the Law. Yet what unity does he keep, what love does he either maintain, or have a thought for, who, maddened by the heat of discord, rends the Church, pulls down faith, troubles peace, scatters char- ity, profanes the sacrament ? 14. This mischief, dearest brethren, had long before begun, but in these days the dire havoc of this same evil has been gaining growth, and the envenomed pest of heretical per- verseness and of schisms is shooting up and sprouting afresh ; for thus must it be in the end of the world, the Holy Spirit having forespoken by the Apostle, and fore- warned us. In the last days, saith He, perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, proud, boast- ers, covetous, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of the good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts ; ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jamnes and Mambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning tJie faith j but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. Whatever things were predicted, are in fulfilment ; and, as the end of time draws nigh, they XVIII have come to us in trial both of men and times. As the adversary rages more and more, error deceives, haughtiness lifts aloft, envy inflames, covetousness blinds, unholiness depraves, pride puffs up, quarrels embitter, and anger hurries men headlong. Let not however the extreme and headlong faithlessness of many move and disturb us, but rather let it give support to our faith, as the event was de- clared to us beforehand. As some have become such, be- cause this was foretold beforehand, so (because this too was foretold beforehand) let the other brethren take heed against them, according as the Lord instructs us and says, But take ye heed; behold, I have told you all things. Do ye avoid such men, I beseech you, and put away from beside you, and from your hearing, their pernicious converse, as though a deadly contagion; as it is written, Hedge thine ears about •with thorns and refuse to hear a wicked tongue. And again. Evil communications corrupt good manners. The Lord teaches and warns us, that we must withdraw ourselves from such. They be blind, saith He, leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Who- soever is separated from the Church, such a man is to be avoided and fled from. Such an one is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself. Thinks he that he is with Christ, who does counter to the Priests of Christ.' who separates himself from the fellowship of His clergy and people ? That man bears arms against the Church, he with- stands God's appointment ; an enemy to the altar a rebel against the Sacrifice of Christ, for faith perfidious, for XIX religion sacrilegious, a servant not obedient, a son not pious, a brother not loving, setting Bishops at nought, and desert- ing the Priests of God, he dares to build another altar, to offer another prayer with unlicensed words, to profane by false sacrifices the truth of the Lord's Sacrifice. He is not permitted to a knowledge of what he does, since he who strives against the appointment of God, is punished by the divine censure, forithe boldness of his daring. 15. Thus Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who endeavoured to maintain to themselves the privilege of sacrificing, in op- position to Moses and Aaron the Priest, forthwith paid penalty for their attempts. The earth burst its fastenings, and opened the depth of its bosom ; standing and alive, the guilt of the parting ground swallowed them. Nor those only who had been movers, did the wrath of an angered God strike ; but the two hundred and fifty besides, partakers and companions of the same madness, who had mixed with them in their bold work, a fire going out from the Lord with speedy vengeance consumed ; warning and manifesting, that that is done against God, whatsoever evil men of human will endeavour, for the pulling down of God's ordinance. Thus also Uzziah the king who bare the censer, and con- trary to God's law, did by violence take to himself to sacrifice, refusing to be obedient and to give way when Azariah the Priest withstood him, he being confounded by the wrath of God, was polluted by the spot of leprosy upon his forehead ; in that part of his body was marked by his offended Lord, where they are marked^ who have the grace XX of the Lord assigned them. The sons of Aaron also who put strange fire upon the altar, which the Lord had not commanded, were speedily consumed in the presence of their avenging Lord. All such are imitated and followed by them, who, despising God's tradition, lust for strange doctrines, and give inlet to ordinances of human imposition; these the Lord rebukes and reproves in His Gospel, thus sayings Ve reject the commandment of God, that ye may establish your own tradition. i6. This crime is worse, than that which the lapsed ap- pear to commit ; who, at least, when in the condition of penitents for their offence, seek their peace with God, by full satisfactions. In this case the Church is enquired after and applied to; in the other the Church is resisted : here there may have been compulsion in guilt; there free choice is involved : the lapsed harms only himself, but one who undertakes to raise heresy and schism, is a deceiver of many, by leading them along with him. The one both un- derstands that he has sinned, and laments and mourns it ; the other, puffed up in its wickedness, and finding pleasure in his own offences, separates sons from the Mother, entices sheep from their shepherd, and disturbs the Sacraments of God. And whereas the lapsed has committed one offence, the other is an offender every day : lastly, the lapsed, if he be admitted to martyrdom afterwards, may reap the prom- ises of the kingdom ; the other, if he be killed out of the Church, cannot attain to the Church's rewards. 17. Neither let any one wonder, dearest brethren, that XXI some, even" from among Confessors, adventure thus far : that even from among them there are those who sin thus greatly, and thus grievously. Confession does not make a man safe from the crafts of the Devil, nor, while he is still placed in this world, encompass him with perpetual security against its temptations, and dangers, and assaults, and shocks; were it so, we should never witness in Confessors those after Commissions of fraud, fornication, and adultery, which we now groan and grieve at seeing in some of them. Whosoever any Confessor may be, he is not a greater man than Solomon, nor a better, nor one more dear to God: who, nevertheless, so long as he walked in the ways of the Lord, continued to be gifted with that grace which from the Lord he obtained; but when he deserted the way of the Lord, he lost the Lord's grace; as it is written, ^«(/ the Lord raised up the Adversary against Solomon. It is for this cause written, Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. This the Lord would not threaten, that the crown of righteousness can be taken away, except because when righteousness goes from us, the crown must go from us also. Confession is the beginning of glory, not the full price of the crown ; it is not the perfection of our praise, but the entrance upon our honour : and whereas it is writ- ten, He that endureth to the end shall be saved, all that is be- fore the end, is the stepping whereby one mounts toward the fieight of salvation, not the close at where the full summit is gained. If any is a Confessor, then his danger is the greater after confession, because the Adversary is more XXII provoked ; if he is a Confessor, he ought the more truly to stand with the Gospel of the Lord, since through the Gospel he has gained his glory from the Lord : for the Lord says, To whom much is given, of hifn shall much be required; and to whom more dignity is ascribed, of him more service is exacted. Let none ever peri^ through a Confessor's example ; let none learn injustice, insolence, or misbelief, from the man- ners of a Confessor. If he is a Confessor, let him be humble and quiet ; let him exercise in his conduct the modesty of a disciplined state, and being called a Confessor of Christ, let him imitate Christ whom he confesses. For since He says Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted; and since Himself has been exalted by the Father, because being the Word, and Power, and Wisdom of God the Father, He humbled Himself upon earth, how can He love exaltation, having both commanded humility from us by His law, and Himself received from the Father a most excellent Name, as a reward of His humilia- tion .' If any is a Confessor of Christ, he is such no more, if the majesty and dignity of Christ is afterwards blasphemed through him. The tongue that has confessed Christ, must not speak evil only, not be clamorous, not be heard dinning with reproaches and quarrels, nor, after words of worship, dart serpent's poison against the Brethern and Priests of God. But if a man afterwards becomes guilty and hateful, if he is wasteful of his confession by an evil conversation and blots his life by a vile unholiness ; if, in fine, deserting that Church in which he had become a Confessor, and rend- XXIII ing the concord of unity, he transforms what was faith before, into faithlessness afterwards, he must not flatter himself on the score of his Confession, that he is one elected to the reward of Glory, since the desert of punishment is rendered greater on this ground ; for the Lord chose Judas among the Apostles, and yet Judas afterwards betrayed the Lord. 18. The faith and firmness of the Apostles did not there- upon fall, because the traitor Judas was a deserter from their fellowship; and thus neither here is the sanctity and dignity of Confessors forthwith impaired, because the faith of certain of them is broken. The blessed Apostle in his Epistle thus speaks; For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God for- bid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. The larger and better part of the Confessors stands in the strength of their faith, and in the truth of the law and discipline of the Lord. Neither do they depart from the peace of the Church, who bear in mind that in the Church they gained grace from God's bounty; but hereby they reach a higher praise of faith, because that separating from the faithlessness of persons, who were fellows with them in Confession, they withdrew from the contagion of guilt; and illuminated by the true light of the Gospel, overshone with pure and white brightness of the Lord, they have praise in keeping Christ's peace, not less than their victory, in combating the Devil. 19. It is my desire, dearest brethren, it is the end both of my endeavours and exhortations, that, if it be possible, XXIV no one of the Brethren may perish, but our rejoicing Motner may fold within her bosom the one body of a people agree- ing together : but if saving counsel cannot recal to the way of salvation certain leaders of schisms and authors of dis- sensions, who abide on in their blind and obstinate mad- ness, yet do the rest of you who are either betrayed through simplicity, or drawn on by error, or deceived through some artfulness of a cunning craftiness, release yourselves from the toils of deceitfulness, free your wayward steps from their wanderings, submit to that straight path which leads to heaven ! It is the word of the Apostle uttering witness; We command you, he says, in the JSfame of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that 7valketh disorderly, and not after the tradition he hath received from us. And again he says. Let no man deceive you with vain words j for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. We must withdraw from them that go astray, nay rather must flee from them, lest any joining himself with those who walk evily, and going in ways of error and guilt, should himself lose the true path, and be found in an equal guilt. There is One God, and One Christ, and His Church One, and the Faith One, and a people joined in solid oneness of body by a cementing con- cord. Unity cannot be sundered, nor can one body' be divided by a dissolution of its structure, nor be cast peace- meal abroad with vitals torn and lacerated. Parted from the womb, nothing can live and breathe in its separated XXV state ; it loses its principle of health. The Holy Spirit warns us and says, What man is he tliat lusteth to live, and would fain see good day si Refrain thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile. Eschew evil and do good, seek peace and ensue it. Peace ought the son of peace to seek and ensue ; he who understands and cherishes the bond of charity, should refrain his tongue from the evil of dissent. Amfingst His divine commands and saving instruc- tions, the Lord now nigh to passion spoke this beside ; Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. This is the legacy which Christ has given us ; all the gifts and rewards which He foretokens to us, He promises to the preserving of peace. If we are Christ's heirs, let us abide in the peace of Christ ; if we are sons of God we ought to be peacemakers; Blessed, He says, are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. The sons of God ought to be peacemakers, mild in heart, simple in words, agreed in feelings, faithfully entwining one with another by links of unanimity. Under the Apostles of old there was this oneness of mind ; it was thus that the new congregation of believers, keeping the commandments of the Lord, preserved its charity. Divine Scripture proves it, which says. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul : and again ; These all continued with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. There- fore they prayed with effectual prayers, and were with confidence enabled to obtain whatsoever they required of the Lord's mercy. XXVI 20. But in us unanimity has as greatly fallen away, as has bountifulness in works of charity decayed. Then they gave houses and lands for sale, and laying up for themselves treasures in heaven, offered the price to the Apostles to be distributed for the uses of the needy. - But now we give not even the tithes from our property, and while the Lord bids us to sell, we rather buy and heap up. It is thus that the vigour of our faith has waxed faint, and the strength of the believers has languished ; and hence the Lord, looking to our times, says in His Gospel, When the Son of Man Cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? We see come to pass that which He foretold. In the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in good works, our faith is nought. No man from fear of things to come, gives heed to the day of the Lord and the anger of God ; none considers the pun- ishments which will come on the unbelieving, and the eternal torments to the faithless. What our conscience would fear if it believed, that, because nowise believing, it fear not : if it believed, it would take heed ; if it took heed, it would escape. Let us awaken ourselves, dearest brethren, what we can, and breaking off the slumbers of our slothful- ness, let us be watching, for observance and fulfilment of the Lord's commands. Let us be such as He bade us be when He said. Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves like unto to men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding, that when He Cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him . blessed are those servants, whom their Lord, when He cometh shall find XXVII watching. We need not be girded about, lest when the day of march cometh, He find us hindered and impeded. Let our light shine in good works, let it so beam forth, as to be our guide out of this night below, into the brightness of eternal day. Let us ever in anxiety and cautiousness be awaiting the sudden advent of the Lord, that when He knocketh our faith may be on the watch, and gain from the Lord the reward of its watchfulness. If these command- ments be observed, if these warnings and precepts are kept, we can never be overtaken in slumber by the deceit of the Devil, but shall reign, as servants who watch, in the king- dom of Christ. II. ST. CYRIL. CATECHETICAL LECTURE l8. " The Faith which we rehearse contains in order the fol- lowing, ' And in one Baptism of repentance for the remis- sion of sin ; and in one Holy Catholic Church ; and in the resurrection of the flesh ; and in eternal life.' Now of Baptism and repentance I have spoken in the foregoing Lectures ; and my present remarks concerning the resur- rection of the dead have been made with reference to the Article, ' In the resurrection of the flesh.' Now then let me finish what remains to be said, in consequence of the Article, XXVIII 'In one Holy Catholic Church,' on which, though one might say many things, we will speak but briefly. Now it is called Catholic because it is throughout the world, from one end of the earth to the other ; and because it teaches universally and completely one and all the doctrines which ought to come to men's knowledge, concern- ing things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly ; and because it subjugates in order to godliness every class of men, governors and governed, learned and unlearned ; and because it universally treats and heals every sort of sins, which are committed by soul or body, and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and in every kind of spir.tual gifts. And it is rightly named Chuich, because it calls forth and assembles together all men : according as the Lord says in Leviticus, And assemble thou all the congregation to the doors of the tabernacle of witness. And it is to be noted, that the word assemble, is used for the first time in the Scriptures here, at the time when the Lord puts Aaron into the High- priesthood. And in Deuteronomy the Lord says to Moses, Assemble to Me the people, and I will make them hear My words, that they shall learn to fear me. And he again men- tions the name of the Church, when he says concerning the Tables, And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount of the midst of the fire in the day of the Assembly; as if he had said more plainly, in the day in which ye were called and gathered together by God. And the Psalmist says, I will give Thee thanks in the great Assembly; I will praise Thee among much people. XXIX Of old the Psalmist sung, Bless ye God in the Church, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. But since the Jews for their evil designs against the Saviour have been cast away from grace, the Saviour has built out of the Gentiles a second Holy Church, the Church of us Christians, concern- ing which He Said to Peter, And upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And David prophesying of both, said plainly of the first which was rejected, / have hated the Church of the evil doers; but of the second which is built up he says in the same Psalm, Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thine house; and immediately afterwards. In the Churches will I bless the Lord; For now that the one Church in Judsea is cast off, the Churches of Christ are increased throughout the world ; and of them it is said, Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the Church of the Saints. Agreeably to which the Prophet also said to the Jews, / have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts; and immediately afterwards, For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same. My name shall be great among the Gentiles. Concerning this Holy Catholic Church Paul writes to Timothy, That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. But since the word Church or Assembly is applied to different things, (as also it is written of the multitude in the theatre of the Ephesians, And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the Assembly, and since one might properly and XXX truly say that there is a Church of the evil doers, I mean the meeting of the heretics, the Marcionists ar.d Manichees, and the rest) the Faith has delivered to thee by way of security the Article, ' And in One Holy Catholic Church ; ' that thou mayest avoid their wretched meetings, and ever abide with the Holy Church Catholic in which thou wast regenerated. And if ever thou art sojourning in any city, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is, (for the sects of the pro- fane also make an attempt to call their own dens, houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Body, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, (for it is writ- ten. As Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for It, and ali the rest), and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem above, which is free, and the mother of us all; which before barren, but now has many children. For when the first Church was cast off, God, in the second, which is the Catholic Church, hath set first Apostles, second- arily Prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, and every sort of virtue ; I mean wisdom and understanding, temperance and justice, alms-doing and loving-kindness, and patience unconquerable in persecutions. She, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, in former days amid persecutions and tribu- lations crowned the holy martyrs with the varied and blooming chaplets of patience, and now in times of peace XXXI by God's grace receives her due honours from princes and nobles, and from every rank and kindred of man. And while the kings of particular nations have bounds set to their dominion, the Holy Church Catholic alone extends her illimitable sovereignty over the whole world ■,for God, as it is written, hath made her border peace. But I should need many more hours for my discourse, would I speak of all things whiclf concern her. In this Holy Catholic Church receiving instruction and behaving ourselves virtuously, we shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and inherit eternal life ; for which also we endure all toils, that we may be made partakers of it from the Lord. For ours is no trifling aim ; eternal life is our object of pursuit." III. ST. PACIAN. ON THE CATHOLIC NAME. Pacian to Sympronian his brother, greeting. I. If it be not a carnal intention, my lord, but as I judge, a calling of the Spirit, that thou enquirest of us the faith of the Catholic verity, thou, before all, taking thy rise as far as appears; from a streamlet at a distance, and not holding to the fountain and source of the principal Church, shouldest, in the first instance, have shewn what or how different are XXXII the opinions which thou followest. Thou shouldest unfold thyself as to what cause more particularly had loosened thee from the unity of our body. For those parts, for which a remedy is sought, should be laid bare. Whereas now (if I may so say) the bosom of correspondence being closed, we see not on what members more especially we have to bestow our care. For such are the heresies which have sprung forth from the Christian head, that of the mere names the roll would be immense. For to pass over the heretics of the Jews, Dositheus the Samaratan, the Sad- ducees, and the Pharisees, it were long to enumerate how many grew up in the times of the Apostles, Simon Magus, and Menander, and Nicolaus, and others hidden by an in- glorious fame. What again in later times were Elbion, and Apelles, and Marcion, and Valentinus, and Cerdon, and not long after them, the Cataphrygians, and Novatians, not to notice any recent swarms ! 2. Whom then in my letters must I first refute ? Would- est thou the mere names of all, my paper will not contain them ; unless indeed by your writings every way condem- natory of penance you declare your agreement with the Phrygians. But, most illustrious Lord, so manifold and so diverse :s the error of these very men, that in them we have not only to overthrow their peculiar fancies against pen- ance but to cut off the heads, as it were, of some Lernasan monster. And, in the first place, they rely on more found- ers than one, for I suppose Blastus the Greek is of them • Theodotus also and Praxeas were once teachers of your XXXIII party, themselves also Phrygians of some celebrity, who falsely say they are inspired of Leucius, boast that they are instructed by Proculus. Following Montanus, and Maxi- milla, and Priscilla, how manifold controversies have they raised concerning the day of Easter, the Paraclete, Apostles, Prophets, and many other disputes, as this also concerning the Catholic name, the pardon of penance. 3. Wherefcre if we would discuss all these points, thou hadst need been present and teachable. But if on those points merely on which thou writest, my instruction should not be sufficiently full, yet as it is our duty to serve, in whatsoever way we can, those who solemnly adjure us, we now, for the sake of informing you, discourse with the sum- marily, on those matters about which thou hast deigned to write to us. If thou wouldest have fuller knowledge on our side, thou must on thine declare thyself more unreser- vedly, lest by somewhat of obscurity in thy enquiries, thou leave us uncertain, whether thou art consulting or censuring. 4. Meanwhile (and this concerns our present corres- pondence) I would above all entreat thee not to borrow authority for error from this very fact that, as thou sayest, throughout the whole world no one has been found, who could convince or persuade thee contrary to what thou be- lievest. For although we be unskilled, most skilful is the Spirit of God, and if we are faithless, faithful is God, Who cannot deny Himself. Then, also, because it was not allowed the Priests of God to contend long with one who resisted. We^ says the Apostle, have no such custom, neither the XXXIV churches, of God. After one admonition, as thou thyself knowest, the contentious is passed by. For who can persuade any of anything against his will ? Thine own fault was it therefore, brother, and not theirs, if no one convinced thee of what iff itself is most excellent. For at this day too it is in thy power to despise our writings also, if thy hadst rather refute than approve them. Yet very many resisted both the Lord Himself, and the Apostles, nor could any ever be persuaded of the truth, unless he consented to it by his own religious feeling. 5. Therefore, my Lord, neither have we written with that confidence as though we could persuade thee, if thou re- sistest, but in that faith by which we would not deny thee an entrance to wholly peace, if thou wiliest. Which peace if it be after thine own soul and heart, there ought to be no contest about the name of Catholic. For if it is through God that our people obtain this name, no question is to be raised, when Divine authority is followed. If through man, you must discover when it was first taken. Then, if the name is good, no odium lests with it; if ill, it need not be envied. The Novatians, I hear, are called after Novatus or Novatian ; yet it is the sect which I accuse in them, not the name : nor has any one objected their name to Montanus or the Phrygians 6. But under the Apostles, you will say, no one was called Catholic. Be it thus. It shall have been so. Allow even that. When after the Apostles heresies had burst forth, an4 were striving under various naines to tear pieces XXXV meal and divide the Dove and the Queen of God, did not the Apostolic people require a name of their own, whereby to mark the unity of the people that were uncorrupted, lest the error of some should rend limb by limb the undefiled virgin of God? Was it not seemly that the chief head should be distinguished by its own peculiar appellation ? Suppose, this very day, I entered a populous city. When I had found ^arcionites, ApoUinarians, Cataphrygians, Novatians, and others of the kind who call themselves Christians, by what name should I recognize the congrega- tion of my own people, unless it were named Catholic ? Come tell me, who bestowed so many names on the other peoples ? Why have so many cities, so many nations, each their own description ? The man who asks the meaning of the Catholic Name, will he be ignorant himself of the cause of his own name if I shall enquire its origin ? Whence was it delivered to me ? Certainly that which has stood through so many ages was not borrowed from man. This name "Catholic" sounds not of Marcion, nor Apelles, nor of Montanus, nor does it take heretics as its authors. 7. Many things the Holy Spirit hath taught us. Whom God sent from Heaven to the Apostles as their Comforter and Guide. Many things reason teaches us, as Paul saith, and honesty, and, as he says, nature herself. What ! is the authority of Apostolic men, of Primitive Priests, of the most blessed Martyr and Dr. Cyprian, of slight weight with us ? Do we wish to teach the teacher ? Are we wiser than he was, and are we puffed up by the spirit of the flesh XXXVI against the man, whom his noble shedding of blood, and a crown of most glorious suffering, have set forth as a wit- ness of the Eternal God ? What thinkest thou of so many Priests on the same side, who throughout the whole world were compacted together in one bond of peace with this same Cyprian ? What of so many aged Bishops, so many Martyrs, so many Confessors ? Come say, if they were not sufficient authorities for the use of this name, are we suffi- cient for its rejection ? And shall the Fathers rather follow our authority, and the antiquity of Saints give way to be emended by us, and times now putrifying through their sins, pluck out the grey hairs of Apostolic age? And yet, my brother, be not troubled; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. The former gives me a name, the latter dis- tinguishes me. By the one I am approved ; by the other I am but marked. 8. And if at last we must give an account of the word Catholic, and draw it out from the Greek by a Latin inter- pretation, " Catholic " is ' every where one," or (as learned men think,) " obedience in all, i. e. all the commands of God. Whence the Apostle, Whether ye be obedient in all things : and again, J<'or as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Therefore he who is a Catholic, the same man 'is obedient. He who is obedient, the same is a Christian, and thus the Catholic is a Christian. Wherefore our people when named Catholic are separated by this ap- pellation from the heretical name. But if also the word XXXVII Catholic means ' every where one,' as those first think, David indicates this very thing, when he saith, The queen did stand in a vesture of gold, wrought about nvith divers colours: that is, one amidst all. And in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaketh these words, My dove. My unde- filed is but one ; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of her that bare her. Again it is written, The virgins shall be brought unto the king after her. And further. Virgins without number. Therefore amidst all she is one, and one over all. If thou askest the reason of the name, it is evident. 9. But as to penance, God grant that it may be necessary for none of the faithful ; that no one after the help of the sacred font va3.y fall into the pit of death, and that Priests may not be compelled to inculcate or to teach its tardy con- solations lest, whilst by remedies they soothe the sinner, they open a road to sin. But we lay open this indulgence of our God to the miserable, not to the happy ; not before sin, but after sins ; nor do we announce a medicine to the whole, but to the sick. If spiritual wickednesses have no power over the baptized, none, that fraud of the serpent, which subverted the first man, which hath printed on his posterity so many marks of condemnation; if it hath retired from the world, if we have already begun to reign, if no crime steals over our eyes, none over our hands, none over our minds, then let this gift of God be cast aside, this help rejected ; be no confession, no groans, heard : let a proud righteousness despise every remedy. XXXVIII lo. But if the Lord Himself hath provided these things for His own creature man, if the same Lord Who hath bestowed remedies on the fallen, hath given rewards to them that stand, cease to accuse the Divine goodness, to erase by the interposition of your own rigour so many inscriptions of heavenly mercy, or by inexorable harshness to prohibit the gratuitous good gifts of the Lord. This is not a largess from our own bounty. Turn ye, saith the Lord, even to Me, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning : and rend your heart; and again, Let the wicked man leave his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy. And also after this manner crieth the Prophet, For He is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Hath the serpent so lasting a poison, and hath not Christ a remedy? Doth the Devil kill in the world, and hath Christ no power here to help ? Be we indeed ashamed to sin, but not ashamed to repent. Be we ashamed to hazard ourselves, but not ashamed to be delivered. AVho will snatch the plank from the shipwrecked, that he escape not ? Who will grudge the curing of a wound ? Doth not David say. Every night / will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears j and again, / acknowledge my sin, and mine unrighteousness have I not hidj and yet more, / said, I will confess my sin unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my heart. Did not the Prophet answer him when, after the guilt of murder and adultery, penitent for Bathsheba, The Lord also hath put away from thee thy sin ? XXXIX Did not confession deliver the King of Babylon, when con- demned after so many sins of Idolatry ? And what is it that the Lord saith, Shalt he who has fallen not arise and, and he who has turned not return 1 What answer give the subjects of those many parables of our Lord ? That the woman findeth the coin, and rejoiceth when she hath found it ? That the shepherd carrieth back the wandering sheep? That when tli# son was returning, all his goods wasted in riotous living with harlots and fornicators, the Father with kindness met him, and, assigning the grounds, chideth the envious brother, saying, This my son was dead, and is alive again, was lost and is found. What of him who was wounded in the way, whom Levite and Priest passed by ? Is he not taken care of ? II. Ponder what the Spirit saith to the Churches. The Ephesians He accuses of having forsaken their love; to them of Thyatira He imputeth fornication; the people of Sardis He blameth as loitering in the work; those of Pergamus as teaching things contrary; of the Laodiceans He brandeth the riches; and yet He calleth all to penance and to satis- faction. What meaneth the Apostle, when he writeth to the Corinthians thus. Lest, when I bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanliness, and forni- cation, and lasciviousness which they have committed? What, when again to the Galatians, If a man be overtaken in a fault (i. e. any whatever,)j)'(? who are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Does then the master of the family in a large house guard only the silver and golden vessels? Does he not deign to guard both the earthen and the wooden, and some that are put together and repaired? Now I rejoice, saith the Apostle, that ye sorrowed to repentance : and again, for godly sorrow worketh repentance unto enduring salvation. But' pen- itence you say was not allowed. No one enjoins a fruitless labour; For the labourer is worthy of his hire. Never would God threaten the impenitent, unless He would pardon the penitent. This, you will say, God alone can do. It is true. But that also which He does through His Priests, is His own authority. Else what is that he saith to the Apostles, What- soever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven! Why said he this, if it was not lawful for men to bind and loose? Is this allowed to Apostles only? Then to them also is it allowed to baptize, and to them only to give the Holy Spirit, and to them only to cleanse the sins of the nations; for all this was enjoined on none others but Apostles. 12. But if both the loosening of bonds and the power of the Sacrament are given in one place, either the whole has been derived to us from the Apostolic form and authority, or else not even this relaxation has been made from the decree. /, he saith, have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. This, therefore we build up, which the doctrine of the Apostles laid as the foundation. And, lastly, Bishops also are named Apostles, as saith Paul of Epaphroditus, My brother and fellow-soldier but your Apostle. 13. If, therefore the power of the Laver, and of the An- XLI ointing, gifts far greater, descended thence to Bishops, then the right of binding and of loosing was with them. Which although for our sins it be presumptuous in us to claim, yet God, Who hath granted unto Bishops the name even of His only Beloved, will not deny it unto them, as if holy and sitting in the chair of the Apostles. 14. I would write more brother, were I not pressed by the hasty return of the servant, and were not reserving a fuller account for thee when either present, or making con- fession of thy whole purport. Let no one despise the Bishop on consideration of the man. Let us remember that the Apostle Peter hath named our Lord, Bishop. But are now, he saith, returned unto the Shepherd, and Bishop of your souls. What shall be denied to the Bishop, in whom operateth the Name of God ? He shall indeed give an accountjf he have done anjrthing wrong, or if he shall have judged corrupt and unrighteous judgment. Nor is God's Judgment forestalled, but that He may undo the work of a wicked builder. In the mean while, if that his ministration be holy, he abideth as an helper in the work of God. See the Apostle writeth to Laity : To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom T forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us : for we are not ignorant of his devices. But if what the Laity forgive, the Apostle saith that he hath forgiven, what a Bishop hath done, in what character can it be rejected? Therefore neither the Anointing, nor Baptism, nor remis- XLII sion of sins, nor the renewing of the Body, were granted to his sacred authority, because nothing was entrusted to him as assumed by himself, but the whole has descended in a stream from the Apostolic privilege. 15. Know, brother, that not indiscriminately to all is this very pardon through penance granted ; nor until there shall have been either some indication of the Divine will, or per- chance some visitation, many men be loosed; that with careful ponderance and much balancing, after many groans and much shedding of tears, after the prayers of the whole Church, pardon is in such wise not refused to true penitence, as that no one thereby prejudgeth the future Judgment of Christ. If, brother, thou wouldest write thy sentiments more openly, thou shalt be more fully instructed. IV. MACAULAY. ESSAY ON RANKE'S HISTORY OF THE POPES. ' There is not, and there never was, on earth a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but XLIII of yesterday when compared with the Une of the supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth ; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The Republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the Republic of Ven- ice was modern when compared to the Papacy ; and the Republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy re'mains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zeal- ous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendency extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn, countries which, a century hence, may not improbably contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred arid fifty millions ; and it will be difficult to show that all other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establish- XLIV merits that now exist in the world ; and we feel no assur- ance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.' ' We often hear it said that the world is constantly becom- ing more and more enlightened, and that this enlightening must be favorable to Protestantism, and unfavourable to Catholicism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well founded expectation. We see that during the last two hundred and fifty years the human mind has been in the highest degree active, that it had made great advances in every branch of natural philosophy, that it has produced innumerable inven- tions tending to promote the convenience of life, that medicine, surgery, chemistry, engineering, have been very greatly improved, that government, police, and law have been improved, though not to so great an extent as the physical sciences. But we see that, during these two hundred and fifty years, Protestantism has made no conquest worth speaking of. Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Rome. We cannnot, therefore, feel confident XLV that the progress of knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system which has, to say the least, stood its ground in spite of the immense progress made by the human race in knowl- edge since the days of Queen Elizabeth.' ********* 'The history of Catholicism strikingly illustrates these ob- servations. During the last seven centuries the public mind of Euro'Jje has made constant progress in every de- partment of secular knowledge. But in religion we can trace no constant progress. The ecclesiastical history of that period is a history of movement to and fro. Four times, since the authority of the Church of Rome was estab- lished in Western Christendom, has the human intellect risen up against her yoke. Twice that Church remained completely .victorious. Twice she came forth from the con- flict bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the principle of life still strong within her. When we reflect on the tremendous assaults which she has survived, we find it difficult to conceive in what way she is to perish.' ********* ' It is impossible to deny that the polity of the Church of Rome is the very masterpiece of human wisdom. In truth, nothing but such a polity could, against such assaults, have borne up such doctrines. The experience of twelve hun- dred eventful years, the ingenuity and patient care of forty generations of statesmen, have improved that polity to such perfection that, among the contrivances which have been devised for deceiving and oppressing mankind, it occupies XLVI the highest place. The stronger our conviction that reason and Scripture were decidedly on the side of Protestantism, the greater is the reluctant admiration with which we re- gard that system of tactics against which reason and Scrip- ture were employed in vain.' ********* ' It is not strange that, in the year 1799, even sagacious observers should have thought that, at length, the hour of the Church of Rome was come. An infidel power ascend- ant, the Pope dying in captivity, the most illustrious prelates of France living in a foreign country on Protestant alms, the noblest edifices which the munificence of former ages had consecrated to the worship of God turned into temples of Victory, or into banqueting-houses for political societies, or into Theophilanthropic chapels, such signs might well be supposed to indicate the approaching end of that long domination.' ' But the end was not yet. Again doomed to death, the milk-white hind was still fated not to die. Even before the funeral rites had been performed over the ashes of Pius VI a great reaction had commenced which, after the lapse of more than forty years, appears to be still in progress. An- archy had had its day. A new order of things rose out of the confusion, new dynasties, new laws, new titles, arid amidst them, the ancient religion. The Arabs have a fable that the Great Pyramid was built by antediluvian kings, and alone, of all the works of men, bore the weight of the flood. Such as this was the fate of the Papacy. It had been buried XLVII under the great inundation ; but its deep foundations had remained unshaken ; and when the waters abated it ap- peared alone amidst the ruins of a world that had passed away. The Republic of Holland was gone, and the empire of Ger- many, and the great Council of Venice, and the old Hel- vetian League, and the House of Bourbon, and the parlia- ments and aristocracy of France. Europe was full of young creations : a French empire, a kingdom of Italy, a Confed- eration of the Rhine. Nor had the late events affected only territorial limits and political institutions. The distribution of property, the composition and spirit of society, had, through great part of Catholic Europe, undergone a com- plete change. But the unchangeable Church was still there.' Cornell Catholic Union Library. „. Cornell C«thptic Union Library Union Library. r POPE: Tk fieap ©f CMst; tbe Head ef the Stoeh. RIGHT REV, MONSIGNOR CAPEL. D.D., ■Domestic Pkelate ov His Houxess Pope' Leo aIII. THIRD THOUSAND. FR. PUSTEX & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS: NEW YORK ANBtlNCINNATf, 1885. ^__ ^ PRICE. Twmy-nvE cents. INVALUABLE AS A BOOK OF REFERENCE. THE FAITH QF CATHOLICS. (Second Edition.) Confirmed by the Scriptures and attested by the Fathers of the first Five Centuries. Compiled by Revs. J. Berington and J. Kirk; revised and recast by Bev. J. Waterworth, With Preface by Right Rev. Monsignor Capel, D.D. 3 vols, octavo, 1,464 pages, in do^. , Price, net, $6.00. Fr; PnsTET& Co., New York and Cincinnati. "It is a defense of Roman doetrine of the most legitimate and effective kiud. ' It is eveu at. appenl to the reason and the learning of all who are anle to appreciate so elaborate, and at the same time, so s-imple an arguuieut. . . We may add that the references to the originals are full and clear. Of course, wo do not pretencj to have verified them all, nor compared with the original of the translated passages. Bat those which we have veri- fied and, compared do not convey the impression of any intentional unfair- ' uess." — The American Literary Churchman, an Anglican paper, Baltimore. "These three volnnjes will be valuable and us-ful. They are quite as important to Protestants as to Roman Catholic teachers and Scholars, . . We may therefore recommend the addition of these volumes to the library of Protestant ministers." — The Observer, New York, a. Presbyterian paper. "This publication will have jichieved a real good if it sets American Chris- tians, generally, upon the track of patristical study." — The Churchinan, New York, Anglican. "It places v/ithin easy reach and in luminous order the Roman view of the "Faith of Catholics,' as grounded on those authorities according to the under- standing of the Roman scholar, rather than'the notions of the Protestant con- troversialist, a tnatter of no small importance where a just judgment of an antagonist system is desired." — The Ziving (Jhuroh, Chicago, Anglican. " It is a real pleasure to have the peculiar doctrines of the Roman Catholics brought before the public in such a clear, definite and attractive form, and under the editorship of a divine so well known as Monsignor Cape!." — The JVeio York JShangelist. "If this be not proof that the Catholic Church of to-day is in doctrine and discipline the Church of the Apostles, the Church of Jesus Christ, there is no proving anything." — The Faktor, New York. " Mgr. Capel deserves the gratitude of all Catholics, indeed of all professors of or inquirers into revealed religion, for his timely presentation of the inval- uable work, 'The Faith of Catholics.' "—The Boston Fust. "As a work of reference on all controversial subjects, and eminently fitted for, ecclesiastical study, there are probably few even of the standard works of the Church better adapted for such uses."— 'Ae Boston Catholic Herald. THE POPE: The Vicar of Christ; the Head of the, Church. BY RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR CAPEL, D. D. Domestic Prelate op His Holiness Pope I-eo XHI. THIRD THOUSAND. Fr. PUSTET & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS; NEW YOBK AND CINCINNATI. 1885. Entered according to Act of Congreas, in the year 1885, by P, J. Thomas, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C, Printed by P. J. THOMAS, San Francisco, Cal. PREFACE. Is the Pope possessor of supreme and universal authority over the whole of the Christian Church, is the Pope the Vicar of Christ: are questions of the greatest moment to all believers in Christianity. If the Pope holds such power and position, then is there the absolute need of subjection to him in things spiritual. The subject has been treated by me from different standpoints during my tour in the States. The sub- stance of such discourses is now given to the public. To meet the demands on time made by .the active busy life in America, the matter is presented as con- cisely as possj.ble and in short chapters. The intelligence and general information displayed by the people in all parts of the States which I have visited permit me, while presenting a small book for popular use, to treat the subject for an educated peo- ple anxious for solid knowledge. To those who wish to prosecute the further study of this question I recommend the following works, to which I have to express my indebtedness: Archbishop Kenrick's " Primacy of S. PetA-," Allies' "See of S. Peter," Wilberforce's " Principles of Church Author- ity," Allnatt's "Cathedra Petri," and "Faith of Catholics," (Vol. II.,) containing the historical evi- dence ot the first five centuries of the Christian era to the teaching concerning the Papacy. T. J. CAPBL. FbAST of the iMMAOtTLATB CONCEPTION, 1885. "UBI PBTRUS: IBI ECCLBSIA. (8. Ambrose, A. D. 385.) PRAYER FOE UNITY or FAITH AMONG ALL MEN. O God, who liast given Thy only begotten Son as a sacrifice of propitiation for the salvation of the world, that being lifted up from the earth He might draw the hearts of all men to Himself j and "Who wiliest not that any should perish, but earnestly desirest that all should be saved; we humbly beseech Thee, that through the wounds and most precious blood of that same beloved Son, Thou wouldst graciously look upon all men, in all parts of the world, whom the subtlety of error hath deceived or the darkness of ignorance "hath blinded, and lead them back into the way of truth and salvation. Eemember, Lord, that they are Thy creatures; despise not, therefore, the work of Thy hands. Regard the tears of Thy Church, the Spouse of Thy Son; hear the groans of Thy servants; and grant that all heresies and schisms being done away, we may enjoy perpetual- peace and concord. Grant that all nations, joined to Thee in unity of faith and perfect charity, under the government of Peter may be brought to the pastures of eternal life; and let there be through the whole world One Fold and One Shepherd. So be it; so be it, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. THE POPE: THE VICAR OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH CHAPTER I. THE NATURE OF THE PAPACY- THE practical experience of life teaches that every or- ganized body of men must have a head. A ship has its captain, an army its commander, a State its governor, a nation its sovereign. Admitting that Jesus Christ has established on earth a Tisible society. His Church, then is it to be expected there would be a Visible Chief. Nay, admitting that this Church, the Kingdom of Heaven, is to embrace the whole earth and be one Nation, made up of all nations, circumscribed neither by time nor by race, then common sense says, so vast an organized supernatural and spiritual society stands more in need than any other on earth of a Visible Euler. It is precisely this which is asserted and claimed by Catholics for the Pope of Eome. They say this is what Jesus Christ did in the person of S. Peter. And having made such Headship or Presidency an essential part of the Constitution of the Church,*then must it ever be fqund in a continuous line of successors to S. Peter. In saying that a Visible' Head is given to the Visible Church, there is no displacing of Christ. In Him is aU power, all headship. The Church is His, and from Him comes all its spiritual life, imparting feeling and motion to its members. The . Visible Head is constituted by Christ, to be the spring, origin and source of external communion and government. This is the question now to be investigated. 6 THE pope: 1. To understand the nature of the power claimed for the Pope, it is necessary to keep in mind that Catholics hold that Jesus Christ has established tivo essential and indestructible elements in His Church. First, the Apostolate, consisting in universal jurisdiction, dprived directly from Christ. This resides in all its pleni- tude, permanently and solely in the Successors of S. Peter. Secondly, the One Episcopate, diffused through many indiyiduals, exercising corporate jurisdiction in the whole world. It resides exclusively in the Body of Bishops who are in union with the successor of S. Peter. Bach of these Bishops, when lawfvlly appointed, does not possess the whole Episcopate, nor part of the Episcopate, but shares in its solidarity without dividing it. So, then, though Jesus Christ directly gave to His Church the On^ Episcopate, still each iridividual Bishop receives his authority to rule a diocese indirectly, from our Lord, but through Peter's successor. The One Episcopate is plainly subordinated to the Apos- tolate, but not as its lieutenant. Both are established by Jesus Christ. The Episcopate, perpetuating the Apostolic College, ever has its unity, its strength, its power, its unfail- ing faith, its separate shepherds, because of its union with Peter, as a body in fact with its head. In virtue of this relationship, Bishops, at stated intervals, are obliged to visit thp "limina Apostolorum" and render an account of the;State of their dioceses. Hence the superscription of encyclicals and other letters of the Vicar of Christ to the Church, " N., by Divine Provi- dence,. Pope"; whilst Bishops in their pastoral letters to their diocesans superscribe " N., by the grace of God, and by the favor of the Apostolic See, Bishop of N." On the relationship of the Bishops tp the Pope, the Vatican Council says: "But, so far is the power of the Supreme Pqntiff from being any prejudice to the ordinary and immediate power of episcopal jurisdiction, by which Bishops who have been set by the Holy Ghost to succeed and hold the place of the Apostles, to feed and govern each his own flock as true pastors, that their episcopal authority THE VIOAB OP CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE OHUBCH. 7 is really asserted, strengthened and protected by the supreme and universal Pastor; in accordance with the words of 8. Gregory the Great: "My honor is the honor of the whole Church, my honor is the firm strength of my brethren. I am truly honored when the honor due to each and all is not withheld." The Apostolate and the One Episcopate, as Head and Members, are divinely instituted and are two constituent or- gans of His Body, "which is the Church." Consequently they are essential garts of Christ's kingdom on earth, and must ever be found in it, so long as the Kingdom is to exist. 2. This Apostolate, or Headship of the Church, or Pa- pacy, as it is called, contains the office of Supreme Gover- nor and Law-giver, of Supreme Judge, of Supreme Doctor or Teacher of the Church. i. Oflace of Supreme Governor.— Of which the Yatican Council "teaches and declares that by the appointment of our Lord, the Eoman Church possesses a superiority of ordinary power over all other Churches, and that this power of jurisdiction of the Eoman Pontiff, which is truly episco- pal, is immediate; to which all, of whatever rite and dignity, both pastors and faithful, both individually and collectively, are bound by their duty of hierarchial submission and true ' obedience, to submit not only in matters which belong to faith and morals, but also in those that appertain to the dis- cipline and government of the Church throughout the world; so that the Church of Christ may be one flock under one Supreme Pastor through the preservation of unity both of coEamunion and of profession of the same faith with the Eoman Pontiff. This is the teaching of Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and of salvation." .... The decree then goes on to declare: '"If any shall say that the Eoman Pontiff has the office merely of inspection or direction, and not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the Universal Church, not only in things which belong .8 THE POPE: i;o faith and morals, but also in those which relate to the -discipline and government of tlie Church spread throughout the world; or assert that he possesses merely the principal part, and not all the fulness of this supreme power; or that this power which he enjoys is not ordinary and immediate both over each and all the Pastors and the faithful, let him be anathema." In virtue of this Supreme Governorship, (a) the Pope has the right to legislate for the whole Church for to him belongs the supreme direction of discipline, (b) He alone has the right to convoke Councils and to decide where they are to be held; over such Councils has he alone the right to preside either in person, or by his substitutes, or by his •after-recognition of them; his confirmation of their decrees is needed to make them binding on the Church, (c) To the Pope it belongs directly or indirectly to appoint Bishops, to .transfer them to other dioceses, to permit and accept their resignation, and, in case of need, to depose them. (d) The Pope alone has the right to create, destroy or modify dioceses; to make and unmake archbishoprics^, and the like. (e) To the Pope alone does it belong to approve of the foundation of religious orders in the Church, and, if he so judges, to exempt them from the jurisdiction of the Bishops. (/) In a word, the Holy Father, in virtue of his office, has the right and duty to intervene in all that concerns the general good of the Church. To no one on earth is he accountable; indeed, this applies to his lesser offices of Bishop of the City of Eome, of Metropolitan of the Eoman Pro- vinces, of Patriarch in the West. ii. Office of Supreme Judge.— The Vatican Council says: "And since, by the divine right of the Apostolic primacy, the Eoman Pontiff is placed over the Universal Church, we further teach and declare that he is the Supreme Judge of the faithful, and that in all causes, the decision of which belongs to the Church, recourse may be had to his tribunal, and that none may reopen the judgment of the Apostolic See, than whose authority there is no greater, nor can any THE VIOAR OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHUECH. 9 lawfully review its judgment. Wherefore they err from the right course who assert that it is lawful to appeal from the judgments of the Eoman Pontiffs to an Ecumenical Council as to an authority higher than that of the Eoman Pontiff." From every Bishop's court appeal may be made to that of ■the Archbishop, and thence to the supreme and final adjudi- cation of the Holy See. Besides this regular course of procedure every child of the Church has the right to appeal, in spiritual causes, to the Pope, inasmuch as he is the ordinary judge of the whole ^Church. His Jladioial power is over pastors and people. But his is the Supreme Court in the Church; his judgment is .final, from it there is no appeal. In virtue of this office, the Pope claims that he "has the right of free communication with the Pastors of the whole Church, and with their fiocks, that these may be taught and ruled by him in the way of salvation." Consequently, "those must be reproved and condemned who say that this ' 'Communication of the Supreme Chief with the Pastors and the faithful may be lawfully impeded." It is then clearly prohibited to all, without distinction, to prevent the Holy See from communicating by itself and immediately with the faithful, and from treating and defining questions having reference to their religious interests. So writes Cardinal Jacobini in his letter on the powers of Papal Nuncios. To secure free communication at all times, whether in peace or in war, between the Pope and his children, an independent territory always accessible is needed. Civilized nations ought for the moral good of mankind guarantee and secure by international treaty such a territory to the Sovereign Pontiff. iii. Office of Supreme ^Doctor.-" The supreme power of teaching," the Vatican Council proclaims, " is also included in the Apostolic Primacy which the Eoman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, Prince of the Apostles, possesses over the whole Church, this Holy See has always held, the per- petual practice of the Church confirms, and Ecumenical 10 THE pope: Councils also have declared, especially those in which the East with the West met in the union of faith and charity. . . . " To satisfy this pastoral duty, our predecessors ever niade unwearied efforts that the salutary doctrine of Christ might be propagated among all the nations of the earth; and with equal care watched that it might be preserved genuine and pure where it had been received " The Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith delivered through the Apostles " This gift, then, of truth and never-failing faith was conferred by Heaven upon Peter and his successors in this Chair, that they might perform their high office for the salva- tion of all; that the whole flock of Christ, kept away by them from the poisonous food of error, might be nourished with the pasture of heavenly doctrine; that the occasion of schism being removed, the whole Church might be kept one, and, resting on its foundation, might stand firm against the gates of heU." Having made this preamble, the Council goes on to define that the Pope is possessor of that gift of inerrancy or infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer endowed His Church. And that consequently, when the Pope speaks, ex caihedra, (as a judge from the bench) in his official capacity as Pastor and Doctor of all Christians, doing so by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, his definitions regarding faith and morals are infallible or unerring; and, conse- quently, such definitions are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable. To the office of Supreme Governor and to that of Supreme Judge, the Pope brings learning and wisdom, experience and counsel; but, in the exercise of these two offices the Ebman Pontiff may make errors of judgment. Obedience is rendered to his supreme authority, just as children render hejirty obedience to parents, though they are fciUible. THE VIOAK OP CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 11 It is not so in the office of Supreme Teacher. Herein the Eoman Pontiff cannot err; inerrancy, Or infallibility, as it is called, is promised in Peter to this function of the Papacy. To a supreme and infallible authority is obedience in this instance rendered. It is necessary to separate the office from the person. It is to the former not to the latter, that the gift is attached. Whether the Pope, in his private capacity, has goodness or * piety or leaping, does not affect his office as Universal Teacher. We accept the inspired writings of the Evangelists as the Word of God without thinking of the writers. Of the Jewish teachers our Lord said: " They sit in the Chair of Moses; do as they say, bub not as they do." And we have the memorable fact of Gaiphas prophesying truth at the very moment he was iniquitously determining the death of Christ; and the Scripture pointedly adds: "And he said this not of himself, but because he was the High Priest for that year," Impeccability, or freedom from personal wrong doing, does not enter into the question of the Pope as Supreme Teacher.- There is no freedom from error promised to the Pope as private teacher, theologian, translator of Scripture or au- thor. It is only when exercising Apostolic authority, as Universal Doctor, to define a doctrine to be believed by the whole Church, that the Pope is promised immunity from error. In treating scientific or historical questions, the Pope has no gift of infallibility. This is given, him exclusively for defining doctrines of faith and morals. For instance, the rotation of the earth round the sun, taught by Galileo, is not in the field of "faith and morals;" therefore any deci- sion made concerning its truth by the Pope would not be protected by inerrancy. Tet, as in this instance, it might be deemed prudent or necessary to protect the natural sense of the Scripture from some scientific theory. The Sacred Writers, under inspiration, made known new revelations to men. This is no part of the Pope's office; inspiration enters not into the prerogative of infallibility. The gift is granted to conserve and explain the Eevelation 12 THE pope: in the Gospel already given to man. Every definition does but explicitly state what is already implicitly contained in one or other of the truths and laws of the Gospel. Just as the decisions of Supreme Courts of Law expound existing laws, but do not make new enactments. It is the assistance of the Holy Ghost, which is promised to make these ex-cathedra definitions infallible. Therefore, ~ not being inspired, the Pope of necessity must, before defining a doctrine, make use Of the ordinary channels of theological enquiry. Lastly, the infallibility of the Pope is one, and always has been one, with the infallibility of the Church. It is the same Holy Ghost, abiding for ever with the Spouse of Christ, that aids the Church, whether speaking through its Head alone, or through its Head and One Episcopate, assem- bled in General Council or dispersed in the world, to proclaim infallibly what is the Faith once delivered to the Saints. I This will explain how those who strenuously opposed as inopportune the definition of the Infallibility of the Pope, yet, as soon as it was defined, heartily accepted it. In common with all Catholics they held the Church to be endowed with the gift of inerrancy when defining matters of Faith and Morals. They admitted the Council of the Vati- can, presided over by Pope Pius IX. of happy memory, to be an Ecumenical Council; therefore, when the definition was made, the "inopportunists," without the least sacrifice of principle but as a logical consequence of their belief in the infallible authority of the Church, accepted without any reserve the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope. It has to be added, the profession of this article of faith is but the expression of what the Popes had been doing always. "We all," said Father (now Cardinal) Newman, before the definition, " practically if not to say doctrinally bold the Holy Father to be infallible." And Gladstone, in his notorious "Vaticanism," avows: " The Popes had kept up, with comparatively little intermission, for well nigh a .thousand years their claim to dogmatic infallibility." He equally allows that the Vatican Council is, in the floman sense, a General Council. OHAPTEE II. THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE TO THE PAPACY i. Text from S. Matthew— It is recounted that our Blessed Lord, having come into the district of Cesarea Philippi, asked His disciples: " Whom do men say that the Son of Man is ? " They replied that some said John the Baptist, and others some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus then said to His disciples, "But whom do you say that I am ? " " Simon Peter answered and said: ' Thou art Christ, Son of the living God.' "And Jesus answering said to Mm: 'Blessed art tJmu, Simon Barjona: 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 shall bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever them shall loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven.' " (xvi. 13-20.) 1. Looking at the narrative as a whole, it plainly refers to one individual, Simon Peter, otherwise Simon Barjona. Throughout the passage it is the personal pronoun, second person singular, that is used. And it is to the same one individual that .the promises are made. In the nest place, the confession of faith in God Incarnate is the cause of the promises which Jesus immediately makes. The confession, as given in the Greek, is rendered singularly emphatic by the repetition of the article, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." In the third place our Lord expressly denies that Simon had received the knowledge from man, and asserts that i OP THE OHUEOH. 25 •with his children, and they with him. Indeed, where such Legate or Representative is permanent in a country, there can be a permanent Apostolic Court of Appeal. These Delegates of the Pope are truly his lieutenants, bearing according to circumstances the names of Legates, or Nuncios, or Inter-nuncios, or Apostolic Delegates. They are sent wheresoever the Sovereign Pontiff wills, in virtue of his Primacy and Supremacy over the Universal Church, which gives him the right to intervene in every diocese, and to exact obedience to his decisions. Bishops rulitig Sees are not lieutenants of the Pope. They are true Pastors "placed by the Holy Ghost"; they suc- " It is not so much a spirit of sound criticism as a religious prejudice, which has led some Protestants to deny that the Apostle (Peter) was ever at Eome, where all ancient testimony represents him to have suffered, together with 8. Paul, in the reign of Nero." (Vol. i. p. 4.) 30 THE POPiS: 6. Another learned and renowned Protestant, Grotius, says, in a note on "The Church that is at Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you " (1 Pet. v. 13) : " Ancient and modern interpreters differ about this 'Babylon.' The ancients understood it of Rome, where thai Pder was, no true Christian mil dovbt." 7. On this passage the notorious Dr. Dbllinger writes : " St. Peter's own testimony in his first Epistle raises to a certainty the fact of his having been at Eome. The letter is written from a city he calls Babylon. This cannot reasonably be understood of the Egyptian Babylon, a strong fortress and station of a Eoman legion; and thus the question arises whether it is Ba.bylon on the Euphrates, or whether, according to a method of speech very natural to the Jews of that day, from the usage of the Prophets, it means Eome. The latter is the belief of the Ancient Church, following a tradition of the Apostolic age, to which Papias bears testimony. "That St. Peter had passed over the boundaries of the Eoman empire into Parthia to Babylon on the Euphrates, that there was already a Christian community there, and that from thence the Apostle salutes the believers to whom he is writing — this is more than improbable. Strabo and Pliny mention Babylon as .' a great desert,' which, chiefly from the neighborhood of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, had become emptied of inhabitants (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 26; Strabo, xvi. 738). The towns of Nearda and Nisibis were the principal Jewish settlements in the Babylonian Satrapy; the Jews moved from Babylon several years before St. Peter could have come there, because they could not hold out against the heathen inhabitants, who were hostile to them; and soon afterwards another emigration took place oh account of a pestilence. Five years later more than 50,000 Jews were put to death in Seleucia by the Syrians and Greeks, and the remainder went, not back to Babylon, but to Nearda and Nisibis (Josephus, Arch, xviii. 9); the 'only inference therefore to be drawn from Josephus's History is, that at the date of St. Peter's Epistle there were no longer THE VIOAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHXJBOH. 31 any Jews in Babylon; and so, too, Agrippa, in his speech at the beginning of the Jewish war, knew of no Jews to name beyond the Jordan, except those in the province of Adiabene. That S. Mark, who was in 'Babylon' (1 Pet. v. 13)' with the Apostle, was at Rome at the precise time when there is every reason to believe that this Epistle was written, isclear from St. Paul's mentioning him (Col. iv. 10, Philem. 24).' Soon after he was staying in Asia Minor, whence St. Paul recalled him to Eome (2 Tini. iv. 11), shortly before his death." (First Age of the Church, pp. 97, 98). In his Histpry DoUinger once more writes: "The Eoman Church must have been founded by an Apostle, and that Apostle can only have been Peter. St. Paul declares, in his Epistle to the Eomans, that he had often withstood his longing to come to them, because he made a principle of only bringing Jhe Gospel where Christ had not yet been preached, so as not to build on another man's foundation. But now, after the Church had been founded in the West, he was going into Spain, and would^visit Eome on the way (Eom. XV. 20-24). He was unwilling, then, at that time to undertake a regular Apostolic office in Eome, 'because the foundation was already laid.' By whom? St. Paul cannot possibly have meant by the chance visit of some nameless believer, or by those who returned from Jerusalem and related what they had heard there; he found irregular pre- announcements of that kind in mo&t churches, to which he none the less devoted his special energies. He cannot, in a word, mean it was his principle only to teach where no one had preached the Gospel before him; for, on the one hand, no intelligible ground for such a rule can be imagined, — on the other, the contrary is proved by his labors in Antioch and Cyprus, and his anxious care and earnest exhortations written to the community of Colossae, which was unknown to him personally. He must refer, therefore, to his former agreement with the great Apostles at Jerusalem, and the position he took towards them, according to which he desired to abstain from meddling with their work, or building on a foundation laid by them. 32 THE pope: There can be no doubt, then, that it was St. Peter, perhaps accompanied by St. John, who had laid the foundation in Rome. " The formation of a Church at Eome, in the centre of the Empire, where the number of Jews was greater and their position more important than at any other town out of Judea excepting Alexandria, was far too important a matter to be left to chance. ... While all the principal Churches have their tradition about the men to whom they owe their first foundation, Peter is marked out, both by the universal tradition of all Churches and the special tradition of the Eoman, as the founder and first ruler of that Church, and is said — which comes to the same thing — to have first gone to Rome under Claudius." In face of these positive assertions made by writers, some of latest date, learned in Christian antiquity and not mem- bers of the Roman Church, it is unnecessary to do more than cite a few of the more striking testimonies on which they relied. ii. Early Witnesses.— The Father of Ecclesiastical His- tory, Eusebius, (a Greek, let it be remembered). Bishop of Csesarea, died about 340. The first nine books of his Church History were, according to the modern scholars Lightfoot and Wescott, written before 315, that is, but two hundred and forty-nine years after the death of S. Peter. Eusebius, who was possessed of rare capability and thirst for knowledge, had access to the unrivalled collection of Christian works made by Pamphilius, and also to the library of Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem. Many of those works are now lost, and it is in the pages of Eusebius that the knowledge of ecclesiastical literature of the second century is in great part to be found. 1. Eusebius refers in different places in his writings to the fact that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome. Suffice it to quote one passage from his Chronicles : ' ' Peter the Apos- tle, the first Pontiff of the Christians, when he had first THE VIOAE OP 0HEI8T; THE HEAD OF THE OHUECH. 33 founded the chair at An|fciooh, i^oceeds to Borne, where, preach- ing the Gospel, he contwmsfor twenty-five yecurs Bishop of thai dty." 2. Eusebius cites Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, who, when writing in 170 to the Eoman Christians, states that both the Corinthian and Eoman Churches were "plante<^' by Peter and Paul. 3. S. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, who himself tells us of his friendly relatidfis with S. Polycarp, the disciple of the Apos- tle S . John, writes, about the year 190, in his work against heresies, concerning the Eoman Church as the " greatest, most ancient, known to all, founded and conatUuled by the most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul." He then gives the names of the Popes from S. Peter down to Elutherius, " who now in the twelfth place holds the office of the Episcopate from the Apostles." (Adv. Hser. iii. 3). 4. S. Clement of Alexandria,- the head of the Catecheti- cal School of Alexandria about 190, relates that: " When Peter had proclaimed the word publicly at Eome, he allowed S. Mark to reduce his sayings to writing." (Cited by Eusebius Hist. Ecc. Lib. vi., c. 14). 5. TertuUian, who lived from A. D. 154 to 220, writing against heresies pretending to claim Apostolic origin, sug- gests that an appeal be made to the succession of the bishops in each See and so learn what is Apostolic doctrine. "If thou art near to Italy,'' he says, "thou hast Eome whence we also have an authority at hand. That Church how happy on which the Apostles poured out all their doc- trine, with their blood; where Peter had a like passion mth the Lord, where Paul is crowned with an end like the Baptist's." (De Praescript Haeret). 6. S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, wrote about A. D. 255 to Antonianus: "Cornelius was made Bishop (of Eome) by the judgment of God and His Christ, by the 34 THE POPE: testimony of almost all the clergy by the suffrage of the people -who were present; at a time when no one had been made {bishop) before him; when the place of (Pope) Fabian, that is when the place of Peter, and the rank of the sacerdotal chair were yacant." (Ep. 55). 7. About the year 372, S. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, whom the great S. Augustine numbered among the most renowned Doctors of the Church, when striving to convince Parmenian that the Donatists were schismatics, writes: "You cannot then deny that in the city of Borne the Episcoval Ohair was first established by Peter, in which Chair sat Peter, the Head of the Apostles." (Lib. ii, c 2.) And a little later on, S. Optatus gives the succession of the Bishops of Eome, from S. Peter down to Pope Siricius, then living. 8. S. Jerome, half a century later, in his Catalogue of Ec- clesiastical Writers, says : ' ' Simon Peter, after presiding as Bishop of the Church of Antioch and preaching to those of the Circumcision dispersed in Pontus, Galacia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, in the second year of Claudius, went to Borne to vanquish Simon Magus, and there, for five and twenty years, he held his sacerdotal chair, until the last, that is, the fourteenth year of Nero, by whom being crucified with his head downwards, he was crowned with martyrdom. " 9. S. John Chrysostom, who, before becoming Archbishop of Constantinople, was priest and preacher at Antioch from 381 to 398, says: " And, as I have named Peter, I am reminded of another Peter (Flavian, Bishop of Antioch), our common father and teacher, who has both inherited Peter's virtue and his Chair. Tea, for this is one privilege of this our city that it had at first as teacher, the leader of the Apostles. For it was befitting that that city, which before the rest of the world was crowned with the Christian name, should receive as shepherd, the Krst of the Apostles. But after having had him as our teacher we did not retain him, but surrendered him to regal Borne." (Tom. iii., Hom. ii.) THE VIOAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHXJKCH. 35 _ And so, writer after writer of the early centuries asserts or implies that S. fetev was Bishop of Eome. Indeed, the very See itself is usually referred to in the Acts of Councils, m ataperial documents and in Christian writers as the "Chair of Peter," "the Place of the Prince of the Apostles," "the Episcopal Chair in which sat Peter, the Head of the Apostles." iii. The Voice of Monuments-The monuments and cata- combs of Eome bear their testimony to the residence of S. Peter in the Eternal City. 1. There is the majestic Basilica containing the relics of the martyred Apostle, which inspired- the words of Byron; ' ' But thou of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. Since Zion's desolation, when that He Forsook His former city, what could be Of earthly structures, In His honor piled, Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, Power, glory, strength, and beauty — all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship uudeflled. " Enter; its grandeur overwhelms thee not; And why? it is not lessened; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality; and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined. See thy God face to face, as thou dost now His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by His brow." The gorgeous temple of our day has under its glorious dome the crypt, the only remnant of the Basilica built at the request of Pope Sylvester by Constantino. The work, begun in 316, at which this Christian Emperor labored with his own hands and carried away twelve loads of earth in honor of the Twelve Apostles, did in turn but replace the Oratory founded A. D. 90 by Anicletus, Bishop of Eome. He IS said to have been ordained by S. Peter. The Oratory marked the spot where many Christian martyrs had suffered 36 THE pope: in the circus of Nero and where S. Peter was buried after his "crucifixion. Anastasius recounts how the body of S. Peter was exhumed, when the Basilica of Constantine was- erected, and re-interred in a shrine of silver enclosed in a sarcophagus of gilt bronze. (Hare's Walks in Rome, pp. 570-2.) 2. While S. Peter's covers the sacred remains of the Prince of the Apostles, the Ohurcjhes of S. Pudentiana, of S. Pietro in Oarcere with its Mamertime prisons, of S. Pietro in Yinculo, of S. Pietro in Montorio, of the Domine-Quo- Vadis, can each give its traditional connection with the life, or the labors, or the martyrdom of S. Peter in Eome. " One hundred and fifty years," says Gibbon, "after the glorious deaths of S^. Peter and Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian Eoad were distinguished by the tombs or rather the trophies of those spiritual heroes. In the age which fol- lowed the conversion of Constantine, the Emperors, the consuls and the , generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a Tent-maker and a Fisherman, and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the Bishops of the Royal City continually offered th& Unbloody Sacrifice." (Decline and Fall, R. E. chap, xiv.) 3. Well may Dr. Nath'l Lardner, another distinguished Protestant writer, say with regard to this whole tradition: "It is easy to observe that it is the general, uncontradicted, disinter ented testimony . of ancient writers in the several parts- of the world — Greeks, Latins, Syrians. As our Lord's predic- tion concerning the death of 8. Peter is recorded in one of the four Gospels, it is very likely that Christians would observe the accomplishment of it, which must have been in some place. And about this place there is no difference among Christian writers of ancient times. Never any other place was named besides Rome. Nor did any other city glory in the martyrdom of Peter. There were disputes in the second and third centuries between the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops and Churches about the time of keeping Easter and THE VICAB OF CHEI8T; THE HEAD OP THE OHUBOH. 37 about the baptism of heretics. Yet none denied the Bidbop of Borne to hate what they called the Chair of Peter. "It is not to our honor nor our interest, either as Chris- tians or Protestants, to deny the truth of events ascertained by early and well-attested tradition." (Hist, of the Apostles and Evangelists, Ch. xviii.) 4. "It is difficult," says Wilberforce in his Principles of Church Authority, chapter 9, " to understand how such a question can have been seriously raised, since there is scarcely an ancient (Christian) "writer who does not either assert or allude to his (S. Peter's) residence in that city (Eome)." Wilberforce was Archdeacon in the Episcopal Church of Ejigland when he wrote the famed book from which this extract is taken. But having completed the work, he resigned his position and joined the Church of JElome. CHAPTER IV. THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO THE PAPACY. i. The Papacy a Present Fact.— In the whole world there is but one bishopric known as " The Apostolic See:" there is but one episcopal throne known as " The Chair of Peter." That bishopric, that throne is at Eome, the centre of au- thority and the seat of government of the Church which 'alone calls itself, and is alone called by friend and by foe *' The Catholic Church." To express that the "Chair of Peter" is the "root and womb of the Catholic Church," as S. Cyprian wrote to Pope Cornelius sixteen hundred and thirty years ago, the Church is called the " Eoman Catholic Church "—Eoman then not from nationality, but because the headship, the centre of authority, the seat of government of Christ's Kingdom on earth are at Eome. 38 THE POPE: Our holy lord, Leo XIII., occupies to-day the Chair of Peter, and exercises the Apostolate of Peter throughout the world. In union with, and in submission to Pope Leo XIII. are some nine hundred bishops, governing as many dioceses. These collectively constitute the One Episcopate established by Jesus Christ, by which the Apostolic College is per- petuated. The latest and lowest estimate .puts at two hundred and seventy-five millions those who render obedience in things spiritual to Leo XIII. Of all nations, and tongues, and forms of government, they form one compact, organic body under the Pope of Home. Political persecution and worldly criticism have, by God's mercy, done good. Never has history .presented the Church better knit together in its members with its Head. And so the Papacy, possessed of everlasting youth, is a living, visible fact in the world, Its action is no less manifest. From his high watch-tower our holy Father, Leo XIII., observes the signs of the times. He, aided by wisdom, experience and divine help has, through encyclical letters, instructed the world at large, and the children of the Church in particular, concerning the sacred fundamental laws of religious, civil and domestic society. His Holiness has, in like manner, raised his voice against the enemies, secret and avowed, of social order. On his subjects the holy Father has earnestly inculcated the union of all hearts in the cause of holy Church-; an increase of piety and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ through the 'holy Eosary; a spirit of unworldliness and of alms-giving by laboring under the banners of 8. Francis of Assissi an* of S. Vincent of Paul; an extension of the sacred and pro- fane sciences among the clergy; a loyal obedience of peo- ple to pastors and of people and pastors to the Holy See,, and finally the Father of the Faithful has, " moved by the consciousness of the greatest, the most holy, that is, Apos- tolic obligation, issued the most memorable encyclic out of the fourteen, on The Christian Constitution of States." THE TIOAE OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHUBCH. 39 To secure the fullest exercise and extension of holy Church, Pope Leo XIII. has labored to have closer rela- tion with Catholic Governments; to non-Catholic rulers he has extended the right hand of friendship; and even with Mahometan and pagan sovereigns has he entered into com- munication. These varied acts done at different times have been borne by steam and electricity to the furthermost parts of the earth. They have been published and commented on in the press of th^ civilized world. And so the name of the Pope has become a household word in every land and the teaching of the Papacy a familiar fact. The assemblies of Catholic Bishops around the Chair of Peter on the occasions of proclaiming the Immaculate ' Con- ception of the Blessed Virgin, the Canonization of the Japanese Martyrs, the Jubilee of Pius IX. of happy memory, and the Vatican Council, have made the men of the nineteenth century conversant with the present living powers of the Papacy. ii. The Papacy a Continuous Past Fact-— Our present Pope is the two hundred and fifty-eighth successor of S. Peter. That long, venerable, glorious line of Eoman Pon- tiffs can be traced as a river to its source . It stands out as prominently in the life of the Church as does the succession of rulers in the story of a country. In one sense the history of Christianity is the history of the Popes. Profoundly interesting as it is to trace the glories, the trials, the vicissitudes of the Papacy, yet our purpose will be bet- ter served by concentrating attention on some one period, and therein to judge by facts whether the rights and pre- rogatives of the Pope now claimed, were then exercised. The fifth century, that is, from A. D. 400 to 500, in the middle of which the, first of the Leos sat on the "Chair of Peter," is singularly suited for such an examination. The Church had passed through its three centuries of persecution. The Edict of Milan, A. D. 313, according lib- erty to the Christian religion, allowed the Church freedom 40 THE pope: to grow and unfold, as does a plant, developi;ng from within the organs and powers which God the Son had given to her constitution. " The grain of mustard seed" was becoming a tree. The baby Church, born Pentecost-day, waxed strong, its different members exercising their appointed functions. By A. D. 400, the Church was planted in every part of the Roman Empire. She had erected her Basilicas, and in these temples of the true God she gave pomp and grandeur to her liturgy. Already had two of her General Councils ■been held. To use an epithet of our day, the Church in the fifth ■century was "undivided." The voices of the Greek or Eastern Bishops were united with those of the Bishops of the West. The Schism came not till the middle of the ninth century. Nor can the False Decretals pf Isidore Mercator be urged in this century against the prerogatives of the Papacy, for they did not make their appearance till about A. D. 840. Then while. the Church was exercising, in the fifth century, her power to stem the fiood of heresies which had come, and to convert the hordes of Huns, Vandals and Northmen that swept down on the Roman Empire, she was singu- larly strong in saintly and learned bishops and priests. It is suflBicient to name S. John Chrysostom, S. Augustine (who had been taught by S. Ambrose), S. Cyril of Alexandria, S. Jerome, S. Peter Chrysologus, S. Vincent of Lerins, S. Leo the Great, with Socrates and Sozomen, the historians. It will be readily conceded that the testimony of the fifth century must therefore be of the greatest weight in deter- mining whether the Bishop of Rome is by divine right the Supreme Head of the Christian Church. iii. The Testimony of "Writers of the 5th Century.— 1. The century opens with S. John Chrysostom in the See of Constantinople! He died in 404. This eminent Doctor of the Church, in his work on the Priesthood, writes: " Why did Christ shed His blood? That he might obtain posses- sion of these very sheep which He entrusted to Peter and to his successors." (Bk. ii. n. 1.) THE VIOAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHUBCH. 41 Now, of Peter, S. Chrysostom elsewhere says: "Peter, the head of the Choir of the Apostles, the mouth of the disciples, the pillar of the Church, the buttress of the faith, the foundation of the Confession, the fisherman of the uni- verse, he who raised up our race from the depths of error even to heaven, he who was ardent and full of confidence, yea, rather full of love, when all the rest remained silent, came up to the Master and said "how often shall my brother offend," etc. (Hom. de Dec. Mill, 3.) Referring to St. Peter's denial of Christ, 8. John Chrys- ostom says: "After so great an evil He (Jesus) again raised him to his former honor and intrusted to his hands the Primacy over the Universal Churchy (Hom. V. de Poenit. 2.) And, commenting on S. John, xxi. 15, the Saint writes : "And why, then, passing by the others, does He (Jesus) converse with Peter on these things? He was the chosen one of, the Apostles, and the mouth of the disciples, and Leader of the Choir. On this account also Paul went upon a time to see him rather than the others. And, withal, to shew him that he must have confidence, as the denial was done away with, He {Jesus) puts into his {Peter's) hands the Pres- idJency over his brethren, and he brings not forward that Menial, neither does he reproach him with the past, but says to him 'If thou love Me rule over the brethren,' .... and the third time He gives him the same injunction, shewing at what a price He sets the Presidency over His own sheep. And if any one should say how then did James re- ceive the throne of Jerusalem ? This I would answer, He appointed this man {Peter) Teacher, not of that Throne but of the World." (Hom. Ixxxviii. in Joan.) And S. John Chrysostom, suffering from the violence and intrigue of Theophilus, writes in 404 to Pope Innocent, as a subject to his Superior, and says : " Now that you have be- come acquainted with all these things, my most honored and religious Lords, display that vigor and zeal which becomes you,- so as to suppress so great a wickedness which has invaded the churches. . . . Vouchsafe to 42 THE pope: write back that what has been wickedly done by one party, . whilst I was absent, and did not decline a trial, has no 'force, and indeed it has not in its own nature; and that they who have been proved to have acted thus against all law, be subjected to the laws of the Church; and allow us to enjoy uninterruptedly your letters, and love, and all the rest, as we formerly did. . . . Having stated all the above matters, and you having learnt everything more clearly from the religious lords, my fellow-bishops, bring to this matter for me, I be- seech you, that zeal which is required at your hands." (Ep. i. ad. Innoc.) 2. From the Bosphorus we turn to Egypt, to another eminent Prelate, S. Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, raised to that dignity eight years after the death of S. John Chrysostom. Commenting on the text S. Matt. xvi. 16, Cyril says: Jesus "promises to found the Church, assigning immova- bleness to it, as He is the Lord of virtues, and over this (the Church) He sets Peter as Shepherd." In like manner on Luke xxii. 31, the Saint says: " Therefore passing by the other disciples He (Jesus) comes to the Coryphaeus (Peter) himself . . . ' and thou be-, ing once converted, confirm thy brethren;' that is, become a Support and a Teacher to those who come to Me by faith." Writing on Mary the Mother of God, Cyril addresses Nestorius in these words : ' ' That these things are really so, let us produce a witness most worthy of faith, a most holy man, and Archbishop of the whole habitable World, that Ooeles- tine, who is both Father and Patriarch of the mighty City of Borne, who himself also exhorted thee by letter, bidding thee desist from that maddest of blasphemies, and thou didst no{obey him." (Faith of Catholics, vol. ii. p. 83.) S. Cyril presided, by the authority of Pope Ccelestine, in his place, over the Third General Council held at Ephesus. On that occasion Cyril said in the Council: " Let the letter received from the Most Holy Pope Coelestine, 'Bishop of the Apostolic See, be read to the Synod with becoming honor." THE VIOAE OF CHEIST; THE HEAD OP THE OHUKCH. 43 3. Our next witness is the illustrious S. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. He is the voice of North Africa while 8. Cyril was yet living. Writing against the Manicheans: " I am held" says he, "in the Communion of the CaihoUc Church, by . . . the succession of priests from the very Chair of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord after His resurrection committed His sheep to be fed, even lo the present Episcopate." (Cont. Man. Fund. 5). To the Donatists in like manner S. Augus- tine says: " Come my brethren if you wish to be grafted in the vine. . . . Reckon up the bishops from the very See of Peter. . . . That is the Eock which the proud gates of hell do not destroy." These words plainly show that 8. Augus- tine realized to the full the words of his Spiritual Father, 8. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan: " Where Peter is, there is the Church." 8. Augustine says of Peter: " By reason of the Primacy of his Apostolate he represented the person of the Church, and was a type of its universality." (In Joan, cxxiv., 5.) And writing against Faustus, Augustine says: "Peter was made Pastor of the Church, as Moses was made the Euler of the Jewish People." (Lib. xxii., c. 70.) And once more: "It was the will of Christ to make Peter, to whom he com- mended His sheep as to another self, one with Himself, that so he might commend His sheep to him; that He might be Head, and the other bear the figure of the body, that is, the Church, and that like man and wife they might be two in one flesh." (Serm. xlvi., 30.) Finally: "For if the order of bishops, succeeding to each other, is to be considered, how much more securely and really beneficially do we reckon from Peter, himself, to whom, being as a figure of the Church, the Lord says: 'Upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not overcome it.' For to Peter succeeded Linus, " and he gives the succession down to Pope Anastasius then living, and continues: "In this order of succession no Donatist bishop appears." (Ep. liii. Genoroso). These instances, from among many that might be cited. 44 THE POPE: shew in the clearest way that S. Augustine believed Peter to hold the Primacy of authority, to be the Supreme Pastor and Euler of the Church. Ah interesting passage, wherein Augustine compares S. Cyprian to S. Peter, brings out pointedly the primacy of the latter: "I think that the Bishop Cyprian may, without any insult to himself, be com- pared to the Apostle Peter as far as regards the crown of martyrdom. But I ought rather to be afraid of being ^ contumelious towards Peter. For who knows not that primacy (or princedom) of the Apostleship is to be preferred before any Episcopate whatever ? But, although the grace of the Chairs is widely different, yet one is the glory of the martyrs." (De Bapt. Cont. Donat, Lib. ii. n. 2). Of the Eoman Church he says in it: " The Primacy of the Apostolic See has always been in force." (Ep. xliii. Glorio. n. 7.) And elsewhere: "The Chair of the Eoman Church in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius now sits." <(Cont. Lit. Petilian, Lib. ii. c. 15.) S. Augustine, with the Bishops of the Councils of Car- thage and Milevis, turned to Pope Innocent for the con^r- mation of the decrees which had been drafted, " wishing it," say they in their letter, "to be decided whether their little streamlet flowed from the same source whence came the abundance of the Head." The Pope replied to both Councils. In the first letter he says: "Tou have referred to our judgment, knowing what is due to the Apostolic See, since all who are placed in this position desire to follow the Apostle himself, from whom the very Episcopate and all the authority of this title spring. Following whom, we know as well how to condemn the evil as to approve the good." Then he continues: " In pursu- ance of no human but a divine sentence, the Fathers have decreed that whatever was being carried on, although in the most remote provinces, should not be terminated before it was brought to the knowledge of this See, by the full author- ity of which the just sentence should be confirmed." And, in the second letter, Pope Innocent says : " Especially so often as a matter of faith is under discussion, I conceive THE VIOAE OF CHEIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 45 that all my brethren and fellow-bishops can only refer to Peter; that is the source of their own name and honor, just as your affection hath now referred, for what may benefit aE churches in common throughout the world. For the inventors of evils must necessarily become more cautious when they see that, at the reference of a double Synod, they have been severed from ecclesiastical communion by our sentence." S. Augustine, after the confirmation of the decrees by Pope Innocent, and having the Pope's letters in mind, sums up the history of Pelagianism by saying: "The decisions of the two Councils on this matter have been sent to the Apos- tolic See; whence, also, the replies have come. Tfie cause is ended; may the error soon terminate also." (Serm. cxxxi.) More is not needed to shew 8. Augustine's belief in theory and in practice in the Supremacy of the Eoman See; and this notwithstanding his protestation with that of his African fellow-bishops in the affair of Aspiarius against the arrogance of the Pope's representatives. Augustine's words, just cited, have given rise to the oft- repeated apothegm: "Eome has spoken; the cause is finished." 4.. Prom Augustine in North Africa we turn to Cassian the Monk, the founder of Monasticism in the West. He had been brought up in a monastery at Bethlehem ; and we may fairly claim him as a witness to the teaching in Palestine. Cassian died about 440. Writing on the Incarnation, he says: " You would-fain have the authority of a greater in- dividual, .... let us interrogate the greatest — that disciple amongst the disciples, that teacher amongst the teachers, who, ruUng the helm of the Roman Church, as he had the Pri- macy of Faith, so also had the Primacy of the Priesthood. Tell us, then, tell us, O Peter, Prince of the Apostles, how the churches are to believe in God; for it is just that thou shouldst teach us who wast thyself taught of the Lord, and that thou shouldst open to us the gate of which thou receivedst the key." (Da Incar. liii.) 46 THE POPE: 5. S. Vincent of Lerins, priest and monk, is our next witness. He died about 445, Twelve years before, he com- pleted an4 published in clear and elegant language his ' ' Commonitorum " against schismatics and heretics. Having asserted that " in the Catholic Church itself very great care is to be taken that we hold that which has been be- lieved efoerywhere, always andby allTnen," S. Vincent illustrates what he means by this, universality, antiquity and consent. He then points out how an army of confessors and martyrs in common with all religious men " go counter to novel inventions." And he continues: "Such examples are everywhere plentiful. But not to be prolix we will select some one, and and this in preference from the Apostolic See, that all men may see more plainly than the sun's light with what force, what zeal, what endeavoring blessed succession of the blessed Apostles ever defended the integrity of religion once received. In days past, therefore, Agrippinus of blessed memory. Bishop of Carthage, the first of all mortal men, against the divine Scripture, against the rule of the Univer- sal Church, against the sense of all his fellow-priests, against the custom and institutes of our forefathers, held that baptism ought to be repeated. . . . When, therefore, on every side men reclaimed against the novelty of the thing, and all the priests in every direction, each according to his zeal, did oppose, then Pope Stephen of ^ blessed memory. Prelate of the Apostolic See, resisted with the rest of his colleagues, indeed but still beyond the rest; thinking it, I suppose, becoming that he should emd all the rest as much in devotion for the Faith as he surpassed them: in authority of place. In fine, in an Epistle which was then sent to Africa, he gave a decree in these words, ' Nothing is to be innovated, nothing but what has been handed down.' . . . What, therefore was the result of the whole business? What, indeed, but the usual and accustomed one. Antiquity, to wit, was retained; novelty exploded." (Adv. Hseres. n. 6). 6. We now turn to Italy to hear the teaching of the learned S. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Eavenna, from THE YICAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHTJECH. 47 433 to 454. He writes to Eutyches the heretic : ' ' We exhort you, honored brother, that in all things you obediently attend to |;hose things which have been written by the most blessed Fope (Leo) of tJie CHy of Home, because blessed Peter, who lives cmd presides in his own See, gives, to those who seek, truefaiih. I'or we, in our solicitude for peace and true faith, cannot, without the consent of the Bishop of the Roman City, hear causes of faith." (Faith of Catholics, vol. ii. p. 89). And in his sermon on the 99th Psalm, the same Saint says: ."Hence it is that, when about to return to heaven, He (Jesus) commends His sheep to he fed by Peter in his stead." (Serm. vi.) And, once more: "Let Peter hold his long-established Primacy over the Apostolic Choir; let him open to those who enter the kingdom of heaven." (Serm. cliv.) 7. Our next witnesses are the Greek historians, Socrates and Sozomen, who lived and wrote- in the fifth century. Socrates says : "Athanasius was scarcely able to reach Italy ... at the same time also Paul of Constanti- nople, and Asclepas of GazsB, and Marcellus of Ancyra, and Lucius of Adrianople, who had each for different causes been accused and driven from their churches, are found to be in that regal city, Rome. They make knotvn their several cases to Julius, Bishop of Home, and he, as is the prerogative of the Ohurch that is at Borne, armed and strengthened them with authoritative letters, and sent them back to the East, having restored to each his own See, and severely blaming those who had rashly deposed them. And they having de- parted from Rome, and confiding in the letters of Bishop Julius, recover their churches." (Hist. Bcc. Bk. ii. c. 15.) Sozomen narrates the same ifi,cia concerning the appeals of these bishops of the East to Pope Julius. Of the Pope's letters he says : "And as, on account of the dignity of his throne, the care of all pertains to him, he restored to each his own Church." *And referring to the letter of the same Pope Julius to the Arian bishops, he cites from it these words: " It is a sacerdotal law, that the things done con- 48 THE pope: trary to the sentiment of the Bishop of the Eomans be looked upon as null." (Hist. Ecc. Bk. iii, c. 8.) This same Sozomen elsewhere having named those wha denied the Diyinity of the Holy Ghost, and the Catholic Bishops who defended it, adds: " This important question being agitated, and, as was to be expected, daily increasing: in importance by the eagerness for disputation, when the Bishop of Eome learnt this, he with the priests of the West wrote to the Churches of the East to worship a con&ubstan- tial and equally glorious Trinity. And after this .had been done, they were all silent, and this important question seemed settled, as having been once for all decided by the judg- ment of the Church of the Bomans." (Hist. Eco. Bk. vi. c. 22.) 8. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, in Palestine, was charged with sympathizing with the doctrine of Nestorius. The "Bobber Council "had (Jeposed him, but he appealed to Pope Leo the Great and was restored to his episcopal dig- nity; and because of Pope Leo's action, Theodoret took his seat in the Council of Chalcedon. In his letter of appeal to the Pope, Theodoret says: " If Paul, that herald of the truth, that trumpet of the Holy Ghost, repaired to Peter to bring from him an explanation to those of Antioch who were disputing concerning questions of the law, with much greater reason do we, who are so worthless and lowly, hasten to your Apostolic Throne to receive from you a cure for the wounds of the churches, for it pertains to you to hold the Primacy in all things.. For your throne is adorned with many preroga- tives .... These (Peter and Paul) have made your throne most illustrious; this is the culminating point of your blessings. And their God has even now made illus- trious their throne, having established therein your Holi- ness, emitting the rays of orthodoxy. . . . But I await the sentence of your .^ostoUc throne. . . . Do not, I pray you, reject my supplication nor despise my miserable gray hairs so insulted after so many labors. But above all things,! beg to learn from you whether I must needs acquiesce in this unjust deposition, or not; for I await your sentence. THE TIOAB OP 0HEI8T; THE HEAD OF THE CHUECH. 49 And should you command me to abide by what has been adjudged, I wUl do so, and to no one will I give further trouble, but will await the just judgment of our God and Saviour." (Ep. cxiii. Leoni.) 9. We close our references to individual writers by citing from the African Bishop, Victor Vitensis, who wrote the History of the Persecutions under the Vandals. He died in the year 490. " If the king," says Bishop Victor, "wish to know which ^' the One True Faith let him send to his friends, and I, too, will write to my brethren that my fellow bishops may come — men who may be able, with me, to demonstrate to you our common faith, and especially the Boman Church, which is the head of all the churches .' ' (De Persec. Afric. Bk. iii.) These saintly writers of the fifth century, renowned for learning, holding responsible ecclesiastical dignity ia. various parts of the Church, representatives of many nations, knew nothing of a mere honorary primacy, nor of the human institution of the papacy, nor of the limitation of papal power to a Western Patriarchate. ^ They hold and practically profess that the Bishop of Eome is ap- pointed, by God, Supreme Pastor of the whole Church. They did what is expressed in the Canon of 8. Patrick of A. D. 450: "If any case cannot easily be decided in that See (the local one of S. Patrick) ... we have decreed that it be sent to the Apostolic See, that is, to the Chair of the Apostle Peter, which holds authority in the City of Eome." iv. The Testimony of Councils in the 5th Century.— Pelagianism was making considerable progress in North Africa. To stem it two provincial Synods were held at Car- thage and Milevis in 416. In each case, when the assembled' Bishops had completed the work of the Synod and had con- demned the Pelagian heresy, the decrees were sent to Pope Innocent at Eome for confirmation. 50 THE pope: 1. The sixty-eight bishops of the Council of Carthage write : "These proceedings of ours, Lord and Brother, we have thought are to be made known to your holy charity, that to the statutes of our lowliness may be added the authority of the Holy See for the defence of the salvation of many, and the correction of the perversity of some." "They implore," says Milman, the Protestant historian, " the dignity of the Apostolic Throne, of the Successor of S. Peter, to complete and ratify what is wanting to their more moderate power." (Hist. Lat. Christ. Bk. ii. c. 2.) Indeed, the Fathers of the Council say this in so many words: "We dp not pour back our streamlet for the pur- pose of increasing your gi'eat fountain. . . . We wish it to be decided by you whether our stream, however small, flows forth from that same head of rivers whence comes your own abundance; and by your answers to be consaled respecting our common participation of grace." (Ep. elxxvii. n. 19.) Pope Innocent replies by commending the Bishops for "keeping to the precedents of ancient tradition," "for knowing what is due to the Apostolic See, knowing that all of us who have been placed in this position desire to follow the Apostle, from whom the Episcopate itself and the whole authority of this title has been derived. With him for our model, we both know how to condemn what is evil and to approve of what is commendable." (Ep. clxxxi.) 2. Prom the Council of Milevis the fifty-nine Fathers write< " As the Lord by the sovereign gift of His own grace has placed you in the Apostolic See ... we beseech you that you would vouchsafe to apply your pastoral diligence . . . thinking that those (the Pelagians) who hold such pernicious opinions will more easily yield to the authority of your Holiness, derived as it is from the authority of Holy Scrip- ture." To the Fathers Pope Innocent replies: "Carefully, as was befitting, do you consult what is the secret wish of this Apostolic dignity (a dignity, I repeat, upon which falls, besides those things that are without, the solicitude for all THE TICAE OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 51 the churches) as to what opinion is to be held in matter's of such moment; having herein followed the pattern of an ancient rule, which you, equally with myself, know has always been observed by the whole world. . . . Wherefore we do, by the authority of the Apostolic Power, declare Pelagius and Ccelestius, the inventors of novel words, . . . deprived of the Communion of the Church." (Ep. xxx. ad Con. Meliv.) The great S. Augustine, who, with other African Bishops, signed these letters, says that Pope Innocent " wrote bacls to us on all thes8 matters in a manner that was right and becoming in the Prelate of the Apostolic See," (Ep. <3lxxxvi. Paulino, 2.) And, preaching a little later, 8. Augustine says: "Already the decisions of two Councils have been sent to the Apostolic See, whence, also, replies have been received. The cause is ended. Would that the error may likewise presently terminate." (Serm. cxxxi. n. 10.) 3, From these Provincial Synods we may pass to the Third General Council, that of Ephesus. It was con- voked, with the consent and approbation of Pope Ccelestine, by the Epiperors of the East and West, Theodo- sius and Valentinian, in 431. It was this Pope, it will be remembered, who sent S. Patrick and S. Palladius to convert the Irish. The same Pope appointed Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, with Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, to visit Britain, and there defend the Catholic Faith against Pelagianism. ' The convoking of the Council of Ephesus was necessitated by the heretical teaching of Nestorius, Bishop of Constan- tinople, concerning the number of Persons in Jesus Christ. S. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, tried to win Nestorius to the true doctrine but failed. Both appealed to Pope Ccelestine. The decision was that Nestorius should recant within ten days or be deposed. Nestorius refused. Cyril was com- missioned to pronounce sentence of deposition. "Arming' yourself," says Pope Ccelestine, "with the authority of this, 62 THE POPE: our See, and using our Succession, you shall, .witli resolute severity, put in execution this sentence." (Ep. xi.) In his. Archiepiscopal City of Alexandria, S. Cyril published twelve anathemas against Nestorius. He responded with, twelve other anathemas. To declare the true faith, and to bring about concord, the Council of Ephesus was convoked. It opened its first ses- sion on June 22d, 431. There were one hundred and sixty Bishops present; but by the end of the first session they numbered one hundred and ninety-eight. They were almost all Bishops of the East. As the original documents of the Council, as well as later writers, shew, S. Cyril of Alexandria presided as Kepresen- tative of Ijope Ccelestine. Besides delegating his own authority to Cyril, the Pope sent three Legates — ^Philip, a priest, and two bishops, Arcadius and Projectus. In his letter to the Council the Pope says that he had sent these Legates to be present at what was done " and to execvie whM has been previously ordained by us. To whom we doubt not that assent will be given by your Holiness." (Ep. xviii.) After the letters of Pope Ccelestine had been read, and received with acclamation, one of the Legates (Philip) said:. "We acknowledge our thanks to the holy and venerable Synod, that, the letters of our holy and blessed Pope having been read to you, you have united your holy -members, by your holy voices and acclamation, to that holy Head; for your Blessed- ness is not ignorant that the Blessed Peter, the Apostle, was the Head, of all the Faith, as also of the Apostles." (Act. ii.) In the first session of the Council sentence of deposition was pronounced against Nestorius. Concerning this deposition one of the assembled Fathers, Eirinus, Bishop of Cappadocia, said: "The holy Apostolic See of the most holy Bishop Ccelestine has already, by the letter sent to the most holy Bishop Cyril, prescribed the sen- tence and the order to be observed in the present course. We have adhered to this, and have put that decree into execution pronouncing the canonical and apostolic judgment on him '' (Nestorius). THE VIOAE OF OHEISTJ THE HEAD OP THE CHURCH. 53 The sentence of deposition was read a second time in the third session, and on that occasion the Legate, Philip, said: ■"It is a matter of doubt to none, yea, rather itia a thing known to all ages, that the holy and most Blessed Peter, the prince and ' head of the Apostles, the -pillar of the Faith, the foundation of the Catholic Church, received the Keys of the King- dom from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour and Redeemer of mankind. And to him was given authority to bind and loose sins; who even till this present, and always, both lives and judges in i,is successors. Wherefore our holy and most blessed Pope CoelesUne, the Bishop, the canonical successor and holder of his place, has sent us to the holy Synod as represen- tatives of his person. As, therefore, Nestorius, the author of this new impiety, has not only allowed the term Jkced hy the Apostolic See to pass hy, but also a much longer period of time, the sentence upon him stands ratified by a decree of all the churches." (Act. iii.) The Council defined One Person in Jesus Christ and de- clared the Blessed Virgin to be "Mother of God," because she, "after the flesh, bore the Word from God who had become flesh; that the Word is united substantially to flesh'." The decrees were signed by the Legates, and the next year were confirmed by Pope Sixtus III., the successor of Ccelestine. Neander, the well known Protestant historian, confesses that, in the affair of Nestorius, the Pope " claimed for him- self a supreme judiciary authority " and by " the sovereign authority of the Apostolic See commissioned S. Cyril to depose Nestorius." (Vol. iv. p. 145, Bohn's Series). We may say, with greater truth, the supremacy of the Boman Pontiff is patent throughout. The appeal is made from Greeks, both Archbishops, one of Constantinople the other of Alexandria, to Pope Ccelestine; he judges and prescribes the sentence of deposition to take place under certain circnmstances; he authorizes Cyril to carry the sen- tence into execution. With Pope Coelestine's consent the General Council is convoked; he appoints its President; he sends thither his three Legates; his letters are read, 54 THE pope: approved and complied with; each act of the Council is intro- duced by reference to Cyril presiding as the Vicar of the Pope. Ccelestine's office as holder of S. Peter's authority is plainly stated and accepted, no one dissenting. The assembled Fathers state that they depose Nestorius, "neces- sarily constrained thereto by the .Canons and by the letter of our most Holy Father and fellow-minister Gcelestine, Bishop of the Church of the Romans." The decrees of the Council are signed in the first place by the Pontiff's appointed President and Legates. Finally, the decrees are confirmed by the Pope. Could the office of Supreme Governor and Supreme Teacher of the Church be more plainly exercised? The assembled Fathers declare that Peter "always lives and exercises judgment in his successors." (Act. iii.) In this they do but repeat in a new form what the Council of Aries had said more than a' century earlier. Eome is called " the place in which. the Apostles (Peter and Paul) continually sit in judgment." All this is done one thousand five hundred and fifty years ago, in one of the undisputed General Councils, composed of Bishops nearly all from the East; some four hundred and fifty years before the Greeks separated from the Church; and but one hundred years after the first General Council of the Church had been held at Nice. 4. The Council of Chalcedon, convoked in 451, bears still more striking evidence to the Supremacy of the Pope. The heresy of Eutyches broke out in the East. A Synod at Constantinople, presided over by its Bishop, Flavian, condemned and deposed Eutyches. He appealed to Pope Leo the Great. Tlie Pope having examined the acts of the Synod confirmed the sentence passed on Eutyches . Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexan(Jria, sympathizing with the teaching of Eutyches, used influence at the Imperial Court of Constantinople to have a General Council called. This was done, and Pope Leo was invited to send Legates. Bioscorus presided. His proceedings were so uncanonical ,and outrageous that the Council bears the evil title of "the THE TICAR OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH 55 Eobber- Synod." Its decrees, though confirmed by the Em- peror Theodosius II., were rejected by Pope Leo, who also annulled its acts. The accession of Marcian to the Imperial Throne brought better times. Marcian, in conjunction with the Western Emperor Valentinian III., summoned, with the consent of Pope Leo, a General Council. It met in October, 451, at Chalcedon. There were about six hundred Bishops present, the greater number of them being Easterns. As they themselves say in their Synodal Letter, Pope Leo "presided as Heaxf over the members, in those who hold hisplaoe," thsit is, his Legates. These were Bishops Paschasinus and Luoentius, together with Boniface and Basilius, priests. In the'third session of the Council they announced that Pope Leo " ordered them to preside over the Council in the place of himself'.''' Paschasinus subscribes as presiding over the Synod in the place of "the most blessed a,nd Apostolic Leo, of the city of Home, Bishop of the Universal QhurcK''; and Lucentius as " Vicar of the most blessed and Apostolic man, Leo, Bishop of the whole Church.'" In the first session, the Legate Paschasinus declared: " We have instructions from the most blessed and Apostolic Pope of the City of Eome, the Head of fill the Churches, by which his Apostleship has thought fit to enjoin, that Dios- corus. Archbishop of Alexandria, shall not sit with us, but be put on his defence." Among the charges made, Lucentius, another Legate, narrates that Dioscorus " dared to hold a Council without the authority of the Apostolic See, which had never been done, nor was it lawful to do." Dioscorus was found guilty of the charges, and was formally deposed in the third session. The sentence of deposition thus terminates: "Where- upon Leo, the most holy and blessed Archbishop of the greater and elder Eome, has, by the agency of ourselves fthe Legates) and the present Synod, in conjunction with the thrice blessed and all-honored Peter, who is the Eock and Foundation of the Catholic Church and the Basis of the 56 THE POPJi: Otthodox Faith, deprived him (Dioscorus) of the episcopal dignity and every priestly function. Accordingly, this holy and great Synod decrees the provisions of the Canons against the aforesaid Dioscorus." Beginning with Anatolius, Archbishop of Constantinople, the assembled bishops gave their assent, "agreeing in all things with the Apostolic See." In the second session the Dogmatic Letter of Pope Leo, addressed to Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople, which Dioscorus would not have read in the Eobber Council, was communicated to the Fathers. It contains an elaborate statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation. In its entirety it was received with acclamation by the assembled Prelates, who on hearing it exclaimed: " This is (he faith of the Apostles. We all believe this. The orthodox believe this. Anathema to him who does not believe this. -Feter has spoken thus, by the mouth of Leo." In the fourth session this letter is formally approved. It had been shewn by the Council to be in agreement with the explicit teaching of Holy Church. The Bishop's sig- natures were needed, not to confirm the, doctrine, but to make a stronger barrier against the spread of the teaching of Eutyches. Against this Eutychean heresy the Council drew up a dogmatic formula which was adopted in the fifth session. And this ended what may be called the doctrinal work of the Synod. That of passing disciplinary canons ensued. By the end of the fourteenth session tlje Papal Legates and more than two-thirds of the Bishops had withdrawn and dispersed. Anatolius, Archbishop of Constantinople, availed himself of the opportunity and introduced in the next session the notorious 28th Canon. By it the See of Constantinople was to have not merely "the pre-eminence of ^ honor" assigned to it by the 6th Canon of the Second General Council'held at Constantinople, but also supreme jurisdiction over Pontus and Asia. THE VIOAE OF OHEIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHUBCH. 57 The small minority of the Bishops remaining passed the Canon. "It claims," says Milman, the Protestant historian, =" only the subscription of a hundred and fifty prelates, and those chiefly of the diocese of Constantinople." The Council by Syn6dal Letter, as well as the Emperor Marcian by private letter, ask of Pope Leo his confirmation of the Decrees and Canons, the latter asserting that ^' the whole authority and validity of its decrees depended on his sanction and confirmation." Anatolius expresses the same in almost similar words. The Synodal Letter says: " We bef of you, therefore, to honor with your sanc- tion our judgment; and as we have contributed our harmo- nious agreement with the Head in all good things, so let your Supremacy deal, as is becoming, with your children." Pope Leo, by a circular letter of March 21, 453, confirmed the definition of faith made by the Council. But the 28th Ca,non the Pope refused to ratify, as being in opposition to the Canons of the First Council of Nice. Writing to the Emperor Marcian, the Pope says, concern- ing Anatolius of Constantinople and this Canon: "Let the foresaid Bishop be content that through the assistance of your piety and by my favor he holds the Episcopal See of such a city, which, however, he cannot make an ApostoUc See." {Ep. civ.) And on the same question the Pope writes to the Empress Pulcheria: "All decrees, then, of Episcopal Councils which oontravene the regulations contained in the Canons of Nice, we, seconded by your faithful piety, make void, and by the nuthority of Blessed Peter the Apostle, by one general censure, we invalidate them." (Ep. cv. 3.) This confirmation of the decisions and decrees of Synods by the Pope, as necessary before they can bq binding on the Church, is seen in the first General Council held at Nice. The Bishops, in their Synodal Letter to iPope Sylvester, ask that their decisions may be confirmed by his agreement. This principle was so well known and recognized that Pope Nicholas I., at the time of the Photian Schism, wrote: " In Universal Councils no act, as you know, is valid, or is to 58 THE pope: be receivecj, but what the See of S. Peter has approved; and, on the other hand, whatever she alone has rejected, that only is rejected." It is impossible for an iinprejadiced mind to follow the dealings of Pope Leo the Great throughout the Council of Ghalcedon without realizing the full action of his supreme power of " Ecumenical Archbishop and Patriarch," as he is called in the libellus of Isehyrion read in the Council. He rests his authority on being the successor of S. Peter, to whom it had been committed by Christ; the Fathers accept and endorse the claim and its origin. 5. The Bishops of the Province of Tarragona in Spain held their Council in 460. They write to Pope Hilary: "Even though," say they, "no necessity of ecclesiastical discipline had supervened, we might indeed have had re- course to that privilege of your See, whereby the keys, having been received after the Resurrection of the Saviour, the indi- vidual preaching of the most blessed Peter had for its object the enlightening of all men throughout the whole world; the Supremacy of whose Vicar, as it is eminent, so is it to 6e feared arid laved by all. Accordingly, we, adoring in you the God whom you serve blamelessly, have recourse to the Faith commended by the Apostle; thence seeking for answers whence noth/mg hy error, nothing hy presumption, but all tviih Ponti- fical deliberation is prescribed. These things being so, there is, however, amongst us a false brother whose presumption, as it can no longer be passed over in silence, so also does the urgency of the future judgment compel us to speak. . . [They state their complaints against Silvanus, and add] : . . As therefore these acts of presumption, which divide unity, which make a schism, ought to be speedily met, we ask of your See that we be instructed, by your Apostolic directions, as to what you would have be observed in this matter. ... It will assuredly be your triumph, if in the time of your Apostle- ship the Catholic Church hears that the Chair of Peter prevails, if the fresh seeds of the tares be extirpated." (Cited in Faith of Catholics, vol. ii., p. 99.) THE VIOAE OP 0HBI8T; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 59 6. A Council was convened at Eome by Pope Gelasius in the year 494. It asserts : ' ' Though all the Catholic churches throughout the world be but one bridal chamber of Christ, yet the Holy Eoman Catholic and Apostolic Ghurch has been preferred to the rest by no decrees of a Council, but has obtained the Primacy by the Evangelic Voice of our Lord and Saviour, Himself saying, 'Thou art Peter and upon this Book I build my Church,'" etc. . . . Then the de- cree goes on to affirm: "First, therefore, is the Eoman Church, the Se^ of Peter the Apostle, ' not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.' But, second, is the See conse- crated at Alexandria in the name of blessed Peter, by Mark, iis disciple and Evangelist, who was sent by Peter the Apostle into Egypt, taught the word of truth and consummated a glorious martyrdom. And, third, is the See of Antioch held in honor in the name of -the same most blessed Apostle Peter, because that he dwelt there before he came to Eome, and there first the name of the new people of the Christians arose. " (Gelas. Col. 1261.) In their acclamations at the close of this Council the Bishops called Pope Gelasius "The Vicar of Christ." . These assemblies of Bishops referred to in this section represent all the countries in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, North Africa, Italy and Spain. These Councils speak in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the fifth century. They recognize, publish and bow to the Supreme Author- ity of the Eoman Pontiff over the Universal Church. They make no protest against the prerogatives and rights claimed by the Pope; on the contrary, they accept them as living . traditions. They regard the Apostolic See as the center of communion of the Christian Church, and the center of the Orthodox Faith. They admit all these claims, not as con- cessions made by the Church, but as divinely instituted in blessed Peter by the Lord Jesus Christ. iii. The Voice of the Popes in the 5th Century.— St. Anastasius, who was Pope when the century opened, writes : ' ' Care shall not be wanting on my part to guard the 60 THE pope: faitli of the Gospel as regards my peoples, and to visit by- letter as far as I am able the parts of my body throughout the different regions of the earth." (Ep. i. ad Joan. Hieros.) His successor, St. Innocent I., in like manner writes: " Who is ignorant that what Was delivered to the Roman Church by Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and is even now preserved, ought to he observed by all; nor anything be superinduced or introduced which has not that authority, or which may seem to derive its pattern elsewhere." (Ep. ad Decentium XXV. n. 2.) 2. PopeZosimus, the next in succession, writes: "Although the tradition of the Fathers has assigned so great an avihority to the Apostolic See, that no one should dare to dispute ahoid a judg- ment given by it, and that See, by Canons and regulations, has kept to this; and the discipline of the Church, in the laws which it yet follows, still pays to the name of Peter, from whom that See descends, the reverence due; for canonical " antiquity, by universal consent, willed that so great a power should belong to that Apostle, a power also derived from the actual promise of Christ our God, that it should be his to loose what was bound, and to bind what was loosed, an equal state of power being bestowed upon those who, by his will, should be fovmd worthy to inherit his See, for he has both charge of all the Churches, and especially of this wherein he sat Tou are not ignorant that We rule over his Place, and are in pos- session also of the , Authority, of his Name." (Ep. xi. ad Afros.) 3. The next occupant of the Roman See, St. Boniface I., writes: " The institution of the Universal Church took its beginning from the honor bestowed on blessed Peter, in whom its government and headship reside. For from him as its sov/rce did ecclesiastical discipline flow over all the Churches, when the cul- ture of religion had begun to make progress. The precepts of the Synod of Nice bear no other testimony; insomuch that thai Synod did not attempt to make any regulations in his regard, as it saw that nothirig could be conferred that was superior to his THE YICAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE OHTJECH. 61 OKm dignity; it Jenew, in fine, that everything hadheen bestowed on him by the word of the Lord, It is, therefore, certain that this Church is to the churches spread over the whole world as the head is to its own members; from which Church who so has cut himself off becomes an alien from the Christian, Eeligion." (Ep, xiv. Epis. Thess.) 4. Pope S. CcBlestine, the next in succession, writes to the Bishops of lUyrium: " We in a special manner are con- strained by our charge, which regards all men, we, on whom Christ has in the^person of My Peter the Apostle, when he gave him the keys to open and to shut, imposed as a necessity to be en- gaged about all men." (Ep. iii.) 5. Pope S. Xystus III., the successor of S. Coelestine, writes to John, Patriarch of Antioch, who rebelled as a Schismatic against Pope and Council, but afterwards re- turned to Catholic unity: "You have learned by the result of this present business what it is to agree in senti- ment with us. The blessed Apostle Peter, in his successors, has transmitted what he received. Who would separate him- self from his doctrine, whom the Master Himself declared to be the first among the Apostles?" (Ep. vi.) 6. Pope S. Leo the Great succeeded as Pontiff S. Xystus. Leo's sermons, letters and acts, superabound in teachings of this kind. On the occasion of appointing th« Bishop of Thessalonica Patriarch over the ten Metropolitans of Eastern lUyricum, S. Leo says: "And whereas our care is extended throughout all the Churches — this being required of us by the Lord, who committed the Primacy of the Apostolic dignity to the most Blessed Apostle Peter, in reward of his faith, establishing the Universal Church on the solidity of him, the foundation— v^e associate in that necessary solicitude which we feel, those who are joined with us in the charity of (epis- copal) fellowship. Wherefore, following the example of those whose memory is venerable to us, we have committed to our brother and fellow-bishop , Anastasius, to act in our stead; 62 THE pope: and we have enjoined him to be watchful ' that nothing un- lawful be attempted by any one; to whom that your friend- liness be, in things pertaining to ecclesiastical discipline, obedient, we admonish you. For obedience iviU not be so much rendered to him as to us, ivho are known, in our solicUude, to have given him this commission throughout those provinces." . (Bp- V.) The authority and zeal in this letter characterize aj^ Pope Leo's deeds and writings. The Protestan,t historian. Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, admits that " the Pontificate of Leo the Great is one of the epochs of Latin, or rather of universal Christianity. . . . On the throne of Eome alone, of all the greater Sees, did religion maifitain its majesty, its sanctity, its piety; and if it de- manded undue deference, the world would not be rigidly inclined to question pretensions supported as well by such conscientious power as by such singular and unimpeachable virtue, and such inestimable benefits conferred on Eome, on the Empire, on civilization. . . . Supremacy, held by so firm and vigorous a hand as that of Leo, might seem almost necessary to Christendom." (Book ii. c. 4.) 7. We have cited from the Popes who successively occu- pied the Chair of S. Peter in the first half of the fifth century. The latter half affords similar testimony from the succeed- ing Popes. They all speak as men " having authority." And lest ihe reader may be wearied, suffice it to quote the words of S. Gelasius, who sat on the Chair of Peter in the last decade of the fifth century : "Wherefore, then," asks Pope Gelasius, "is the Lord's discourse so frequently directed to Peter ? Was it that the rest of the holy and blessed Apostles were not clothed with like virtue? Who dare assert this? No, but that, by a Head bdng constituted, the occasion of schism might be removed; and that the compact bond of the Body of Christ, thus uni- formly tending by the fellowship of a most glorious love, to One Head, might be shewn to be One." .... " For which cause our forefathers . . . referred to that THE VIOAE OF CHfilBT; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 63 Chair wherein the Prince of the Apostles \Peter) had sat, the derived origin of their priesthood, seeking thence the weightiest buttresses to give firmness to their own solid structures, that by this spectacle it may be manifest to all men that the Church of Christ is truly one throughout, and ipdivisible ' ' There were assuredly twelve Apostles, endowed with equal merits and equal dignity; and whereas, they all shone equally with spiritual light, yet was it Christ's will that one amongst them should be the Euler, and him, by an admira- ble dispensation, did He guide to Eome, the queen of nations, that in the principal City He might direct that first and principal (Apostle) Peter. And there, as he shone con- spicuous for power of .doctrine, so also, made glorious by the shedding of his blood, does he repose in a place of everlast- *ing rest, granting to the See which he himself blessed, that it be, according to the Lords promise, never overcome by the gates of hell, and that it be the safest harbor for all who are tempest- tossed. In that harbor whosoever shall have reposed, shall enjoy a blessed and eternal place of safety; whereas he that shall have despised it, it is for him to see to it what kind of excuses he will plead at the day of judgment." (Faith of Catholics, vol. ii. p. 101-2.) Again, in his epistle to the Bishops of Dardania, Pope Gela- sius writes: "The first See both confirms every Synod by its own authority, and guards by its continuous rule,'by reason of its supre- macy, which, received by the Apostle Peter from the mouth of the Lord, the Church nevertheless sanctioning, it both always has held and retains. . . .• We will not pass over in silence what every church throughout the world knows, that the See of the Blessed Apostle Peter has the right to absolve from what has been bound by the sentence of any prelates whatsoever, in that it has the right of judging of the whole Church; neither is it lawful for any one to pass judgment on its judgment, seeing that the canons have willed that it may be appealed to from any part of the world, but that from it no one be permitted to appeal." (Ep. xiii.) 64 THE pope: • In a commentary on this letter which appears in the Pro- testant Work, (" Smith & Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature,") it is said: "In the address of Pope Gelasius 'to the Bishops of Dardania,' he enlarge* on its being the function of the Eoman See, not only to carry out the decisions of Synods, but even to give- such decisions their whole authority. Nay, the purpose of Synods is spoken of as being simply to express th& assent of the Church at large to what 'the Pope had already decreed, and what was therefore already bind- ing. This, he says, had been the case at Chalcedon. Further instances are alleged of Popes having, on their own mere, authority, reversed the decisions of Synods, absolved those whom Synods had condemned, and con- demned those whom Synods had absolved. The cases of , Athanasius and Chrysbstom are cited as examples of the ex- ercise of such power. ' Lastly, any claim of Constantinople,, contemptuously spoken of as in the diocese of Heraclea, to be exempt from the judgment of 'The First See,' is put aside as absurd, since ' the power of a secular kingdom is one thing, the distribution of ecclesiastical dignities another.' " (p. 619.) ■ . . 8. It is manifest from these extracts, purposely made few in number and selected from the writings of the Popes in the- fifth century, that they claimed as matter of living tradition known to all, and asserted that they had supreme and universal authority in the whole Church. They rest this authority on divine right in the promise liaade by our Lord Jesus Christ to the most Blessed Peter. They confirm their claim by constant reference to Councils and to the general acceptation of the Christian world. Neander, the Protestant ecclesiastical historian, com- menting on the reply of Pope Innocent to the Council of Carthage in 416, passes this judgment : "In the minds of the Eoman Pgntiffs we perceive the beginning already to develop itself more clearly and distinctly, that to them, as the successors and representatives of the Apostle Peter, THE TIOAR OF OHEIST; THE ttt'.ati OF THE CHURCH. 65 belonged the sovereign guidance of the whole world. . . . It is impossible to doubt as to what the Popes, even as early as the fifth century, believed themselves to be, or would fain be, in relation to the rest of the Church, after having once listened to the language which they themselves hold on the subject." (Vol. iii. p. 241, Bohn's Trans.) This is stated even more pointedly, by the well-known Protestant, Barrow, in his Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy. Referring to the apostolic confirmation given by Popes to the election of bishops and metropolitans, Barrow says: "Pope Leo I.'saith that Anatolius of Constantinople did ' by favor of his assent obtain the bishoprick of Constanti- nople.' The same Pope is alleged as having confirmed Maximus of Antiooh. The same did write to the Bishop of ^ Thessalonica, his Vicar, that he should * confirm the elections of bishops by his' authority.' He also confirme.d Donatus, an African bishop : ' We will that Donatus preside over the Lord's flock, upon condition that he remember to send us an account of his faith.' Also Gregory I. doth complain of it as an inordinate act, that a bishop of Salonae was ' or- dained without his knowledge.' Pope Damasus did confirm the ordination of Peter Alexandrinus : ' The Alexandrians, ' saith Sdzomen, ' did render the churches to Peter, being returned to Eome with the letters of Damasus, which con- firmed both the Nicene decrees and his ordination.' " (Suppos. VI. vi.) Again, Barrow writes on the Appointment of Vicars Apos- tolic of the Pope : " Thus did Pope Ooelestine constitute Cyril in his room. Pope Leo appointed Anatolius of Con- stantinople. Pope Felix, Acaoius of Constantinople. Pope Hormisdas, Epiphanius of Constantinople. Pope Simpliciusto Zeuo of Seville : ' We thought it convenient you should be held up by the Vicariate authority of our See.' So did Siricius and his successors constitute the bishops of Thessalonica to be their Vicars in the diocese of Illyricum, wherein, being then a member of the Western Empire, they had caught a special jurisdiction; to which Pope Leo did refer in those words, which sometime* are ^66 THE POPE : impertinently alleged with reference to all bishops, but con- cern only Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica : ' We have intrusted thy charity to be in our stead, so that thou art called into part of the solicitude, not into plentitude of the authority.' So did Pope Zosimus bestow a like pretence of vicarious power upon the Bishop of Aries, which city was the seat of the temporal Exarch in Gaul. So to the bishop of Justiniana Prima, in Bulgaria (or Dardania Europoea) the like privilege was granted." (Suppos. VI., x.) And on the question oi final appeal to the Pope of Borne as successor to S. Peter and the Read of the Church, which the Council of Sardica had formally acknowledged in its decrees, A. D. 343, Barrow gives the following instances: "Thus did Marcian go to Bome and sue for admission to com- munion there. So Fortunatus and Felioissimus in S. Cyprian, being condemned in Afric, did fly to Eome for shelter; of Tvhich absurdity S. Cyprian doth so complain. So likewise Martianus and Basilidis, in S. Cyprian, being outed of their Sees for having lapsed from the Christian profession, did fly to Stephen (the Pope) for succor to be restored. Maximus, the Cynic, went to Rome to get a confirmation of his election at Constantinople. So Marcellus, being rejected for hetero- doxy, went thither to get attention for his orthodoxy, of which S. Basil eomplaineth. So Aparius, being condemned in Afric for his crimes, did appeal to Eome. And on the the other side, Athanasius being with great partiality con- demned by the Synod of Tyre; Paulus and other Bishops being extruded from their Sees for orthodoxy; S. Chrysos- tom being condemned and expelled by Theophilus and his accomplices; Plavianus being deposed by Dioscorus and the Ephesine Synod; Theoderet, being condemned by the, same : did cry out for help to Rome. Chelidonius, Bishop of Eesanon, being deposed by Hilarius of Aries for crimes, did fly to Pope Leo. Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, being extruded from his See by Photius, did complain to the Pope." (Suppos., V. X.) On the point of appeals to Rome, the Protestant Dean 'Miiman avows that the two Canons of Sardica do establish THE VICAE OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 67 " a general right of appeal from all parts of Christendom to Borne." (Hist, of Lat. Christ. Bk. ii. c. 4.) But appeals are made to superior authority; and by the early laws of the Church there was no appeal from one Patriarchate to an- other; therefore the appeal to Eome was to the Supreme Source of Authority. Barrow, Neander, Milman, as historians, cannnot conceal the undeniable fact of the exercise of universal power by the Popes over the Church as early as the fourth and fifth centuries. But instead of realizing that this was but nat- ural, as soon as the Church was freed from persecution, and could follow the law of growth by developing her Apostolate divinely inxUtuted in Peter, and her Corporate Episcopate divinely instituted in the College of Apostles, these Protes- tant eminent writers do but see usurpation on the part of the Popes. The exercise of the Papal Supremacy at this earlv period is admitted not only by Church writers like those cited, but , also by secular historians like Hallam. Let the judicious reader see whether the Divine Institution of the Papacv is not the only solid and true explanation of these facts. iv. Testimony from the Greek Schism.— To the histori- cal evidence for the recognized divine institution of the Supremacy of the Pope in the fifth century it is well to add the doctrinal definition gradually evolved by the develop- ment of the Greek schism. It is not usual for General Councils to make definitions of faith, unless some doctrine has been assailed, misrepresented or denied. Now, as a matter of fact, for the first nine centu- ries no heretic made a direct attack upon the doctrine of Papal Supremacy. There was therefore no need of defini- tion. But when the Photian scliism in the middle of the ninth century begot a denial of the Visible Headship of the Church, she, in her Eighth General Council, in 869, exacted a Declaration of Faith on this point. And this led later to formal definitions concerning the Supremacy of the Pope. 68 THE pope: 1. At EpliesTXs and at Chalcedon we have seen how the assembled Bishops treated the successor of S. Peter in the Chair of Eome as the "Universal Bishop of the whole Church." The definitions made by these Councils against Nestorian- ism and Eutychianism did not unfortunately crush these heresies. They formed two sects which rapidly spread in the East. Early in the sixth century there seemed to be hope of reconciling one of the Sects, (the ' Eutychians, otherwise called Monophysites,) and of healing the Acacian schism lately formed. To bring about submission and reconciliation, an appeal was made A. D. 516 to Pope Hormisdas by the clergy of the East. They address their letter "To the most holy and blessed Patriarch of the whole earth, ^ormisdas, holding the See of Peter, Priirce of the Apostles." And in their com- munication they say: "Since Christ our God has appointed you Chief Pastor, and Teacher, and Physician of souls, we beseech you, therefore, most Blessed Father, to arise and condole with the Body torn to pieces, for you are the Bead of all, and SiYenge the Faith despised, the Canons trodden under foot, the Fathers blasphemed. The Flock itself comes forward to recognize its own Shepherd in you, its true Pastor and Doctor, to whom the care of the Sheep is intrusted for their Salvation." (Labbe, Tom. V. p. 598; Mansi, Tom. viii^ p. 424.) In consequence. Pope Hormisdas sent a deputation to Con- stantinople bearing a Profession of Faith, with a promise of allegiance. This is known as " The Formula of Pope Hormisdas." ' Therein it is declared: " Wherefore the sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be set aside, in which He says : ' Thou art Peter and upon this Eock will I build My Church,' etc. The above words are confirmed in their re- sults, /or in the Apostolic See religion has always ieen preserved: withoitt spot. Anxious, therefore, not to be severed from this hope and faith, and following in all things the eonstitu- tutions of the Fathers, we anathematize all heretics. . . THE VICAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 69 We receive and approve all the encyclical letters of Pope Leo vhich he wrote concerning the Christian religion. "Whence, as we have said before, following in all things the Apostolic See, and prof essing all its decrees, we hope that we may . deserve to be in the one communion with you which the Apostolic Bee proclaims, in which is the entire and true solidity of the Christian Religion. We promise, also, that the names of those who are cut off from the Communion of the Catholic Church, that is, not consentient with the ApostoUc See, shall not be recited during the Sacred Mysteries." This profession of faith was signed in 519 by the Emperor, by the Patriarchs, by the Bishops, who returned to Catholic unity. Therein it is clearly asserted that the Supreme authority of the Eoman Pontiff rests on the promise of Christ, that it is incumbent upon every Chris- tian to be united with the Apostolic See, and that all who are not in communion with the Roman Church are cut off from the Communion of the Catholic Church. This was the Faith embedded in the mind and acts of the United East and West. 2., When the Imperial seat of Government was trans- ferred to Constantinople this city was a simple bishopric. But with its new honors it grew ambitious and aspired to be a Patriarchate, as is shown by the 6th Canon of the Second General Council in 381. Seventy years later, at the Council of Ephesus, Anatolius of Constantinople, with some one hundred and fifty Bishops, a fourth part of the assembled Fathers, drew up and subscribed the 28'th Canon, giving to Constantinople authority over the Patriarchates of Alexan- dria, Antioch and Jerusalem. By the end of the sixth cen- tury, beginning with John the Faster, the Patriarch of Constantinople assumed the title of "Ecumenical, or Uni- versal Bishop." A century later, the Canons enacted by the Synod in TruUo, held at Constantinople, clearly manifest enmity against Rome and covertly insinuate the indepen- dence of the East, in matters of discipline. The Roman Pontiffs, instinct with faith, foresaw in these ambitious attempts the elements of schism, and accordingly 70 THE POPE: resisted tliem. The 6th Canon of Constantinople, assigning pre-eminence of honor to Constantinople after Borne, was ignored by the Popes until 1215, when the Latin Patriarch- ate was established at Constantinople. Then the Fourth Council of Lateran, under Innocent III., accorded the privi- lege. And asi to the 28th Canon of Chalcedon, neither Pope Leo nor any of his successors ever confirmed it. The pride and ambition of the Bishops of Constantinople, inflamed by the Imperial Court, at length produced their fruits, and brought matters to a heading in the year 858. Photius, a man of much learning but of unscrupulous character, was then uncanonically consecrated Bishop and usurped the See of Constantinople, from which its lawful Bishop, Ignatius, had been exiled by the Imperial Court for resisting the conduct of some of its members. The Emperor Michael sought the approbation of Pope Nicholas I. for Photius. This the Pope not only refused, but he also condemned the treatment of Bishop Ignatius, and the usurpation of Photius. In the same year the Pope passed sentence of deposition and degradation from the clerical rank on Photius. The latter contumaciously retained the See, convoked a Synod in the Imperial City, and pronounced sentence of de- position and excommunication on the Pope. Later, Photius published an Encyclical containing a long list of charges against the Western Church. Shortly afterwards, Photius was ejected by the new Em- peror Basil, Ignatius was restored to his See, and Pope Hadrian II., who had succeeded Nicholas, labored with zeal to heal the schism. The Eighth General Council was convoked for this piir- pose at Constantinople in 869. The excommunication of Photius by the Pope was recognized. Each of the Bishops, before taking his seat in the Coun- cil, signed the Formula of Hormisdas, given above; and thus were East and West united in the profession of belief con- cerning the supremacy, and universal authority of the Roman JPontiff. THE TICAE OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHURCH. 71 The schism was for the moment healed. It unfortu- nately broke out again and again; and it was finally con- summated by Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constanti- nople, in 1052. Several efforts have since been made to heal the rent, but without lasting success. 3. Two of these efforts culminated in convoking two General Councils, the one at Lyons in 1274, the other at Florence in 1439, by Pope Gregory X. and by Pope Eugenius IV., respectively-. The Formula of Faith subscribed by the Latin and Greek Bishops and by the Greek Emperor, Michael Palseologus, at the Council of Lyons, contained these words: "The Holy Bpman Ghurch holds supreme and fvll primacy and headship over the whole Catholic Ghurch, which she truly and humbly acknowledges herself to have received from the Lord Himself, in the person of Blessed Peter, the Prince and Head of the Apostles, whose successor is the Eoman Pontiff, with the plenitude of power. Arid as before all others she is bound tct defend the truth, so also if any questions arise concerning the faith, they ought by her judgment to be defined By mouth and heart we confess that which the sacred and holy Roman Church truly holds, and faithfully teaches and preaches." At the Council of Florence the assembled Fathers, both Greek and Latin, defined " That the Holy Apostolic See and the Bomam, Bishop Iwld the Primacy over all the world; that the Eoman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, the true Vicar of Christ, the Head of the whole Church, and the Father and Teacher of all Christians; and that to him, in the person of Blessed Peter was committed by owr Lord Jesus Christ the fuU power of feed- ing, directing and governing the Universal Church, as also is contained in the Acts of (Ecumenical Councils and in the sacred Canons." Though the union created by the Council of Lyons lasted hardly six years, and that effected by the Council of Florence not more than four years, yet the Formula of Hormisdas, '72 THE POPE: signed, it is said, in all, by some 2,500 Bishops, the Formula of Faith, signed at the Council of Lyons, and the dogmatic definition formulated and promulgated by the united Greek and Latin Fathers assembled in General Council at Florence under the presidency of Eugene IV., will ever remain as the explicit declarations of the adhesion of Bast and West to, the divinely appointed Supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, as successor of S. Peter, over the whole Church of God. 4. The Vatican Council of 1870, in its Dogmatic Constitu- tion on the Church of Christ, defines : (1) ' 'That Blessed Peter the Apostle was appointed the Prince of the Apostles, the Visible Head of the whole Church Militant, and that he re- ceived directly and immediately from our Lord JesuS Christ a primacy, not only of honor, but also of true and proper jurisdiction. (2) That it is by the institution of Christ the Lord, or by divine right, that Blessed Peter should have a perpetual line of successors in the Primacy over the Uni- versal Church, and that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed . Peter in this primacy. (3) That the Roman Pontiff has the office, not merely of inspection, but full and supreme jurisdiction over the Universal Church, not only in •things which belong to faith and morals, but also in those -which relate to the discipline and government of the Church spread throughout the world; that he possesses not the prin- cipal part, but the fulness of this supreme power; that this power is ordinary and immediate, both over each and all the Churches, and over each and all the Pastors and the faith- ful. (4) That the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks etc cathe- dra, that is, when, in discharge of his supreme office of Pastor and Doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic Authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the Universal Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regard- ing faith or morals; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves and not from the consent of the Church." THE VICAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHUBCH. 73 5. To sum up the " Witness of History to the Papacy;" it is patent, first, that as early as the fifth century the Supremacy of the Pope, as Governor and Teacher of the Universal Church, for unity of faith and of communion, was taught by the Bishops and ecclesiastical writers; was claimed and acted on by the Popes; was accepted in its fulness by General and Provincial Councils; and was appealed to as final in its decisions by pastors and people from every part of the Church. Secondly, that such Supreme Authority in government and in teaching over the whole Church was held to be, mot by concession of the Church nor by usurpation on the part pf the Popes, but by Divine right, having been instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of Blessed Peter; and that it was perpetuated in the Eoman Pontiff, the successor of S. Peter in the Apostolic See of Eome. Thirdly, the Greek schism caused a dogmatic definition of the Supremacy of the Pope by the assembled Episcopate of the whole Church at Florence, which confirmed and more ex- plicitly stated the doctrines enunciated in the " Formula of Hormisdas"; and in the Profession of Faith accepted and signed at the Synod of Lyons. Fourthly, the Vatican Council re-aflSrms the definition of Florence, and states more explicitly the nature of the Uni- versal Jurisdiction of the Pope and the Unerring Character of his of&oe as Universal Doctor or Teacher. It needs but ordinary observation to see that no funda- mental change is made in the declarations of Pope Hormis- das in 519, of the Council of Lyons in 1274, of the Council of Florence in 1439, of the Council of the Vatican in 1870. More definiteness alone is given to the definitions of the rights and prerogatives of the Sovereign Pontiff. It cannot be other than a special providence, that the tes- timony adduced from the fifth century comes not only from , the " Undivided Church" but also in greater part from the Greek or Eastern Bishops assembled in General Councils. CHAPTER V. THE PAPACY A DOCTRINAL TEST. i. The Arm of Unity.— While the Apostles were yet living there were turbulent, unruly spirits that revolted against the authority and the teaching of these pastors, and thus produced schisms and heresies. The first centuries of the Church's existence witnessed the formation of several sects, each holding some of the Gospel truth, and therefore claiming to call themselves Christians. But they possessed neither divine authority to teach, nor had they the faitK once delivered to the Saints. Against these the Church made war; her teachers were ever proclaiming the organic and therefore inseparable unity of the Church and of her Teaching. 1. S. IrensBus, writing before the end of the second cen- tury, thus speaks in his great work "Against Heresies:" "The Church, though spread over the whole world, to the earth's boundaries, having received both from the Apostles and their disciples the faith ; . . . . having, as I have said received that preaching and this faith, the Church, though spread over the whole world, guards it sedulously as though dwelling in one Jioiise ; and these truths she uniformly holds, as having but one soul, and one and the same heart; and these she proclaims and teaches, and hands down, uniformly, as though she tad but one mouth. For though throughout the world the languages are various, still the force of the tradition is one and the same. And neither do the churches founded in Germany, nor those in Spain, in Gaul, in the East, in Egypt, in Africa, nor in the re- gions in the middle of the earth, believe or deliver a dif- ferent faith; but as God's handiwork, the sun, is one and the same throughout the universe, so the preaching of the trutli shines everywhere, and enlightens all men that wish to come to the knowledge of the truth." (Adv. Hseres., Book i. c. 10.) (74) THE TICAR OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHDBCH. 75 2. S. Cyprian, struggling against the Novatians, writes, in the middle of the third century: "The Lord saith ' I and the Father are one '; and again, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, it is written: 'and these three are one"; and does any think that oneness, thus proceeding from the divine immutability, and cohering in heavenly sacraments, admits of hdng svmdered in the Ohwrch, and split by the divorce of an- tagonist wills ? He who holds not this wnity holds not the law of God, holds not the faith of Father and Son, holds not the truth unto salvatign. This sacrament of unity, this bond of concord inseparably cohering, is signified in the place in the Gospel where the coat of Our Lord Jesus Christ is in no wise parted nor cut." (S. Cyprian, De Un. Eoc. 5, 6.) In the same treatise the Saint continues: "There is one. God and one Christ, and His Church one, and the Faith one, and a people joined in solid oneness of body by a cementing con- cord. Unity cannot be sundered, nor can one body be divided by a dissolution of its structure, nor be cast piecemeal abroad with ritals torn and lacerated." (De Un. Ecc. n. 19.) 3. S. Augustine, in the early part of the fifth century, fol- lows the same plan when opposing the Donatists. He argues : " The question between us undoubtedly is, where is the Church ? , Whether with us or with the Donatists ? That Church a^swredly is one, which our ancestors called the Catholic, that theyjmight show, by the name itself, that it is through- out the whole. . . . But this Church is the Body of Christ, as the Apostle says, ' for His Body which is the Church. ' Whence assuredly it is manifest that he who is not in the members of Christ cannot have Christian salvation. Now, the members of Christ are uniited to each other by the charity of unity, and, by the sarm, cohere to their own Head, which is Christ Jesus." (De Unit. Ecc. n. 2.) Here are three instances of three great champions fighting for the Faith and for the Church in the earliest ages. Each insists on the inseparable, essential and indestructible' unity of the Kingdom of Christ. 76 THE POPE: ii. The Arm of the ApKjstolate .— To have an easy visi- ble evidence of being in the One True Church, each oiE these great champions insists on communion with the Roman Church, the See of Peter as the Center of Unity. 1. 8. Irenseus deemed it sufficient to appeal to the tradi- tion of the Roman Church for confounding all heretics. He says: "But as it must take up too much time in such a Tolume as this to enumerate the successions of all the Churches, by pointing out that tradition, which the greatest and most ancient and most universally known Church of Eome, founded and constituted by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, holds from the Apostles, and the faith announced to all men, which, through the successions of her Bishops, has come down to us, we confound all those who in any way, whether through pleasing themselves, or vain-glory, or blindness, or perverse opinion, assemble otherwise than behooveth them. • For to this Church, on ac- count of a more powerful 'principality, it is necessary that every Ghwrch, that is, the faithful everywhere, should he in communion (or should agree, 'convenire'), in which (Church) ever, by those who are on every side, has teen preserved that tra- dition which is from the Apostles." Then having give'a the succession of the Popes down to his own day, Ire- nseus concludes: "By this same order, and by this same succession, both that tradition which is in the Church. from the Apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is a most full demonstration that it is one aad the same life-giving faith which is preserved in the Church from the A.postles and handed down in truth." (Adv. Haer. Lib. iii. c. 3.) In the most unflinching way, S. Irenseus, in this passage, says that every Church has to agree with the Roman Church. So, then, Jerusalem, and Antioch, and Alexandria, though they could claim Apostolic origin, must of necessity, accord- ing to this Apostolic Father, conform or be in agreement with the Roman Church. And the reason assigned is her ^'pre-eminent authority," as given in Clark's Ante-Nicene THE YIOAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OE THE CHURCH. 77 Library, (or, "her more powerful headship;" or, "her more powerful supremacy;" or, "her more powerful, absolute sway;" as other modem critics have rendered "propter potentiorem principalitatem . ") 2. S. Cyprian writes to the Lapsed, saying: " Our Lord, whose precepts and warnings we ought to observe, determin- ing the honor of a Bishop and the ordering of His own Church, speaks in the Gospel and says io Peter : 'I say unto thee, thou art Peter, etc.'' Ihence the ordination of Bishops and the mrdering of the Chu/rch runs down along the course of time and line of succession, so that the Church is settled upon her Bishops, and every act of the Church is regulated by these same prelates." (Ep. xxxiii. 3.) Again : ' ' There is but one Baptism and one Holy Ghost, and one Church, fmmded by Christ the Lord upon Peter, through an original and principle of unity." (Ep. Ixx. 5.) He writes to Antonianus concerning his reconciliation: " I received your first letter, dearest brother, firmly uphold- ing the concord of the Sacerdotal College and cleaving to the Catholic Church, wherein you did not communicate unth Nova- tian, but followed my advice and agreed with Cornelius, owr brother Bishop, to hold one luniform course. Tou wrote also that I should transmit a copy of the same letter to our col- league, Cornelius, that so laying aside all anxiety, he might know that you held communion with him, that is, with the Catholic Church." (Ep. Iv. i.) And to Pope Cornelius: " After all this, they yet, in addi- tion, having had a pseudo-Bishop ordained for them by heretics, dare to set sail and carry letters from schismatic and profane persons to the Chair of Peter, and to the principal Church, whence the Unity of the Priesthood took its rise, remem- bering not that they are the same Eomans whose faith has been commended by the Apostle, to whom faithlessness can have no' access." (Ep. lix., n. 18.) 3. S. Augustine, in the early part of the fifth century, pur- sues the same line. Against the Maniohean heresy he writes : "Not to mention, therefore, this wisdom which you 78 THE pope: IVTaniohees do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, many other reasons there are which most justly keep me in her bosom. The agreement of peoples and nations keeps me; an authority begun with miracles, nonrished with hope, increased with charity, strengthened by antiquity, keeps me; the succession of priests from the Chair itself of the Apostle Peter — unto whom the Lord after his resurrection committed His sheep to he fed — down even to the present Bishop, heeps me; finally, the name itself of the Catholic Church, keeps me — a name which, in the midst of so many heresies, this Church alone has not without cause so held possession of, as that, though all heretics would fain have themselves called 'Catholics,' yet to the enquiry of any stranger 'where is the meeting of the Catholic Church held ? ' no heretic would dare point out his own basilica or house." (Cont. Ep. Fund. Man). The same Augustine, burning with the desire to convert the Donatists, taught his flock to sing: " Come brethren, if you wish to be engrafted in the Vine, we grieve to see you lie thus cut off from it. Number your Bishops from the very Chair of Peter, and in that list of Fathers trace the succession. This is the Bock against which the proud gates of hell do not prievail." (Psalm c. Donat. ix. 7.) With these Donatists, S. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, argued, about 375, in these words: "Thou canst not then deny but thou knowest that in the City of Eome, on Peter, the first, was the Episcopal Chair conferred, wherein might sit Peter, the Head of all the Apostles; whence also he was called Cephas, that in that one Chair unity might he preserved by all; nxrr the other Apostles each contend for a distinct Chair for himself, and that whosoever should set up another Chair against the Single Chair, might at once be condemned as- a schis- matic and asimier. Therefore in that One Chair, which is the first of the prerogatives, sat Peter first. To him succeeded Linus, etc. etc., down to Siricius, who is at this day associated with us with whom the whole world is concordani, with us in the one bond of communion by the intercourse of letters of peace. You w;ho wish to claim to yourselves the holy Church tell THE VIOAB OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OE THE CHXIBOH. 79 ua the origin of your Chair." (De Schism. Donat. lib. ii. n. 24.) The Protestant historian, Neander, frankly admits that S. Optatus "represents lihe Apostle Peter as the Head of the Apostles, as the representative of the Unity of the Church and of the Apostolic power, who had received the Keys of the Kingdom for the purpose of giving them to the others. . . . In the Eoman Church he perceives the indestructi- ble Cathedra Petri: This stood in the same relation to the other Episcopal Churches as the Apostle Peter stood to the rest of the Apgstles. The Roman Church represents the one Visible Church, the one Episcopate. There was one Apostolic power in Peter, from which the Apostolic power of the others issued forth, as it were, like so many different streams; and in like manner there is one Episcopal power in the Eoman Church, from which the other Episcopal powers are but so many streams." (Hist, of Church, Bohn's Trans., vol. iii. p. 236.) Neander might have added S. Ambrose and the Council of Acquileia, held in 381, expressly describe the Eoman Church as "The Head of the whole Eoman world. . . . Whence flow unto all the rights of venerable communion." (Ep. xi. n. 4). 4. It is plain from the above that these illustrious Bishops, in the earliest centuries of the Church's history, regarded communion with the Bishop of Eome as an essential condi- tion for 'being in the Church of Christ and for holding the True Faith. This was the test of Orthodoxy. It served also as a beacon in storms, as the following show: 5. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who died in 397, was the spiritual teacher of S. Augustine. The Bishop argues on the text: " This is Peter, to whom He said, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this Eock will I build my Church.' Therefore, where Peter is, there is the Church; where the Church is, there is no death, but eternal life.'" (In Psal. xl. Ennar.) This same Ambrose tells us that when his brother Satyrus was shipwrecked and was cast on a shore inhabited by a 80 THE pope: people about whose orthodoxy he was doubtful, Satyrus; " called the Bishop to him, and not accounting any grace true which was not of the True Faith, enquired whether the. Bishop agreed with the Catholic Bishops, that is, with the Bo- man Chv/rch." (De Excessu Frat. n. 46.) In like manner, S. Jerome, cotemporary with S. Am- brose, just mentioned, was living in the Holy Land. Schisms were prevailing at Antioch. Being in doubt with which of the disputing Bishops he ought to remain in com- munion, S. Jerome writes (A. D. 376) to Pope Damasus a letter, wherein he says : ' ' Since the East tears in pieces the Lord's coat, and foxes lay waste the Vineyard of Christ, so that among broken cisterns, which hold no water, it is diffi- cult to understand where is the sealed fountain and the en- closed garden; therefore have I thought that I should consult tlie Chair of Peter, and the faith . praised by the Apostle, thence now soliciting food for my soul. . . . Although your greatness terrifies me, yet your kindness invites me. . . . I speak with the Successor of the Fisherman, with the Disciple of the Cross. I, following no lea^r hut Christ, am united with your Blessedness, that is, with the Chair of Peter. On the Bock I know that the Church is built. Whoever eats the. Lamb out of this house is profane. Whoever may not be in the Ark of Noe will perish in the deluge. ... I know not Vitalis; Melitus I reject; I am ignorant of Paulinus, Whosoever gathereth not with thee, scattereth; that is, he who is not of Christ is of anti-Christ." (Ad Dam. Ep. xv.) iii. The Arm of Indefectible Doctrine.— The Fathers we have cited lay, as their words shew, great stress on Unity of Faith. They point to the Apostolic See of Rome as the center of such unity. Peter, who first sat therein, "even till this present, and always, both lives and judges in his suc- cessors." In the " Apostolic See religion has always been preserved without spot." Therein is "the solidity of the Christian religion." So evident is "this purity of faith" in the See of Peter that the famed Anglican, Palmer, writes: " We find that the THE TIOAE OF OHBIST; THE HEAD OP THE CHTIECH. 81 Eoman Church was zealous to maintain the true faith from the earliest period, condemning and expelling the Gnostics, Artemonites, etc. And during the Arian mania it was the bulwark of the Catholic Faith." (The Church, p. vii., c. iii.) This is a wondroas avowal from a member of the Episco- palian Church of England. A predecessor of his, Bishop Bull, cites, with approbation from Eufinus, who says: "In the Church of the City of Eome, however, we do not find that this has been done (namely, adding words to the Creed, as other churches had) ; the reason of which I conceive is this, that thai no heresy ever had its origin there." But let us hear some of the Fathers speak of Eome: "In which Church ever has been preserved that tradition which is from the Apostles;" so writes S. Irenseus of the Eoman Church. And 8. Cyprian says of certain schismatical and profane men who ventured to set sail for the See of Peter, that they did not reflect that the "faith of the Eomans is extolled by the Apostle*, to whom false faith can have no access." We have already heard S. Augustine: "Con- cerning this matter, two councils were sent to the Apostolic See, whence the rescripts have come; the cause is finished." Leo the Great says of his predecessors: they were men "who for so many ages have been preserved by the teaching of the Holy Spirit from any inroad of heresy." (Serm. II. in die Assump. suse.) Elsewhere the same Leo writes: "The solidity of that faith which is perpetual; and as that which Peter believed in Christ abides for ever, so does that for ever abide which Christ instituted in Peter." The same thought made Chrysostom call Peter the "Eock of Faith." In the Formula of Hormisdas, already given, is it said that ' ' in the Apostolic See is the perfect and true solidity of the Christian religion;" and again, ."these words ' Thou art Peter, etc.,' are proved by their effects, for in the Af ostolic See the Catholic religion has ever been preserved immaculate, and the faith taught without stain." Let it be remembered, that in the Eighth General Council of the Church this Formula was signed by all the Fathers. 82 THE POPE: Pope Agatho, in his letter to Constantine IV., accepted by the Sixth General Council, says: "This is the rule of true faith which this Apostolic Church of Christ, the Spiritual Mother of your most peaceful empire, holds and. defends both in prosperity and adversity, which Church by the grace of Almighty God will never be shown to have strayed at any time from the path of Apostolic tradition, nor to have yielded ever to the perverse novelties of heretics; but what in the beginning she received from her founders, the chief of the Apostles of Christ, she retains unsullied to the end, accord- ing to the divine promise of our Lord and Saviour Himself, which in the Gospel He gave to the Prince of His Apostles : 'Peter, Peter, behold Satan hath desired to have you,' etc. . ... it is well known to all, that the Apostolic Pontiffs, my predecessors, have always fearlessly done." This clear statement of the unerring faith of the Apostolic See, and of its infallible voice, is unreservedly accepted by the Fathers in Council. For their letter says: God hath given us a wise physician, even your Holiness "who firmly repelled the contagious plague of heresy by the antidotes of orthodoxy; and impartest the strength of health to the members of the Church. To thee, therefore, as the First See of the Universal Church, standing upon the firm Bock, we leave what is to be done, having read the letter of a true confession sent by your paternal Blessedness to our most religious Emperor, which we recognize as divinely written from the Supreme Head of the Apostles." (Mansi xi. g§ 239, 683.) This Council was assembled at Constantinople in 680, and was in great part composed of Eastern Bishops. They made Pope Agatho's letter to the Emperor their own, and received it with the. acclamation: "Peter hath spoken by Agatho." The declaration of Infallibility by the Pope and its re|ep- tion by the Council are the more remarkable, as in this very Council Pope Honorius is numbered among sundry heretics and is anathematized. THE VIOAK OF OHKIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 83 But, let it be borne iu mind, he was not condemned for heresy. This is expressly said by Pope Leo II., who con- firmed the decrees and therefore gave them their binding force. Here are his words: "We anathematize Honorius, who did not strive with energy to maintain the purity of this Apostolic Church by the teaching of the Apostles, but who permitted that this Church without spot should become stained by profane treason." Honorius had given no defini- tion of faith — indeed he declined to do so, as the words of his own letter show. It was au error of judgment on his part, into which he hSd been led by the cunning of Bishop Ser- gius. Not only do the letters of Honorius shew there was no definition of faith, but also that they were of a private nature and written in the interests of peace. Leo II., just referred to, writes to the Bishops of Spain on the occasion of confirming the decrees: "Honorius, who failing in the duty of his Apostolical Authority, instead of extinguishing the flame of heresy, fomented it by neglect." It will be noticed that in the very passage of Pope Leo II. condemning Honorius, the Roman Church is described as " without spot" — " the immaculate," and " without stain" of the Formula of Hormisdas. Apart from this testimony of such great writers it might logically be argued, the supreme authority to govern implies the supreme power to judge and teach in matters of doctrine. And so these Fathers would naturally pass from union with Eome for being in the True Church to union with Rome for holding the True Faith. The prince of Catholic theologians, S. Thomas Aquinas, expresses this in a few short sentences : ' ' For the unity of the Church, it is necessary that all the faithful agree in faith. But concerning points of faith, it happens that ques- tions are raised by which the Church would be divided by a diversity of opinions, unless it were preserved in unity by the sentence of one. So, then, it is demanded for the preservation of the Church's unity that there be one to preside over the whole Church. Now it is plain that Christ is not wanting in necessary things to the Church which He 84 THE pope: loTed, and for which He shed His blood, since even of the Synagogue it is said by the Lord, 'what more ought I ta have done for my vineyard, which I have not done.' We cannot therefore doubt that one, by the ordering of Christ, presides over the whole Church." (Contra Gent. lib. iv.) 2. Holding this doctrine, and having in mind the universal tradition of the Church from its earliest days, it is no wonder that when Bishop Fisher, of Eochester, in England, was called upon in 1535 by Henry VIII. to renounce the Supremacy of the Pope and acknowledge the supremacy of the King, the Bishop preferred martyrdom to such a pro- cedure. His words, spoken in Convocation on that occasion,, should be engraven on the heart. "We cannot," said he,. " grant this unto the King, but we must renounce our unity with the See of Eome. And if there were no further matter in it than a renouncing of Clement VII., Pope thereof, then the matter were not so great; but in this we do forsake the first four General Councils, which none ever forsook; we renounce all canonical and ecclesiastical laws of the Church of Christ; we renounce all other Christian princes; we renounce the unity of the Christian world, and so leap out of Peter's ship to, be drowned in the wave of all heresies, sects, schisms and divisions; for the First and General Council of Nice acknowledged Silvester, the Bishop of Home, his authority to be over them by sending their de- * crees to be ratified by him. The Council of Constanti- nople did acknowledge Pope Damasus to be their chief by admitting him to give sentence against the heretics, Mace- donius, Sabellius, and Eunomius. The Council of Eph- esus acknowledged Pope Coelestine to be their Chief Judge by admitting his condemnation upon the heretic Nestorius. . The Council of Chalcedon acknowledged Pope Leo to be their Chief Head, and all General CounciJs of the world ever acknowledged the Pope of Rome only to be the Supreme Head of the Church; and now, shall we acknowledge another Head, or one Head to be in England and another in Eome?" THE TIOAB OF CHBI8T; THE HEAD OF THE OHUECH. 85 This saintly, heroic Bishop, who died a martyr for the Su- premacy of the Pope, did but witness to the indefectible tradition of the Church planted by St. Augustine in England. Venerable Bede, A.D. 700, speaking of Pope S. Gregory the Oreat, who commissioned S. Augustine to preach in England, writes: "We may and rightly ought to call him our Apostle; because, whereas he bore the pontifical power over all the Churches already reduced to the faith of truth, he made our nation, till then given up to idols, the Church of Christ." (Book ii. c. 1.) ^ St. Aldhelm, who died in 709, Bishop of Sherburn, in Eng- land, thus writes of the Chair of Peter: "To conclude everything in the casket of one short sentence. In vain of the' Catholic faith do they vainly boast who follow not the teach- . ing and rule of St. Peter. For the foundation of the Church and ground of the faith, prima/rily in Christ and then in Peter, unrocked by the stress of tempests, shall not waver, the Apostle so pronouncing; other foundation, no one can lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But to Peter has the Truth thus sanctioned the Church's privilege : ' Thou art Peter, and upon his this Eock I will build my Church.'" Alcuin, the most distinguished scholar of the latter half of the eighth century, who died in 804, wrote, twenty years before his death: "Let no Catholic dare to contend against the authority of the Church, lest he be found to be a schis- matic or a non-Catholic; let him follow the most approved autfiority of the Soman Church, that whence we have received the seeds of the Catholic faith we may find the exemplars of .qalvation; that the members be not severed from their Head; that the Key-bearer of the Heavenly Kingdom may not r^'ect them as having wandered from his doctrines." (Ep. Ixx.) S. Anselm, the famous scholastic philosopher and Arch- bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1089, informs us: " Itis certain that he who does not obey the ordinances of the Roman Pordif, which are issued for the maintenance of the Christian religion, is disobedient to the Apostle Peter, whose Vicar he is, ■nor is he of that flock which was given to him {Peter) by God. JJet him, then, find some other gates of the Kingdom of 86 THE POPE: Heaven, for by those he shall not go in, of which the Apos- tle Peter holds the Keys." (Ep. xiii.) And the holy Abbot of Eidal, in Yorkshire, S. ^Ired, whom Butler says died in 1167, earnestly exhorts: " Breth- ren, let no one seduce you with vain words. Let no one say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, since Christ ever abides in tJie faith of Peter, which the Holy Boman Church has especially received from Peter, and retains in the Rock, which is Christ, .... Of this Church Peter was the first Prince, to whom it was said, ' Upon this Eock I will build My Church;' and again, ' Peed My Sheep;' and again, ' To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound, too, in heaven,' and the rest. Ihis is the Church which the Holy Apostle calls of the fvrst-born, the pl&ntitude of whose power in the person of Us Prince passing ovetr from the East to the West by the authority of the Holy Spirit established itself in the Boman Church. . . . This is the Boman Chii/rch, with whom he who communicatee not is a heretic. To her it belongs to advise all, to judge of all, to provide for all, to whom in Peter that word was ad- dressed, 'And thou, sometime converted, confirm thy breth- ren.' Whatsoever she decrees I receive; I approve what she approves; what she condemns I condemn." (Serm. 23.) The Church in England planted by S. Gregory grew for 930 years, that is, to the so-called Eeformation, upholding with the "Undivided Church," that the test of being in ,the True Church, and of holding the True Faith, is commu- nion with the Apostolic See. " Defender of the Faith," a title of the Kings of England, was conferred on Henry VIII. . by Pope Leo X., for his work, " Defence of the Sacraments. ''^ The Eoyal Author therein valiantly upholds the prerogatives of the Pope. The Vatican Library has the presented copy, with Henry's inscription, " Anglorum Eex Henricus, Leo decime, mittit Hoc opus et fidei testem et amieitise." This work, defending the Pope and the teaching of the Eoman Church, was published twelve years before Henry VIII. proclaimed, by Act of Parliament, his own Spiritual Su- premacy. CHAPTER VI. THE PAPACY AN OBJECT OF DEVOTION. A KEEN devotion to the Holy See and to the Pope has been a special characteristic of all the Saints in every age of the Church. Bitter hatred of the Papacy has been a marked feature of every heretic and schismatic. To the unbeliever the power of Rome has invariably been an object of su- premest scorn and a source of intense irritation. To the fervent Missioner of the Church the See of S. Peter has been an object of veneration, a fountain of light, a sure guide in difficulties, a fortress to be defended with unflinch- ing courage. The cold, indifferent Catholic holds but little to the counsels of the Sovereign Pontiff, and is ever ready, through worldly prudence or cowardice, to minimize the power of the Pope. The Catholic, solid in faith, possessed of spiritual discernment, and eager in the work of salvation, ever manifests a high-minded allegiance, an exceeding loy- alty to the successors of S. Peter, a child-like love and a manly bravery in defending the interests of the Holy See. From these undeniable facts it is not difficult to gather that devotion to the Papacy is the necessary consequence of strong faith, and an essential part of Catholic piety. i. In Ward Reverence; Outward Honor.— As we have seen, the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, the holder of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, the possessor of the Sovereign Authority over the Church of Christ. Viceroys and Ambassadors of Kings are honored because of those whom they represent; and every insult to them is resented as if offered to their Lords and Masters. In like manner, what is done to the Pope, whether it be for or against him, has to be referred to Jesus Himself. From this standpoint in the light of faith, if ' honor is to be ren- dered to whom honor is due,' then assuredly ought there be (87) 88 THE POPE: to the Vicar of Christ in the heart and mind of every Cath- olic a reverential love, a reverential fear, finding expression not only in words but in deeds of unfeigned homage. To ponder on the dignity of the Pope, to sympathize in his sorrows, to rejoice in his joys, to he interested in his interests, to speak reverentially of him and of his doings, to visit Eome, to seek the Apostolic blessing, to secure priests and bishops trained in the Eternal City bearers of the traditions of the Holy See, to be anxious to have Legates or Nuncios of the Pope settled in our midst, to desire Car- dinal protectors of our countries resident in Rome, to have national seminaries near to the Tombs of the Apostles, to establish Eeligious Orders having their Generals dwelling near to the Holy Father : are so many ways of showing our reverence and homage to the Vicar of Christ. 11. Loyal Obedienoe: Dutiful Allegiance.— "The Pope," says Cardinal Newman, "like St. Peter, is the Vicar of his Lord. He can judge and he can acquit; he can pardon and he can condemn; he can command and he can permit; he can forbid and he can punish. He has a supreme jurisdic- tion over the people of God. He can stop the ordinary course of sacramental mercies; he can excommunicate from the ordinary grace of redemption; and he can remove again the ban which, he has inflicted. It is the rule of God's prov- idence that what His Vicar does in severity or in mercy on earth. He Himself confirms in heaven. . . . ' ' In the Pope's administration of Christ's Kingdom, in his religious acts, we must never oppose his will, or dispute his word, or criticise his policy, or shrink from his side. There are kings of the earth who have despotic authority, which their subjects obey, indeed, but disown in their hearts; but we must never murmur at that absolute rule which the Sov- ereign Pontiff has over us, because it is given to him by Christ, and in obeying him we are obeying his Lord. We must never suffer ourselves to doubt that in his government of the Church he is guided by an intelligence more than THE VIOAB OF CHBI8T; THE HEAD OP THE OHUECH. 89 human. His yoke is the yoke of Christ; he has the responsi- bility of his own acts, not we; and to his Lard must he render an account, not to us. Even in secular matters it is ever safe to be on his side; dangerous to be on the side of his enemies. Our duty is— not, indeed, to mix up Christ's Vicar with this or that party of men, because he in his high station is above all parties— but to look at his formal deeds, and to follow him whither he goeth, and never to desert him, however we may be tried, but to defend him at all hazards and against all comers, as a son would a father, and as a wife a husband, knowing that his cause is the cause of God." And elsewhere r "The voice of Peter is now, as it ever has been, a real authority, infallible when it teaches, pros ■ perous when it commands, ever taking the lead wisely and distinctly in its own province, adding certainty to what is probable and persuasion to what is certain. Before it speaks, the most saintly may mistake; and after it has spoken the most gifted must obey. " Peter is no recluse, no abstracted student, no dreamer about the past, no doter upon the dead and gone, no pro- jector of the visionary. Peter for eighteen hundred years has lived in the world; he has seen all fortunes; he has en- countered all adversaries; he has shaped himself for all emergencies. If there ever was a power on earth who had an eye for the times, who has confined himself to the prac- ticable, and has been happy in his anticipations, whose words have been deeds, and whose commands prophecies, such is he, in the history of ages, who sits from generation to generation in the Chair of the Apostles, as the Vicar of Christ and Doctor of His Church. It was said by an old philosopher, who declined to reply to an imperious argu- ment : ' It is not safe controverting with the master of twenty legions.' What Augustus had in the material order, that and much more has Peter in the spiritual. When was he ever unequal to the occasion ? When has he not risen with the crisis ? What dangers have ever daunted him ? What sophistry foiled him ? What uncertainties misled him ? When did ever any power go to war with Peter, material or 90 THE POPE: moral, civilized or savage, and get the better ? When did the whole world ever band together against him solitary and not find him too many for it ? "All who take part with Peter are on the winning side. The Apostle of Christ says not in order to unsay: for he has inherited that word which is with power." To these ever-to-be remembered loyal expressions of a heart sensitively devoted to Christ's Vicar on earth, may be added the authoritative teaching of that Vicar himself, Leo XIII., written as lately as June 17, 1885: "In the Church of God, by the express will of its Divine Founder, two distinct orders are established ih the plainest way — the teaching Church and the Church taught, the pas- tors and the flock — and among the pastors one of them who is for all the Supreme Head and Pastor. To the pastors alone has been given the full power of teaching, judging, directing; on the faithful has been imposed the duty of fol- lowing these teachings, of submitting with docility to these judgments, of letting themselves be governed, corrected, and led to salvation. Accordingly, it is" a matter of absolute necessity that the faithful laity should submit themselves with heart and mind to their own pastors, and these with therh to the Supreme Head and Pastor. On this subordi- nation and obedience depend the order and life of the Church. They are the indispensable condition for doing right and arriving happily in port. If, on the contrary, the laity attribute authority to themselves; if they claim to make themselves judges and doctors; if inferiors prefer, or try to make prevail, in the government of the universal Church, a direction different from that of the supreme authority, they are practically overturning order, bringing confusion into a great number of minds, and departing from the right way. "And it is not necessary, in order to fail in so sacred a duty, to offer an open opposition, either to the Bishops or th,e Head of the Church; indirect opposition is enough; and it is the more dangerous the more it is sought to veil it by the appearance of the contrary. A man fcdls also in that sacred THE VIOAB OF CHBIST; THE HEAD OF THE OHUBCH. 91 duty if, while showing himself jealous for the power and prerog- atives of the Sovereign' Pontiff, he does not respect the Bishops who are in communion with him, or does not hold their authority in due account, or interprets unfavorably their acts and intentions before any decision of the ApostoUc See: It is also a proof of insincere submission to establish an opposition between Sovereign Pontiff and Sovereign Pontiff. Those who, in the case of two different directions, reject the present one, and hold to the past one, give no proof of obedience to the authority which has the right and duty of directing them, and in some respects resemble those who, after condemnation, would ap-^ peal from it to the next Council, or to a better informed Pope. " The right opinion on this point, then, is that in the gen- eral government of the Church, outside of the essential duties of the Apostolic Ministry which are imposed on all Pontiffs, each of them is free to follow the rule of conduct which he judges best for the times, and the other circum- stances of the case. In that He is the sole judge, having on this point not only special lights, but also the knowledge of the situation and the general needs of the Catholic Church, according to which it is fitting that His Apostolic solicitude should be regulated. His duty is to care for the good of the Universal Church, with which is co-ordinated the good of its various parts, and all those who are placed un^der this co- ordination must second the action of the Supreme Director and assist his plans. As the Church is One, and as its. Head is One, so its government is likewise One, and to that all must conform themselves. " The result for Catholics of f orgetf ulness' of these princi- ples is a diminution of respect, veneration and confidence towards him who has been given to them as Head. The bonds of love and obedience which should unite all the faithful to their pastors, and the faithful as well as their pastors to the Supreme Pastor, are thus weakened. And yet on these bonds principally depend the preservation and the salvation of all. 92 THE pope: " By forgetting arid no longer observing these principles, a broad road is opened for dissensions and discords among Catholics, to the great detriment Of the union which is the distinctive mark of the faithful of Jesus Christ. At all times, but particularly at present on account of the combi- nation of so many hostile powers, this union ought to be the supreme and universal interest, in presence of which every feeling of personal liking or private advantage ought to dis- appear. " Such a duty, while incumbent upon all without exception, is most strictly so on journalists, who, if they were not ani- mated with the spirit of docility and submission so neces- sary to every Catholic, would help to extend and greatly aggravate the evils that we deplore. Their obligation in all that touches religious interests and the action of the Church in society is therefore to submit themselves fully with heart and mind, like all the other faithful, to their own Bishops and to the Roman Pontiff, to follow and reproduce their teachings, to second heartily their motions, to respect their intentions and to make them respected." These words of the Holy I'ather now guiding the Bark of 8. Peter need no commentary to enforce loyal obedience. ill. The Tribute of Prayer —On the Vicar of Christ de- volve most momentous duties and immense responsibilities, the like of which no other man has. A single day's govern- ment of the Church of God, involves more important conse- quences than does the rule of the mightiest or most widely- spread nation. The consciences of millions are to be in- formed; the peace of thousands depend on the appeals made to Rome. To the innumerable anxieties consequent on such arduous •duties must be added the sorrows brought by lurking ene- mies within, and open enemies without the Church. There will ever be Judases to betray with a kiss, and Pilates with Herods to succumb to popular exigencies. The Vatican must ever be a Calvary. THE TICAB OP CHBIST; THE HEAD OF THE CHUECH. 93 God, in His ineffable goodness, fits His Vicar for the office, and continuously aids Mm in the exercise of his ex- ceeding great responsibilities, by special grace. Tlie Holy Spirit is ever directing and sustaining the steps of Peter in his successors, the Eoman Pontiffs. But for such succor, supplication has ever to be made. Hence, wherever and whenever the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, the living Pope is prayed for by name. In the Missal there are special Collects for the Supreme Pastor to be said at appointed times. And in the one Liturgical tiitany, that of the Saints, are there special prayers for the reigning Vofpe. Therein God is, in mercy, asked to grant to His servant, ■whom he has pleased to appoint Pastor of the Flock, pre- servation and length of days; blessedness on earth; deliver- ance from enemies; direction in the way of salvation; con- tinued protection; desires to do what is pleasing to God, and doing it with all his strength; edification of the flock by word and example; the salvation of himself and his fold. As often as the hand of persecution is on the Vicar of Christ, or that he stands in exceptional need of assistance from on high, the Church makes unceasing public prayer, as it did of old when Peter was cast into prison. These piiblic appeals to the Throne of God remind the members of the Church that both charity and justice ought to lead them to make self-sacrificing prayer for the Sov- ereign Pontiff. Nay, gratitude urges the same duty. For every Catholic ought to know that the action of the supreme power of the Vicar of Christ daily operates in the spiritual life of every child of the Churdh. In a genuine and real sense is the Pope called the Holy J'ather. .The individual Catholic should know that every absolution received, every indulgence gained, every blessing obtained by the soul through the ordinary channels of divine grace, is derived directly from the ministration of the immediate priest or bishop, but ultimately from Christ's Vicegerent^ the Pope, who, from that reservoir of spiritual and divine authority committed to 94 THE POPE: him by the Incarnate Son of, God, dispenses, through dulj appointed ministers, the water of life in streamlets to each individual soul in Holy Church. iv. The Tribute of Peter's Pence— For the service of God, and to acknovrledge His supreme dominion over men, the Jews had to give one-tenth of all,fruits and profits justly acquired. Under the Christian dispensation no specified portion is allotted for Divine worship; but the obligation to contribute still exists. St. Paul says: "The Lord hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 14.) This being so, it devolves on all the members of the Church to give some portion of their substance to support the Chief Pastor, the Bishop of Bishops. His personal daily wants are met by the most modest pittance. But, for the administration of the Government, of the Church, and to meet the necessary expenses of missionary work, the Pope must have a considerable amount of money at his command. The greatest economy is used. Some of the most distin- guished of the clergy employed in the administration re- ceive salaries for which a second or third-class clerk would not give his services in America. On the free-will offerings of the Faithful must the Pope usually depend for material resources— the more so now, as the Holy See has been robbed of its temporal possessions. The Vatican and its Garden still leave the Pope a King, but imprisoned and without revenue. Our present Holy Father did, in his letter to the Bishop of Orleans, say of Peter's Pence: " It is a work of, capital importance, without which tkere would be for the Holy See neither liberty nor dignity, nor any assured means of exercising its divine ministry.," In the providence of God may this not be an occasion leading the children of the Church not to leave merely to the generosity of individuals, nor to occasional collections, the support of the Head of the Church, but by systematic organization to establish something like a regular, perma- nent revenue, stii leaving individuals to do what their THE TICAE OF CHRIST; THE HEAD OF THE OHUEOH. 95 devotion or special gratitude may dictate. An income banked in the pious generosity of the faithful, completely made up of voluntary contributions, would be sheltered from the covetous greed and the rapacious hands of church- spoilers. It would, of course, be non-rateable property, and all, even to the last farthing, that would be given could without any loss be at the service of the Holy Father. In many churches, by the order and under the direction of the Bishop of the diocese, an annual collection on a fixed Sunday is made for the maintenance of the Sovereign Pontiff. This is a great #tep in advance. Our forefathers, in the British Isles, deemed it a duty and an honor to tax every family or every house in the land for the Vicar of S. Peter, Bishop of Rome. The sum fixed was one penny, no inconsiderable amount in those days. Why not return with some modification to this same plan ? It is a duty to support our pastors, and therefore the Pastor of Pastors. Why should there.be delicacy in teaching such an obligation ? Let it be a part of the theoretical and prac- tical education of our people. Let it be inculcated as a part of the religious training in our schools, our convents and our colleges. Suppose that every Catholic were trained from childhood to give once a month the lowest coin of the State as Peter's Pence to the immediate pastor, or to put it into a Peter's Pence Box prominently placed in the church or chapel attended; allow that the pastor transmitted this month by month to the Bishop of the Diocese, who in turn sent it to the Holy See every quarter or half year: thus would be secured, without any new organization or extra labor, and ,without interfering with special gifts, the maintenance of the Sovereign Pontiff. The dignity of the Holy See would be sustained; and the Holy Father's hands so enriched, could dispense such aid as would very materially advance the great missionary work of the Church. Apart from the approach to a fixed revenue which might be thus collected, the very fact of b«ing invited to make twelve suck offerings every year would be so many acts 96 THE pope: upholding that " Devotion to the Pope " which every earnest Catholic must see becomes more and more necessary in the- present state of the world. Such an organized collection would'have the further advantage of reminding Catholics of their solemn obligation to do their best in supporting their parochial schools and Churches. CHAPTER VII. ' LIST OF THE POPES AND OF THEIR TITLES.^ The First Century : S. Peter, 42-67 or 68. S.Linus (2 Tim. iv., 21). S. Anenclitus, or Cletus. S. Clement, 92-101. The Second Century: — S. EvaristuB. S. Alexander, until 119. S. Xystus (Sixtus), until 127. S. Telesphorus, 127-139. S. HyginuB, 139-142. S. Pius, 142-157. S. Auioetus, 157-168 S. Soter, 168^177. S. Elutherius, 177-192. S. Victor, 192-202. The Third Century:— S. ZephyrinuB, 202-219. S. Calliatns, 219-223. S. tJrbanus, 223-230. S. Pontianus, 230-285. S. Antherus, 235-236. S. Pabianus, 236-250. S. Corneliua, 251-252. 3. LnoiuB, 253. S. Stephen I., 253-257. S. XyatuB II. (Sixtus), 257-25S. S. DionyHins, 259-269. S. Felix I., 269-274. S. Eutyehianus, 274-283. S. Caius, 283-296. S. MaroelliuuB, until 304. The Fourth Century:— S. MaroelluB, 308-310. S. Enaebius, 310. S. Melohiades, 311-314. S. SylTOBter I., 31^315. S.Marcus, 336. S. Julius I., 337-352. Liberius, 352-366. (Felix II.,. 355, Anti-Pope. S. Damasua, 366-384. S. Siricius, 385-398. S. Auaatasius, 402. H;:^^t;Lf:?-^r;^™------=--o..,p„..cu.^ THE TIOAB OF 0HBI8T; THE HEAD OF THE CHUKCH. 97 S. Innocent I., 40a-417. S. Zosimus, 417-418. S. Boniface, 418-422. S. Ooelestine, 422-432. S. Sixtus III., 432-440. S. Leo I., the Great, 440-461 S. Hilarius, 461-467. The Fifth Century:— S. Simplicins, 467-483. S. Felix III., 483-492. S. Galasins I., 492-496. S. AnastasiuB, 496-497. S. Symmachns, 498-514. rence, Anti-Pope). (Law- The Sixth Century:— S. Uormisdas, 514-523. S. John I., 523-526, S. Felix IV., 526-530. S Boniface II., 530-532. S. John II., 632-535. S. Agapetus, 535-536. S. Silverins, 636-S40. The Sabinian, 604-605. Boniface III. , 606. S. Boniface IV., 607-614. S. Deusdedit, 615-618. Boniface v., 619-625. Honorius I., 625-638. Seyerinus, until 640. ■John IV., 640-642. Theodore I., 642-649. S. Martin I., 649-655. The John VI., 701-705. John VII., 705-707. Sisinnins, 708. Constantine, 708-715. S. Gregory II., 715-731. S. Gregory III., 731-741. S Zachary, 741-752. Vigilins (637), 540-555. Pelagins I., 555-560. John III.. 560-573. Benedict I., 574-578. Pelagins II., 578-590. S. Gregory I., the Great, 690- 604. Seventh Century: — Engine I. (654), 655-657. S. VitaUan, 657-672. Adeodatus, 672-676. Donus or Domnns I., 676-678. S. Agatho, 678-682. S Leo II., 682-683. S. Benedict II., tintU 685. John v., G85-686. Oonon, 687. S. Sergius I., 687-701. Eighth Century: — Stephen U., 752. [Died without ha^ng been conse- crated. Is not counted by tbe majority of hlstorianB.] Stephen III .,752-767. S. Paul I., 757-767. Stephen IV., 768-772. Hadrian I., 772-795. S. Leo III., 795-816. Stephen V., 816. S. Paschal I., 817-824. Eugene II., 824-827. Valentine, 827. Gregory IV., 827-844. Seigius II., 844^847. S. Leo IV., 847-855. Benedict III., 855-858. The Ninth Century:— S. Nicholas I.(the Great) 858-867 S. Hadrian II., 667-872. John VIII., 872-882. Marinus I. 882-884. Hadrian III., 884-885. Stephen VI., 885-891. Formosus, 891-896. 998 THE pope: The Ninth Century (Oontinued) .'- Boniface VI., 896 (15 days). Stephen VII , 896-897. Hcmanus, 897 Theodore II., 897 or 898. John IX., 898-900 The Tenth Century • Benedict IV., 900-903 Leo v., 903. Christopher, 903. Sergius III., 904^911. Anastasius III., 911-913. Lando, 913. John X., 914-928. Leo VII., 928. Stephen VIII., 929-931. John XI., 931-936. Leo VI., 936-939. Stephen IX , 939-942. Marinus II., 943-946. Agapete II., 946-955. John XII., 956-964. (Leo VIII., 963. Benedict V., ' 964. Anti-Popes). John XIII., 965-972. Benedict VI., 972-974. (Boniface, Franco, VII., 974.) Benedict VII., 974^983. JohnXrV., 983-984. John XV., 984-996. Gregory v., 996-999. (lat Ger- man Pope) . (John XVI., 997, Anti-Pope). Sylvester II., 999-1003. (1st French Pope) . The Eleventh Century :- — John XVII., 1003. John XVIII., 1003-1009. Sergius IV., 1009 1012. Benedict VIII., 1012-1024. John XIX., 1024-1033. Benedict IX., 1033-1044. Gregory VI., 1044^1046. Clement II., 1046-1047. (2d Ger- man Pope) . Damasua II., 1048, 23 days. (3d German Pope) . S. Leo IX., 1049-1054. (4th Ger- man Pope) . Victor II., 1055-1057, (5th Ger- man Pope). Stephen X. . 1057-1058. ( 6th Ger- man Pope. Nicholas II., 1058-lOGi. (,7th German Pope; Alexander II., 1061-1073. (Hon- oiius II., Anti-Pope) . S. Gregory VII , 1073-1085. Victor III., 1086-1087 Urban II., 1088-1099 Paschal 11., 10^9-1118. The Twelfth Century: Gelasius II., 1118. Calixtus IL, 1119-1124. Honorius II., 1124-1130. Innocent JI., 1130-1143. Coelestine II., 1143. Lucius II., 1144-1145. S. Eugene III., 1145-1153. Anastasius IV., 1153-1154. Hadrian IV. 1154-1159 (English) Alexander ill., 1159-1181. Lucius III., 1181-1185. Urban III., 1185-1187. Gregory VIII., 1187. Clement III., 1187-1191. Coelestine III., 1191-1198. Innocent III. 1198-1216. THE VIOAB OF OHBIST; THE HEAD OP THE OHUBOH. 99 The Thirteenth Century: Honoriua III., 1216-1227. Gregory IX., 1227-1241. CoslestinelV., 1241. (17 days). Innocent IV., 1241-1254. Alexandsr IV., 1254-1261 Urban IV., 1261-1264. ■OlemantlV., 1264r-1268. Bl. Gregory X., 1271-1276. Innocent V., 1276. (A French. man). Hadrian V., 1276.^ (38 days). John XXI. (XX.) 1276-1277. (A Portagaese). Nicholas III., 1277-1280. Martin IV., 1281-1285. (A i Frenchman). Honorins IV., 1285-1287. Nicholas IV., 1288-1292. S. CeelestineV., 1294. (Besigns voluntarily, 1296). Boniface VIII., 1294r-1303. The Fourteenth Bl. Benedict XI., 1303-1304. Popes of Avignon (Frenchmen,). Clement v., 1305- ! 314. John XXII., 1316-1334. Benedict XII., 1334-1342. Olement VI., 1342-1352. Innocent VI., 1352-1362. S. Urban V., 1362-1370. Century: — Gregory XI., 1370-1378. Popes at Rome and Avignon. Urban VI., 1378-1389. (Clement VII., at Avignon, 1378-1394.) Boniface IX., 1389-1404. (Bene- dict XIII., at Avignon, 139!l- 1417). The Fifteenth Century ^- Innocent VII., 1404-1406. Gregory XII., ,1406-1409. Alexander v., 1409-1410. (Elected by the Council of Pisa). John XXIII., 1410-1415. (De- posed by the Council of Con- stance, May 29th, 1415; so like- wise Benedict XIII., April 1st, 1417; and Gregory XII., resigned voluntarily). Martin V., 1417-1431. The Sixteenth Pius III., 1503. Julius II., 1503-1513. LeoX., 1513-1521. Hadrian VI., 1522-1523. (A Neth- erlander) Clement VII., 1523-1534. Paul III., 1534^1549. Julius III., 1550-1555. Marcellua II ( Only 21 days) . Paul IV , 1555-1559. (A (A Eugune IV., 1431-1447. (Felix v., Anti-Pope, 1439-1448). Nicholas v., 1448-1455. Oalixtus III., 1455-1458. Spaniard) . Pius II., 1458-1464. Panl II., 1464-1471. Sixtus IV., 1471-1484. Innocent VIII., 1484-1492. Alexander VI., 1492-1503. Spaniard). Century: — Pius IV., 1559-1565. S. Pius V. 1566-1572. Sregory XIII., 1572-1585. Sixtus v., 1585-1590. Urban VII. (13 days), Gregory XIV. (10 months and 10 days). Innocent IX., 1591. (A little more than two months). Clement VIII., 1592-lfi05. V JOO THE POPE: The Seventeenth Century: — Leo XI. (27 days). Paul v., 1605-1621. Gregory XV., 1621-1623. Urban VIII., 1623-1644. Innocent X., 1644^1655. Alexander VII., 1655-1667. Clement IX., 1667-1669. Clement X., 1670-1676. Innocent XI., 1676-1689. Alexander VIII., 1689-1691. Innocent XH., 1691-1700, The Eighteenth Century: — Clement XI., 1700-1721. Innocent XIII., 1721-1724. Benedict XIII., 1724^1730. Clement XII., 1730-1740. Benedict XIV., 1740-1758. Clement XIII., 1758-1769. Clement XIV., 1769-1774. Pius VI., 1775-1799. The Nineteenth Century : — Pins., VII., 1800-1823. Leo Xn., 1823-1829. Pius VIII., 1829-1830. Gregory XVI., 1831-1846, Pius IX., 1846-1878. LEO XIII., , Now gloriously reigning. 2. To this list of the Successors of S. Peter in his Chair at Home may be fitly added the titles and appellations given irom the earliest times to the Pope and his See by Christian writers, and used in various Church documents. Each of ~ such appellations expresses a summary of the belief of those- ■who used it, in one or other of the prerogatives, of the Suc- cessor of S. Peter. By a happy thought, S. Francis of Sales, the one canonized Saint who specially labored among our dissenting brethren, " has collected into litany form several of these titles. The characteristic piety of this author in casting into such a form the appellations of the Apostolic See and its occupant may well be followed. The additions made to the list of such titles by the re- Searches of modern days may be seen in Allnatt's "Cathedra Petri," and in " The Primacy of S. Peter demonstrated from the Liturgy of the Grseco-Russian Church," by Tondini. THE VIOAB OF OHBISTJ THE TfT.An Off THE OHUBOIH. 101, Heir of Peter's Administration; (BishopB of Spain," 440 A. D.) Most Divine Head of all Heads; (S.Theodore, A. D. 809.) Holy Father of Fathers, Pontiff Supreme over all Prelates; (Bishops of Africa, 649 A. D.) Overseer of the Christian Religion; (A. Maroellinus, Pagan Historian, A. D. 360.) The Chief Pastor; Pastor of Pastors; (S. Columbauus, Ireland, born 543.) Peter, by thy Power; (S. Bernard, A. D. 1150.) Christ, by Unction; (id.) Servant, of the Servants of the Lord; (S. Gregory the Great, died 604.) Apostolic Chair, Apostolic Bee, Chair of Peter the Apostle; (S.Jerome, A. D. 390.) Apostolic Throne; (S. Athanasiua, A. D. 362.) Place in which the Apostles constantly sit in Judgment; (Council of Aries, A. D. 314.) The Place of Peter; (S. Cyprian, martyred A. D. 250.) Abraham by Patriarchate; (S. Ambrose, 1 Tim. iii., died 340.) Melchisedec in Order; (S. Bernard. \ Moses in Authority; (id.) SaiAuel in the Judicial Office; (id.) High Priest, Supreme Bishop; (id.) KIOTBCT US^ 102 THE pope: Prince of Bishops; Heir of the Apostles; Peter in power; ,(id.) Key-Bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven; (id.) Pontiff, appointed with plenitude of power; (id.) Supreme Chief; Most powerful Word; (Ignatius of Constantinople, 869.) Orderer, Healer, Pro-eminent Catholic Physician j. (id.) Vicar of Christ; (Boman Coimoil, 494.) Sovereign Bishop of Bishops; (Council of Chalcedon, 451.) Sovereign Priest; (id.) Euler of the House of the Lord; (Cou. Carthage to Pope Damasus, died 384.) Guardian of the Vine of the Lord; (Cou. Chalcedon.) Prelate of the Apostolic See; (S. Vincent of Lerins, 434.) Peter, who lives and presides in his own See; (S. Peter Chrysologua, died 454.) See, never overcome by the Gates of Hell; (Pope Gelasius, died 496, and S. Augustine.) Sovereign Pontiff; (Cou. of Chalcedon.) Apostolic Lord and Father of Falihers; (Bishops of Dardania, 495.) &OVERN US. THE VIOAB OF OHEIBT; THE HEAD OF THE OHUKOH 103 Peter speaking through Leo, through Agatho; (Con. Chaloedon, and 6th Geneial.) (Eoumenioal Archbishop and Patriarch; (in Oou. Chaloedon.) ' Head and Chief of the Episcopate; (Pope Innocent, died 417.) The Bishop of the Catholic Church; (Pope Cornelius, martyred 252.) Constituted unto all men Interpreter of the Voice of B. Peter. (Cou. Chalgpdon.) Peter, -who always lives and exercises judgment in his Successors; (id.) Chief Pastor and Teacher and Physician of Souls; ( Eastern Clergy to Pope Hormisdas, 514.) True Pastor and Doctor; (id.) Eock of Faith; (S. John Chrysostom, died 404.) See, in which the tradition of the Apostles has always been preserved; (S. IrensBus, martyred 202.) , Apostolic See, wherein the Catholic religion has ever been preserved immaculate and faith taught without stain ; (Formula of Hormisdas, 51S.) Bock, against which the proud Gates of Hell prevail not; (S. Augustine, died 430.) Apostolic Throne, where are the foundations of Orthodox Faith; (Stephen of Dora, 649.) See, in which Christ has deposited the Keys of Faith; (S. Theodore, Abbot, Constantinople, 809.) Infallible Pope; (Con. VaUoan, 1870.) TEACH US. 104 THE POPE: Chair of Peter, Euling Church, whence the Unity of the Priesthood has its source; (S. Cyprian, Letter 53 to Pope Cornelius.) Eoot and Matrix of the Catholic Church; (id. in another letter to Cornelius.) One Church and one Chair, founded by the Voice of the Lord upon a Eock; (id. to the Pope, 40.) Church, from which rights of Communion flow to all; (S. Ambrose, Letter 11, died 397.) Holy Church, established on the firmness of the Chief of the Apostles; (S. Gregory the Great, died 604.) See, which the Lord appointed to preside over the rest; (S. Leo, Letter 120 to Theodoret, died 461.) Head over the members; (id.) Head of all the Holy Priests of God; (Code of Jnstinian, Book i.) Head of all the Holy Churches; (Emperor Justinian, Letter to Pope John II.) Archbishop of the whole habitable world; (S. Cyril of Alexandria, died 444.) Chief of the Universal Church; (S. Avitns of Vienne, Letter 31, died 523.) Bishop of Bishops, that is, Sovereign Pontiff; (Tertullian, de Pudicitia o. 1., died about 220.) Presiding Church of Eome; (Letter to the Bomans by S. Ignatius, disciple of the Apostle John and second Bishop of Antioch after the Apostle Peter, martyred 108.) Church, on account of thy more powerful Headship; (S. Irenseus against Heresies, Book ii. ) Church, with which the faithful everywhere shoidd agree; (il'id.) UNITB US. THE VIOAB OP CHBIST; THE TTTi/^T) OP THE CHUBCH. 10^^ The great S. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, "the coun- sellor of noblemen, bishops, princes and popes," writes, A. I). 1150, to Pope Eugenius m., using many of the titles above cited: " "Who art thou? The High Priest, the Supreme Bishop. Thou art the Prince of Bishops, thou art the Heir of the Apostles. Thou art Abel in Primacj, Noah in government, Abraham in the patriarchal rank, in order Melchisedech, in dignity Aaron, in authority Moses, Samuel in the judicial office, Peter in power, Christ in unction. Thou art he to whom the Key^ of Heaven are given, to whom the Sheep are intrusted. There are, indeed, other doorkeepers of Heaven, and other shepherds of the flocks; but thou art the more glorious in proportion as thou hast also, in a different fashion, inherited before others both these names. The former have the flocks assigned to them, each one his own : to thee all are intrusted, One Flock for the One. Not merely ■ for the sheep, but for all the shepherds also thou art the One Shepherd. Whence do I prove this, thou askest? .From the word of the Lord. For to whom — I say not among the Bishops, but among the Apostles — ^have the whole flock been committed in a manner so absolute and undistinguish- ing ? ' If thm lovest Me, Peter, feed My shesp.^ What sheep ? The inhabitants of this or that city or country, those of a particular kingdom ? ' My sheep,' He saith. Who does not see that He designates not some, but all? Nothing is jex- >cepted where nothing is distinguished. The power of others is limited by definite boimds; thine extends even over those who have received authority over others. Canst thou not, when a just reason occurs, shut up Heaven against a Bishop, depose him from his episcopal office, and deliver him over to Satan? Thus thy privilege is immutable, as well in the keys committed to thee as in the sheep intrusted to thy care."— (Z>e Cmsvderat. Lib. ii. c. 8, quotedbyHergenrother, Anti-Janm, Eng. trans, p. 100.) 3. And now our task is done, very imperfectly, it is true. Yet, the lines drawn and the facts cited will be, it is hoped, >sufficient to satisfy the honest enquirer that the God of lOQ* THE POPE: Goodness has left for the conservation of Unity of Faith and Unity of Communion a Supreme, Unirersal aild Yisible- Head to His Church on earth, in the person of Peter and. his Successors. The philosophical mind of Leibnitz, the eminent German Protestant, has seized and expressed in his " Systema Theo- logica " the need for such a centre of unity. He says: "As, from the impossibility of the bishc^s frequently leaving the people oyer -whom they are placed-, it is not possible to holi a Council continuously, or even frequently, while at the same time the person of the Church must always live and subsist, in order that its will may be ascertained, it was a necessary- consequence, by the divine law itself, insinuated in Christ's mosb memorable words to Peter (when he committed to him specially the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, as well as when * he thrice emphatically commanded him to feed his sheep), and uniformly believed in the Church, that one among the A.postles, and the successor of this one among the bishops, was invested with pre-eminent power; in order- that by him, as the visible centre of unity, the body of the Church might be bound together ; the common necessities, be provided for ; a Council, if necessary^ be convoked, and, when convoked, directed ; and that in the interval between Councils provision might be made lest the commonwealth of the faithful sustain any injury. And as the ancients unani- mously attest that the Apostle Peter governed the Church, suffered martyrdom, and appointed his successor in the city of Eome, the capital of the world ; and as no other bishop- has ever been recognized under this relation, we justly acknowledge the Bishops of Kome to be chief of all the rest." S. Thomas of Aquinas, who died in 1274, on his way to that Council of Lyons already referred to as being convoked to heal the Greek schism, anticipates, as a theologian, in his- great work "Against the Gentiles" what we have cited from. Leibnitz. THE "VIOAB OP OHEIST; THE HEAD OE THE CHUEOH. 107 Aquinas writes : "But should any one object that Christ is the One Head and One Shepherd, who is the One Bride- groom of the One Church, it is not a sufficient answer. For it is plain that Christ Himself performs the Sacraments of the Churdi. For it is He who baptizes ; He who forgives- sins ; He is the true Priest who offered Himself on the altar of the Cross, and by whose virtue His body is daily conse- crated on the altar. And yet, because He was not at present to be corporally with all the faithful, Ee haih chosen Minis- ters hy whom He dispenses these sacraments to thefaUhful. Therefore, by, the same reason, inasmuch as He was about to withdraw His corporal presence from the Church, it was fitting that He should commit to some one the charge of the Universal Church. Hence it is that He said to Peter, before His ascension, "Feed my sheep; and before His passion, "Thou, whei) thou art coa verted, confirm thy brethren." And to Feier alone He promised "I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heave^n, " so that the power of the Keys might be pointed out as to be derived through Mm ta others for the preservation of the Churches unity. But it cannot be said that although He gave this dignity to Peter, yet it is not derived through Mm to others. For it is plain that Christ so set up His Church, that it would last forever, according to Isaias IX, 7. " Ho shall sit upon the Throne of David, alnd upon his Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice henceforth, forever." It is plain, therefore, that He set up in their ministry those who then were, in such a way that their power should be derived unto theiir successors for the good of the Church unto the end of the world ; especially as He says Himself "Lol I am with you always, even to the end of the world." But by this is excluded the presumptuous error of certain persons who endeavor to withdraw themselves from obe- dience and subjugation to Peter, by not recognizing his Suc- cessor, the Koman Pontiff, as Pastor of the Universal Church^ (Contra Gentiles, iv. 76). lOS THE POPE: Four hundred years ago the -whole of Europe, including the English-speaking people, believed this. But, in an evil moment, Luther raised the standard of revolt, and the silent, seething spirit which had been long working in Europe, threw off, as the Jews did of old, the yoKe of the Lord, in the person of His Vicar on Earth. flenry VIII., thwarted by the Pope, who refused to grant him a divorce, led England to desert the Church of S. Augustine, and to repudiate the authority of the Successors of Pope Gregory the Great, the Apostle of England. Happily, his work, " The Defence of the Seven Sacraments," published in 1521 against Luther, remains, to bear evidence to what the King believed before he became a slave to pas- sion. It is this work which obtained for him from Pope Leo X. the title still seen on the coins of the realm, " De- fender of the Faith. " The Royal author says: "I will not offer such an insult io the Pope as to dispute anxiously and minutely about his rights, as if the matter could be considered doubtful. Luther cannot deny that every orthodox church acknowledges and venerates the most holy Boman See as mother and head (primatem), unless indeed by distance or intervening dangers some are prevented from access to her. Hence, if the Eoman Pontiff has acquired this great and world-wide power, neither by the command of God nor even by the consent of men, but by his own violence, as Luther pretends, then I -would ask him to inform us at what period he seized this Tast dominion ? The beginning of so mighty a power can- not surely be obscure, especially if it has taken place in modem times. But even if it took place more than one or two ages agOi he may certainly give an account of it from history. If, however, it i^ so ancient that its origin is for- gotten, then he ought to know that it is a fixed and universal principle of all laws, that a power or right which so tran- scends the memory of men that its beginning cannot be ascertained, must ever be held to have begun lawfully; so ihat it is forbidden by the consent of all nations to overthrow what has long remained unmoved. THE VIOAB OF 0HEI8T; THE WTJ'ATi oP THE CHTJBCH. lOi^ " But, most certainly, if any one will examine Hie records of antiquity he will find that, long ago, immediately after the cessation of persecution (protinm post pacatum orbem), almost all the churches of the Christian world obeyed the Eoman Church, nay, even Greece herself though the empire had been transferred thither, yielded to the Eoman Church in whatever regarded the Primacy, except in times of some violent schism. "St. Jerome shows clearly what judgment he formed of the authority^of the Eoman See, since, though he was not himself a Eoman, yet he openly declares that it is enough for him if the Pope of Eome approves his faith, whoever else may find fault with it. "Now, as Luther so impudently lays down that the Pope has no right whatever over the Catholic Church, even by human law, but has acquired his tyranny by mere force, I greatly marvel that he should deem his readers so credulous or so stupid as to believe that an unarmed priest, alone, and without followers — ^and such he must have been in Luther's supposition before he obtained the power which he invaded— could ever even have hoped to acquire such an empire, being without rights and without title, over so many bishops who were his equals, and over so many and far separated nations. Nay, more than this, how can any one believe that all peoples, cities, provinces and kingdoms were so prodigal of their property, their rights and their liberty, as to give to a for- eign priest, to whom they owed nothing, more power than he himself ever dared to hope for ? But what matters it what Luther thinks ? In his anger and envy he does not know himself what he thinks, but shows that his science has been clouded, and his foolish heart darkened, and that he has been given up to a reprobate sense, to do and say what is unseemly. How true is the saying of the Apostle : ' If I should have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all science, and if I should have all faith so as to move moun- tains, and have not charity, I am nothing.' And how far from charity this man is, is evident froni this, not only that in his madness he destroys himself, but stiU more that he 110 THB -pbvz: endeavors to draw all others with him to perdition, since he striTes to turn all from their obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff. .... " He does not consider that, if it is provided in Deuter- onomy (xvii. 12) that he that will be proud and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord and the decree of the judge, that man shall die; what horrible punishment he must deserve, who refuses to obey the highest priest of all, and the supreme judge on earth! .... Yet Luther, as far as in him lies, disturbs the whole Church, and seduces the whole body to Tebel against its head, to rebel ' against whom is like the sin of witchcraft, and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey.' <1 Kings XV. 23). " "Wherefore, since Luther, hurried along by his hatred, casts himself into destruction, and refuses to be subject to the laws of Grod, setting up his own instead, let us, on the other hand, the followers of Christ, be on our guard lest, as the Apostle says, by the disobedience of one man, many be mado sinners." (Defence of the Seven Sacraments cited from Eev. T. E. Bridgett's Defender of the Faith). l^his was the inherited teaching of the people of the British Isles. This made them believe with the heart and profess with the mouth that one faith which alone was taught and practised through the length and breadth of the land during nigh a thousand years. King Henry's after-fall destroyed not the force of his argument. The Commandments are daily violated, but this lessens not their truth. The King deserted the Bark of Peter, and launched forth in a ship of his own build, flying the flag of his own Spiritual Supremacy. His crew, as might have been expected, having neither, a true compass nor a divinely appointed Captain, are b6ing worsted in the storm of doubt, know-nothingism and non-belief. Peter's Bark alone can ride the tempest. The invisible presence of Jesus is there. As of old. He teaches the multitude from the Ship of Peter. There can the soul find THE VIOAE OP OHBIBT; THE HEAD OP THE OHUEOH. IIL safety in the surging sea of religious confusion. Earnest souls ! seek there the peace of stable faith, the rich means of Sal- vation. The See of Peter is your only secure anchorage. Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, expresses this with all his persuasive power when trouble threatened the Church in France. His touching words are as music to the ear and honey to the mouth : " O Church of Eomel O Sacred City! O dear and com- mon country of all true Christians! In Jesus Christ there is neither Gf eek, nor Scythian, nor Barbarian, nor Jew, nor Gentile; in thy bosom they are as one people; all are citizens of Eome, and every Catholic is a Roman. Behold the mighty stem which has been planted by the hand of Jesus Christ ! Every ' branch which is separated from it fades, withers and dies. O Mother ! whoever is a child of God is also thy child; after the lapse of so many ages thou art yet fruitful. O Spouse! thou bringest forth children to thy iusband in every quarter of the globe; but whence is it that so many unnatural children now contemn their Mother, arise up against her, and consider her as a cruel step-dame? "Whence is it that her authority should give them such vain offence? What! shall the sacred bond of union, which should unite every one in a single flock, and make all minis- ters as a single pastor, shall that be the pretext for a fatal dissension ? Shall we produce those times, which will be the last, when the Son of Man shall hardly find faith upon the earth? Let us tremble, my dearest brethren, let us tremble, lest the reign of God, which we abuse, should be taken away from us, and be given to other nations who will bear the fruits. Let us tremble, let us humble ourselves, lest Jesus Christ carry elsewhere the torch of pure faith, and leave us in that gloomy darkness which our pride has de- served. O Church, whence Peter will forever strengthen his brethren, let my right hand forget itself if ever I forget thee I Let my tongue cleave to my mouth and be motion- less, if thou be not, to the last breath of life, the princi- pal object of my joy and my rejoicings." Cornell Catholic Union Library. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. CATHOLlG: Eighth Edftion, muoh Enlarged, An EsseDtinl and Exclusive Mjtribute of the True Churcih, by Rigbt Rev. Mon- signor Capkl, D.D.; to which is, appended St. Cypriata's whole ' w.t rera||ise on the Unity of the Church," St. Cyril's " Lecture on tlie< Catholic Church, " St.. Pacian's "Treatise on the name .Catholic." 170 Pages. Price, 50 cents. Fc. PuStet & Co., New'York and. OiiJifcinnati. 'i"Bat'tli6 yalu^ of'jilotisignoi' Capel's work goes far b^jwd the'special oc- casion wbiotindncea its preparatio^i and publication.- It is a complete re' humti of tlie evidences, theologiqul, and Mstorical, that tie Holy Somi^n Apos- tolib Olini''^^, 0,»id. it alone, has right to ihe name Catholic. The argument is ct«ar and conclusive, and ,the historical citationfl are as full as can be com- pi''t:«sed into tlie oonipkss of nearly, one hundred octaVo pages. "^-T/ie .il/ii- ■ erican Quarterly lievieipi' THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. (Tenth Thousand.) 40 pp. 8vo.) CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION. (Jwenty-firSt Thousand.) 40 pp.SvO; ;' ' ' , SINS OF THE TONGUE. A Sermon. .(In Press.) - Cornell C^awfic '■■ rs' f^i^ 'I ^">§f Rr^yrb^- < " l.j •V'l<^-t;^•i^^!?'^^^•^^^'