The Faith of Our Fathers
by James Gibbons · English · Gutenberg #27435 · 748,420 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Faith of Our Fathers
Author: James Gibbons
Release date: December 7, 2008 [eBook #27435]
Most recently updated: June 20, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS ***
The Faith of Our Fathers
Being a Plain Exposition and Vindication of the
Church Founded by Our Lord
Jesus Christ
By
James Cardinal Gibbons
Archbishop of Baltimore
Ninety-third Carefully Revised and Enlarged Edition
John Murphy Company
Publishers
Baltimore, MD. New York
R. & T. Washbourne, Ltd.
10 Paternoster Row, London, and at Manchester.
Birmingham and Glasgow
1917
CONTENTS
Preface To The Eleventh Edition.
Preface To The Forty-Seventh Edition.
Preface.
Preface To Eighty-Third Revised Edition.
Introduction.
Chapter I. The Blessed Trinity, The Incarnation, Etc.
Chapter II. The Unity Of The Church.
Chapter III. The Holiness Of The Church.
Chapter IV. Catholicity.
Chapter V. Apostolicity.
Chapter VI. Perpetuity Of The Church.
Chapter VII. Infallible Authority Of The Church.
Chapter VIII. The Church And The Bible.
Chapter IX. The Primacy Of Peter.
Chapter X. The Supremacy Of The Popes.
Chapter XI. Infallibility Of The Popes.
Chapter XII. Temporal Power Of The Popes.
I. How The Popes Acquired Temporal Power.
II. The Validity And Justice Of Their Title.
III. What The Popes Have Done For Rome.
Chapter XIII. The Invocation Of Saints.
Chapter XIV. The Blessed Virgin Mary.
I. Is It Lawful To Honor Her?
II. Is It Lawful To Invoke Her?
III. Is It Lawful To Imitate Her As A Model?
Chapter XV. Sacred Images.
Chapter XVI. Purgatory And Prayers For The Dead.
Chapter XVII. Civil And Religious Liberty.
Chapter XVIII. Charges of Religious Persecution.
I. The Spanish Inquisition.
II. What About The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew?
III. Mary, Queen of England.
Chapter XIX. Grace—The Sacraments—Original Sin—Baptism—Its Necessity—Its
Effects—Manner Of Baptizing.
Chapter XX. The Sacrament Of Confirmation.
Chapter XXI. The Holy Eucharist.
Chapter XXII. Communion Under One Kind.
Chapter XXIII. The Sacrifice Of The Mass.
Chapter XXIV. The Use Of Religious Ceremonies Dictated By Right Reason.
Chapter XXV. Ceremonials Of The Mass.
Chapter XXVI. The Sacrament Of Penance.
I. The Divine Institution Of The Sacrament Of Penance.
II. On The Relative Morality Of Catholic And Protestant Countries.
Chapter XXVII. Indulgences.
Chapter XXVIII. Extreme Unction.
Chapter XXIX. The Priesthood.
Chapter XXX. Celibacy Of The Clergy.
Chapter XXXI. Matrimony.
Index.
Footnotes
DEDICATION.
_Affectionately Dedicated_
To The
Clergy and Laity
Of The
Archdiocese And Province Of Baltimore.
PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
The first edition of “The Faith of Our Fathers” was issued in December,
1876. From that time to the present fifty thousand copies of the work have
been disposed of in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland,
and in the British Colonies of Oceanica.
This gratifying result has surpassed the author’s most sanguine
expectations, and is a consoling evidence that the investigation of
religious truths is not wholly neglected even in this iron age, so
engrossed by material considerations.
Besides carefully revising the book, the author has profited by the kind
suggestion of some friends, and inserted a chapter on the prerogatives and
sanctity of the Blessed Virgin, which, it is hoped, will be not less
acceptable to his readers than the other portions of the work.
He is also happy to announce that German editions have been published both
in this country and in Germany.
He takes this occasion to return his hearty thanks to the editors of the
Catholic periodicals, as well as of the secular press, for their favorable
notices, which have no doubt contributed much to the large circulation of
the book.
BALTIMORE,
_Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas_, 1879.
PREFACE TO THE FORTY-SEVENTH EDITION.
It is very gratifying to the author to note the large increase in the sale
of “The Faith of Our Fathers.” Apart from personal considerations, it is
pleasing to know that the popular interest in the Catholic Church and
whatever pertains to her doctrines and discipline, is growing more
widespread and earnest.
Since 1879, when the eleventh revised edition was given to the public,
there have been thirty-five editions, and the number of copies sold
reaches nearly a quarter of a million.
This desire to understand the teachings of the Church of our Fathers is
not confined to our own country. It is manifest in other lands, as shown
by the translations that have been made of this exposition of Catholic
belief into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.
In the hope that they will add to the usefulness of the book, several
passages upon doctrinal subjects have been inserted.
With these few remarks, the forty-seventh edition of “The Faith of Our
Fathers” is presented to the sincere and earnest seeker after religious
truth by
THE AUTHOR
_Feast of St. Anselm_, 1895.
PREFACE.
The object of this little volume is to present in a plain and practical
form an exposition and vindication of the principal tenets of the Catholic
Church. It was thought sufficient to devote but a brief space to such
Catholic doctrines and practices as are happily admitted by Protestants,
while those that are controverted by them are more elaborately elucidated.
The work was compiled by the author during the uncertain hours which he
could spare from the more active duties of the ministry. It substantially
embodies the instructions and discourses delivered by him before mixed
congregations in Virginia and North Carolina.
He has often felt that the salutary influence of such instructions,
especially on the occasion of a mission in the rural districts, would be
much augmented if they were supplemented by books or tracts circulated
among the people, and which could be read and pondered at leisure.
As his chief aim has been to bring home the truths of the Catholic faith
to our separated brethren, who generally accept the Scripture as the only
source of authority in religious matters, he has endeavored to fortify his
statements by abundant reference to the sacred text. He has thought
proper, however, to add frequent quotations from the early Fathers, whose
testimony, at least as witnesses of the faith of their times, must be
accepted even by those who call in question their personal authority.
Though the writer has sought to be exact in all his assertions, an
occasional inaccuracy may have inadvertently crept in. Any emendations
which the venerated Prelates or Clergy may deign to propose will be
gratefully attended to in a subsequent edition.
RICHMOND, _November_ 21st, 1876.
PREFACE TO EIGHTY-THIRD REVISED EDITION.
The new edition of “The Faith of Our Fathers” has been carefully revised,
and enriched with several pages of important matter.
It is gratifying to note that since the first edition appeared, in 1876,
up to the present time, fourteen hundred thousand copies have been
published, and the circulation of the book is constantly increasing.
The work has also been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe.
BALTIMORE,
_May_ 1st, 1917.
INTRODUCTION.
MY DEAR READER:—Perhaps this is the first time in your life that you have
handled a book in which the doctrines of the Catholic Church are expounded
by one of her own sons. You have, no doubt, heard and read many things
regarding our Church; but has not your information come from teachers
justly liable to suspicion? You asked for bread, and they gave you a
stone. You asked for fish, and they reached you a serpent. Instead of the
bread of truth, they extended to you the serpent of falsehood. Hence,
without intending to be unjust, is not your mind biased against us because
you listened to false witnesses? This, at least, is the case with
thousands of my countrymen whom I have met in the brief course of my
missionary career. The Catholic Church is persistently misrepresented by
the most powerful vehicles of information.
She is assailed in romances of the stamp of Maria Monk, and in pictorial
papers. It is true that the falsehood of those illustrated periodicals has
been fully exposed. But the antidote often comes too late to counteract
the poison. I have seen a picture representing Columbus trying to
demonstrate the practicability of his design to discover a new Continent
before certain monks who are shaking their fists and gnashing their teeth
at him. It matters not to the artist that Columbus could probably never
have undertaken his voyage and discovery, as the explorer himself avows,
were it not for the benevolent zeal of the monks, Antonio de Marchena and
Juan Perez, and other ecclesiastics, as well as for the munificence of
Queen Isabella and the Spanish Court.
The Church is misrepresented in so-called Histories like Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs. It is true that he has been successfully refuted by Lingard and
Gairdner. But, how many have read the fictitious narratives of Foxe, who
have never perused a page of Lingard or Gairdner? In a large portion of
the press, and in pamphlets, and especially in the pulpit, which should be
consecrated to truth and charity, she is the victim of the foulest
slanders. Upon her fair and heavenly brow her enemies put a hideous mask,
and in that guise they exhibit her to the insults and mockery of the
public; just as Jesus, her Spouse, was treated when, clothed with a
scarlet cloak and crowned with thorns, He was mocked by a thoughtless
rabble.
They are afraid to tell the truth of her, for
“Truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen.”(1)
It is not uncommon for a dialogue like the following to take place between
a Protestant Minister and a convert to the Catholic Church:
MINISTER.—You cannot deny that the Roman Catholic Church teaches gross
errors—the worship of images, for instance.
CONVERT.—I admit no such charge, for I have been taught no such doctrines.
MINISTER.—But the Priest who instructed you did not teach you all. He held
back some points which he knew would be objectionable to you.
CONVERT.—He withheld nothing; for I am in possession of books treating
fully of all Catholic doctrines.
MINISTER.—Deluded soul! Don’t you know that in Europe they are taught
differently?
CONVERT.—That cannot be, for the Church teaches the same creed all over
the world, and most of the doctrinal books which I read, were originally
published in Europe.
Yet ministers who make these slanderous statements are surprised if we
feel indignant, and accuse us of being too sensitive. We have been
vilified so long, that they think we have no right to complain.
We cannot exaggerate the offense of those who thus wilfully malign the
Church. There is a commandment which says: “Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.”
If it is a sin to bear false testimony against one individual, how can we
characterize the crime of those who calumniate three hundred millions of
human beings, by attributing to them doctrines and practices which they
repudiate and abhor. I do not wonder that the Church is hated by those who
learn what she is from her enemies. It is natural for an honest man to
loathe an institution whose history he believes to be marked by bloodshed,
crime and fraud.
Had I been educated as they were, and surrounded by an atmosphere hostile
to the Church, perhaps I should be unfortunate enough to be breathing
vengeance against her today, instead of consecrating my life to her
defence.
It is not of their hostility that I complain, but because the judgment
they have formed of her is based upon the reckless assertions of her
enemies, and not upon those of impartial witnesses.
Suppose that I wanted to obtain a correct estimate of the Southern people,
would it be fair in me to select, as my only sources of information,
certain Northern and Eastern periodicals which, during our Civil War, were
bitterly opposed to the race and institutions of the South? Those papers
have represented you as men who always appeal to the sword and pistol,
instead of the law, to vindicate your private grievances. They heaped
accusations against you which I will not here repeat. Instead of taking
these publications as the basis of my information, it was my duty to come
among you; to live with you; to read your life by studying your public and
private character. This I have done, and I here cheerfully bear witness to
your many excellent traits of mind and heart.
Now I ask you to give to the Catholic Church the same measure of fairness
which you reasonably demand of me when judging of Southern character. Ask
not her enemies what she is, for they are blinded by passion; ask not her
ungrateful, renegade children, for you never heard a son speaking well of
the mother whom he had abandoned and despised.
Study her history in the pages of truth. Examine her creed. Read her
authorized catechisms and doctrinal books. You will find them everywhere
on the shelves of booksellers, in the libraries of her clergy, on the
tables of Catholic families.
There is no Freemasonry in the Catholic Church; she has no secrets to keep
back. She has not one set of doctrines for Bishops and Priests, and
another for the laity. She has not one creed for the initiated and another
for outsiders. Everything in the Catholic Church is open and above board.
She has the same doctrines for all—for the Pope and the peasant.
Should not I be better qualified to present to you the Church’s creed than
the unfriendly witnesses whom I have mentioned?
I have imbibed her doctrine with my mother’s milk. I have made her history
and theology the study of my life. What motive can I have in misleading
you? Not temporal reward, since I seek not your money, but your soul, for
which Jesus Christ died. I could not hope for an eternal reward by
deceiving you, for I would thereby purchase for myself eternal
condemnation by gaining proselytes at the expense of truth.
This, friendly reader, is my only motive. I feel in the depth of my heart
that, in possessing Catholic faith, I hold a treasure compared with which
all things earthly are but dross. Instead of wishing to bury this treasure
in my breast, I long to share it with you, especially as I lose no part of
my spiritual riches by communicating them to others.
It is to me a duty and a labor of love to speak the truth concerning my
venerable Mother, so much maligned in our days. Were a tithe of the
accusations which are brought against her true, I would not be attached to
her ministry, nor even to her communion, for a single day. I know these
charges to be false. The longer I know her, the more I admire and venerate
her. Every day she develops before me new spiritual charms.
Ah! my dear friend, if you saw her as her children see her, she would no
longer appear to you as typified by the woman of Babylon. She would be
revealed to you, “Bright as the sun, fair as the moon;” with the beauty of
Heaven stamped upon her brow, glorious “as an army in battle array.” You
would love her, you would cling to her and embrace her. With her children,
you would rise up in reverence “and call her blessed.”
Consider what you lose and what you gain in embracing the Catholic
religion.
Your loss is nothing in comparison with your gain. You do not surrender
your manhood or your dignity or independence or reasoning powers. You give
up none of those revealed truths which you may possess already. The only
restraint imposed upon you is the restraint of the Gospel, and to this you
will not reasonably object.
You gain everything that is worth having. You acquire a full and connected
knowledge of God’s revelation. You get possession of the whole truth as it
is in Jesus. You no longer see it in fragments, but reflected before you
in all its beauty, as in a polished mirror. While others are outside
criticising the architecture of the temple, you are inside worshiping the
divine Architect and saying devoutly with the Psalmist: “I have loved O
Lord, the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.”
While others from without find in the stained-glass windows only blurred
and confused figures without symmetry or attraction or meaning, you from
within, are gazing with silent rapture on God’s glorified saints, with
their outlines clearly defined on the windows, and all illuminated with
the sunlight of heaven. Your knowledge of the truth is not only complete
and harmonious, but it becomes fixed and steady. You exchange opinion for
certainty. You are no longer “tossed about by every wind of doctrine,” but
you are firmly grounded on the rock of truth. Then you enjoy that profound
peace which springs from the conscious possession of the truth.
In coming to the Church, you are not entering a strange place, but you are
returning to your Father’s home. The house and furniture may look odd to
you, but it is just the same as your forefathers left it three hundred
years ago. In coming back to the Church, you worship where your fathers
worshiped before you, you kneel before the altar at which they knelt, you
receive the Sacraments which they received, and respect the authority of
the clergy whom they venerated. You come back like the Prodigal Son to the
home of your father and mother. The garment of joy is placed upon you, the
banquet of love is set before you, and you receive the kiss of peace as a
pledge of your filiation and adoption. One hearty embrace of your tender
Mother will compensate you for all the sacrifices you may have made, and
you will exclaim with the penitent Augustine: “Too late have I known thee,
O Beauty, ever ancient and ever new, too late have I loved thee.” Should
the perusal of this book bring one soul to the knowledge of the Church, my
labor will be amply rewarded.
Remember that nothing is so essential as the salvation of your immortal
soul, “for what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”(2) Let
not, therefore, the fear of offending friends and relatives, the
persecution of men, the loss of earthly possessions, nor any other
temporal calamity, deter you from investigating and embracing the true
religion. “For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light,
worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”(3)
May God give you light to see the truth, and, having seen it, may He give
you courage and strength to follow it!
Chapter I.
THE BLESSED TRINITY, THE INCARNATION, ETC.
The Catholic Church teaches that there is but one God, who is infinite in
knowledge, in power, in goodness, and in every other perfection; who
created all things by His omnipotence, and governs them by His Providence.
In this one God there are three distinct Persons,—the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, who are perfectly equal to each other.
We believe that Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is
perfect God and perfect Man. He is God, for He “is over all things, God
blessed forever.”(4) “He is God of the substance of the Father, begotten
before time; and He is Man of the substance of His Mother, born in
time.”(5) Out of love for us, and in order to rescue us from the miseries
entailed upon us by the disobedience of our first parents, the Divine Word
descended from heaven, and became Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by
the operation of the Holy Ghost. He was born on Christmas day, in a stable
at Bethlehem.
After having led a life of obscurity for about thirty years, chiefly at
Nazareth, He commenced His public career. He associated with Him a number
of men who are named Apostles, whom He instructed in the doctrines of the
religion which He established.
For three years He went about doing good, giving sight to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, healing all kinds of diseases, raising the dead to
life, and preaching throughout Judea the new Gospel of peace.(6)
On Good Friday He was crucified on Mount Calvary, and thus purchased for
us redemption by His death. Hence Jesus exclusively bears the titles of
_Savior_ and _Redeemer_, because “there is no other name under heaven
given to men whereby we must be saved.”(7) “He was wounded for our
iniquities; He was bruised for our sins, ... and by His bruises we are
healed.”(8)
We are commanded by Jesus, suffering and dying for us, to imitate Him by
the crucifixion of our flesh, and by acts of daily mortification. “If
anyone,” He says, “will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross daily and follow Me.”(9)
Hence we abstain from the use of flesh meat on Friday—the day consecrated
to our Savior’s sufferings—not because the eating of flesh meat is sinful
in itself, but as an act of salutary mortification. Loving children would
be prompted by filial tenderness to commemorate the anniversary of their
father’s death rather by prayer and fasting than by feasting. Even so we
abstain on Fridays from flesh meat that we may in a small measure testify
our practical sympathy for our dear Lord by the mortification of our body,
endeavoring, like St. Paul, “to bear about in our body the mortification
of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our
bodies.”(10)
The Cross is held in the highest reverence by Catholics, because it was
the instrument of our Savior’s crucifixion. It surmounts our churches and
adorns our sanctuaries. We venerate it as the emblem of our salvation.
“Far be it from me,” says the Apostle, “to glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ.”(11) We do not, of course, attach any intrinsic virtue
to the Cross; this would be sinful and idolatrous. Our veneration is
referred to Him who died upon it.
It is also a very ancient and pious practice for the faithful to make on
their person the sign of the Cross, saying at the same time: “In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Tertullian, who
lived in the second century of the Christian era, says: “In all our
actions, when we come in or go out, when we dress, when we wash, at our
meals, before retiring to sleep, ... we form on our foreheads the sign of
the cross. These practices are not commanded by a formal law of Scripture;
but tradition teaches them, custom confirms them, faith observes
them.”(12) By the sign of the cross we make a profession of our faith in
the Trinity and the Incarnation, and perform a most salutary act of
religion.
We believe that on Easter Sunday Jesus Christ manifested His divine power
by raising Himself to life, and that having spent forty days on earth,
after His resurrection, instructing His disciples, He ascended to heaven
from the Mount of Olives.
On the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, ten days after His Ascension,
our Savior sent, as He had promised, His Holy Spirit to His disciples,
while they were assembled together in prayer. The Holy Ghost purified
their hearts from sin, and imparted to them a full knowledge of those
doctrines of salvation which they were instructed to preach. On the same
Feast of Pentecost the Apostles commenced their sublime mission, from
which day, accordingly, we date the active life of the Catholic Church.
Our Redeemer gave the most ample authority to the Apostles to teach in His
name; commanding them to “preach the Gospel to every creature,”(13) and
directing all, under the most severe penalties, to hear and obey them: “He
that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me. And
He that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me.”(14)
And lest we should be mistaken in distinguishing between the true Church
and false sects, which our Lord predicted would arise, He was pleased to
stamp upon His Church certain shining marks, by which every sincere
inquirer could easily recognize her as His only Spouse. The principal
marks or characteristics of the true Church are, her Unity, Sanctity,
Catholicity, and Apostolicity,(15) to which may be added the Infallibility
of her teaching and the Perpetuity of her existence.
I shall treat successively of these marks.
Chapter II.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
By unity is meant that the members of the true Church must be united in
the belief of the same doctrines of revelation, and in the acknowledgment
of the authority of the same pastors. Heresy and schism are opposed to
Christian unity. By heresy, a man rejects one or more articles of the
Christian faith. By schism, he spurns the authority of his spiritual
superiors. That our Savior requires this unity of faith and government in
His members is evident from various passages of Holy Writ. In His
admirable prayer immediately before His passion He says: “I pray for them
also who through their word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one,
as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us;
that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me,”(16) because the unity
of the Church is the most luminous evidence of the Divine mission of
Christ. Jesus prayed that His followers may be united in the bond of a
common faith, as He and His Father are united in essence, and certainly
the prayer of Jesus is always heard.
St. Paul ranks schism and heresy with the crimes of murder and idolatry,
and he declares that the authors of sects shall not possess the Kingdom of
God.(17) He also addresses a letter to the Ephesians from his prison in
Rome, and if the words of the Apostle should always command our homage,
with how much reverence are they to be received when he writes in chains
from the Imperial City! In this Epistle he insists upon unity of faith in
the following emphatic language: “Be careful to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace; one body and one Spirit, as you are called in
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.”(18) As
you all, he says, worship one God, and not many gods; as you acknowledge
the same Divine Mediator of redemption, and not many mediators; as you are
sanctified by the same Divine Spirit, and not by many spirits; as you all
hope for the same heaven, and not different heavens, so must you all
profess the same faith.
Unity of government is not less essential to the Church of Christ than
unity of doctrine. Our Divine Saviour never speaks of His Churches, but of
His _Church_. He does not say: “Upon this rock I will build my Churches,”
but “upon this rock I will build My Church,”(19) from which words we must
conclude that it never was His intention to establish or to sanction
various conflicting denominations, but one corporate body, with all the
members united under one visible Head; for as the Church is a visible
body, it must have a visible head.
The Church is called a kingdom: “He shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”(20) Now in every
well-regulated kingdom there is but _one king, one form of government, one
uniform body of laws_, which all are obliged to observe. In like manner,
in Christ’s spiritual kingdom, there must be one Chief to whom all owe
spiritual allegiance; one form of ecclesiastical government; one uniform
body of laws which all Christians are bound to observe; for, “every
kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate.”(21)
Our Savior calls His Church a sheepfold. “And there shall be made one fold
and one shepherd.”(22) What more beautiful or fitting illustration of
unity can we have than that which is suggested by a sheepfold? All the
sheep of a flock cling together. If they are momentarily separated, they
are impatient till reunited. They follow in the same path. They feed on
the same pastures. They obey the same shepherd, and fly from the voice of
strangers. So did our Lord intend that all the sheep of His fold should be
nourished by the same sacraments and the same bread of life; that they
should follow the same rule of faith as their guide to heaven; that they
should listen to the voice of one Chief Pastor, and that they should
carefully shun false teachers.
His Church is compared to a human body. “As in one body we have many
members, but all the members have not the same office; so we, being many,
are one body in Christ, and every one members one of the other.”(23) In
one body there are many members, all inseparably connected with the head.
The head commands and the foot instantly moves, the hand is raised and the
lips open. Even so our Lord ordained that His Church, composed of many
members, should be all united to one supreme visible Head, whom they are
bound to obey.
The Church is compared to a vine. “I am the Vine, ye the branches; he that
abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for without Me ye
can do nothing.”(24) All the branches of a vine, though spreading far and
wide, are necessarily connected with the main stem, and from its sap they
are nourished. In like manner, our Saviour will have all the saplings of
His Vineyard connected with the main stem, and all draw their nourishment
from the parent stock.
The Church, in fine, is called in Scripture by the beautiful title of
bride or spouse of Christ,(25) and the Christian law admits only of one
wife.
In fact, our common sense alone, apart from revelation, is sufficient to
convince us that God could not be the author of various opposing systems
of religion. God is essentially one. He is Truth itself. How could the God
of truth affirm, for instance, to one body of Christians that there are
three persons in God, and to another there is only one person in God? How
could He say to one individual that Jesus Christ is God, and to another
that He is only man? How can He tell me that the punishments of the wicked
are eternal, and tell another that they are not eternal? One of these
contradictory statements must be false. “God is not the God of dissension,
but of peace.”(26)
I see perfect harmony in the laws which govern the physical world that we
inhabit. I see a marvelous unity in our planetary system. Each planet
moves in its own sphere, and all are controlled by the central Sun.
Why should there not be also harmony and concord in that spiritual world,
the Church of God, the grandest conception of His omnipotence, and the
most bounteous manifestation of His goodness and love for mankind!
Hence, it is clear that Jesus Christ intended that His Church should have
one common doctrine which all Christians are bound to believe, and one
uniform government to which all should be loyally attached.
With all due respect for my dissenting brethren, truth compels me to say
that this unity of doctrine and government is not to be found in the
Protestant sects, taken collectively or separately. That the various
Protestant denominations differ from one another not only in minor
details, but in most essential principles of faith, is evident to every
one conversant with the doctrines of the different Creeds. The
multiplicity of sects in this country, with their mutual recriminations,
is the scandal of Christianity, and the greatest obstacle to the
conversion of the heathen. Not only does sect differ from sect, but each
particular denomination is divided into two or more independent or
conflicting branches.
In the State of North Carolina we have several Baptist denominations, each
having its own distinctive appellation. There is also the Methodist Church
North and the Methodist Church South. There was the Old and the New School
Presbyterian Church. And even in the Episcopal Communion, which is the
most conservative body outside the Catholic Church, there is the
ritualistic, or high church, and the low church. Nay, if you question
closely the individual members composing any one fraction of these
denominations, you will not rarely find them giving a contradictory view
of their tenets of religion.
Protestants differ from one another not only in doctrine, but in the form
of ecclesiastical government and discipline. The church of England
acknowledges the reigning Sovereign as its Spiritual Head. Some
denominations recognize Deacons, Priests, and Bishops as an essential part
of their hierarchy; while the great majority of Protestants reject such
titles altogether.
Where, then, shall we find this essential unity of faith and government? I
answer, confidently, nowhere save in the Catholic Church.
The number of Catholics in the world is computed at three hundred
millions. They have all “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” one creed.
They receive the same sacraments, they worship at the same altar, and pay
spiritual allegiance to one common Head. Should a Catholic be so
unfortunate as contumaciously to deny a single article of faith, or
withdraw from the communion of his legitimate pastors, he ceases to be a
member of the Church, and is cut off like a withered branch. The Church
had rather sever her right hand than allow any member to corrode her
vitals. It was thus she excommunicated Henry VIII. because he persisted in
violating the sacred law of marriage, although she foresaw that the
lustful monarch would involve a nation in his spiritual ruin. She
anathematized, more recently, Dr. Döllinger, though the prestige of his
name threatened to engender a schism in Germany. She says to her children:
“You may espouse any political party you choose; with this I have no
concern.” But as soon as they trench on matters of faith she cries out:
“Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no farther; and here thou shalt
break thy swelling waves”(27) of discord. The temple of faith is the
asylum of peace, concord and unity.
How sublime and consoling is the thought that whithersoever a Catholic
goes over the broad world, whether he enters his Church in Pekin or in
Melbourne, in London, or Dublin, or Paris, or Rome, or New York, or San
Francisco, he is sure to hear the self-same doctrine preached, to assist
at the same sacrifice, and to partake of the same sacraments.
This is not all. Her Creed is now identical with what it was in past ages.
The same Gospel of peace that Jesus Christ preached on the Mount; the same
doctrine that St. Peter preached at Antioch and Rome; St. Paul at Ephesus;
St. John Chrysostom at Constantinople; St. Augustine in Hippo; St. Ambrose
in Milan; St. Remigius in France; St. Boniface in Germany; St. Athanasius
in Alexandria; the same doctrine that St. Patrick introduced into Ireland;
that St. Augustine brought into England, and St. Pelagius into Scotland,
and that Columbus brought to this American Continent, and this is the
doctrine that is ever preached in the Catholic Church throughout the
globe, from January till December—“Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, and
the same forever.”(28)
The same admirable unity that exists in matters of faith is also
established in the government of the Church. All the members of the vast
body of Catholic Christians are as intimately united to one visible Chief
as the members of the human body are joined to the head. The faithful of
each Parish are subject to their immediate Pastor. Each Pastor is
subordinate to his Bishop, and each Bishop of Christendom acknowledges the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, and Head
of the Catholic Church.
But it may be asked, is not this unity of faith impaired by those
doctrinal definitions which the Church has promulgated from time to time?
We answer: No new dogma, unknown to the Apostles, not contained in the
primitive Christian revelation, can be admitted. (John xiv. 26; xv. 15;
xvi. 13.) For the Apostles received the whole deposit of God’s word,
according to the promise of our Lord: “When He shall come, the Spirit of
truth, He shall teach you all truth.” And so the Church proposes the
doctrines of faith, such as came from the lips of Christ, and as the Holy
Spirit taught them to the Apostles at the birth of the Christian
law—doctrines which know neither variation nor decay.
Hence, whenever it has been defined that any point of doctrine pertained
to the Catholic faith, it was always understood that this was equivalent
to the declaration that the doctrine in question had been revealed to the
Apostles, and had come down to us from them, either by Scripture or
tradition. And as the acts of all the Councils, and the history of every
definition of faith evidently show, it was never contended that a _new
revelation_ had been made, but every inquiry was directed to this one
point—whether the doctrine in question was contained in the Sacred
Scriptures or in the Apostolic traditions.
A revealed truth frequently has a very extensive scope, and is directed
against error under its many changing forms. Nor is it necessary that
those who receive this revelation in the first instance should be
explicitly acquainted with its full import, or cognizant of all its
bearings. Truth never changes; it is the same now, yesterday, and forever,
_in itself_; but our relations towards truth may change, for that which is
hidden from us today may become known to us tomorrow. “It often happens,”
says St. Augustine, “that when it becomes necessary to defend certain
points of Catholic doctrine against the insidious attacks of heretics they
are more carefully studied, they become _more clearly understood_, they
are _more earnestly inculcated_; and so the very questions raised by
heretics give occasion to a more thorough knowledge of the subject in
question.”(29)
Let us illustrate this. In the Apostolic revelation and preaching some
truths might have been contained _implicitly_, _e.g._, in the doctrine
that grace is necessary for every salutary work, it is implicitly asserted
that the assistance of grace is required for the inception of every good
and salutary work. This was denied by the semi-Pelagians, and their error
was condemned by an explicit definition. And so in other matters, as the
rising controversies or new errors gave occasion for it, there were more
_explicit_ declarations of what was formerly _implicitly_ believed. In the
doctrine of the supreme power of Peter, as the visible foundation of the
Church, we have the _implied_ assertion of many rights and duties which
belong to the centre of unity. In the revelation of the super-eminent
dignity and purity of the Blessed Virgin there is implied her exemption
from original sin, etc., etc.
So, too, in the beginning many truths might have been proposed somewhat
_obscurely_ or _less clearly_; they might have been _less urgently
insisted upon_, because there was no heresy, no contrary teaching to
render a more explicit declaration necessary. Now, a doctrine which is
_implicitly, less clearly, not so earnestly_ proposed, may be overlooked,
misunderstood, called in question; consequently, it may happen that some
articles are now universally believed in the Church, in regard to which
doubts and controversies existed in former ages, even within the bosom of
the Church. “Those who err in belief do but serve to bring out more
clearly the soundness of those who believe rightly. For there are many
things which _lay hidden in the Scriptures_, and when heretics were cut
off they vexed the Church of God with disputes; then the hidden things
were _brought to light_, and the will of God was made known.” (St.
Augustine on the 54th Psalm, No. 22.)
This kind of _progress in faith_ we can and do admit; but the truth is not
changed thereby. As Albertus Magnus says: “It would be more correct to
style this the progress of the believer in the faith than of the faith in
the believer.”
To show that this kind of progress is to be admitted only two things are
to be proved: 1: That some divinely revealed truths should be contained in
the Apostolic teaching _implicitly, less clearly explained, less urgently
pressed_. And this can be denied only by those who hold that the Bible is
the only rule of Faith, that it is clear in every part, and could be
readily understood by all from the beginning. This point I shall consider
farther on in this work. 2. That the Church can, in process of time, as
occasions arise, _declare, explain, urge_. This is proved not only from
the Scriptures and the Fathers, but even from the conduct of Protestants
themselves, who often boast of the care and assiduity with which they
“search the Scriptures,” and study out their meaning, even now that so
many Commentaries on the sacred Text have been published. And why? To
obtain more light; to understand better what is revealed. It would appear
from this that the only question which could arise on this point is, not
about the possibility of arriving by degrees at a clearer understanding of
the true sense of revelation, as circumstances may call for successive
developments, but about the authority of the Church to propose and to
determine that sense. So that, after all, we are always brought back to
the only real point of division and dispute between those who are not
Catholics and ourselves, namely, to the authority of the Church, of which
I shall have more to say hereafter. I cannot conclude better than by
quoting the words of St. Vincent of Lerins: “Let us take care that it be
with us in matters of religion, which affect our souls, as it is with
material bodies, which, as time goes on, pass through successive phases of
growth and development and multiply their years, but yet remain always the
same individual bodies as they were in the beginning.... It very properly
follows from the nature of things that, with a perfect agreement and
consistency between the beginnings and the final results, when we reap the
harvest of dogmatic truth which has sprung from the seeds of doctrine sown
in the spring-time of the Church’s existence, we should find no
substantial difference between the grain which was first planted and that
which we now gather. For though the germs of the early faith have in some
respects been evolved in the course of time, and still receive nourishment
and culture, yet nothing in them that is substantial can ever suffer
change. The Church of Christ is a faithful and ever watchful guardian of
the dogmas which have been committed to her charge. In this sacred deposit
she changes nothing, she takes nothing from it, she adds nothing to it.”
Chapter III.
THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH.
Holiness is also a mark of the true Church; for in the Creed we say, “I
believe in the _holy_ Catholic Church.”
Every society is founded for a special object. One society is formed with
the view of cultivating social intercourse among its members; a second is
organized to advance their temporal interests; and a third for the purpose
of promoting literary pursuits. The Catholic Church is a society founded
by our Lord Jesus Christ for the sanctification of its members; hence, St.
Peter calls the Christians of his time “a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, _a holy nation_, a purchased people.”(30)
The example of our Divine Founder, Jesus Christ, the sublime moral lessons
He has taught us, the Sacraments He has instituted—all tend to our
sanctification. They all concentre themselves in our soul, like so many
heavenly rays, to enlighten and inflame it with the fire of devotion.
When the Church speaks to us of the attributes of our Lord, of His justice
and mercy and sanctity and truth, her object is not merely to extol the
Divine perfections, but also to exhort us to imitate them, and to be like
Him, just and merciful, holy and truthful. Behold the sublime Model that
is placed before us! It is not man, nor angel, nor archangel, but Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, “who is the brightness of His glory, and the
figure of His substance.”(31) The Church places His image over our altars,
admonishing us to “look and do according to the pattern shown on the
Mount.”(32) And from that height He seems to say to us: “Be ye holy, for I
the Lord your God am holy.”(33) “Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly
Father is perfect.”(34) “Be ye followers of God as most dear
children.”(35)
We are invited to lead holy lives, not only because our Divine Founder,
Jesus Christ, was holy, but also because we bear His sweet and venerable
name. We are called _Christians_. That is a name we would not exchange for
all the high-sounding titles of Prince or Emperor. We are justly proud of
this appellation of _Christian_; but we are reminded that it has annexed
to it a corresponding obligation. It is not an idle name, but one full of
solemn significance; for a Christian, as the very name implies, is a
follower or disciple of Christ—one who walks in the footsteps of his
Master by observing His precepts; who reproduces in his own life the
character and virtues of his Divine Model. In a word, a Christian is
another Christ. It would, therefore, be a contradiction in terms, if a
Christian had nothing in common with his Lord except the name. The
disciple should imitate his Master, the soldier should imitate his
Commander, and the members should be like the Head.
The Church constantly allures her children to holiness by placing before
their minds the Incarnation, life and death of our Savior. What appeals
more forcibly to a life of piety than the contemplation of Jesus born in a
stable, living an humble life in Nazareth, dying on a cross, that His
blood might purify us? If He sent forth Apostles to preach the Gospel to
the whole world; if in His name temples are built in every nation, and
missionaries are sent to the extremities of the globe, all this is done
that we may be Saints. “God,” says St. Paul, “gave some Apostles, and some
Prophets, and others Evangelists, and others Pastors and Doctors, for the
perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building
up of the body of Christ, until we all meet unto the unity of faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.”(36)
The moral law which the Catholic Church inculcates on her children is the
highest and holiest standard of perfection ever presented to any people,
and furnishes the strongest incentives to virtue.
The same Divine precepts delivered through Moses to the Jews, on Mount
Sinai, the same salutary warnings which the Prophets uttered throughout
Judea, the same sublime and consoling lessons of morality which Jesus gave
on the Mount—these are the lessons which the Church teaches from January
till December. The Catholic preacher does not amuse his audience with
speculative topics or political harangues, or any other subjects of a
transitory nature. He preaches only “Christ, and Him crucified.”
This code of Divine precepts is enforced with as much zeal by the Church
as was the Decalogue of old by Moses, when he said: “These words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt tell them to
thy children; and thou shalt meditate upon them, sitting in thy house, and
walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising.”(37)
The first lesson taught to children in our Sunday-schools is their duty to
know, love and serve God, and thus to be Saints; for if they know, love
and serve God aright they shall be Saints indeed. Their tender minds are
instructed in this great truth that though they had the riches of Dives,
and the glory and pleasures of Solomon, and yet fail to be righteous, they
have missed their vocation, and are “wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked.”(38) “For, what doth it profit a man, if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul?”(39) On the contrary though they are as
poor as Lazarus, and as miserable as Job in the days of his adversity,
they are assured that their condition is a happy one in the sight of God,
if they live up to the maxims of the Gospel.
The Church quickens the zeal of her children for holiness of life by
impressing on their minds the rigor of God’s judgments, who “will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the
hearts,” by reminding them of the terrors of Hell and of the sweet joys of
Heaven.
Not only are Catholics instructed in church on Sundays but they are
exhorted to peruse the Word of God, and manuals of devotion, at home. The
saints whose lives are there recorded serve like bright stars to guide
them over the stormy ocean of life to the shores of eternity; while the
history of those who have fallen from grace stands like a beacon light,
warning them to shun the rocks against which a Solomon and a Judas made
shipwreck of their souls.
Our books of piety are adapted to every want of the human soul, and are a
fruitful source of sanctification. Who can read without spiritual profit
such works as the almost inspired _Following of Christ_ by Thomas à
Kempis; the _Christian Perfection_ of Rodriguez; the _Spiritual Combat_ of
Scupoli; the writings of St. Francis de Sales, and a countless host of
other ascetical authors?
You will search in vain outside the Catholic Church for writers comparable
in unction and healthy piety to such as I have mentioned. Compare, for
instance, _Kempis_ with _Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress_, or _Butler’s Lives
of the Saints_ with _Foxe’s Book of Martyrs_. You lay down _Butler_ with a
sweet and tranquil devotion, and with a profound admiration for the
Christian heroes whose lives he records; while you put aside _Foxe_ with a
troubled mind and a sense of vindictive bitterness. I do not speak of the
_Book of Common Prayer_, because the best part of it is a translation from
our Missal. Protestants also publish _Kempis_, though sometimes in a
mutilated form; every passage in the original being carefully omitted
which alludes to Catholic doctrines and practices.
A distinguished Episcopal clergyman of Baltimore once avowed to me that
his favorite books of devotion were our standard works of piety. In saying
this, he paid a merited and graceful tribute to the superiority of
Catholic spiritual literature.
The Church gives us not only the most pressing motives, but also the most
potent means for our sanctification. These means are furnished by prayer
and the Sacraments. She exhorts us to frequent communion with God by
prayer and meditation, and so imperative is this obligation in our eyes
that we would justly hold ourselves guilty of grave dereliction of duty if
we neglected for a considerable time the practice of morning and evening
prayer.
The most abundant source of graces is also found in the seven Sacraments
of the Church. Our soul is bathed in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ at
the font of Baptism, from which we come forth “new creatures.” We are then
and there incorporated with Christ, becoming “bone of His bone and flesh
of His flesh;” “for as many of you,” says the Apostle, “as have been
baptized in Christ have put on Christ.”(40) And as the Holy Ghost is
inseparable from Christ, our bodies are made the temples of the Spirit of
God and our souls His Sanctuary. “Christ loved the Church and delivered
Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of
water, in the word of life; that He might present it to Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish.”(41)
In Confirmation we receive new graces and new strength to battle against
the temptations of life.
In the Eucharist we are fed with the living Bread which cometh down from
Heaven.
In Penance are washed away the stains we have contracted after Baptism.
Are we called to the Sacred Ministry, or to the married state, we find in
the Sacraments of Orders and Matrimony ample graces corresponding with the
condition of life which we have embraced.
And our last illness is consoled by Extreme Unction, wherein we receive
the Divine succor necessary to fortify and purify us before departing from
this world.
In a word, the Church, like a watchful mother, accompanies us from the
cradle to the grave, supplying us at each step with the medicine of life
and immortality.
As the Church offers to her children the strongest motives and the most
powerful means for attaining to sanctity of life, so does she reap among
them the most abundant fruits of holiness. In every age and country she is
the fruitful mother of saints. Our Ecclesiastical calendar is not confined
to the names of the twelve Apostles. It is emblazoned with the lists of
heroic Martyrs who “were stoned, and cut asunder, and put to death by the
sword;”(42) of innumerable Confessors and Hermits who left all things and
followed Christ; of spotless virgins who preserved their chastity for the
Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. Every day in the year is consecrated in our
Martyrology to a large number of Saints.
And in our own times, in every quarter of the globe and in every
department of life, the Church continues to raise up Saints worthy of the
primitive days of Christianity.
If we seek for _Apostles_, we find them conspicuously among the Bishops of
Germany, who are now displaying in prison and in exile a serene heroism
worthy of Peter and Paul.
Every year records the tortures of Catholic missioners who die _Martyrs_
to the Faith in China, Corea, and other Pagan countries.
Among her _confessors_ are numbered those devoted priests who, abandoning
home and family ties, annually go forth to preach the Gospel in foreign
lands. Their worldly possessions are often confined to a few books of
devotion and their modest apparel.
And who is a stranger to her consecrated _virgins_, those sisters of
various Orders who in every large city of Christendom are daily reclaiming
degraded women from a life of shame, and bringing them back to the sweet
influences of religion; who snatch the abandoned offspring of sin from
temporal and spiritual death, and make them pious and useful members of
society, becoming more than mothers to them; who rescue children from
ignorance, and instill into their minds the knowledge and love of God.
We can point to numberless saints also among the laity. I dare assert that
in almost every congregation in the Catholic world, men and women are to
be found who exhibit a fervent piety and a zeal for religion which render
them worthy of being named after the _Annas_, _the Aquilas_ and the
_Priscillas_ of the New Testament. They attract not indeed the admiration
of the public, because true piety is unostentatious and seeks a “life
hidden with Christ in God.”(43)
It must not be imagined that, in proclaiming the sanctity of the Church, I
am attempting to prove that all Catholics are holy. I am sorry to confess
that corruption of morals is too often found among professing Catholics.
We cannot close our eyes to the painful fact that too many of them, far
from living up to the teachings of their Church, are sources of melancholy
scandal. “It must be that scandals come, but woe to him by whom the
scandal cometh.” I also admit that the sin of Catholics is more heinous in
the sight of God than that of their separated brethren, because they abuse
more grace.
But it should be borne in mind that neither God nor His Church forces any
man’s conscience. To all He says by the mouth of His Prophet: “Behold I
set before you the way of life and the way of death.” (Jer. xxi. 8.) The
choice rests with yourselves.
It is easy to explain why so many disedifying members are always found
clinging to the robes of the Church, their spiritual Mother, and why she
never shakes them off nor disowns them as her children. The Church is
animated by the spirit of her Founder, Jesus Christ. He “came into this
world to save sinners.”(44) He “came not to call the just but sinners to
repentance.” He was the Friend of Publicans and Sinners that He might make
them the friends of God. And they clung to Him, knowing His compassion for
them.
The Church, walking in the footsteps of her Divine Spouse, never
repudiates sinners nor cuts them off from her fold, no matter how grievous
or notorious may be their moral delinquencies; not because she connives at
their sin, but because she wishes to reclaim them. She bids them never to
despair, and tries, at least, to weaken their passions, if she cannot
altogether reform their lives.
Mindful also of the words of our Lord: “The poor have the Gospel preached
to them,”(45) the Church has a tender compassion for the victims of
poverty, which has its train of peculiar temptations and infirmities.
Hence, the poor and the sinners cling to the Church, as they clung to our
Lord during His mortal life.
We know, on the other hand, that sinners who are guilty of gross crimes
which shock public decency are virtually excommunicated from Protestant
Communions. And as for the poor, the public press often complains that
little or no provision is made for them in Protestant Churches. A
gentleman informed me that he never saw a poor person enter an Episcopal
Church which was contiguous to his residence.
These excluded sinners and victims of penury either abandon Christianity
altogether, or find refuge in the bosom of their true Mother, the Catholic
Church, who, like her Divine Spouse, claims the afflicted as her most
cherished inheritance. The parables descriptive of this Church which our
Lord employed also clearly teach us that the good and bad shall be joined
together in the Church as long as her earthly mission lasts. The kingdom
of God is like a field in which the cockle is allowed to grow up with the
good seed until the harvest-time;(46) it is like a net which encloses good
fish and bad until the hour of separation comes.(47) So, too, the Church
is that great house(48) in which there are not only vessels of gold and
silver, but also of wood and clay.
The Fathers repeat the teaching of Scripture. St. Jerome says: “The ark of
Noah was a type of the Church. As every kind of animal was in that, so in
this there are men of every race and character. As in that were the
leopard and the kids, the wolf and the lambs, so in this there are to be
found the just and the sinful—that is, vessels of gold and silver along
with those of wood and clay.”(49)
St. Gregory the Great writes: “Because in it (the Church) the good are
mingled with the bad, the reprobate with the elect, it is rightly declared
to be similar to the wise and the foolish virgins.”(50)
Listen to St. Augustine: “Let the mind recall the threshing-floor
containing straw and wheat; the nets in which are inclosed good and bad
fish; the ark of Noah in which were clean and unclean animals, and you
will see that the Church from now until the judgment day _contains not
only sheep and oxen_—that is, saintly laymen and holy ministers—_but also
the beasts of the field_.... For the beasts of the field are men who take
delight in carnal pleasures, _the field being that broad way which leads
to perdition_.”(51)
The occasional scandals existing among members of the Church do not
invalidate or impair her claim to the title of sanctity. The spots on the
sun do not mar his brightness. Neither do the moral stains of some members
sully the brilliancy of her “who cometh forth as the morning star, fair as
the moon, bright as the sun.”(52) The cockle that grows amidst the wheat
does not destroy the beauty of the ripened harvest. The sanctity of Jesus
was not sullied by the presence of Judas in the Apostolic College. Neither
can the moral corruption of a few disciples tarnish the holiness of the
Church. St. Paul calls the Church of Corinth a congregation of Saints,(53)
though he reproves some scandalous members among them.(54)
It cannot be denied that corruption of morals prevailed in the sixteenth
century to such an extent as to call for a sweeping reformation, and that
laxity of discipline invaded even the sanctuary.
But how was this reformation of morals to be effected? Was it to be
accomplished by a force operating inside the Church, or outside? I answer
that the proper way of carrying out this reformation was by battling
against iniquity within the Church; for there was not a single weapon
which men could use in waging war with vice outside the Church, which they
could not wield with more effective power when fighting under the
authority of the Church. The true weapons of an Apostle, at all times,
have been personal virtue, prayer, preaching, and the Sacraments. Every
genuine reformer had those weapons at his disposal within the Church.
She possesses, at all times, not only the principle of undying vitality,
but, besides, all the elements of reformation, and all the means of
sanctification. With the weapons I have named she purified morals in the
first century, and with the same weapons she went to work with a right
good will, and effected a moral reformation in the sixteenth century. She
was the only effectual spiritual reformer of that age.
What was the Council of Trent but a great reforming tribunal? Most of its
decrees are directed to the reformation of abuses among the clergy and the
laity, and the salutary fruits of its legislation are reaped even to this
day.
St. Charles Borromeo, the nephew of a reigning Pope, was the greatest
reformer of his time. His whole Episcopal career was spent in elevating
the morals of his clergy and people. Bartholomew, Archbishop of Braga, in
Portugal, preached an incessant crusade against iniquity in high and low
places. St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Alphonsus, with their companions,
were conspicuous and successful reformers throughout Europe. St. Philip
Neri was called the modern Apostle of Rome because of his happy efforts in
dethroning vice in that city. All these Catholic Apostles preach by
example as well as by word.
How do Luther and Calvin, and Zuinglius and Knox, and Henry VIII. compare
with these genuine and saintly reformers, both as to their moral character
and the fruit or their labors? The private lives of these pseudo-reformers
were stained by cruelty, rapine, and licentiousness; and as the result of
their propagandism, history records civil wars, and bloodshed, and bitter
religious strife, and the dismemberment of Christianity into a thousand
sects.
Instead of co-operating with the lawful authorities in extinguishing the
flames which the passions of men had enkindled in the city of God, these
faithless citizens fly from the citadel which they had vowed to defend;
then joining the enemy, they hasten back to fan the conflagration, and to
increase the commotion. And they overturn the very altars before which
they previously sacrificed as consecrated priests.(55) They sanctioned
rebellion by undermining the principle of authority.
What a noble opportunity they lost of earning for themselves immortal
honors from God and man! If, instead of raising the standard of revolt,
they had waged war upon their own passions, and fought with the Catholic
reformers against impiety, they would be hailed as true soldiers of the
cross. They would be welcomed by the Pope, the Bishops and clergy, and by
all good men. They might be honored today on our altars, and might have a
niche in our temples, side by side with those of Charles Borromeo and
Ignatius Loyola; and instead of a divided army of Christians, we should
behold today a united Christendom, spreading itself irresistibly from
nation to nation, and bringing all kingdoms to the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
Chapter IV.
CATHOLICITY.
That Catholicity is a prominent note of the Church is evident from the
Apostles’ Creed, which says: “I believe in the Holy _Catholic_ Church.”
The word _Catholic_, or Universal, signifies that the true Church is not
circumscribed in its extent, like human empires, nor confined to one race
of people, like the Jewish Church, but that she is diffused over every
nation of the globe, and counts her children among all tribes and peoples
and tongues of the earth.
This glorious Church is foreshadowed by the Psalmist, when he sings: “All
the ends of the earth shall be converted to the Lord, and all the kindreds
of the Gentiles shall adore in His sight; for the kingdom is the Lord’s,
and He shall have dominion over the nations.”(56) The Prophet Malachy saw
in the distant future this world-wide Church, when he wrote: “From the
rising of the sun, to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles;
and in _every place_ there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a
clean oblation; for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of
Hosts.”(57)
When our Savior gave commission to his Apostles He assigned to them the
whole world as the theatre of their labors, and the entire human race,
without regard to language, color, or nationality, as the audience to whom
they were to preach. Unlike the religion of the Jewish people, which was
national, or that of the Mohammedans, which is local, the Catholic
religion was to be cosmopolitan, embracing all nations and all countries.
This is evident from the following passages: “Go ye, therefore, and teach
_all nations_.”(58) “Go ye into the _whole world_, and preach the Gospel
to every creature.”(59) “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea, and Samaria, and even _to the uttermost part of the
earth_.”(60)
These prophecies declaring that the Church was to be world-wide and to
embrace even the Gentile nations may not strike us today as especially
remarkable, accustomed as we are now to meet with Christian civilization
everywhere, and to see the nations of the world bound so closely together
by social and commercial relations. But we must remember that when they
were uttered the true God was known and adored only in an obscure, almost
isolated, corner of the earth, while triumphant idolatry was the otherwise
universal religion of the world.
The prophecies were fulfilled. The Apostles scattered themselves over the
surface of the earth, preaching the Gospel of Christ. “Their sound,” says
St. Paul, “went over all the earth and their words unto the ends of the
whole world.”(61) Within thirty years after our Savior’s Crucifixion the
Apostle of the Gentiles was able to say to the Romans: “I give thanks to
my God through Jesus Christ because your faith is spoken of in the entire
world”(62)—spoken of assuredly by those who were in sympathy and communion
with the faith of the Romans.
St. Justin, Martyr, was able to say, about one hundred years after Christ,
that there was no race of men, whether Barbarians or Greeks, or any other
people of what name soever, among whom the name of Jesus Christ was not
invoked.
St. Irenaeus, writing at the end of the second century, tells us that the
religion so marvelously propagated throughout the whole world was not a
vague, ever-changing form of Christianity, but that “this faith and
doctrine and tradition preached throughout the globe is as uniform as if
the Church consisted of one family, possessing one soul, one heart, and as
if she had but one mouth. For, though the languages of the world are
dissimilar, her doctrine is the same. The churches founded in Germany, in
the Celtic nations, in the East in Egypt, in Lybia, and in the centres of
civilization, do not differ from each other; but as the sun gives the same
light throughout the world, so does the light of faith shine everywhere
the same and enlighten all men who wish to come to the knowledge of the
truth.”(63)
“We are but of yesterday,” says Tertullian, “and already have we filled
your cities, towns, islands, your council halls and camps ... the palace,
senate, forum; we have left you only the temples.”(64)
Clement of Alexandria, at the end of the second century, writes: “The word
of our Master did not remain in Judea, as philosophy remained in Greece,
but has been poured out over the whole world, persuading Greeks and
Barbarians alike, race by race, village by village, every city, whole
houses and hearers one by one—nay, not a few of the philosophers
themselves.”
And Origen, in the early part of the next century, observes: “In all
Greece, and in all barbarous races within our world, there are tens of
thousands who have left their national law and customary gods for the law
of Moses and the Word of Jesus Christ, though to adhere to that law is to
incur the hatred of idolaters and the risk of death besides to have
embraced that Word; and considering how, in so few years, in spite of the
attack made on us, even to the loss of life or property, and with no great
store of teachers, the preaching of that Word has found its way into every
part of the world, so that Greek and Barbarian, wise and unwise, adhere to
the religion of Jesus, doubtless it is a work greater than any work of
man.”
This Catholicity, or universality, is not to be found in any, or in all,
of the combined communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church.
The Schismatic churches of the East have no claim to this title because
they are confined within the Turkish and Russian dominions, and number not
more than sixty million souls.
The Protestant churches, even taken collectively, (as separate communions
they are a mere handful) are too insignificant in point of numbers, and
too circumscribed in their territorial extent, to have any pretensions to
the title of Catholic. All the Protestant denominations are estimated at
sixty-five million, or less than one-fifth of those who bear the Christian
name. They repudiate, moreover, and protest against the name of Catholic,
though they continue to say in the Apostles’ Creed “I believe in the Holy
Catholic Church.”
That the Roman Catholic Church alone deserves the name of _Catholic_ is so
evident that it is ridiculous to deny it. Ours is the only Church which
adopts this name as her official title. We have possession, which is
nine-tenths of the law. We have exclusively borne this glorious
appellation in troubled times, when the assumption of this venerable title
exposed us to insult, persecution and death; and to attempt to deprive us
of it at this late hour, would be as fruitless as the efforts of the
French Revolutionists who sought to uproot all traces of the old
civilization by assigning new names to the days and seasons of the year.
Passion and prejudice and bad manners may affix to us the epithets of
_Romish_ and _Papist_ and _Ultramontane_, but the calm, dispassionate
mind, of whatever faith, all the world, over, knows us only by the name of
_Catholic_. There is a power in this name and an enthusiasm aroused by it
akin to the patriotism awakened by the flag of one’s country.
So great is the charm attached to the name of Catholic that a portion of
the Episcopal body sometimes usurp the title of _Catholic_, though in
their official books they are named _Protestant Episcopalians_. If they
think that they have any just claim to the name of _Catholic_, why not
come out openly and write it on the title-pages of their Bibles and
Prayer-Books? Afraid of going so far, they gratify their vanity by
privately calling themselves Catholic. But the delusion is so transparent
that the attempt must provoke a smile even among themselves.
Should a stranger ask them to direct him to the Catholic Church they would
instinctively point out to him the Roman Catholic Church.
The sectarians of the fourth and fifth centuries, as St. Augustine tells
us, used to attempt the same pious fraud, but signally failed:
“We must hold fast to the Christian religion and to the communion of that
Church which is Catholic, and which is called Catholic not only by those
who belong to her, but also by all her enemies. Whether they will it or
not the very heretics themselves and followers of schism, when they
converse, not with their own but with outsiders, call that only Catholic
which is really Catholic. For they cannot be understood unless they
distinguish her by that name, by which she is known throughout the whole
earth.”(65)
We possess not only the name, but also the reality. A single illustration
will suffice to exhibit in a strong light the widespread dominion of the
Catholic Church and her just claims to the title of _Catholic_. Take the
Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, opened in 1869 and presided over by
Pope Pius IX. Of the thousand Bishops and upwards now comprising the
hierarchy of the Catholic Church, nearly eight hundred attended the
opening session, the rest being unavoidably absent. All parts of the
habitable globe were represented at the Council.
The Bishops assembled from Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany,
Switzerland and from almost every nation and principality in Europe. They
met from Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America, and from the
islands of the Atlantic and the Pacific. They were gathered together from
different parts of Africa and Oceanica. They went from the banks of the
Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of the human race, and from the banks of
the Jordan, the cradle of Christianity. They traveled to Rome from Mossul,
built near ancient Nineveh, and from Bagdad, founded on the ruins of
Babylon. They flocked from Damascus and Mount Libanus and from the Holy
Land, sanctified by the footprints of our blessed Redeemer.
Those Bishops belonged to every form of government, from the republic to
the most absolute monarchy.(66) Their faces were marked by almost every
shade and color that distinguished the human family. They spoke every
civilized language under the sun. Kneeling together in the same great
Council-Hall, truly could those Prelates exclaim, in the language of the
Apocalypse: “Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, to God in Thy blood, out of
every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.”(67)
What the Catholic Church lost by the religious revolution of the sixteenth
century in the old world she has more than regained by the immense
accessions to her ranks in the East and West Indies, in North and South
America.
Never, in her long history, was she numerically so strong as she is at the
present moment, when her children amount to about three hundred millions,
or double the number of those who bear the name of Christians outside of
her communion.
In her alone is literally fulfilled the magnificent prophecy of Malachy;
for in every clime, and in every nation under the sun, are erected
thousands of Catholic altars upon which the “clean oblation”(68) is daily
offered up to the Most High.
It is said, with truth, that the sun never sets on British dominions. It
may also be affirmed, with equal assurance, that wherever the British
drum-beat sounds, aye, and wherever the English language is spoken, there
you will find the English-speaking Catholic Missionary planting the
cross—the symbol of salvation—side by side with the banner of St. George.
Quite recently a number of European emigrants arrived in Richmond. They
were strangers to our country, to our customs and to our language. Every
object that met their eye sadly reminded them that they were far from
their own sunny Italy. But when they saw the cross surmounting our
Cathedral they hastened to it with a joyful step. I saw and heard a group
of them giving earnest expression to their deep emotions. Entering this
sacred temple, they felt that they had found an oasis in the desert. Once
more they were at home. They found one familiar spot in a strange land.
They stood in the church of their fathers, in the home of their childhood;
and they seemed to say in their hearts, as a tear trickled down their
sun-burnt cheeks, “How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My
soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh have rejoiced in the living God.”(69) They saw around them the
paintings of familiar Saints whom they had been accustomed to reverence
from their youth. They saw the baptismal font and the confessionals. They
beheld the altar and the altar-rails where they received their Maker. They
observed the Priest at the altar in his sacred vestments. They saw a
multitude of worshipers kneeling around them, and they felt in their heart
of hearts that they were once more among brothers and sisters, with whom
they had “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
Everywhere a Catholic is at home. Secret societies, of whatever name, form
but a weak and counterfeit bond of union compared with the genuine
fellowship created by Catholic faith, hope and charity.
The Roman Catholic Church, then, exclusively merits the title of Catholic,
because her children abound in every part of the globe and comprise the
vast majority of the Christian family.
God forbid that I should write these lines, or that my Catholic readers
should peruse them in a boasting and vaunting spirit. God estimates men
not by their numbers, but by their intrinsic worth. It is no credit to us
to belong to the body of the Church Catholic if we are not united to the
soul of the Church by a life of faith, hope and charity. It will avail us
nothing to be citizens of that Kingdom of Christ which encircles the
globe, unless the Kingdom of God is within us by the reign of the Holy
Spirit in our hearts.
One righteous soul that reflects the beauty and perfections of the Lord,
is more precious in His sight than the mass of humanity that has no
spiritual life, and is dead to the inspirations of grace.
The Patriarch Abraham was dearer to Jehovah than all the inhabitants of
the corrupt city of Sodom.
Elias was of greater worth before the Almighty than the four hundred
prophets of Baal who ate at the table of Jezabel.
The Apostles with the little band of disciples that were assembled in
Jerusalem after our Lord’s ascension, were more esteemed by Him than the
great Roman Empire, which was seated in darkness and the shadow of death.
While we rejoice, then, in the inestimable blessing of being incorporated
in the visible body of the Catholic Church, whose spiritual treasures are
inexhaustible, let us rejoice still more that we have not received that
blessing in vain.
Chapter V.
APOSTOLICITY.
The true Church must be Apostolical. Hence in the Creed framed in the
first Ecumenical Council of Nicæa, in the year 325, we find these words:
“I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and _Apostolic_ Church.”
This attribute or note of the Church implies that the true Church must
always teach the identical doctrines once delivered by the Apostles, and
that her ministers must derive their powers from the Apostles by an
uninterrupted succession.
Consequently, no church can claim to be the true one whose doctrines
differ from those of the Apostles, or whose ministers are unable to trace,
by an unbroken chain, their authority to an Apostolic source; just as our
Minister to England can exercise no authority in that country unless he is
duly commissioned by our Government and represents its views.
The Church, says St. Paul, is “built upon the foundation of the
Apostles,”(70) so that the doctrine which it propagates must be based on
Apostolic teachings. Hence St. Paul says to the Galatians: “Though an
angel from heaven preach a Gospel to you beside that which we have
preached to you, let him be anathema.”(71) The same Apostle gives this
admonition to Timothy: “The things which thou hast heard from me before
many witnesses the _same_ commend to faithful men who shall be fit to
teach others also.”(72) Timothy must transmit to his disciples only such
doctrines as he heard from the lips of his Master.
Not only is it required that ministers of the Gospel should conform their
teaching to the doctrine of the Apostles, but also that these ministers
should be ordained and commissioned by the Apostles or their legitimate
successors. “Neither doth any man,” says the Apostle, “take the honor to
himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.”(73) This text
evidently condemns all self-constituted preachers and reformers; for, “how
shall they preach, unless they be sent?”(74) _Sent_, of course, by
legitimate authority, and not directed by their own caprice. Hence, we
find that those who succeeded the Apostles were ordained and commissioned
by them to preach, and that no others were permitted to exercise this
function. Thus we are told that Paul and Barnabas “had ordained for them
priests in every church.”(75) And the Apostle says to Titus: “For this
cause I left thee in Crete, ... that thou shouldst ordain Priests in every
city, as I also appointed thee.”(76) Even St. Paul himself, though
miraculously called and instructed by God, had hands imposed on him,(77)
lest others should be tempted by his example to preach without Apostolic
warrant.
To discover, therefore, the Church of Christ among the various conflicting
claimants we have to inquire, first, which church teaches whole and entire
those doctrines that were taught by the Apostles; second, what ministers
can trace back, in an unbroken line, their missionary powers to the
Apostles.
The Catholic Church _alone_ teaches doctrines which are _in all respects_
identical with those of the first teachers of the Gospel. The following
parallel lines exhibit some examples of the departure of the Protestant
bodies from the primitive teachings of Christianity, and the faithful
adhesion of the Catholic Church to them.
Apostolic Church. Catholic Church. Protestant Churches.
1. Our Savior gives The Catholic Church All other Christian
pre-eminence to Peter gives the primacy of communions practically
over the other honor and jurisdiction deny Peter’s supremacy
Apostles: “I will give to Peter and to his over the other
to thee the keys of the successors. Apostles.
kingdom of heaven.”(78)
“Confirm thy
brethren.”(79) “Feed My
lambs; feed My
sheep.”(80)
2. The Apostolic Church The Catholic Church All the Protestant
claimed to be alone, of all the churches repudiate the
infallible in her Christian communions, claim of infallibility.
teachings. Hence the claims to exercise the They deny that such a
Apostles spoke with prerogative of gift is possessed by
unerring authority, and infallibility in her any teachers of
their words were teaching. Her ministers religion. The ministers
received not as human always speak from the pronounce no
opinions, but as Divine pulpit as having authoritative
truths. “When you have authority, and the doctrines, but advance
received from us the faithful receive with opinions as embodying
word of God, you implicit confidence their private
received it not as the what the Church interpretation of the
word of men, but (as it teaches, without once Scripture. And their
is indeed) the word of questioning her hearers are never
God.”(81) “It hath veracity. required to believe
seemed good to the Holy them, but are expected
Ghost and to us,” say to draw their own
the assembled Apostles, conclusions from the
“to lay no further Bible.
burden upon you than
these necessary
things.”(82) “Though an
angel from heaven
preach a gospel to you
besides that which we
have preached to you,
let him be
anathema.”(83)
3. Our Savior enjoins The Church prescribes Protestants have no law
and prescribes rules fasting to the faithful prescribing fasts,
for fasting: “When thou at stated seasons, though some may fast
fastest, anoint thy particularly during from private devotion.
head and wash thy face, Lent. A Catholic priest They even try to cast
that thou appear not to is always fasting when ridicule on fasting as
men to fast ... and thy he officiates at the a work of
Father, who seeth in altar. He breaks his supererogation,
secret, will repay fast only after he says detracting from the
thee.”(84) The Apostles Mass. When Bishops merits of Christ.
fasted before engaging ordain Priests they are Neither candidates for
in sacred functions: always fasting, as well ordination, nor the
“They ministered to the as the candidates for ministers who ordain
Lord, and fasted.”(85) ordination. them, ever fast on such
“And when they ordained occasions.
Priests in every city,
they prayed with
fasting.”(86)
4. “Let women,” says The Catholic Church Women, especially in
the Apostle, “keep never permits women to this country, publicly
silence in the preach in the house of preach in Methodist and
churches. For, it is God. other churches with the
not permitted them to sanction of the church
speak ... It is a shame elders.
for a woman to speak in
the church.”(87)
5. St. Peter and St. Every Catholic Bishop, No denomination
John confirmed the as a successor of the performs the ceremony
newly baptized in Apostles, likewise of imposing hands in
Samaria: “They laid imposes hands on this country except
hands on them and they baptized persons in the Episcopalians, and even
received the Holy Sacrament of they do not recognize
Ghost.”(88) Confirmation, by which Confirmation as a
they receive the Holy Sacrament.
Ghost.
6. Our Savior and His The Catholic Church The Protestant churches
Apostles taught that teaches, with our Lord (except, perhaps, a few
the Eucharist contains and His Apostles, that Ritualists) condemn the
the Body and Blood of the Eucharist contains doctrine of the Real
Christ: “Take ye, and really and indeed the Presence as idolatrous,
eat; this is My Body and Blood of Jesus and say that, in
Body.... Drink ye all Christ under the partaking of the
of this, for this is my appearance of bread and communion, we receive a
Blood.”(89) “The wine. memorial of Christ.
chalice of benediction
which we bless, is it
not the communion of
the Blood of Christ;
and the bread which we
break, is it not the
participation of the
Body of the Lord?”(90)
7. The Apostles were The Bishops and Priests Protestants affirm, on
empowered by our Savior of the Catholic Church, the contrary, that God
to forgive sins:—“Whose as the inheritors of delegates to no man the
sins ye shall forgive, Apostolic prerogatives, power of pardoning sin.
they are forgiven.”(91) profess to exercise the
“God,” says St. Paul, ministry of
“hath given to us the reconciliation, and to
ministry of forgive sins in the
reconciliation.”(92) name of Christ.
8. Regarding the sick, One of the most No such ceremony as
St. James gives this ordinary duties of a that of anointing the
instruction: “Is any Catholic Priest is to sick is practised by
man sick among you, let anoint the sick in the any Protestant
him bring in the Sacrament of Extreme denomination,
priests of the Church, Unction. If a man is notwithstanding the
and let them pray over sick among us he is Apostle’s injunction.
him, anointing him with careful to call in the
oil in the name of the Priest of the Church,
Lord.”(93) that he may anoint him
with oil in the name of
the Lord.
9. Of marriage our Literally following the The Protestant
Savior says: “Whoever Apostle’s injunction, churches, as is well
shall put away his wife the Catholic Church known, have so far
and marry another forbids the husband and relaxed this rigorous
committeth adultery wife to separate from law of the Gospel as to
against her. And if the one another; or, if allow divorced persons
wife shall put away her they separate, neither to remarry. And divorce
husband and be married of them can marry again _a vinculo_ is granted
to another she during the life of the on various and even
committeth other. trifling pretenses.
adultery.”(94) And
again St. Paul says:
“To them that are
married ... the Lord
commandeth that the
wife depart not from
her husband, and if she
depart that she remain
unmarried.... And let
not the husband put
away his wife.”(95)
10. Our Lord recommends Like the Apostle and All the ministers of
not only by word, but his Master, the other denominations,
by His example, to Catholic clergy bind with very rare
souls aiming at themselves to a life of exceptions, marry. And
perfection, the state perpetual chastity. The far from inculcating
of perpetual virginity. inmates of our convents the Apostolic counsel
St. Paul also exhorts of men and women of celibacy to any of
the Corinthians by voluntarily consecrate their flock, they more
counsel and his own their virginity to God. than insinuate that the
example to the same virtue of perpetual
angelic virtue: “He chastity, though
that giveth his virgin recommended by St.
in marriage,” he says, Paul, is impracticable.
“doeth well. And he
that giveth her not
doeth better.”(96)
We now leave the reader to judge for himself which Church enforces the
doctrines of the Apostles in all their pristine vigor.
To show that the Catholic Church is the only lineal descendant of the
Apostles it is sufficient to demonstrate that she alone can trace her
pedigree, generation after generation, to the Apostles, while the origin
of all other Christian communities can be referred to a comparatively
modern date.
The most influential Christian sects existing in this country at the
present time are the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians
and Baptists. The other Protestant denominations are comparatively
insignificant in point of numbers, and are for the most part offshoots
from the Christian communities just named.
Martin Luther, a Saxon monk, was the founder of the church which bears his
name. He was born at Eisleben, in Saxony, in 1483, and died in 1546.
The Anglican or Episcopal Church owes its origin to Henry VIII. of
England. The immediate cause of his renunciation of the Roman Church was
the refusal of Pope Clement to grant him a divorce from his lawful wife,
Catharine of Aragon, that he might be free to be joined in wedlock to Anne
Boleyn. In order to legalize his divorce from his virtuous queen the
licentious monarch divorced himself and his kingdom from the spiritual
supremacy of the Pope.
“There is a close relationship,” says D’Aubigné, “between these two
divorces,” meaning Henry’s divorce from his wife and England’s divorce
from the Church. Yes, there is the relationship of cause and effect.
Bishop Short, an Anglican historian, candidly admits that “the existence
of the Church of England as a distinct body, and her final separation from
Rome, may _be dated_ from the period of the divorce.”(97)
The Book of Homilies, in the language of fulsome praise, calls Henry “the
true and faithful minister,” and gives him the credit for having abolished
in England the Papal supremacy and established the new order of
things.(98)
John Wesley is the acknowledged founder of the Methodist Church. Methodism
dates from the year 1729, and its cradle was the Oxford University in
England. John and Charles Wesley were students at Oxford. They gathered
around them a number of young men who devoted themselves to the frequent
reading of the Holy Scriptures and to prayer. Their methodical and exact
mode of life obtained for them the name of _Methodists_. The Methodist
Church in this country is the offspring of a colony sent hither from
England.
As it would be tedious to give even a succinct history of each sect, I
shall content myself with presenting a tabular statement exhibiting the
name and founder of each denomination, the place and date of its origin,
and the names of the authors from whom I quote. My authorities in every
instance are Protestants.
Name of Place Founder. Year. Authority
Sect. of Quoted.
Origin.
Anabaptists Germany Nicolas 1521 Vincent
Stork L.
Milner,
“Religious
Denominations.”
Baptists Rhode Roger 1639 “The Book of
Island Williams Religions” by
John Hayward.
Free-Will New Benj. 1780 Ibid.
Baptists Hampshire Randall
Free New York Benijah Close Rev. A. D.
Communion Corp of Williams in
Baptists 18th “History of all
century Denominations.”
Seventh-Day United General 1833 W. B. Gillett,
Baptists States Conference Ibid.
Campbellites, Virginia Alex. 1813 “Book of
or Campbell Religions.”
Christians
Methodist England John 1739 Rev. Nathan
Episcopal Wesley Bangs in
“History of all
Denominations.”
Reformed Vermont Branch of 1814 Ibid.
Methodist the Meth.
Episcopal
Church
Methodist New York Do. 1820 Rev. W. M.
Society Stilwell, Ibid.
Methodist Baltimore Do. 1830 James R.
Protestant Williams, Ibid.
True Wesleyan New York Delegates 1843 J. Timberman,
Methodist from Ibid.
Methodist
denominations
Presbyterian Scotland General 1560 John M. Krebs,
(Old School) Assembly Ibid.
Presbyterian Philadelphia General 1840 Joel Parker, D.
(New School) Assembly D., Ibid.
Episcopalian England Henry VIII 1534 Macaulay and
other English
Historians.
Lutheran Germany Martin Luther 1524 S. S. Schmucker
in “History of
all
Denominations.”
Unitarian Germany Celatius About Alvan Lamson,
Congrega- 1540 Ibid.
tionalists
Congrega- England Robert Browne 1583 E. W. Andrews,
tionalists Ibid.
Quakers England George Fox 1647 English
Historians.
Do America William Penn 1681 American
Historians.
Catholic Jerusalem Jesus 33 New Testament.
Church
From this brief historical tableau we find that all the Christian _sects_
now existing in the United States had their origin since the year 1500.
Consequently, the oldest body of Christians among us, outside the Catholic
Church, is not yet four centuries old. They all, therefore, come fifteen
centuries too late to have any pretensions to be called the Apostolic
Church.
But I may be told: “Though our public history as Protestants dates from
the Reformation, we can trace our origin back to the Apostles.” This I say
is impossible. First of all, the very name you bear betrays your recent
birth; for who ever heard of a Baptist or an Episcopal, or any other
Protestant church, prior to the Reformation? Nor can you say: “We existed
in every age as an invisible church.” Your concealment, indeed, was so
complete that no man can tell, to this day, where you lay hid for sixteen
centuries. But even if you did exist you could not claim to be the Church
of Christ; for our Lord predicted that His Church should ever be as a city
placed upon the mountain top, that all might see it, and that its
ministers should preach the truths of salvation from the watch-towers
thereof, that all might hear them.
It is equally in vain to tell me that you were allied in faith to the
various Christian sects that went out from the Catholic Church from age to
age; for these sects proclaimed doctrines diametrically opposed to one
another, and the true Church must be one in faith. And besides, the less
relationship you claim with many of these seceders the better for you, as
they all advocated errors against Christian truth, and some of them
disseminated principles at variance with _decency_ and morality.
The Catholic Church, on the contrary, can easily vindicate the title of
Apostolic, because she derives her origin from the Apostles. Every Priest
and Bishop can trace his genealogy to the first disciples of Christ with
as much facility as the most remote branch of a vine can be traced to the
main stem.
All the Catholic Clergy in the United States, for instance, were ordained
only by Bishops who are in active communion with the See of Rome. These
Bishops themselves received their commissions from the Bishop of Rome. The
present Bishop of Rome, Pius IX., is the successor of Gregory XVI., who
succeeded Pius VIII., who was the successor of Leo XII. And thus we go
back from century to century till we come to Peter, the first Bishop of
Rome, Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ. Like the Evangelist
Luke, who traces the genealogy of our Savior back to Adam and to God, we
can trace the pedigree of Pius IX. to Peter and to Christ. There is not a
link wanting in the chain which binds the humblest Priest in the land to
the Prince of the Apostles. And although on a few occasions there happened
to be two or even three claimants for the chair of Peter, these
counter-claims could no more affect the validity of the legitimate Pope
than the struggle of two contestants for the Presidency could invalidate
the title of the recognized Chief Magistrate.
It was by pursuing this line of argument that the early Fathers
demonstrated the Apostolicity of the Catholic Church, and refuted the
pretensions of contemporary sectaries. St. Irenæus, Tertullian and St.
Augustine give catalogues of the Bishops of Rome who flourished up to
their respective times, with whom it was their happiness to be in
communion, and then they challenged their opponents to trace their lineage
to the Apostolic See. “Let them,” says Tertullian, in the second century,
“produce the origin of their church. Let them exhibit the succession of
their Bishops, so that the first of them may appear to have been ordained
by an _Apostle, or by an apostolic man who was in communion with the
Apostles_.”(99)
And if the Fathers of the fifth century considered it a powerful argument
in their favor that they could refer to an uninterrupted line of fifty
Bishops who occupied the See of Rome, how much stronger is the argument to
us who can now exhibit five times that number of Roman Pontiffs who have
sat in the chair of Peter! I would affectionately repeat to my separated
brethren what Augustine said to the Donatists of his time: “Come to us,
brethren if you wish to be engrafted in the vine. We are afflicted in
beholding you lying cut off from it. Count over the Bishops from the very
See of St. Peter, and mark, in this list of Fathers, how one succeeded the
other. This is the rock against which the proud gates of hell do not
prevail.”(100)
Chapter VI.
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH.
Perpetuity, or duration till the end of time, is one of the most striking
marks of the Church. By perpetuity is not meant merely that Christianity
in one form or another was always to exist, but that the Church was to
remain forever in its _integrity_, clothed with _all_ those attributes
which God gave it in the beginning. For, if the Church lost any of her
essential characteristics, such as her unity and sanctity, which our Lord
imparted to her at the commencement of her existence, she could not be
said to be perpetual because she would not be the same Institution.
The unceasing duration of the Church of Christ is frequently foretold in
Sacred Scripture. The Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that Christ “shall
reign over the house of Jacob _forever_, and of his kingdom _there shall
be no end_.”(101) Our Savior said to Peter: “Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.”(102) Our blessed Lord clearly intimates here that the Church
is destined to be assailed always, but to be overcome, never.
In the last words recorded of our Redeemer in the Gospel of St. Matthew
the same prediction is strongly repeated, and the reason of the Church’s
indefectibility is fully expressed: “Go ye, teach all nations, ... and
behold I am with you _all days_, even _to the consummation_ of the
world.”(103) This sentence contains three important declarations:
First—The presence of Christ with His Church—“Behold, I am with you.”
Second—His constant presence, without an interval of one day’s absence—“I
am with you all days.” Third—His perpetual presence to the end of the
world, and consequently the perpetual duration of the Church—“Even to the
consummation of the world.”
Hence it follows that the true Church must have existed from the
beginning; it must have had not one day’s interval of suspended animation,
or separation from Christ, and must live to the end of time.
None of the Christian Communions outside the Catholic Church can have any
reasonable claim to _Perpetuity_, since, as we have seen in the preceding
chapter, they are all(104) of recent origin.
The indestructibility of the Catholic Church is truly marvellous and well
calculated to excite the admiration of every reflecting mind, when we
consider the number and variety, and the formidable power of the enemies
with whom she had to contend from her very birth to the present time; this
fact alone stamps divinity on her brow.
The Church has been constantly engaged in a double warfare, one foreign,
the other domestic—in foreign war against Paganism and infidelity; in
civil strife against heresy and schism fomented by her own rebellious
children.
From the day of Pentecost till the victory of Constantine the Great over
Maxentius, embracing a period of about two hundred and eighty years, the
Church underwent a series of ten persecutions unparalleled for atrocity in
the annals of history. Every torture that malice could invent was resorted
to, that every vestige of Christianity might be eradicated.
_“__Christianos ad leones,__”__ the Christians to the lions_, was the
popular war-cry.
They were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and thus exposed to be
devoured by dogs. They were covered with pitch and set on fire to serve as
lamp-posts to the streets of Rome. To justify such atrocities, and to
smother all sentiments of compassion, these persecutors accused their
innocent victims of the most appalling crimes.
For three centuries the Christians were obliged to worship God in the
secrecy of their chambers, or in the Roman catacombs, which are still
preserved to attest the undying fortitude of the martyrs and the enormity
of their sufferings.
And yet Pagan Rome, before whose standard the mightiest nations quailed,
was unable to crush the infant Church or arrest her progress. In a short
time we find this colossal Empire going to pieces, and the Head of the
Catholic Church dispensing laws to Christendom in the very city from which
the imperial Cæsars had promulgated their edicts against Christianity!
During the fifth and sixth centuries the Goths and Vandals, the Huns,
Visigoths, Lombards and other immense tribes of Barbarians came down like
a torrent from the North, invading the fairest portions of Southern
Europe. They dismembered the Roman Empire and swept away nearly every
trace of the old Roman civilization. They plundered cities, leveled
churches and left ruin and desolation after them. Yet, though conquering
for awhile, they were conquered in turn by submitting to the sweet yoke of
the Gospel. And thus, as even the infidel Gibbon observes, “The progress
of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories
over the learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman Empire and over the
warlike Barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who subverted the empire and
embraced the religion of the Romans.”(105)
Mohamedanism took its rise in the seventh century in Arabia, and made
rapid conquests in Asia. In the fifteenth century Constantinople was
captured by the followers of the false prophet, who even threatened to
subject all Europe to their sway. For nine centuries Mohamedanism
continued to be a standing menace to christendom, till the final issue
came when it was to be decided once for all whether Christianity and
civilization on the one hand, or Mohamedanism and infidelity on the other,
should rule the destinies of Europe and the world.
At the earnest solicitation of the Pope, the kingdom of Spain and the
republic of Venice formed an offensive league against the Turks, who were
signally defeated in the battle of Lepanto, in 1571. And if the Cross,
instead of the Crescent, surmounts the cities of Europe today, it is
indebted for this priceless blessing to the vigilance of the Roman
Pontiffs.
Another adversary more formidable and dangerous than those I have
mentioned threatened the overthrow of the Church in the fourth and fifth
centuries. I speak of the great heresy of Arius, which was followed by
those of Nestorius and Eutyches.
The Arian schism, soon after its rise, spread rapidly through Europe,
Northern Africa and portions of Asia. It received the support of immense
multitudes, and flourished for awhile under the fostering care of several
successive emperors. Catholic Bishops were banished from their sees, and
their places were filled by Arian intruders. The Church which survived the
sword of Paganism seemed for awhile to yield to the poison of Arianism.
But after a short career of prosperity this gigantic sect became weakened
by intestine divisions, and was finally swept away by other errors which
came following in its footsteps.
You are already familiar with the great religious revolution of the
sixteenth century, which spread like a tornado over Northern Europe and
threatened, if that were possible, to engulf the bark of Peter. More than
half of Germany followed the new Gospel of Martin Luther. Switzerland
submitted to the doctrines of Zuinglius. The faith was lost in Sweden
through the influence of its king, Gustavus Vasa. Denmark conformed to the
new creed through the intrigues of King Christian II. Catholicity was also
crushed out in Norway, England and Scotland. Calvinism in the sixteenth
century and Voltaireism in the eighteenth had gained such a foothold in
France that the faith of that glorious Catholic nation twice trembled in
the balance. Ireland alone, of all the nations of Northern Europe,
remained faithful to the ancient Church.
Let us now calmly survey the field after the din and smoke of battle have
passed away. Let us examine the condition of the old Church after having
passed through those deadly conflicts. We see her numerically stronger
today than at any previous period of her history. The losses she sustained
in the old world are more than compensated by her acquisitions in the new.
She has already recovered a good portion of the ground wrested from her in
the sixteenth century. She numbers now about three hundred million
adherents. She exists today not an effete institution, but in all the
integrity and fulness of life, with her organism unimpaired, more united,
more compact and more vigorous than ever she was before.
The so-called Reformation of the sixteenth century bears many points of
resemblance to the great Arian heresy. Both schisms originated with
Priests impatient of the yoke of the Gospel, fond of novelty and ambitious
for notoriety. Both were nursed and sustained by the reigning Powers, and
were augmented by large accessions of proselytes. Both spread for awhile
with the irresistible force of a violent hurricane, till its fury was
spent. Both subsequently became subdivided into various bodies. The
extinction of Protestantism would complete the parallel.
In this connection a remark of De Maistre is worth quoting: “If
Protestantism bears always the same name, though its belief has been
perpetually shifting, it is because its name is purely negative and means
only the denial of Catholicity, so that the less it believes, and the more
it protests, the more consistently Protestant it will be. Since, then, its
name becomes continually truer, it must subsist until it perishes, just as
an ulcer disappears with the last atom of the flesh which it has been
eating away.”(106)
But similar causes will produce similar results. As both revolutions were
the offspring of rebellion; as both have been marked by the same vigorous
youth, the same precocious manhood, the same premature decay and
dismemberment of parts; so we are not rash in predicting that the
dissolution which long since visited the former is destined, sooner or
later, to overtake the latter. But the Catholic Church, because she is the
work of God, is always “renewing her strength, like the eagle’s.”(107) You
ask for a miracle, as the Jews asked our Saviour for a sign. You ask the
Church to prove her divine mission by a miraculous agency. Is not her very
survival the greatest of prodigies? If you beheld some fair bride with all
the weakness of humanity upon her, cast into a prison and starved and
trampled upon, hacked and tortured, her blood sprinkled upon her dungeon
walls, and if you saw her again emerging from her prison, in all the bloom
and freshness of youth, and surviving for years and centuries beyond the
span of human life, continuing to be the joyful mother of children, would
you not call that scene a miracle?
And is not this a picture of our Mother, the Church? Has she not passed
through all these vicissitudes? Has she not tasted the bitterness of
prison in every age? Has not her blood been shed in every clime?
And yet in her latter days, she is as fair as ever, and the nursing mother
of children. Are not civil governments and institutions mortal as well as
men? Why should the Republic of the Church be an exception to the law of
decay and death? If this is not a miracle, I know not what a miracle is.
If Augustin, that profound Christian philosopher, could employ this
argument in the fifth century, with how much more force may it be used
today, fifteen hundred years after his time!
But far be it from us to ascribe to any human cause this marvelous
survival of the Church.
Her indestructibility is not due, as some suppose, to her wonderful
organization, or to the far-reaching policy of her Pontiffs, or to the
learning and wisdom of her teachers. If she has survived, it is not
because of human wisdom, but often in spite of human folly. Her permanence
is due not to the arm of the flesh, but to the finger of God. “Not to us,
O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory.”
I would now ask this question of all that are hostile to the Catholic
Church and that are plotting her destruction: How can you hope to overturn
an institution which for more than nineteen centuries has successfully
resisted all the combined assaults of the world, of men, and of the powers
of darkness? What means will you employ to encompass her ruin?
I. Is it the power of Kings, and Emperors, and Prime Ministers? They have
tried in vain to crush her, from the days of the Roman Cæsars to those of
the former Chancellor of Germany.
Many persons labor under the erroneous impression that the crowned heads
of Europe have been the unvarying supporters of the Church, and that if
their protection were withdrawn she would soon collapse. So far from the
Church being sheltered behind earthly thrones, her worst enemies have
been, with some honorable exceptions, so-called Christian Princes who were
nominal children of the Church. They chafed under her salutary discipline;
they wished to be rid of her yoke, because she alone, in time of
oppression, had the power and the courage to stand by the rights of the
people, and place her breast as a wall of brass against the encroachments
of their rulers. With calm confidence we can say with the Psalmist: “Why
have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of
the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord, and
against his Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away
their yoke from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them and the
Lord shall deride them.”(108)
II. Can the immense resources and organized power of rival religious
bodies succeed in absorbing her and in bringing her to naught? I am not
disposed to undervalue this power. Against any human force it would be
irresistible. But if the colossal strength, and incomparable machinery of
the Roman Empire could not prevent the establishment of the Church; if
Arianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism could not check her development, how
can modern organizations stop her progress now, when in the fulness of her
strength?
It is easier to preserve what is created, than to create anew.
III. But we have been told: “Take from the Pope his Temporal power and the
Church is doomed to destruction. This is the secret of her strength; strip
her of this, and, like Samson shorn of his hair, she will betray all the
weakness of a poor mortal. Then this brilliant luminary will wax pale and
she will sink below the horizon, never more to rise again.”
For more than seven centuries after the establishment of the Church the
Popes had no sovereign territorial jurisdiction. How could she have
outlived that period, if the temporal power were essential to her
perpetuity? And even since 1870 the Pope has been deprived of his
temporalities. This loss, however, does not bring a wrinkle on the fair
brow of the Church, nor does it retard one inch her onward march.
IV. Is she unable to cope with modern inventions and the mechanical
progress of the nineteenth century? We are often told so; but far from
hiding our head, like the ostrich in the sand, at the approach of these
inventions we hail them as messengers of God, and will use them as
Providential instruments for the further propagation of the faith.
If we succeeded so well before, when we had no ships but frail canoes, no
compass but our eyes; when we had no roads but eternal snows, virgin
forests and trackless deserts; when we had no guide save faith, and hope,
and God—if even then we succeeded so well in carrying the Gospel to the
confines of the earth, how much more can we do now by the aid of
telegraph, steamships and railroads?
Yes, O men of genius, we bless your inventions; we bless you, ye modern
discoveries; and we will impress you into the service of the Church and
say: “Fire and heat bless the Lord. Lightnings and clouds bless the Lord;
all ye works of the Lord bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all
forever.”(109)
The utility of modern inventions to the Church has lately been manifested
in a conspicuous manner. The Pope called a council of all the Bishops of
the world. Without the aid of steam it would have been almost impossible
for them to assemble; by its aid they were able to meet from the uttermost
bounds of the earth.
V. But may not the light of the Church grow pale and be extinguished
before the intellectual blaze of the nineteenth century? Has she not much
to fear from literature, the arts and sciences? She has always been the
Patroness of literature, and the fostering Mother of the arts and
sciences. She founded and endowed nearly all the great universities of
Europe.
Not to mention those of the continent, a bare catalogue of which would
cover a large space, I may allude to the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, the two most famous seats of learning in England, which were
established under Catholic auspices centuries before the Reformation.
The Church also founded three of the four universities now existing in
Scotland, viz: St. Andrew’s in 1411, Glasgow in 1450 and Aberdeen in 1494.
Without her we should be deprived to-day of the priceless treasures of
ancient literature; for, in preserving the languages of Greece and Rome
from destruction, she rescued classical writers of those countries from
oblivion. Hallam justly observes that, were it not for the diligent labors
of the monks in the Middle Ages, our knowledge of the history of ancient
Greece and Rome would be as vague today as our information regarding the
Pyramids of Egypt.
And as for works of art, there are more valuable monuments of art
contained in the single museum of the Vatican than are to be found in all
our country. Artists are obliged to go to Rome to consult their best
models. Our churches are not only temples of worship, but depositories of
sacred art. For our intellectual progress we are in no small measure
indebted to the much-abused Middle Ages. Tyndall has the candor to observe
that “The nineteenth century strikes its roots into the centuries gone by
and draws nutriment from them.”(110)
VI. Is it liberty that will destroy the Church? The Church breathes freely
and expands with giant growth, where true liberty is found. She is always
cramped in her operations wherever despotism casts its dark shadow.
Nowhere does she enjoy more independence than here; nowhere is she more
vigorous and more prosperous.
Children of the Church, fear nothing, happen what will to her. Christ is
with her and therefore she cannot sink. Cæsar, in crossing the Adriatic,
said to the troubled oarsman: “Quid times? Cæsarem vehis.” What Cæsar said
in presumption Jesus says with truth: What fearest thou? Christ is in the
ship. Are we not positive that the sun will rise tomorrow and next day,
and so on to the end of the world? Why? Because God so ordained when He
established it in the heavens; and because it has never failed to run its
course from the beginning. Has not Christ promised that the Church should
always enlighten the world? Has He not, so far, fulfilled His promise
concerning His Church? Has she not gone steadily on her course amid storm
and sunshine? The fulfilment of the past is the best security for the
future.
Amid the continual changes in human institutions she is the one
Institution that never changes. Amid the universal ruins of earthly
monuments she is the one monument that stands proudly pre-eminent. Not a
stone in this building falls to the ground. Amid the general destruction
of kingdoms her kingdom is never destroyed. Ever ancient and ever new,
time writes no wrinkles on her Divine brow.
The Church has seen the birth of every government of Europe, and it is not
at all improbable that she shall also witness the death of them all and
chant their requiem. She was more than fourteen hundred years old when
Columbus discovered our continent, and the foundation of our Republic is
but as yesterday to her.
She calmly looked on while the Goths and the Visigoths, the Huns and the
Saxons swept like a torrent over Europe, subverting dynasties. She has
seen monarchies changed into republics, and republics consolidated into
empires—all this has she witnessed, while her own Divine Constitution has
remained unaltered. Of Her we can truly say in the words of the Psalmist:
“They shall perish, but thou remainest; and all of them shall grow old as
a garment. And as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be
changed. But thou art always the self-same, and thy years shalt not fail.
The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be
directed forever.”(111) God forbid that we should ascribe to any human
cause this marvellous survival of the Church. Her indestructibility is not
due, as some suppose, to her wonderful organization, or to the
far-reaching policy of her Pontiffs, or to the learning and wisdom of her
teachers. If she has survived, it is not because of human wisdom, but
often in spite of human folly. Her permanence is due not to the arm of the
flesh, but to the finger of God.
In the brightest days of the Republic of Pagan Rome the Roman said with
pride: “I am a Roman citizen.” This was his noblest title. He was proud of
the Republic, because it was venerable in years, powerful in the number of
its citizens, and distinguished for the wisdom of its statesmen. What a
subject of greater glory to be a citizen of the Republic of the Church
which has lasted for nineteen centuries, and will continue till time shall
be no more; which counts her millions of children in every clime; which
numbers her heroes and her martyrs by the thousand; which associates you
with the Apostles and Saints. “You are no more strangers and foreigners,
but you are fellow-citizens with the Saints and the domestics of God,
built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ
Himself being the chief cornerstone.”(112) Though separated from earthly
relatives and parents, you need never be separated from her. She is ever
with us to comfort us. She says to us what her Divine Spouse said to His
Apostles: “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the
world.”(113)
Chapter VII.
INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH.
The Church has authority from God to teach regarding faith and morals, and
in her teaching she is preserved from error by the special guidance of the
Holy Ghost.
The prerogative of infallibility is clearly deduced from the attributes of
the Church already mentioned. The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic. Preaching the same creed everywhere and at all times; teaching
holiness and truth, she is, of course, essentially unerring in her
doctrine; for what is one, holy or unchangeable must be infallibly true.
That the Church was infallible in the Apostolic age is denied by no
Christian. We never question the truth of the Apostles’ declarations;(114)
they were, in fact, the only authority in the Church for the first
century. The New Testament was not completed till the close of the first
century. There is no just ground for denying to the Apostolic teachers of
the nineteenth century in which we live a prerogative clearly possessed by
those of the first, especially as the Divine Word nowhere intimates that
this unerring guidance was to die with the Apostles. On the contrary, as
the Apostles transmitted to their successors their power to preach, to
baptize, to ordain, to confirm, etc., they must also have handed down to
them the no less essential gift of infallibility.
God loves us as much as He loved the primitive Christians; Christ died for
us as well as for them and we have as much need of unerring teachers as
they had.
It will not suffice to tell me: “We have an infallible Scripture as a
substitute for an infallible apostolate of the first century,” for an
infallible book is of no use to me without an infallible interpreter, as
the history of Protestantism too clearly demonstrates.
But besides these presumptive arguments, we have positive evidence from
Scripture that the Church cannot err in her teachings. Our blessed Lord,
in constituting St. Peter Prince of His Apostles, says to him: “Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.”(115) Christ makes here a solemn prediction
that no error shall ever invade His Church, and if she fell into error the
gates of hell have certainly prevailed against her.
The Reformers of the sixteenth century affirm that the Church did fall
into error; that the gates of hell did prevail against her; that from the
sixth to the sixteenth century she was a sink of iniquity. The Book of
Homilies of the Church of England says that the Church “lay buried in
damnable idolatry for eight hundred years or more.” The personal veracity
of our Savior and of the Reformers is here at issue, for our Lord makes a
statement which they contradict. Who is to be believed, Jesus or the
Reformers?
If the prediction of our Savior about the preservation of His Church from
error be false, then Jesus Christ is not God, since God cannot lie. He is
not even a prophet, since He predicted falsehood. Nay, He is an impostor,
and all Christianity is a miserable failure and a huge deception, since it
rests on a false Prophet.
But if Jesus predicted the truth when He declared that the gates of hell
should not prevail against His Church—and who dare deny it?—then the
Church never has and never could have fallen from the truth; then the
Catholic Church is infallible, for she alone claims that prerogative, and
she is the only Church that is acknowledged to have existed from the
beginning. Truly is Jesus that wise Architect mentioned in the Gospel,
“who built his house upon a rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it
was founded upon a rock.”(116)
Jesus sends forth the Apostles with plenipotentiary powers to preach the
Gospel. “As the Father,” He says, “hath sent Me, I also send you.”(117)
“Going therefore, teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.”(118) “Preach the Gospel to every
creature.”(119) “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.”(120)
This commission evidently applies not to the Apostles only, but also to
their successors, to the end of time, since it was utterly impossible for
the Apostles personally to preach to the whole world.
Not only does our Lord empower His Apostles to preach the Gospel, but He
commands, and under the most severe penalties, those to whom they preach
to listen and obey. “Whosoever will not receive you, nor hear your words,
going forth from that house or city, shake the dust from your feet. Amen,
I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city.”(121) “If he will not
hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.”(122)
“He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be
condemned.”(123) “He that heareth you heareth Me; he that despiseth you
despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me.”(124)
From these passages we see, on the one hand, that the Apostles and their
successors have received full powers to announce the Gospel; and on the
other, that their hearers are obliged to listen with docility and to obey
not merely by an external compliance, but also by an internal assent of
the intellect. If, therefore, the Catholic Church could preach error,
would not God Himself be responsible for the error? And could not the
faithful soul say to God with all reverence and truth: Thou hast commanded
me, O Lord, to hear Thy Church; if I am deceived by obeying her, Thou art
the cause of my error?
But we may rest assured that an all-wise Providence who commands His
Church to speak in His name will so guide her in the path of truth that
she shall never lead into error those that follow her teachings.
But as this privilege of Infallibility was a very extraordinary favor, our
Savior confers it on the rulers of His Church in language which removes
all doubt from the sincere inquirer, and under circumstances which add to
the majesty of His word. Shortly before His death Jesus consoles His
disciples by this promise: “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you
another Paraclete, _that He may abide with you forever_.... But when He,
the Spirit of truth, shall come, _He will teach you all truth_.”(125)
The following text of the same import forms the concluding words recorded
of our Savior in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “All power is given to Me in heaven
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, ... teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am
with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”(126)
He begins by asserting His own Divine authority and mission. “All power is
given,” etc. That power He then delegates to His Apostles and to their
successors: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,” etc. He does not
instruct them to scatter Bibles broadcast over the earth, but to teach by
word of mouth. “And behold!” Our Savior never arrests the attention of His
hearers by using the interjection, _behold_, unless when He has something
unusually solemn and extraordinary to communicate. An important
announcement is sure to follow this word. “Behold, I am with you.” These
words, “_I am with you_,” are frequently addressed in Sacred Scripture by
the Almighty to His Prophets and Patriarchs, and they always imply a
special presence and a particular supervision of the Deity.(127) They
convey the same meaning in the present instance. Christ says equivalently
I who “am the way, the truth and the life,” will protect you from error
and will guide you in your speech. I will be with you, not merely during
_your_ natural lives, not for a century only, but all days, at all times,
without intermission, even to the end of the world.
These words of Jesus Christ establish two important facts: First—A promise
to guard His Church from error. Second—A promise that His presence with
the Church will be continuous, without any interval of absence, to the
consummation of the world.
And this is also the sentiment of the Apostle of the Gentiles writing to
the Ephesians: God “gave some indeed Apostles, and some Prophets, and some
Evangelists, and others Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the
Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of
Christ, until we all meet in the unity of faith, ... that we may no more
be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the wickedness of men, in craft, by which they lie in wait to
deceive.”(128)
Notwithstanding these plain declarations of Scripture, some persons think
it an unwarrantable assumption for the Church to claim infallibility. But
mark the consequences that follow from denying it.
If your church is not infallible it is liable to err, for there is no
medium between infallibility and liability to error. If your church and
her ministers are fallible in their doctrinal teachings, as they admit,
they may be preaching falsehood to you, instead of truth. If so, you are
in doubt whether you are listening to truth or falsehood. If you are in
doubt you can have no faith, for faith excludes doubt, and in that state
you displease God, for “without faith it is impossible to please
God.”(129) Faith and infallibility must go hand in hand. The one cannot
exist without the other. There can be no faith in the hearer unless there
is unerring authority in the speaker—an authority founded upon such
certain knowledge as precludes the possibility of falling into error on
his part, and including such unquestioned veracity as to prevent his
deceiving him who accepts his word.
You admit infallible certainty in the physical sciences; why should you
deny it in the science of salvation? The astronomer can predict with
accuracy a hundred years beforehand an eclipse of the sun or moon. He can
tell what point in the heavens a planet will reach on a given day. The
mariner, guided by his compass, knows, amid the raging storm and the
darkness of the night, that he is steering his course directly to the city
of his destination; and is not an infallible guide as necessary to conduct
you to the city of God in heaven? Is it not, moreover, a blessing and a
consolation that, amid the ever-changing views of men, amid the conflict
of human opinion and the tumultuous waves of human passion, there is one
voice heard above the din and uproar, crying in clear, unerring tones:
“Thus saith the Lord?”
It is very strange that the Catholic Church must apologize to the world
for simply declaring that she speaks the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth.
The Roman Pantheon was dedicated to all the gods of the Empire, and their
name was legion. Formidable also in numbers are the Founders of the
religious sects existing in our country. A Pantheon as vast as Westminster
Abbey would hardly be spacious enough to contain life-sized statues for
their accommodation.
If you were to confront those figures, and to ask them, one by one, to
give an account of the faith they had professed, and if they were endowed
with the gift of speech, you would find that no two of them were in entire
accord, but that they all differed among themselves on some fundamental
principle of revelation.
Would you not be acting very unwisely and be hazarding your soul’s
salvation in submitting to the teachings of so many discordant and
conflicting oracles.
Children of the Catholic Church, give thanks to God that you are members
of that Communion, which proclaims year after year the one same and
unalterable message of truth, peace and love, and that you are preserved
from all errors in faith, and from all illusion in the practice of virtue.
You are happily strangers to those interior conflicts, to those perplexing
doubts and to that frightful uncertainty which distracts the souls of
those whose private judgment is their only guide, who are “ever learning
and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth.”(130) You are not, like
others, drifting helplessly over the ocean of uncertainty and “carried
about by every wind of doctrine.” You are not as “blind men led by blind
guides.” You are not like those who are in the midst of a spiritual desert
intersected by various by-paths, not knowing which to pursue; but you are
on that high road spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, which is so “straight a
way that fools shall not err therein.”(131) You are a part of that
universal Communion which has no “High Church” and “Low Church;” no “New
School” and “Old School,” for you all belong to that School which is “ever
ancient and ever new.” You enjoy that profound peace and tranquillity
which springs from the conscious possession of the whole truth. Well may
you exclaim: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity.”(132)
Give thanks, moreover, to God that you belong to a Church which has also a
keen sense to detect and expose those moral shams, those pious frauds,
those socialistic schemes which are so often undertaken in this country
ostensibly in the name of religion and morality, but which, in reality,
are subversive of morality and order, which are the offspring of
fanaticism, and serve as a mask to hide the most debasing passions.
Neither Mormons nor Millerites, nor the advocates of free love or of
women’s rights, so called, find any recruits in the Catholic Church. She
will never suffer her children to be ensnared by these impostures, how
specious soever they may be.
From what has been said in the preceding pages, it follows that the
Catholic Church cannot be reformed. I do not mean, of course, that the
Pastors of the Church are personally impeccable or not subject to sin.
Every teacher in the Church, from the Pope down to the humblest Priest, is
liable at any moment, like any of the faithful, to fall from grace and to
stand in need of moral reformation. We all carry “this treasure (of
innocence) in earthen vessels.”
My meaning is that the Church is not susceptible of being reformed in her
doctrines. The Church is the work of an Incarnate God. Like all God’s
works, it is perfect. It is, therefore, incapable of reform. Is it not the
height of presumption for men to attempt to improve upon the work of God?
Is it not ridiculous for the Luthers, the Calvins, the Knoxes and the
Henries and a thousand lesser lights to be offering their amendments to
the Constitution of the Church, as if it were a human Institution?
Our Lord Himself has never ceased to rule personally over His Church. It
is time enough for little men to take charge of the Ship when the great
Captain abandons the helm.
A Protestant gentleman of very liberal education remarked to me, before
the opening of the late Ecumenical Council: “I am assured, sir, by a
friend, in confidence, that, at a secret Conclave of Bishops recently held
in Rome it was resolved that the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception would
be reconsidered and abolished at the approaching General Council; in fact,
that the definition was a mistake, and that the blunder of 1854 would be
repaired in 1869.” I told him, of course, that no such question could be
entertained in the Council; that the doctrinal decrees of the Church were
irrevocable, and that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined
once and forever.
If only one instance could be given in which the Church ceased to teach a
doctrine of faith which had been previously held, that single instance
would be the death blow of her claim to infallibility. But it is a
marvelous fact worthy of record that in the whole history of the Church,
from the nineteenth century to the first, no solitary example can be
adduced to show that any Pope or General Council ever revoked a decree of
faith or morals enacted by any preceding Pontiff or Council. Her record in
the past ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will tolerate no
doctrinal variations in the future.
If, as we have seen, the Church has authority from God to teach, and if
she teaches nothing but the truth, is it not the duty of all Christians to
hear her voice and obey her commands? She is the organ of the Holy Ghost.
She is the Representative of Jesus Christ, who has said to her: “He that
heareth you heareth Me; he that despiseth you despiseth Me.” She is the
Mistress of truth. It is the property of the human mind to embrace truth
wherever it finds it. It would, therefore, be not only an act of
irreverence, but of sheer folly, to disobey the voice of this
ever-truthful Mother.
If a citizen is bound to obey the laws of his country, though these laws
may not in all respects be conformable to strict justice; if a child is
bound by natural and divine law to obey his mother, though she may
sometimes err in her judgments, how much more strictly are not we obliged
to be docile to the teachings of the Catholic Church, our Mother, whose
admonitions are always just, whose precepts are immutable!
“For twenty years,” observed a recently converted Minister of the
Protestant Church, “I fought and struggled against the Church with all the
energy of my will. But when I became a Catholic all my doubts ended, my
inquiries ceased. I became as a little child, and rushed like a lisping
babe into the arms of my mother.” By Baptism Christians become children of
the Church, no matter who pours upon them the regenerating waters. If she
is our Mother, where is our love and obedience? When the infant seeks
nourishment at its mother’s breast it does not analyze its food. When it
receives instructions from its mother’s lips it never doubts, but
instinctively believes. When the mother stretches forth her hand the child
follows unhesitatingly. The Christian should have for his spiritual Mother
all the simplicity, all the credulity, I might say, of a child, guided by
the instincts of faith. “Unless ye become,” says our Lord, “as little
children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”(133) “As
new-born babes, desire the rational milk without guile; that thereby you
may grow unto salvation.”(134) In her nourishment there is no poison; in
her doctrines there is no guile.
Chapter VIII.
THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.
The Church, as we have just seen, is the only Divinely constituted teacher
of Revelation.
Now, the Scripture is the great depository of the Word of God. Therefore,
the Church is the divinely appointed Custodian and Interpreter of the
Bible. For, her office of infallible Guide were superfluous if each
individual could interpret the Bible for himself.
That God never intended the Bible to be the Christian’s rule of faith,
independently of the living authority of the Church, will be the subject
of this chapter.
No nation ever had a greater veneration for the Bible than the Jewish
people. The Holy Scripture was their pride and their glory. It was their
national song in time of peace; it was their meditation and solace in time
of tribulation and exile. And yet the Jews never dreamed of settling their
religious controversies by a private appeal to the Word of God.
Whenever any religious dispute arose among the people it was decided by
the High Priest and the Sanhedrim, which was a council consisting of
seventy-two civil and ecclesiastical judges. The sentence of the High
Priest and of his associate judges was to be obeyed under penalty of
death. “If thou perceive,” says the Book of Deuteronomy, “that there be
among you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment, ... thou shalt come to
the Priests of the Levitical race and to the judge, ... and they shall
show thee the truth of the judgment.... And thou shalt follow their
sentence; neither shalt thou decline to the right hand, nor to the
left.... But he that will ... refuse to obey the commandment of the
Priest, ... that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from
Israel.”(135)
From this clear sentence you perceive that God does not refer the Jews for
the settlement of their controversies to the letter of the law, but to the
living authority of the ecclesiastical tribunal which He had expressly
established for that purpose.
Hence, the Priests were required to be intimately acquainted with the
Sacred Scripture, because they were the depositaries of God’s law, and
were its expounders to the people. “The lips of the Priest shall keep
knowledge, and they (the people) shall seek the law at his mouth, because
he is the angel (or messenger) of the Lord of hosts.”(136)
And, in fact, very few of the children of Israel, except the Priests, were
in possession of the Divine Books. The holy manuscript was rare and
precious. And what provision did God make that all the people might have
an opportunity of hearing the Scriptures? Did He command the sacred volume
to be multiplied? No; but He ordered the _Priests_ and the _Levites_ to be
distributed through the different tribes, that they might always be at
hand to instruct the people in the knowledge of the law. The Jews were
even forbidden to read certain portions of the Scripture till they had
reached the age of thirty years.
Does our Savior reverse this state of things when He comes on earth? Does
He tell the Jews to be their own guides in the study of the Scriptures? By
no means; but He commands them to obey their constituted teachers, no
matter how disedifying might be their private lives. “Then said Jesus to
the multitudes and to His disciples: The Scribes and Pharisees sit upon
the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you,
observe and do.”(137)
It is true our Lord said on one occasion “Search the Scriptures, for you
_think_ in them to have life everlasting, and the same are they that give
testimony to Me.”(138) This passage is triumphantly quoted as an argument
in favor of private interpretation. But it proves nothing of the kind.
Many learned commentators, ancient and modern, express the verb in the
indicative mood: “Ye search the Scriptures.” At all events, our Savior
speaks here only of the Old Testament because the New Testament was not
yet written. He addresses not the multitude, but the Pharisees, who were
the teachers of the law, and reproaches them for not admitting His
Divinity. “You have,” He says, “the Scriptures in your hands; why then do
you not recognize Me as the Messiah, since they give testimony that I am
the Son of God?” He refers them to the Scriptures for a proof of His
Divinity, not as to a source from which they were to derive all knowledge
in regard to the truths of revelation.
Besides, He did not rest the proof of His Divinity upon the _sole_
testimony of Scripture. For He showed it First—By the testimony of John
the Baptist (v. 33), who had said, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who
taketh away the sins of the world.” See also John i. 34.
Second—By the miracles which He wrought (v. 36).
Third—By the testimony of the Father (v. 37), when He said: “This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Matt. iii. 16; Luke
ix. 35.
Fourth—By the Scriptures of the Old Testament; as if He were to say, “If
you are unwilling to receive these three proofs, though they are most
cogent, at least you cannot reject the testimony of the Scriptures, of
which you boast so much.”
Finally, in this very passage our Lord is explaining the sense of Holy
Writ; therefore, its true meaning is not left to the private
interpretation of every chance reader. It is, therefore, a grave
perversion of the sacred text to adduce these words in vindication of
private interpretation of the Scriptures.
But when our Redeemer abolished the Old Law and established His Church,
did He intend that His Gospel should be disseminated by the circulation of
the Bible, or by the living voice of His disciples? This is a vital
question. I answer most emphatically, that it was by preaching alone that
He intended to convert the nations, and by preaching alone they were
converted. No nation has ever yet been converted by the agency of Bible
Associations.
Jesus Himself never wrote a line of Scripture. He never once commanded His
Apostles to write a word,(139) or even to circulate the Scriptures already
existing. When He sends them on their Apostolic errand, He says: “Go
_teach_ all nations.”(140) “_Preach_ the Gospel to every creature.”(141)
“He that heareth you heareth Me.”(142) And we find the Apostles acting in
strict accordance with these instructions.
Of the twelve Apostles, the seventy-two disciples, and early followers of
our Lord only eight have left us any of their sacred writings. And the
Gospels and Epistles were addressed to particular persons or particular
churches. They were written on the occasion of some emergency, just as
Bishops issue Pastoral letters to correct abuses which may spring up in
the Church, or to lay down some rules of conduct for the faithful. The
Apostles are never reported to have circulated a single volume of the Holy
Scripture, but “they going forth, _preached_ everywhere, the Lord
co-operating with them.”(143)
Thus we see that in the Old and the New Dispensation the people were to be
guided by a living authority, and not by their private interpretation of
the Scriptures.
Indeed, until the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, it was a
thing unheard of from the beginning of the world, that people should be
governed by the dead letter of the law either in civil or ecclesiastical
affairs. How are your civil affairs regulated in this State, for instance?
Certainly not in accordance with your personal interpretation of the laws
of Virginia, but in accordance with decisions which are rendered by the
constituted judges of the State.
Now what the civil code is to the citizen, the Scripture is to the
Christian. The Word of God, as well as the civil law, must have an
interpreter, by whose decision we are obliged to abide.
We often hear the shibboleth: “The Bible, and the Bible only, must be your
guide.” Why, then, do you go to the useless expense of building fine
churches and Sabbath-schools? What is the use of your preaching sermons
and catechizing the young, if the Bible at home is a sufficient guide for
your people? The fact is, you reverend gentlemen contradict in practice
what you so vehemently advance in theory. Do not tell me that the Bible is
all-sufficient; or, if you believe it is self-sufficient, cease your
instructions. Stand not between the people and the Scriptures.
I will address myself now in a friendly spirit to a non-Catholic, and will
proceed to show him that he cannot consistently accept the silent Book of
Scripture as his sufficient guide.
A copy of the sacred volume is handed to you by your minister, who says:
“Take this book; you will find it all-sufficient for your salvation.” But
here a serious difficulty awaits you at the very threshold of your
investigations. What assurance have you that the book he hands you is the
_inspired_ Word of God; for every part of the Bible is far from possessing
intrinsic evidences of inspiration? It may, for ought you know, contain
more than the Word of God, or it may not contain all the Word of God. We
must not suppose that the Bible was always, as it is now, a compact book,
bound in a neat form. It was for several centuries in scattered fragments,
spread over different parts of Christendom. Meanwhile, many spurious
books, under the name of Scripture, were circulated among the faithful.
There was, for instance, the spurious Gospel of St. Peter; there was also
the Gospel of St. James and of St. Matthias.
The Catholic Church, in the plenitude of her authority, in the third
Council of Carthage, (A. D. 397,) separated the chaff from the wheat, and
declared what Books were Canonical, and what were apocryphal. Even to this
day the Christian sects do not agree among themselves as to what books are
to be accepted as genuine. Some Christians of continental Europe do not
recognize the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke because these Evangelists
were not among the Apostles. Luther used to call the Epistle of St. James
a letter of straw.
But even when you are assured that the Bible contains the Word of God, and
nothing but the Word of God, how do you know that the translation is
faithful? The Books of Scripture were originally written in Hebrew and
Greek, and you have only the translation. Before you are certain that the
translation is faithful you must study the Hebrew and Greek languages, and
then compare the translation with the original. How few are capable of
this gigantic undertaking!
Indeed, when you accept the Bible as the Word of God, you are obliged to
receive it on the authority of the Catholic Church, who was the sole
Guardian of the Scriptures for fifteen hundred years.
But after having ascertained to your satisfaction that the translation is
faithful, still the Scriptures can never serve as a complete Rule of Faith
and a complete guide to heaven independently of an authorized, living
interpreter.
A competent guide, such as our Lord intended for us, must have three
characteristics. It must be within the reach of everyone; it must be clear
and intelligible; it must be able to satisfy us on all questions relating
to faith and morals.
First—A complete guide of salvation must be within the reach of every
inquirer after truth; for, God “wishes all men to be saved, and to come to
the knowledge of the truth;”(144) and therefore He must have placed within
the reach of everyone the means of arriving at the truth. Now, it is clear
that the Scriptures could not at any period have been accessible to
everyone.
They could not have been accessible _to the primitive Christians_, because
they were not all written for a long time after the establishment of
Christianity. The Christian religion was founded in the year 33. St.
Matthew’s Gospel, the first part of the New Testament ever written, did
not appear till eight years after. The Church was established about twenty
years when St. Luke wrote his Gospel. And St. John’s Gospel did not come
to light till toward the end of the first century. For many years after
the Gospels and Epistles were written the knowledge of them was confined
to the churches to which they were addressed. It was not till the close of
the fourth century that the Church framed her Canon of Scripture and
declared the Bible, as we now possess it, to be the genuine Word of God.
And this was the golden age of Christianity! The most perfect Christians
lived and died and went to heaven before the most important parts of the
Scriptures were written. And what would have become of them if the Bible
alone had been their guide?
The art of printing was not invented till the fifteenth century (1440).
How utterly impossible it was to supply everyone with a copy of the
Scriptures _from the fourth to the fifteenth century_! During that long
period Bibles had to be copied with the pen. There were but a few hundred
of them in the Christian world, and these were in the hands of the clergy
and the learned. “According to the Protestant system, the art of printing
would have been much more necessary to the Apostles than the gift of
tongues. It was well for Luther that he did not come into the world until
a century after the immortal invention of Guttenberg. A hundred years
earlier his idea of directing two hundred and fifty million men to read
the Bible would have been received with shouts of laughter, and would
inevitably have caused his removal from the pulpit of Wittenberg to a
hospital for the insane.”(145)
And even _at the present day_, with all the aid of steam printing presses,
with all the Bible Associations extending through this country and
England, and supported at enormous expense, it taxes all their energies to
supply every missionary country with Bibles printed in the languages of
the tribes and peoples for whom they are intended.
But even if the Bible were at all times accessible to everyone, how many
millions exist in every age and country, not excepting our own age of
boasted enlightenment, who are not accessible to the Bible because they
are incapable of reading the Word of God! Hence, the doctrine of private
interpretation would render many men’s salvation not only difficult, but
impossible.
Second—A competent religious guide must be clear and intelligible to all,
so that everyone may fully understand the true meaning of the instructions
it contains. Is the Bible a book intelligible to all? Far from it; it is
full of obscurities and difficulties not only for the illiterate, but even
for the learned. St. Peter himself informs us that in the Epistles of St.
Paul there are “certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned
and the unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own
destruction.”(146) And consequently he tells us elsewhere “that no
prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation.”(147)
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that a certain man was riding in his
chariot, reading the Book of Isaiah, and being asked by St. Philip whether
he understood the meaning of the prophecy he replied: “How can I
understand unless some man show me?”(148) admitting, by these modest
words, that he did not pretend of himself to interpret the Scriptures.
The Fathers of the Church, though many of them spent their whole lives in
the study of the Scriptures, are unanimous in pronouncing the Bible a book
full of knotty difficulties. And yet we find in our days pedants, with a
mere smattering of Biblical knowledge, who see no obscurity at all in the
Word of God, and who presume to expound it from Genesis to Revelation.
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
Does not the conduct of the Reformers conclusively show the utter folly of
interpreting the Scriptures by private judgment? As soon as they rejected
the oracle of the Church, and set up their own private judgment as the
highest standard of authority, they could hardly agree among themselves on
the meaning of a single important text. The Bible became in their hands a
complete Babel. The sons of Noe attempted in their pride to ascend to
heaven by building the tower of Babel, and their scheme ended in the
confusion and multiplication of tongues. The children of the Reformation
endeavored in their conceit to lead men to heaven by the private
interpretation of the Bible, and their efforts led to the confusion and
the multiplication of religions. Let me give you one example out of a
thousand. These words of the Gospel, “This is My Body,” were understood
only in one sense before the Reformation. The new lights of the sixteenth
century gave no fewer than eighty different meanings to these four simple
words, and since their time the number of interpretations has increased to
over a hundred.
No one will deny that in our days there exists a vast multitude of sects,
which are daily multiplying. No one will deny(149) that this multiplying
of creeds is a crying scandal, and a great stumbling-block in the way of
the conversion of heathen nations. No one can deny that these divisions in
the Christian family are traceable to the assumption of the right of
private judgment. Every new-fledged divine, with a superficial education,
imagines that he has received a call from heaven to inaugurate a new
religion, and he is ambitious of handing down his fame to posterity by
stamping his name on a new sect. And every one of these champions of
modern creeds appeals to the unchanging Bible in support of his
ever-changing doctrines.
Thus, one body of Christians will prove from the Bible that there is but
one Person in God, while the rest will prove from the same source that a
Trinity of Persons is a clear article of Divine Revelation. One will prove
from the Holy Book that Jesus Christ is not God. Others will appeal to the
same text to attest His Divinity. One denomination will assert on the
authority of Scripture that infant baptism is not necessary for salvation,
while others will hold that it is. Some Christians, with Bible in hand,
will teach that there are no sacraments. Others will say that there are
only two. Some will declare that the inspired Word does not preach the
eternity of punishments. Others will say that the Bible distinctly
vindicates that dogma. Do not clergymen appear every day in the pulpit,
and on the authority of the Book of Revelation point out to us with
painful accuracy the year and the day on which this world is to come to an
end? And when their prophecy fails of execution they coolly put off our
destruction to another time.
Very recently several hundred Mormon women presented a petition to the
government at Washington protesting against any interference with their
abominable polygamy and they insist that their cherished system is
sustained by the Word of God.
Such is the legitimate fruit of private interpretation! Our civil
government is run not by private judgment, but by the constituted
authorities. No one in his senses would allow our laws to be interpreted,
and war to be declared by sensational journals, or by any private
individuals. Why not apply the same principle to the interpretation of the
Bible and the government of the Church?
Would it not be extremely hazardous to make a long voyage in a ship in
which the officers and crew are fiercely contending among themselves about
the manner of explaining the compass and of steering their course? How
much more dangerous is it to trust to contending captains in the journey
to heaven! Nothing short of an infallible authority should satisfy you
when it is a question of steering your course to eternity. On this vital
point there should be no conflict of opinion among those that guide you.
There should be no conjecture. But there must be always someone at the
helm whose voice gives assurance amid the fiercest storms that _all is
well_.
Third—A rule of faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to
instruct in all the truths necessary for salvation. Now the Scriptures
alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe,
nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to
practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to
sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work?
Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred
duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you
will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The
Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we
never sanctify.
The Catholic Church correctly teaches that our Lord and His Apostles
inculcated certain important duties of religion which are not recorded by
the inspired writers.(150) For instance, most Christians pray to the Holy
Ghost, a practice which is nowhere found in the Bible.
We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures _alone_ cannot be a
sufficient guide and rule of faith because they cannot, at any time, be
within the reach of every inquirer; because they are not of themselves
clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance, and
because they do not contain all the truths necessary for salvation.
God forbid that any of my readers should be tempted to conclude from what
I have said that the Catholic Church is opposed to the reading of the
Scriptures, or that she is the enemy of the Bible. The Catholic Church the
enemy of the Bible! Good God! What monstrous ingratitude! What base
calumny is contained in that assertion! As well might you accuse the
Virgin Mother of trying to crush the Infant Savior at her breast as to
accuse the Church, our Mother, of attempting to crush out of existence the
Word of God. As well might you charge the patriotic statesman with
attempting to destroy the constitution of his country, while he strove to
protect it from being mutilated by unprincipled demagogues.
For fifteen centuries the Church was the sole guardian and depository of
the Bible, and if she really feared that sacred Book, who was to prevent
her, during that long period, from tearing it in shreds and scattering it
to the winds? She could have thrown it into the sea, as the unnatural
mother would have thrown away her off-spring, and who would have been the
wiser?
What has become of those millions of once famous books written in past
ages? They have nearly all perished. But amid this wreck of ancient
literature, the Bible stands almost a solitary monument like the Pyramids
of Egypt amid the surrounding wastes. That venerable Volume has survived
the wars and revolutions and the barbaric invasions of fifteen centuries.
Who rescued it from destruction? The Catholic Church. Without her
fostering care the New Testament would probably be as little known today
as “the Book of the days of the kings of Israel.”(151)
Little do we imagine, in our age of steam printing, how much labor it cost
the Church to preserve and perpetuate the Sacred Scriptures. Learned
monks, who are now abused in their graves by thoughtless men, were
constantly employed in copying with the pen the Holy Bible. When one monk
died at his post another took his place, watching like a faithful sentinel
over the treasure of God’s Word.
Let me give you a few plain facts to show the pains which the Church has
taken to perpetuate the Scriptures.
The Canon of the Bible, as we have seen, was framed in the fourth century.
In that same century Pope Damasus commanded a new and complete translation
of the Scriptures to be made into the Latin language, which was then the
living tongue not only of Rome and Italy, but of the civilized world.
If the Popes were afraid that the Bible should see the light, this was a
singular way of manifesting their fear.
The task of preparing a new edition of the Scriptures was assigned to St.
Jerome, the most learned Hebrew scholar of his time. This new translation
was disseminated throughout Christendom, and on that account was called
the _Vulgate_, or popular edition.
In the sixth and seventh centuries the modern languages of Europe began to
spring up like so many shoots from the parent Latin stock. The Scriptures,
also, soon found their way into these languages. The Venerable Bede, who
lived in England in the eighth century, and whose name is profoundly
reverenced in that country, translated the Sacred Scriptures into Saxon,
which was then the language of England. He died while dictating the last
verses of St. John’s Gospel.
Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a funeral discourse on Queen
Anne, consort of Richard II., pronounced in 1394, praises her for her
diligence in reading the four Gospels. The Head of the Church of England
could not condemn in others what he commended in the queen.
Sir Thomas More affirms that, before the days of Wycliffe, there was an
English version of the Scriptures, “by good and godly people with devotion
and soberness well and reverently read.”(152)
If partial restrictions began to be placed on the circulation of the Bible
in England in the fifteenth century, these restrictions were occasioned by
the conduct of Wycliffe and his followers, who not only issued a new
translation, on which they engrafted their novelties of doctrine, but also
sought to explain the sacred text in a sense foreign to the received
interpretation of tradition.
While laboring to diffuse the Word of God it is the duty, as well as the
right of the Church, as the guardian of faith, to see that the faithful
are not misled by unsound editions.
Printing was invented in the fifteenth century, and almost a hundred years
later came the Reformation. It is often triumphantly said, and I suppose
there are some who, even at the present day, are ignorant enough to
believe the assertion, that the first edition of the Bible ever published
after the invention of printing was the edition of Martin Luther. The fact
is, that before Luther put his pen to paper, no fewer than fifty-six
editions of the Scriptures had appeared on the continent of Europe, not to
speak of those printed in Great Britain. Of those editions, twenty-one
were published in German, one in Spanish, four in French, twenty-one in
Italian, five in Flemish and four in Bohemian.
Coming down to our own times, if you open an English Catholic Bible you
will find in the preface a letter of Pope Pius VI., in which he strongly
recommends the pious reading of the Holy Scriptures. A Pope’s letter is
the most weighty authority in the Church. You will also find in Haydock’s
Bible the letters of the Bishops of the United States, in which they
express the hope that this splendid edition would have a wide circulation
among their flocks.
These facts ought, I think, to convince every candid mind that the Church,
far from being opposed to the reading of the Scriptures, does all she can
to encourage their perusal.
A gentleman of North Carolina lately informed me that the first time he
entered a Catholic bookstore he was surprised at witnessing on the shelves
an imposing array of Bibles for sale. Up to that moment he had believed
the unfounded charge that Catholics were forbidden to read the Scriptures.
He has since embraced the Catholic faith.
And perhaps I may be permitted here to record my personal experiences
during a long course of study. I speak of myself, not because my case is
exceptional, but, on the contrary, because my example will serve to
illustrate the system pursued toward ecclesiastical students in all
colleges throughout the Catholic world in reference to the Holy
Scriptures.
In our course of Humanities we listened every day to the reading of the
Bible. When we were advanced to the higher branches of Philosophy and
Theology the study of the Sacred Scriptures formed an important part of
our education. We read, besides, every day a chapter of the New Testament,
not standing or sitting, but on our knees, and then reverently kissed the
inspired page. We listened at our meals each day to selections from the
Bible, and we always carried about with us a copy of the New Testament.
So familiar, indeed, were the students with the sacred Volume that many of
them, on listening to a few verses, could tell from what portion of the
Scriptures you were reading. The only dread we were taught to have of the
Scriptures was that of reading them without fear and reverence.
And after his ordination every Priest is obliged in conscience to devote
upwards of an hour each day to the perusal of the Word of God. I am not
aware that clergymen of other denominations are bound by the same duty.
What is good for the clergy must be good, also, for the laity. Be assured
that if you become a Catholic you will never be forbidden to read the
Bible. It is our earnest wish that every word of the Gospel may be
imprinted on your memory and on your heart.
Chapter IX.
THE PRIMACY OF PETER.
The Catholic Church teaches also, that our Lord conferred on St. Peter the
first place of honor and jurisdiction in the government of His whole
Church, and that the same spiritual supremacy has always resided in the
Popes, or Bishops of Rome, as being the successors of St. Peter.
Consequently, to be true followers of Christ all Christians, both among
the clergy and the laity, must be in communion with the See of Rome, where
Peter rules in the person of his successor.
Before coming to any direct proofs on this subject I may state that, in
the Old Law, the High Priest appointed by Almighty God filled an office
analogous to that of Pope in the New Law. In the Jewish Church there were
Priests and Levites ordained to minister at the altar; and there was,
also, a supreme ecclesiastical tribunal, with the High Priest at its head.
All matters of religious controversy were referred to this tribunal and in
the last resort to the High Priest, whose decision was enforced under pain
of death. “If there be a hard matter in judgment between blood and blood,
cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, ... thou shalt come to the Priests
of the Levitical race and to the judge, ... and they shall show thee true
judgment. And thou shalt do whatever they say who preside in the place
which the Lord shall choose, and thou shalt follow their sentence. And
thou shalt not decline to the right hand, or to the left.... But he that
... will refuse to obey the commandment of the Priest, who ministereth at
the time, ... that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from
Israel.”(153)
From this passage it is evident that in the Hebrew Church the High Priest
had the highest jurisdiction in religious matters. By this means unity of
faith and worship was preserved among the people of God.
Now the Jewish synagogue, as St. Paul testifies, was the type and figure
of the Christian Church; for “all these things happened to them (the Jews)
in figure.”(154) We must, therefore, find in the Church of Christ a
spiritual judge, exercising the same supreme authority as the High Priest
wielded in the Old Law. For if a supreme Pontiff was necessary, in the
Mosaic dispensation, to maintain purity and uniformity of worship, the
same dignitary is equally necessary now to preserve unity of faith.
Every well-regulated civil government has an acknowledged head. The
President is the head of the United States Government. Queen Victoria is
the ruler of Great Britain. The Sultan sways the Turkish Empire. If these
nations had no authorized leader to govern them they would be reduced to
the condition of a mere mob, and anarchy, confusion and civil war would
inevitably follow, as recently happened to France after the fall of
Napoleon III.
Even in every well-ordered family, domestic peace requires that someone
preside.
Now, the Church of Christ is a visible society—that is, a society composed
of human beings. She has, it is true, a spiritual end in view; but having
to deal with men, she must have a government as well as every other
organized society. This government, at least in its essential elements,
our Lord must have established for His Church. For was He not as wise as
human legislators? And shall we suppose that, of all lawgivers, the Wisdom
Incarnate alone left His Kingdom on earth to be governed without a head?
But someone will tell me: “We do not deny that the Church has a head. God
himself is its Ruler.” This is evading the real question. Is not God the
Ruler of all governments? “By Me,” He says, “kings reign, and lawgivers
decree just things.”(155) He is the recognized Head of our Republic, and
of every Christian family in the land; but, nevertheless, there is always
presiding over the country a visible chief, who represents God on earth.
In like manner the Church, besides an invisible Head in heaven, must have
a visible head on earth. The body and members of the Church are visible;
why not also the Head? The Church without a supreme Ruler would be like an
army without a general, a navy without an admiral, a sheep-fold without a
shepherd, or like a human body without a head.
The Christian communities separated from the Catholic Church deny that
Peter received any authority over the other Apostles, and hence they
reject the supremacy of the Pope.
The absence from the Protestant communions of a Divinely appointed,
visible Head is to them an endless source of weakness and dissension. It
is an insuperable barrier against any hope of a permanent reunion among
themselves, because they are left without a common rallying centre or
basis of union and are placed in an unhappy state of schism.
The existence, on the contrary, of a supreme judge of controversy in the
Catholic Church is the secret of her admirable unity. This is the keystone
that binds together and strengthens the imperishable arch of faith.
From the very fact, then, of the existence of a supreme Head in the Jewish
Church; from the fact that a Head is always necessary for civil
government, for families and corporations; from the fact, especially, that
a visible Head is essential to the maintenance of unity in the Church,
while the absence of a Head necessarily leads to anarchy, we are forced to
conclude, even though positive evidence were wanting, that, in the
establishment of His Church, it must have entered into the mind of the
Divine Lawgiver to place over it a primate invested with superior judicial
powers.
But have we any positive proof that Christ did appoint a supreme Ruler
over His Church? To those, indeed, who read the Scriptures with the single
eye of pure intention the most abundant evidence of this fact is
furnished. To my mind the New Testament establishes no doctrine, unless it
satisfies every candid reader that our Lord gave plenipotentiary powers to
Peter to govern the whole Church. In this chapter I shall speak of the
Promise, the Institution, and the exercise of Peter’s Primacy, as recorded
in the New Testament. The next chapter shall be devoted to its perpetuity
in the Popes.
_Promise of the Primacy._ Our Saviour, on a certain occasion, asked His
disciples, saying: “Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said:
Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; and others, Elias; and others,
Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets. Jesus saith to them: But whom do ye say
that I am?” Peter, as usual, is the leader and spokesman. “Simon Peter
answering, said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answering said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I
say to thee: that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed also heaven.”(156) Here we find Peter
confessing the Divinity of Christ, and in reward for that confession he is
honored with the promise of the Primacy.
Our Savior, by the words “thou art Peter,” clearly alludes to the new name
which He Himself had conferred upon Simon, when He received him into the
number of His followers (John i. 42); and He now reveals the reason for
the change of name, which was to insinuate the honor He was to confer on
him, by appointing him President of the Christian Republic; just as God,
in the Old Law, changed Abram’s name to Abraham, when He chose him to be
the father of a mighty nation.
The word _Peter_, in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue, which our Savior spoke,
means _a rock_. The sentence runs thus in that language: _“__Thou art a
rock, and on this rock I will build My Church.__”_ Indeed, all respectable
Protestant commentators have now abandoned, and even ridicule, the
absurdity of applying the word _rock_ to anyone but to Peter; as the
sentence can bear no other construction, unless our Lord’s good grammar
and common sense are called in question.
Jesus, our Lord, founded but one Church, which He was pleased to build on
Peter. Therefore, any church that does not recognize Peter as its
foundation stone is not the Church of Christ, and therefore cannot stand,
for it is not the work of God. This is plain. Would to God that all would
see it aright and with eyes free from prejudice.
He continues: “And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,”
etc. In ancient times, and particularly among the Hebrew people, keys were
an emblem of jurisdiction. To affirm that a man had received the keys of a
city was equivalent to the assertion that he had been appointed its
governor. In the Book of Revelation our Savior says that He has “the keys
of death and of hell,”(157) which means that He is endowed with power over
death and hell. In fact, even to this day does not the presentation of
keys convey among ourselves the idea of authority? If the proprietor of a
house, on leaving it for the summer, says to any friend: “Here are the
keys of my house,” would not this simple declaration, without a word of
explanation, convey the idea, “I give you full control of my house; you
may admit or exclude whom you please; you represent me in my absence?” Let
us now apply this interpretation to our Redeemer’s words. When He says to
Peter: “I will give to thee the keys,” etc., He evidently means: I will
give the supreme authority over My Church, which is the citadel of faith,
My earthly Jerusalem. Thou and thy successors shall be My visible
representatives to the end of time. And be it remembered that to Peter
alone, and to no other Apostle, were these solemn words addressed.
_Fulfillment of the Promise._ The promise which our Redeemer made of
creating Peter the supreme ruler of His Church is fulfilled in the
following passage: “Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon, son of John, lovest
thou Me more than these? He saith to Him: Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I
love Thee. He saith to him: Feed My lambs. He saith to him again: Simon,
son of John, lovest thou Me? He saith to Him: Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that
I love Thee. He saith to him: Feed My lambs. He saith to him the third
time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He had
said to him the third time: Lovest thou Me? And he said to Him: Lord, Thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. He said to him: Feed My
sheep.”(158)
These words were addressed by our Lord to Peter after His resurrection.
The whole sheep-fold of Christ is confided to him, without any exception
or limitation. Peter has jurisdiction not only over the lambs—the weak and
tender portion of the flock—by which are understood the faithful; but also
over the sheep, _i.e._, the Pastors themselves, who hold the same
relations to their congregations that the sheep hold to the lambs, because
they bring forth unto Jesus Christ, and nourish the spiritual lambs of the
fold. To other Pastors a certain portion of the flock is assigned; to
Peter the entire fold; for, never did Jesus say to any other Apostle or
Bishop what He said to Peter: Feed My whole flock.
Candid reader, do you not profess to be a member of Christ’s flock? Yes,
you answer. Do you take your spiritual food from Peter and his successor,
and do you hear the voice of Peter, or have you wandered into the fold of
strangers who spurn Peter’s voice? Ponder well this momentous question.
For if Peter is authorized to feed the lambs of Christ’s flock, the lambs
should hear Peter’s voice.
_Exercise of the Primacy._ In the Acts of the Apostles, which contain
almost the only Scripture narrative that exists of the Apostles subsequent
to our Lord’s ascension, St. Peter appears before us, like Saul among the
tribes, standing head and shoulders over his brethren by the prominent
part he takes in every ministerial duty.
The first twelve chapters of the Acts are devoted to Peter and to some of
the other Apostles, the remaining chapters being chiefly occupied with the
labors of the Apostles of the Gentiles. In that brief historical fragment,
as well as in the Gospels, the name of Peter is everywhere pre-eminent.
Peter’s name always stands first in the list of the Apostles, while Judas
Iscariot is invariably mentioned last.(159) Peter is even called by St.
Matthew _the first Apostle_. Now Peter was first neither in age nor in
priority of election, his elder brother Andrew having been chosen before
him. The meaning, therefore, of the expression must be that Peter was
first not only in rank and honor, but also in authority.
Peter is the first Apostle who performed a miracle.(160) He is the first
to address the Jews in Jerusalem while his Apostolic brethren stand
respectfully around him, upon which occasion he converts three thousand
souls.(161)
Peter is the first to make converts from the Gentile world in the persons
of Cornelius and his friends.(162)
When there is question of electing a successor to Judas Peter _alone
speaks_. He points out to the Apostles and disciples the duty of choosing
another to succeed the traitor. The Apostles silently acquiesce in the
instructions of their leader.(163)
In the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem Peter is the first whose sentiments
are recorded. Before his discourse “there was much disputing.” But when he
had ceased to speak “all the multitude held their peace.”(164)
St. James and the other Apostles concur in the sentiments of Peter without
a single dissenting voice.
St. James is cast into prison by Herod and afterward beheaded. He was one
of the three most favored Apostles. He was the cousin of our Lord and
brother of St. John. He was most dear to the faithful. Yet no
extraordinary efforts are made by the faithful to rescue him from death.
Peter is imprisoned about the same time. The whole Church is aroused.
Prayers for his deliverance ascend to heaven, not only from Jerusalem but
also from every Christian family in the land.(165)
The army of the Lord can afford to lose a chieftain in the person of
James, but it cannot yet spare the commander-in-chief. The enemies of the
Church had hoped that the destruction of the chief shepherd would involve
the dispersion of the whole flock; therefore they redoubled their fury
against the Prince of the Apostles, just as her modern enemies concentrate
their shafts against the Pope, his successor. Does not this incident
eloquently proclaim Peter’s superior authority? In fact Peter figures so
conspicuously in every page that his Primacy is not only admissible, but
is forced on the judgment of the impartial reader.
What are the principal objections advanced against the Primacy of Peter?
They are chiefly, I may say exclusively, confined to the three following:
First—That our Lord rebuked Peter. Second—That St. Paul criticised his
conduct on a point not affecting doctrine, but discipline. The Apostle of
the Gentiles blames St. Peter because he withdrew for a time from the
society of the Gentile converts, for fear of scandalizing the
newly-converted Jews.(166) Third—That the supremacy of Peter conflicts
with the supreme dominion of Christ.
For my part I cannot see how these objections can invalidate the claims of
Peter. Was not Jesus Peter’s superior? May not a superior rebuke his
servant without infringing on the servant’s prerogatives?
And why could not St. Paul censure the conduct of St. Peter without
questioning that superior’s authority? It is not a very uncommon thing for
ecclesiastics occupying an inferior position in the Church to admonish
even the Pope. St. Bernard, though only a monk, wrote a work in which,
with Apostolic freedom, he administers counsel to Pope Eugenius III., and
cautions him against the dangers to which his eminent position exposes
him. Yet no man had more reverence for any Pope than Bernard had for this
great Pontiff. Cannot our Governor animadvert upon the President’s conduct
without impairing the President’s jurisdiction?
Nay, from this very circumstance, I draw a confirming evidence of Peter’s
supremacy. St. Paul mentions it as a fact worthy of record that he
actually _withstood Peter to his face_. Do you think it would be worth
recording if Paul had rebuked James or John or Barnabas? By no means. If
one brother rebukes another, the matter excites no special attention. But
if a son rebukes his father, or if a Priest rebukes his Bishop to his
face, we understand why he would consider it a fact worth relating. Hence,
when St. Paul goes to the trouble of telling us that he took exception to
Peter’s conduct, he mentions it as an extraordinary exercise of Apostolic
freedom, and leaves on our mind the obvious inference that Peter was his
superior.
In the very same Epistle to the Galatians St. Paul plainly insinuates St.
Peter’s superior rank. “I went,” he says, “to Jerusalem to see Peter, and
I tarried with him fifteen days.”(167) Saints Chrysostom and Ambrose tell
us that this was not an idle visit of ceremony, but that the object of St.
Paul in making the journey was to testify his respect and honor for the
chief of the Apostles. St. Jerome observes in a humorous vein that “Paul
went not to behold Peter’s eyes, his cheeks or his countenance, whether he
was thin or stout, with nose straight or twisted, covered with hair or
bald, not to observe the outward man, _but to show honor to the first
Apostle_.”
There are others who pretend, in spite of our Lord’s declaration to the
contrary, that loyalty to Peter is disloyalty to Christ, and that, by
acknowledging Peter as the rock on which the Church is built, we set our
Savior aside. So far from this being the case, we acknowledge Jesus Christ
as the “chief cornerstone,” as well as the Divine Architect of the
building.
The true test of loyalty to Jesus is not only to worship Him, but to
venerate even the representatives whom He has chosen. Will anyone pretend
to say that my obedience to the Governor’s appointee is a mark of
disrespect to the Governor himself? I think our State Executive would have
little faith in the allegiance of any citizen who would say to him:
“Governor, I honor you personally, but your official’s order I shall
disregard.”
St. Peter is called the first Bishop of Rome because he transferred his
see from Antioch to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom with St. Paul.
We are not surprised that modern skepticism, which rejects the Divinity of
Christ and denies even the existence of God, should call in question the
fact that St. Peter lived and died in Rome.
The reason commonly alleged for disputing this well-attested event is that
the Acts of the Apostles make no mention of Peter’s labors and martyrdom
in Rome. For the same reason we might deny that St. Paul was beheaded in
Rome; that St. John died in Ephesus, and that St. Andrew was crucified.
The Scripture is silent regarding these historical records, and yet they
are denied by no one.
The intrinsic evidence of St. Peter’s first Epistle, the testimony of his
immediate successors in the ministry, as well as the avowal of eminent
Protestant commentators, all concur in fixing the See of Peter in Rome.
“Babylon,” from which Peter addresses his first Epistle, is understood by
learned annotators, Protestant and Catholic, to refer to Rome—the word
Babylon being symbolical of the corruption then prevailing in the city of
the Cæsars.
Clement, the fourth Bishop of Rome, who is mentioned in terms of praise by
St. Paul; St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who died in 105; Irenæus,
Origen, St. Jerome, Eusebius, the great historian, and other eminent
writers testify to St. Peter’s residence in Rome, while no ancient
ecclesiastical writer has ever contradicted the statement.
John Calvin, a witness above suspicion; Cave, an able Anglican critic;
Grotius and other distinguished Protestant writers, do not hesitate to
re-echo the unanimous voice of Catholic tradition.
Indeed, no historical fact will escape the shafts of incredulity, if St.
Peter’s residence and glorious martyrdom in Rome are called in question.
Chapter X.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPES.
The Church did not die with Peter. It was destined to continue till the
end of time; consequently, whatever official prerogatives were conferred
on Peter were not to cease at his death, but were to be handed down to his
successors from generation to generation. The Church is in all ages as
much in need of a Supreme Ruler as it was in the days of the Apostles.
Nay, more; as the Church is now more widely diffused than it was then, and
is ruled by frailer men, it is more than ever in need of a central power
to preserve its unity of faith and uniformity of discipline.
Whatever privileges, therefore, were conferred on Peter which may be
considered essential to the government of the Church are inherited by the
Bishops of Rome, as successors of the Prince of the Apostles; just as the
constitutional powers given to George Washington have devolved on the
present incumbent of the Presidential chair.
Peter, it is true, besides the prerogatives inherent in his office,
possessed also the gift of inspiration and the power of working miracles.
These two latter gifts are not claimed by the Pope, as they were personal
to Peter and by no means essential to the government of the Church. God
acts toward His Church as we deal with a tender sapling. When we first
plant it we water it and soften the clay about its roots. But when it
takes deep root we leave it to the care of Nature’s laws. In like manner,
when Christ first planted His Church He nourished its infancy by
miraculous agency; but when it grew to be a tree of fair proportions He
left it to be governed by the general laws of His Providence.
From what I have said you can easily infer that the arguments in favor of
Peter’s Primacy have equal weight in demonstrating the supremacy of the
Popes.
As the present question, however, is a subject of vast importance, I shall
endeavor to show, from incontestable historical evidence, that the Popes
have always, from the days of the Apostles, continued to exercise supreme
jurisdiction not only in the Western Church till the Reformation, but also
throughout the Eastern Church till the great schism of the ninth century.
First—Take the question of _appeals_. An appeal is never made from a
superior to an inferior court, nor even from one court to another of
co-ordinate jurisdiction. We do not appeal from Washington to Richmond,
but from Richmond to Washington. Now, if we find the See of Rome from the
foundation of Christianity entertaining and deciding cases of appeal from
the Oriental churches; if we find that her decision was final and
irrevocable, we must conclude that the supremacy of Rome over all the
churches is an undeniable fact.
Let me give you a few illustrations:
To begin with Pope St. Clement, who was the third successor of St. Peter,
and who is laudably mentioned by St. Paul in one of his Epistles. Some
dissension and scandal having occurred in the church of Corinth, the
matter is brought to the notice of Pope Clement. He at once exercises his
supreme authority by writing letters of remonstrance and admonition to the
Corinthians. And so great was the reverence entertained for these Epistles
by the faithful of Corinth that, for a century later, it was customary to
have them publicly read in their churches. Why did the Corinthians appeal
to Rome, far away in the West, and not to Ephesus, so near home in the
East, where the Apostle St. John still lived? Evidently because the
jurisdiction of Ephesus was local, while that of Rome was universal.
About the year 190 the question regarding the proper day for celebrating
Easter was agitated in the East, and referred to Pope St. Victor I. The
Eastern Church generally celebrated Easter on the day on which the Jews
kept the Passover, while in the West it was observed then, as it is now,
on the first Sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox. St. Victor
directs the Eastern churches, for the sake of uniformity, to conform to
the practice of the West, and his instructions are universally followed.
St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, was martyred in 258.
From his appeals to Pope St. Cornelius and to Pope St. Stephen, especially
on the subject of baptism, from his writings and correspondence, as well
as from the whole tenor of his administration, it is quite evident that
Cyprian, as well as the African Episcopate, upheld the supremacy of the
Bishop of Rome.
Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, about the middle of the third century, having
heard that the Patriarch of Alexandria erred on some points of faith,
demands an explanation of the suspected Prelate, who, in obedience to his
superior, promptly vindicates his own orthodoxy.
St. Athanasius, the great patriarch of Alexandria, appeals in the fourth
century to Pope Julius I. from an unjust decision rendered against him by
the Oriental Bishops, and the Pope(168) reverses the sentence of the
Eastern Council.
St. Basil, Archbishop of Cæsarea, in the same century has recourse in his
afflictions to the protection of Pope Damasus.
St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, appeals in the beginning
of the fifth century to Pope Innocent I. for a redress of grievances
inflicted on him by several Eastern Prelates, and by the Empress Eudoxia
of Constantinople.
St. Cyril appeals to Pope Celestine against Nestorius; Nestorius, also,
appeals to the same Pontiff, who takes the side of Cyril.
In a Synod held in 444, St. Hilary, Archbishop of Arles, in Gaul, deposed
Celidonius, Bishop of Besancon, on the ground of an alleged canonical
impediment to his consecration. The Bishop appealed to the Holy See, and
both he and the Metropolitan personally repaired to Rome, to submit their
cause to the judgment of Pope Leo the Great. After a careful
investigation, the Pontiff declared the sentence of the Synod invalid,
revoked the censure, and restored the deposed Prelate to his See.
The same Pontiff also rebuked Hilary for having irregularly deposed
Projectus from his See.
The judicial authority of the Pope is emphasized from the circumstance
that Hilary was not an arrogant or a rebellious churchman, but an edifying
and a zealous Prelate. He is revered by the whole Church as a canonized
Saint, and after his death, Leo refers to him as Hilary of _happy memory_.
Theodoret, the illustrious historian and Bishop of Cyrrhus, is condemned
by the pseudo-council of Ephesus in 449, and appeals to Pope Leo in the
following touching language: “I await the decision of your Apostolic See,
and I supplicate your Holiness to succor me, who invoke your righteous and
just tribunal; and to order me to hasten to you, and to explain to you my
teaching, which follows the steps of the Apostles.... I beseech you not to
scorn my application. Do not slight my gray hairs.... Above all, I entreat
you to teach me whether to put up with this unjust deposition or not; for
I await your sentence. If you bid me rest in what has been determined
against me, I will rest, and will trouble no man more. I will look for the
righteous judgment of our God and Savior. To me, as Almighty God is my
Judge, honor and glory are no object, but only the scandal that has been
caused; for many of the simpler sort, especially those whom I have rescued
from diverse heresies, considering _the See_ which has condemned me,
suspect that perhaps I really am a heretic, being incapable themselves of
distinguishing accuracy of doctrine.”(169) Leo declared the deposition
invalid and Theodoret was restored to his See.
John, Abbot of Constantinople, appeals from the decision of the Patriarch
of that city to Pope St. Gregory I., who reverses the sentence of the
Patriarch.
In 859 Photius addressed a letter to Pope Nicholas I., asking the Pontiff
to confirm his election to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In
consequence of the Pope’s conscientious refusal Photius broke off from the
communion of the Catholic Church and became the author of the Greek
schism.
Here are a few examples taken at random from Church History. We see
Prelates most eminent for their sanctity and learning occupying the
highest position in the Eastern Church, and consequently far removed from
the local influences of Rome, appealing in every period of the early
Church from the decisions of their own Bishops and their Councils to the
supreme arbitration of the Holy See. If this does not constitute superior
jurisdiction, I have yet to learn what superior authority means.
Second—Christians of every denomination admit the orthodoxy of _the
Fathers_ of the first five centuries of the Church. No one has ever called
in question the faith of such men as Basil, Chrysostom, Cyprian,
Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Leo. They were the acknowledged guardians
of pure doctrine, and the living representatives “of the faith once
delivered to the Saints.” They were to the Church in their generation what
Peter and Paul and James were to the Church in its infancy. We
instinctively consult them about the faith of those times; for, to whom
shall we go for the Words of eternal life, if not to them?
Now, the Fathers of the Church, with one voice, pay homage to the Bishops
of Rome as their superiors. The limited space I have allowed myself in
this little volume will not permit me to give any extracts from their
writings. The reader who may be unacquainted with the original language of
the Fathers, or who has not their writings at hand, is referred to a work
entitled, “Faith of Catholics,” where he will find, in an English
translation, copious extracts from their writings vindicating the Primacy
of the Popes.
Third—_Ecumenical Councils_ afford another eloquent vindication of Papal
supremacy. An Ecumenical or General Council is an assemblage of Prelates
representing the whole Catholic Chur
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