TT w h i ¿ h i / r c k - D o c f v ' « I I I 3X A T H E CATHOLIC CHDRCH B Y RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR CAPEL, D. D. Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, Leo XIII, happily reigning, Member of the Congregation of the Segnatura, Priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster. F i f t h T h o u s a n d . F R . P U S T E T & C O M P A N Y , P U B L I S H E R S , N E W YORK AND CINCINNATI. l 8 8 5 . EIGHTH EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED. CATHOLIC : An Essential and Exclusive Attribute of the True Church, by Right Rev. Monsignor CAPEL, D.D., to which is appended St. Cyprian's whole " Treatise on the Unity of the Church," St. Cyril's "Lecture on the Catholic Church," St. Pacian's " Treatise on the name Catholic." Price, 50 cents. ER. PUSTET notwithstanding the varying change of the particles of his body, is able to say EGO of every-day life, so too can the Church, the Spouse of Christ, speak of her unchanging quasi-personality. With the growth of her disciples, there was neces- sarily a growth of her ministers, the eccl&sia docens; but here again it is by a fixed law. " How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? Or how shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? And how -shall they hear without a preacher % And how can they preach unless they be sent ? " 1 As the Father sent the Son to preach the Gospel, so did the Son send the Apostles; they, in turn, sent others, bishops and priests and deacons, commissioned with the same divine authority to preach and fulfill the Ministry. Accordingly, St. John, speaking of himself and other pastors, could say : "We are of God ; he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us ; in,, this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error." 2 And St. Paul in like manner says : " We "are . embassadors for Christ; God, as it were, exhorting by us."3 To the chief pastors at Ephesus does St. Paul address these words: " Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the Church of God."4 And the Apostles, act- (1) Romans, x, 14. (2) 1 John, iv, 6. (3) 2 Cor. v, 19. (4) Acts, xx, 28. 12 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as ing in their corporate capacity, could proclaim their decree in the name of themselves and of the Holy Ghost. Knowing that they were possessed of this divine au- thority in virtue of which Christ had said : " H e that heareth you heareth me; he that despiseth you de- spiseth me ;" the pastors were able to speak as men having power, and to exact subjection to their teach- ing and government in things spiritual. Their Mas.- ter's words were in their minds : " Whosoever shall not hear you or receive your words, when you depart out of that city, shake off the dust from your feet; verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judg- ment than for that'city." Hence could St. Paul say : " Remember your Prelates, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow,"1 and again : "Obey your Prelates and be subject to them, for they watch as being to render an account of your souls." 1 I t will be remarked that in appointing these pastors there was (1) "imposition of hands;" and (2) " the being sent."2 For instance, when the seven deacons were chosen they " were placed in the presence of the apostles, and they praying imposed hands on them."3 Appointed at first stewards of the Church, and dis- tributors of her goods, a part of their office was attend- ance on the Priests at the divine offices. Later, as we learn, of the seven Stephen was sent to preach; and Philip both preached and baptized. The "imposition of hands" is the sacrament of Orders, and in common with the other sacraments its effect is conferred direct by God. For this reason, could St. Paul write to Timothy: 1 1 admonish thee (1) Heb. xiii, 7 and 17. (2) Acts xiii. (3) Acts vi, 6. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as that thou stir up the 'grace of God which is in theé by the imposition of hands." But the "commission," or " being sent," is derived direct from the Apostles. I t specifies where, how and when the divine authority- is to be exercised by the individual pastor. " For this cause," writes St. Paul to Titus, " I left thee at Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are want- ing, and shouldst ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee."1 These two powers are distinguished as the power of Order, the power of Jurisdiction. Both are of God: the one comes direct through the sacrament of Orders; the other indirectly from God through the Church by appointment. In the early church they were often conferred simultaneously; still they were looked upon as distinct operations. The power of Jurisdiction is not necessarily attached to Orders, though for some acts, such as absolution from sin, both are necessary. The Apostles and the Sev- enty, who were sent out at first two and two, had jurisdiction, but not orders. A man may be a bishop and yet not be a bishop of a diocese. On the other hand, a duly and canonically confirmed Bishop Elect possesses jurisdiction without the Episcopal power to confirm and to ordain; a deposed bishop is still pos- sessed of his Episcopal power derived from consecra- tion, but he is deprived of jurisdiction or cure of souls, His ordinations would be valid; his absolutions null and void. And thus it would be possible for an orga- nized body of Christians to have valid orders, to hold almost all Catholic doctrines, to offer the great Sacrifice of the Christian Dispensation, and yet be no part of the Church. This was, aŝ a matter of fact, the posi- (1) Titus, i, 5. 14 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. tion of the Novatians and Dpnatists against whom St. Cyprian and St. Augustin straggled. The power of Order gives capacity; the power of Jurisdiction permits the use of authority. The dis- tinction, between 'can' and 'may,' the former expressing inherent, the latter dependent power—aifords a good illustration of the subject. The dispenser of the power of order is but an i n s t r u m e n t t h e grantor of the power of jurisdiction exercises authority and dominion. The first coming directly from Christ is abiding and unchangeable. I t is conferred in equal measure on each priest or bishop. The second not coming imme- diately, but through the Church from Christ to indi- viduals, is conferred in varying proportions as may be deemed expedient for the good of souls. In the instances mentioned above, Timothy and Titus had neither more nor less of Episcopal character than had any of the Apostles : as bishops they were equal. But the Apostles had universal jurisdiction directly from Christ. Timothy and Titus received their commission from the Apostles; it was restricted to .the Church at Ephesus, and to the Church in Crete; it was neither sovereign nor independent. Timothy and Titus were consecrated bishops, but the Episcopate of Authority, of which they were appointed participators, was one, indivisible, sovereign, and independent. I t was given first in its fullness to Peter separately j later the power of binding and loos- ing was given collectively to the Apostolic College. Thus did Jesus Christ establish two indestructible elements in the organization of the Church : (1.) The Apostolate, consisting in universal juris- ' diction derived directly from Christ. (2.) The one Episcopate, founded immediately by • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as Christ, and exercising corporate jurisdiction in the whole world. The first resides in the successor of St. Peter, who is therefore the Supreme Governor, the Supreme Teacher of the Church, with whom there must be communion in order to be in the Visible Organic Body, the Fold of Christ. The second resides in the Body of Bishops, con- jointly, who thus together represent the Apostolic College, each bishop not having a share of the Episco- pate, but a part in the solidarity of the Episcopate. The Episcopal jurisdiction is plainly subordinate to the Apostolate. To have part in this Episcopate the individual must be appointed by the Head of the Church; or by the Head with the Episcopate. In this way has every bishop proper and ordinary jurisdiction in his diocese, and yet is not sovereign and independent. Therefore not by delegated or vi- carious power, but by the Holy Ghost, do Bishops rule in the Church of God, as the successors not of in- dividual Apostle?, but of the Apostolic College. As Cardinal Hergenrother has it in Church and State, vol. I , p. 177: " The Episcopal power of jurisdiction is therefore not derived ' immediately from Christ,' in so far it exists in individuals ; it has been established by Christ, but is not" conferred immediately by Him upon individual bishops; it is imparted to them by the Head of the Church, or bishops H e has authorized. Thus the Unity of the Episcopate, so much insisted en by the Fathers, is fully upheld ; the Holy See is head, root, spring, and origin of the spiritual author- ity." - St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, who died in 1274, that is, two centuries previous to the so- 16 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as called Reformation, expresses with much precision the distinction between Order and Jurisdiction. (2, 2, 30, n. 2.) " Although schismatics have the power of Order, yet they are deprived of the authority of Jurisdiction. "Spiritual power is twofold—the one Sacramental, the other Jurisdictional. Sacramental is that which is conferred by some consecration. But all consecrations of the Church are permanent, so long as the matter re- mains which is consecrated, this even in things inani- mate—an altar once consecrated cannot be reconse- crated unless it be afterwards broken. And, therefore, this power remains as to its essence in a man who has' received it by consecration so long as he lives, whether he fall into schism or heresy. But as inferior power ought not to be brought into action unless it be moved by superior power, as is seen in nature, it follows that those (who fall into schism or heresy) lose the use of the power, and it is not lawful for them to use it. If, nevertheless, they do so, their power produces its effect in sacraments, for in these man is but the instrument of God. Hence the effects of sacraments are not pre- vented on account of any guilt in the minister of the sacraments. "But Jurisdictional Power is that which is conferred by the simple concession of man; such power does not inhere permanently; whence such power does not remain with schismatics and heretics ; they, therefore, are unable to absolve, to excommunicate, to grant indulgences^ and the like. Should they do so, the acts would be null. " When, therefore, it is said that schismatics and heretics have not spiritual power, it is to be under- stood of Jurisdiction; but if Power of Order be • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as referred to, then is not meant its essence, but its legit- imate use." To this clear statement of St. Thomas may be added the still more explicit teaching of Suarez on the way of receiving Papal and Episcopal jurisdiction. " The pontifical power is, as it were, the primal example of all spiritual power of jurisdiction ; for no one will deny that that is a true power of active juris- diction—nay, in that order is the highest that can exist in mere man. Now, that power is not given to the Pontiff by any consecration, but by election and the bare grant of God; for when H e said to Peter 'Feed My Sheep,' He impressed on him no new con- secration or character, but gave him a mere power of jurisdiction. So, too, the Pope, when rightly elected, is immediately true Pope as to such power, and as to that receives no consecration ; nay, if not already a bishop or a priest, he must be afterwards consecrated, or even ordained, and, nevertheless, in the meantime,, he can exercise all acts of mere external jurisdiction.. Therefore, in the same manner, the proper power of' jurisdiction is granted to other bishops by election or simple concession, not by consecration, for the principle^ is the same, not only because the episcopal power is; but a certain participation of the papal power, but likewise because, as in the appointment of the Pope,, to apply to him, matter (for the exercise of his juris- diction) is nothing else but to give to him a true and new power over it, so when a See is given, to one: bishop consecrated before, matter (for jurisdiction) is- applied to him no otherwise than that certain, per- sons become his subjects, which before they were not nor do they become his subjects save by giving him, a 2 18 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as new power as a superior altogether distinct from the power of order or from consecration. Lastly, because, just as acts of pontifical jurisdiction, as such, are not acts of order or consecration, nor flow from it, so neither are acts of episcopal jurisdiction." (De Leg. iv, 4.) By the existence of the one Episcopate is secured the living cohesion of the Church, consisting, " first, of its unicity, by which there is not and cannot be a plurality of Christian or co-ordiuate churches; sec- ondly, of its oneness, according to which the Church, in all its members and parts, forms one entire con-* nected whole."1 I t is not a large crystal, constructed of smaller crystals, but a living organism. The para- ble of the Mustard Seed and the Metaphor of the Vine admirably illustrate the point. " I am the vine, you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, beareth much fruit ; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone remaineth not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither." These principles show how utterly untenable is the Branch Theory of the High Church Party. The Body is one; the Episcopate is one; Christianity in its very essence is one; therefore all the branches must be in one and the same trunk, drawing one and the same divine sap of truth and authority from one and the same root. I t is not amiss to be reminded when speaking of the " Greek branch" that it is not one but many. The Russian, the Hellenic, the Austro-Carlowitzan, the Cypriot, the Monte-Negran, are so many independent National Churches. On the other hand, Armenians, Copts, Abyssinians, Nestorians and Photians are (1) Klee on the Church, p. 6. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as parted by doctrinal or liturgical differences *and an- tipathies which seem incurable. While Anglicans have been láboring for Corporate Reunion, the Greeks have been steadily disintegrating and forming national religious corporations. In this they have but followed the way of all Schismatics and Heretics. The authority to be Teachers of the Body of Christ, implies proclaiming the Gospel taught by Christ. He said of Himself that He came to teach not His own doctrine but the doctrine of Him that sent Him. And again, whatever the Father had made known to him did he communicate to the apostles. The Spirit of God was to bring to their minds all things whatsoever He had taught them. These doctrines and these alone were they to teach ; even were "an angel from heaven " to bring any other he was to be anathematized. As there is but One Lord and one baptism, so is there but one faith, says St. Paul. And writing to the Romans:1 "Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which you have learned, and "to avoid them." St. Jude writes his Epistle " to beseech the faithful to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints," and in the strongest language condemns the wickedness of those who corrupt this true faith by false doctrine. And St. Paul is able to say: " We have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit of God: that we mav know the things that are given us from God: which things also we speak not in the leavened words of hu- man wisdom, but in the doctrine of the spirit, compar- ing spiritual things with spiritual." 2 (1) Romans xvi, 17. (2) Cor. ii, 12. 20 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as Indeed, this is the very raison d'etre of the Church: to dispense the mysteries of God; to conserve in all its purity the deposit of faith; to proclaim it with divine and therefore infallible or unerring authority to all the sons of men. She is the sole divine interpreter and judge of the body of revelation. Hence, when considerable discussion arose at Antioch between the Jewish and Gentile converts concerning the obli- gation' of being circumcised according to the law of Moses, it was determined that Paul and Bar- nabas and certain others of the other side should go up to Jerusalem. And on their arrival " the Apos- tles and ancients came together to consider of this mat- ter." The question was fully discussed, and finally the decree .was drawn in these words: " It hath seemed good TO THE HOLY GHOST AND TO US to lay no further burden on you than these necessary things: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which things keeping yourselves you shall do well. Fare ye well."1 The decree was then sent to the breth- (1) Acts xv, 28. ren of the Gentiles that are at Antioch, and in Syria and Silica, by the hands of Judas and Silas, chief men among the brethren who accompanied Barnabas and Paul. These who had been sent received jurisdic- tion to announce by word of mouth the same things. In making this decision there was made no addition to the faith ; the true interpretation of the Revelation already given was alone proclaimed; and this not by the wisdom of the Apostles, but by the influence of the Holy Ghost, whom they declared to be with them. And so it has ever been : the decisions concerning the Divine personality of Jesus Christ, the procession of • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as the Holy Spirit, the two natures of the Son of God, are not revelations nor additions to the Christian Re- ligion ; they are but explicit declarations of what that Faith contains ; they do but disclose in detail the Truths of Revelation. These are.only the unfoldings of that Faith delivered in its completeness to the Church by Christ, and perfected by the Holy Ghost. I t will be remarked that Judas and Silas were to con- firm by word of mouth the decision. This was at first the way in which Christianity was propagated. The Church sent forth her ministers, who preached the faith. She therefore had an existence antecedent to the written Gospels ; she had numbers of children who lived and believed before a word of the New Testament was written. Her authoritative voice decided when it did come whether it was inspired, and her living teachings and decisions constituted its true interpretation. Six years elapsed before the earliest Gospel, that of St. Matthew, was written ; some sixty-three years had passed by when the Gospel of St. John made its ap- pearance ; and four centuries had elapsed before the Canon of Scripture was settled by Holy Church. Her teaching was viva voce ; and the inspired books of the New Testament were addressed to those who were already Christians, and who had received I the faith once delivered to the Saints." In other words the Christian religion was propagated by LIVING TRA- DITION. - Scarcely was the Church born before there were found those who rebelled against her authority and her doc- trine. Such revolt in either case severed individuals from the communion of the Church. They took with them fragments of Christian teaching. Their revolt was considered the greatest of crimes. It is numbered 22 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as among the sins which exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps no stronger condemnations can be found in the New Testament and the very earliest Christian writers, than those directed against schism, which is rebellion against the authority of the Church, and heresy which destroys the oneness of faith. "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admoni- tion, avoid : knowing that he that is such an one is subverted and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." 1 So does St. Paul instruct Titus. The same Apostle writing to the Galatians2, groups these crimes with " murders, fornication," and other works of the flesh. And the tender Apostle of love, St. John, says: "For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh ; this is a seducer and an anti-Christ. Look to yourselves that you lose not the things which you have wrought; but that you may receive a full reward. Whosoever receiveth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God; he that continueth in the doctrine, he hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house, nor say to him God speed you. For he that saith to him God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works."1 St. Clement, whose name St. Paul says is written in the book of life, writes to the Corinthians: " Where- fore are there contentions, and swellings, and dissen- sions, and schisms and war among you ? Have we not one God and one Christ, and one Spirit of Grace poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ ? Where- fore do we rend and tear in pieces the members of Christ, and raise a sedition against our own body, and (1) Titus iii.. 10. (2) Gal. v. 19. (3) John vii, 2. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 23 come to such a height of folly as to forget that we are members one of another ?" 1 St. Irenseus, disciple of St. Polycarp, whose master was the Apostle St. John, writes : " H e will also judge those who cause schisms—men destitute of the love of God, and who have in view their own interest, but not the oneness of the Church; and Who, on account of slight and exaggerated causes, rend and divide, and, as far as in them lies, destroy the great and glorious Body of Christ; men who have peace on their lips but war in their actions ; who truly strain at a gnat but swallow a camel. But no correction can be effected by them, so great as is the perniciousness of schism." 2 The same Apostolic Father says: " The Church, though spread, over the whole world, ,to the earth's boundaries, having received, both from the Apostles and their disciples, the faith in one God, the Father Almighty, * * * and in one Christ Jesus, that Son of God who was made flesh for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit/ . * * * having, as I have said, received that preaching and this Faith, the Church, though spread over the whole world, guards (it) sedulous- ly, as though dwelling in one house ; and these truths she uniformly holds as having but one soul and one and the same heart; and these she proclaims and teaches ; and hands down uniformly, as though she had but one mouth. For though, throughout the world, the lan- guages are various, still the force of the tradition is one and the same. And neither do the Churches founded in Germany, nor those of Spain, in Gaul, in the East, in Egypt, in Africa, nor in the regions in the (1) John vii, 2. The citations from the early Christian writers are throughout taken from "The Faith of Catholics." (2) Adv. Hoer! Bk. iv, c. 33. . . 24 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as middle of the earth, believe or deliver a different faith f but as God's handiwork, the sun, is one and the same throughout the universe, so the preaching of the truth shines everywhere, and enlightens all men that wish • to come to the knowledge of the truth. Nor does he, who amongst the rulers in the Churches is more power- ful in word, deliver a different doctrine from the above (for no one is above his teacher), nor does he who is weak in speech weaken the tradition. For the Faith being one and the same, neither he who has ability to say much concerning it hath anything over, nor he that speaketh little anything lack."1 St. Cyprian, A. D. 251, writes, in his treatise on the Unity of the Church : " The Enemy has made here- sies and schisms wherewith to subvert faith, to corrupt truth, and rend unity. Those whom he cannot detain in the blindness of the old way he compasses and de- ceives by misleading them on their new journey. H e snatches men from out of the Church itself. * * * | H e who holds not this unity of the Church, does he think that he holds the faith? He who strives against and resists the Church, he who abandons the Chair of Peter, upon whom the Church was founded, does he feel confident that he is in the Church? * * * " H e is an alien, he is an outcast, he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for a Father who has not the Church for a mother." k If any one was able to escape who was without the ark of Noah, then can he escape who is out of the doors beyond the Church. * * * " There is one God and one Christ, and His Church is one, and the faith one, and a people one, joined into (1) Serm. John xvii, 20. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as a solid oneness of body by a cementing concord. Unity cannot be sundered, nor can one body be divided by the dissolution of its structure, nor be cast piecemeal abroad with vitals torn and lacerated. Whatever is parted from the womb cannot live and breathe in its separated state; it loses its principle of life." Such then is the nature, the constitution, the prin- ciple of life, and the law of growth of that Body of Christ divinely appointed to be the Sole Guardian and Teacher of the Christian Revelation. A living Divine Organism whose unity 'is to be the criterion of the mission of Jesus, and a visible mark whereby his disciples might be known: " A n d not for them only, do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as thou 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. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; thait they may be one, as we also are one."1 Fashioned during our Lord's public life, as to its external organization ; born, with its divine internal principle of life, on Pentecost day, the Church is ever to live, sitting in the midst of the nations, day by day instructing and training souls in the way of salvation. Thus is her Life to be indefectible, her Voice infallible, and her Presence visible. . In glowing terms does the late Archbishop Spalding state what her life has been during the past eighteen centuries and a half. " The Church has triumphantly stood the test of Gamaliel.2 Empires have arisen, (1) John xvii, 20, and xiii, 35. (2) Opposing the persecution raised by the Jews, ne said of the.Christian Church: " If this work or design be of men, it will fall to nothing; but if it be of God, you are not able to destroy it, lest, perhaps, you are found to\ oppose God." Acts v, 38. 26 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as flourished for a time, and then ¿rumbled into ruin, along her pathway in history. Dynasties have changed and been extinguished ; thrones have tottered and fallen ; sceptres have been broken; crowns have mould- ered into dust; but she has-survived all; and she still stands up erect and vigorous in the world, not an antique, but a living and breathing existence, having a vitality nqt sickly, not waning, but superabundant; not only living herself, but bountifully bestowing of her exuberant life upon the nations of the. earth, and giving without losing any of it herself; even as the sun giveth forth its light and heat, without impairing his own exhaustless store. She lives, and she will live, all days even to the consummation of the world. She lives, the only divine and immortal institution of the earth. Christ is Head, and Christ is God, and H e stands pledged that she shall share in his own im- mortality. Christ is Her Bridegroom, and she is His chosen Bride, without spot, without wrinkle, all glori- ous and undefiled; a divine and blooming Bride, who knows no old age and feels no decay, doomed to death, but fated not to die. She has walked the world patiently and longingly, bearing her crown of thorns like her heavenly Bridegroom; She has been often scourged through it as H e was; but like Him, She bears a charmed life, and cannot be conquered by death. Immortality is written upon her brow, and She will wear the Wreath for ever more, in spite of the world, the devil, and the flesh I A pilgrim of faith and love with her home in the heavens, She asks only a free passage through this world; and her Om- nipotent Bridegroom will see that She obtains it, whether men will it or not."1 (I) Introduction to Darras's General History of the Church. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as P The Redemption is limited to no one people. The Precious Blood was shed for all the sons of men. And through its infinite merit every man receives grace suf- ficient to work out his salvation. To Jesus, our Re- deemer, was given the nations as an inheritance. ^Thou art myson,"says the inspired Royal Prophet,"Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inherit- ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session." And Isaias announces : "A child is born to us. * * * He shall be called Wonderful, God the Mighty. His empire shall be multiplied. He shall sit upon the throne of David to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and forever."1 The prophet Daniel says : " In the days of those Kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a King- dom that shall never be destroyed and His Kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people : and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these Kingdoms, and itself shall stand forever." 2 And the Evangelical Prophet declares, "And in the last days the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it ."3 And Micheas says : "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains and high above the hills, and people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come in haste and say : Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob." 4 And the last of the Prophets foretells : "From the ris- ing of the sun even to the going down, my name is (1) Isaias ix, 6, 7. (2) Dan. ii, 35-44. (3) Isaias ii, 2. (4) Mich, xiv, 1. 28 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean obla- tion, for my name is great among the Gentiles saith the Lord of Hosts."1 So spoke the language of prophecy in clearer and clearer notes as the time approached for the coming of the Saviour. His own presence is announced in almost the'same words by the Angel Gabriel: " Thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of David his father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end."2 And as Lactantius wrote fourteen centuries ago; " From all this it is manifest, that all the prophets foretold of Christ, that the time would come that bein^ born in the flesh of the family of David, he would build up to God an everlasting temple called the Church, and would summon all nations to the true religion of God. This is the faithful house, this is the immortal temple, wherein if a man sacrifice not, he shall not have the reward of immortality. Of which great and everlasting temple, since Christ was the builder, the same must needs have therein an everlast- ing priesthood •/ nor can any one come, except through Him who built the temple, to the entrance of the temple and to the sight of God."3 After having spent three and a half years in laying the foundations of the Kingdom, Jesus sent those whom he had selected and appointed to extend and rule it. " All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, bap- (1) Mai. i, 11. (2) Luke i, 31-33. (3) Divin. Inst., lib. iv, c. 14. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."1 Thus was it they were to 1 go into the ivhole world and preach the gospel to every creature."2 And as our Lord said to them: " You shall be wit- nesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth."3 These Scripture statements bear ample evidence that the Church, the Kingdom of Christ, is to be (1) universal in time or duration, (2) universal in exten- sion, (3) universal in doctrine. These constitute the Catholicity of the Church. The Universality in time flows from the identity of life of the quasi-personality of the Church from the moment of birth onwards throughout time. So •• that of necessity it can only appertain to the Human- Divine Creature that was born on Pentecost-day, to which perpetual duration is promised. The Universality in extension is the consequence of the Church's mission to teach all nations. That for which she has to labor to the end of time is to bring all men to the light of truth. And were this accom- plished she would have an actual total and absolute physical universality. But she needs time for growth, and unceasing labor to effect conversion, and thus extend over the whole world, while conserving her living union in all her parts and organs. On Pentecost evening she was Catholic, though probably she num- bered only some three thousand five hundred souls. They were all converts from Judaism, but they joined not a national movement, they had become members (1) Matt, xxvii, 18-20. (2) Mark xvi. 1-5. (3) Acta i, 6. 30 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as of an organization which, in posse, though not in esse, was world-wide. The Universality in doctrine follows from the Church being the depository and guardian of the whole of that Gospel or Deposit of Faith which was in Jesus Christ, and which He committed exclusively to the Human-Divine Creature born on Pentecost day, " to be preserved throughout the ages in its unity and integrity, in its completeness and its purity."1 The members of the Church received a name for the first time at Antioch, where, the Scripture nar- rates, they were called " Christian." This may have been done in derision by the Jews or Romans, or it may have been the name chosen by the disciples them- selves. The outer world called the children of the Church Nazarenes, Galilseans, Jesseans, Therapeutse ; and in the writings of the first Fathers are they spoken of as the Believers, the Saints, the Elect. But of all their titles that of Catholic was applied to them from the earliest period, and has remained to them as an exclusive and inalienable name. Long before the formal symbols of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople—" I believe in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church "—had the name Cath- olic been used. Before the Apostles died, their sound had gone forth to the furthermost parts of the earth, and the Church had extended far and wide throughout the Roman Em- pire, from the very household of Csesar wherein the bonds of St. Paul were manifest in all the palace.2 And Tertullian, whose death is put at the latest, A. D. 240, is able to write : " Men cry out that the State is (1) Humphrey, "Other Gospels," p. 62. (2) Phi], iv, 22, and i, 13. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as beset, that the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their islands. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, and now even rank, is gone over to this sect." 1 I t is not surprising, therefore, that the name Cath- olic should, of all others, have been applied to them, and that they themselves should have embedded it in their Creeds. Those without saw the Christian Body made up of all nations and of all grades of men. Those within knew they were members of a kingdom which is to be world-wide, and never end- ing on earth; they felt themselves possessors of a re- ligion designed for the whole man and for the entire human race. So Catholic Church was synonymous with the Christian people; and the Catholic Faith meant the true or orthodox Gospel. The word appears for the first time, so far as can be ascertained, in a passage of a letter of St. Ignatius, a disciple of the Evangelist, St, John, and second suc- cessor of the Apostle St. Peter in the See of Antioch. " Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude of be- lievers be; even where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." And this same writer, in the In- troduction to the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, writes: " The Church of God which dwelleth in Smyrna, to the Church of God which dwelleth in Philomelium and all the districts in every place of the Holy and Catholic Church, mercy, peace and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." In the body of the piece oc- curs twice the same phrase: "After he had done pray- ing, having made mention of all with whom he had ever met, great and small, noble and obscure, and after the whole Catholic Church throughout the world" (n. 8), (1) Apol. n. i, p. 2. 32 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as "He Christ is both the Governor of our bodies and the Shepherd of the Catholic Church throaghout the world (n. 19). This document is written about A. D. 147." 1 St. Irenseus, who was born about 140 in Asia Minor, became Bishop of Lyons in 178, and was martyred in 202, he writes in his work against Heresies: " When they believed not, last of all He sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom, when the wicked husbandmen had slain, they cast him out of the vineyard. Wherefore did the Lord God deliver it, now no longer fenced in, but opened unto the whole world, to other husbandmen, who gave in the fruits in their season; the tower of election being everywhere exalted and beautiful. For everywhere is the Church distinctly visible, and every- where is there a wine press dug; for everywhere are those who receive the Spirit."2 " In the acts of the Martyrs, Baronius gives the following most interesting interrogatory of the year 254 : " Polemon the judge interrogates the martyrs. What is your name? Pisonius says: Christian. Of what Church? Pisonius replies : Of the Cathol ic . . . . What are you called? She answered-: Theodora and a Christian. Polemon : If she is Christian, of what Church? But she responds : Of the Catholic." St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Discourses, delivered in the year 347, says : "When you go to any city do not ask merely for the House of God or for the Church merely, for - all heretics pretend to have this ; but ask which is the Catholic Church, for this title belongs to our Holy Mother alone."3 And again : " The faith which we rehearse contains (1) Faith of Catholics, Vol. I, p. 2$8; other extracts from same. (2) Ibid. (3) Cat. Dis. xviii, 27. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as in order the following: 'And into one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and into one holy Catholic Church.' . . . Now it is called Catholic, « because it is throughout the whole world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because it teaches universally (catholically) and completely all the doctrines which ought to come to men's knowledge concerning things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it subjugates unto godliness (or to the true religion) the whole race of men, both governors and governed, learned and unlearned, and because it universally treats and heals every sort of sins committed by soul and body, and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and every kind of spiritual gifts. And it is rightly called Church, because it calls forth and assembles together all men." Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, the Father of Eccle- siastical History, who lived from, about 270 till 340, writes : " The false accusations invented by our Pagan enemies quickly disappeared self-refuted, whilst fresh ,' sects sprang up anew upon sects; the first always passing away, and corrupted, in a variety of ways, into other views of many modes and forms. But the splendor and solemnity and sincerity and liberty of the Catholic and alone true church—a church always holding uniformly to the same things—still went on increasing and magnifying." ' St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, fifteen centuries ago wrote a short treatise on the name " Catholic." Therein does he use these words : " My brother, fret not yourself; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. That names me', this describes me; by this 3 34 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as I am approved ; by that designated. And if at last we must give an account of the word Catholic, and ex- press it from the Greek by a Latin interpretation, " Catholic is everywhere one, or as the more learned think, obedience in all"—all the commandments of God. . . . Therefore he who is a Catholic, the same is obedient to what is right. He who is obedi- ent, the same is a Christian. And thus the Catholic is a Christian. Wherefore our "people, when named Catholic, are separated by this appellation from the heretical name. But if also the word Catholic means ' everywhere one' as those first think, David indicates this very thing when he says : ' The Queen stood in a gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps. xliv, 10), that is one amidst all.' . . . Amidst all, she is one, and one over all. If thou askest the reason of the name, it is manifest." And not to weary with extracts, the following will suffice from the great St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in Africa, who died in 430, and who, in common with the other Fathers cited, belong to what the High Church pa-rty call the " Undivided Church." " I n the Catholic Church, not to niention that most sound wis- dom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life so as to know it, in a very small measure indeed, for they are but men, but still to know it without doubtfulness—for not quickness of under- standing, but simplicity in believing, that make the rest of masses most safe—not to mention therefore this wisdom which you Manichees do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, many other reasons there are which most justly keep me in her bosom. The.agree- ment of peoples and nations keeps me; an authority • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as begun with miracles, flourished with hope, increased with charity, strengthened by antiquity, keeps me ; the succession of priests from the .chair itself of the Apos- tle Peter—unto whom the Lord after his resurrection committed His sheep to be fed—down even to the present bishop, keeps me; finally, the name itself of the Catholic Church keeps me—a name which in the midst of so many heresies, this Church alone has not without cause so held possession of, as that, though all heretics would fain have.themselves called ' Catholics,' yet to the inquiry of any stranger ' where is the meet- ing of the Catholic Church held?' no heretic would dare point out his own basilica or house. Those, therefore, so numerous and so powerful ties of the Christian name, ties most dear, justly keep a believing man in the Catholic Church, even though through the slowness of our understanding or the deservings of our lives, truth show not herself as yet in her clearest light. Whereas, amongst you, where are none of these things to invite and keep me; there is only the loud promise of truth." Wondrous delineation of the great Bishop of Hip- po ; though written fifteen centuries ago, it is as fresh in its truthfulness as if it were but of yesterday. Newman's words do but re-echo the touching words of St. Augustine : " There is one, and only one religion such (i. e. having priests and sacrifices, and mystical rites, and the monastic rule, and care for the souls of the dead, and the profession of an ancient faith, com- ing through all ages from the Apostles) : it is known everywhere; every poor boy in the street knows the name of i t ; there never was a time, since it first was, that its name was not known and known to the mu,!-. 36 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as titude. I t is called CatholicisMi, a world-wide name and incommunicable attached to us from the first; accorded to us by our enemies fj in vain attempted, never stolen from us by our rivals."1 Both writers must have had in mind the inspired passage of the prophet Isaias: " My spirit that is in thee, and my words that I havfe put into thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever." 2 I I I . The Mother and Mistress of Churches, admitted by all, is the Holy Roman Catholic Church. From her all others came. She, therefore, is that Church of Christ born on Pentecost day. In the nineteenth century, in the days in which we live, the Roman Church is One : (1) All her members, though of all tongues and political parties, and forms of government, are united in closest communion under the Visible Head, who, together with the one Episcopate held by the successors of the Apostolic College—the bishops dispersed through the whole communion, whom the Holy Ghost appoints—rule and govern this Body Politic, this living Organization. (2) There is one and the same principle of faith, namely, divine authority and testimony for one body of doctrines held by her pastors and people individually and collectively. (3) There is one sacramental system and worship, receiving the same explanation and producing the same effects, in the possession of all her children. The Roman Church is Holy, (1) Because her doc- (1) Ooc. Serm. p. 216, (2) Cap. lix, 21. • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as trine is in itself holy, ever inviting men to ascend higher and higher in virtue. (2) She is holy because she has begotten a mighty army of heroic saints, and martyrs, and virgins. On every soil has she planted and founded institutions created and directed by those who, wishing to be perfect, gave up home and wealth to labor for their Master in suffering humanity. (3) She is holy because consumed by the desire to enkindle the fire of divine love on earth; she is instant in sea- son and out of season in preaching the gospel to those who are in sin or in darkness. The glory of convert- ing Pagan nations is hers. This no Protestant sect, backed by illimited wealth or the greatest political power, has ever been able to accomplish. The Roman Church is Catholic: (1) Because she is of no one nation : her constitution and her teaching are fitted to all peoples and forms of government. (2) Because her principle of faith is applicable to all, young and o^d, learned and unlearned. (3) Because her con- tinuity and identity of existence from Pentecost day till now can be plainly traced. (4) Because she alone has the whole of Revelation—the Faith once delivered to the saints. Circumstances have obliged her to form- ulate the Faith in Dogmatic Decisions and Creeds so as to bear witness to what is contained in the deposit of faith ; but such authoritative declarations are no addi- tions to the Faith, they do but enwrap what it con- tains and explicitly expose its separate doctrines. (5) Because she admits of no rival; she is ever aggressive, condemning schism and heresy; by friend and by foe she is known as THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The tide of indifference, of agnosticism, of infidelity, of socialism, of civil disorder, is rapidly rising. God's 38 • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as Church can alone stem it. Numbers and influence and wealth, co-operating with the Spouse of Christ, can help to do great things to aid in saving humanity from the growing ills. She is the Church of your Bap- tism, to whom you owe allegiance and obedience ; for the saving waters of regeneration are the portal to but one Church. They made you not members of Prot- estantism, but children of the Church of God, over whom she Kas authority. To you, then, allow me to address, in sincerest affection, the earnest Apostolic words of Pius IX, of glorious memory : " We conjure and beseech you, with all the warmth of our zeal, and in all charity, to consider and seriously examine whether you follow the path marked out for you by Jesus Christ our Lord, which leads to eternal salvation. No one can deny or doubt that Jesus Christ himself, in order to apply the fruit of His redemption to all generations of men, built His only Church in this world on Peter; that is to say, the Church, One", Holy, Catholic and Apostolic; and that He gave to it all the necessary power, that the deposit of faith might be preserved whole and inviolable, and that the same faith might be taught to all peoples, kindreds and nations; that through baptism all men might be- come members of this Mystical Body, and that the new life of grace, without which no one can ever merit and attain to life eternal, might always be preserved and perfected in them; and that this same Church, which is His Mystical Body, might always remain in its own nature, firm and immovable to the end of time; that it might flourish and supply to all its children all the means of salvation. " Now, whoever will carefully examine and reflect • THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. as upon the condition of the various religious societies, divided among themselves, and separated from the Catholic Church, which, from the days of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles, has never ceased to exercise, by its lawful pastors, and still continues to ex- ercise the divine power committed to. it by this same Lord ; caïinot fail to satisfy himself that neither any one of these societies by itself, nor all of them to- gether, can in any manner constitute and be that One Catholic Church which our Lord built and established, and willed should continue ; and that they cannot in any way be said to be branches or 'parts of that Church, since they are visibly cut off from Catholic unity. " For, whereas such societies are destitute of that living authority established by God, which especially teaches men what is of faith, and what the rules of morals, and directs and guides them in all those things which pertain to eternal salvation ; so they have con- tinually varied in their doctrines, and this change and variation is ceaselessly going on among them. " Every one must perfectly understand, and clearly and evidently see, that such' a state of things is di- rectly opposed to the nature of the Church instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ ; for in that Church truth must always continue firm and ever inaccessible to all change, as a deposit given to that Church to be guided in its integrity, for the guardianship of which the presence and aid of the Holy Ghost have been prom- ised to the Church forevei." . SECOND EDITION. The first edition of a thousand was sold in three weeks. THE FAITH OF CATHOLICS confirmed by the Scripture and attested by the Fathers of the first Five Centuries. Com- piled by Revs. J. Berington and J. Kirk; revised and recast by Rev. J. Waterworth, with Preface by Right Rev. Monsignor Capel, D.D. 3 vols, octavo, 1,464 pages, in cloth. Price, net, $6.00. FR. PUSTET & Co., New York and Cincinnati. " It is a defense of Roman doctrine of the most legitimate and effective kind. It is even an appeal to the reason and the learning of all who are able to appreciate so elaborate, and at the same time, so simple an argument. . . . . We may add that the references to the originals are full and clear. Of course we do not pretend to have verified them all, nor compared with the original of the translated passages. But those which we have veri- fied and compared do not convey the impression of any intentional unfair- ness."—The American Literary Churchman, an Anglican paper, Baltimore. "These three volumes will be valuable and useful. They are quite as important to Protestants as to Roman Catholic teachers and scholars. . . We may therefore recommend the addition of these volumes to the library of Protestant ministers."—The Observer, New York, a Presbyterian paper. "This publication will have achieved a real good if it sets American Christians, generally, upon the track of patristical study."—The Churchman, New York, Anglican. '' It places within easy reach and in luminous order the Roman view of the ' Faith of Catholics,' as grounded on those authorities according to the under- standing of the Roman scholar, rather than the notions of the Protestant con- troversialist, a matter of no small importance where a just judgment of an antagonist system is desired."— The Living Church, Chicago, Anglican. It is a real pleasure to have the peculiar doctrines of the Roman Catholics brought before the public in such a clear, definite and attractive form and under the editorship of a divine so well known as Monsignor Capel."—The New York Evangelist. " If this be not proof that the Catholic Church of to-day is in doctrine and discipline the Church of the Apostles, the Church of Jesus Christ, there is no proving anything. "^-The Pastor, New York. "Mgr. Capel deserves the gratitude of all Catholics, indeed of all profess- ors of or inquirers into revealed religion, for his timely presentation of the invaluable work, 'The Faith of Catholics.'"—The Boston Pilot. " As a work of reference on all controversial subjects, and eminently fitted for ecclesiastical study, there are probably few even of the standard works of the Church better adapted for such uses. —The Boston Catholic Herald. SECOND EDITION. « The Faith of Catholics, SEE PRECEDING PAGE.