The Faith of Our Fathers

ty Of Th

, 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 characterist

use 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 g

nd 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 pr

eginning; it must have had not one day's interval of suspended ani

an have any reasonable claim to Perpetuity, since, as we have

of every reflecting mind, when we consider the number and variety, and the formidable power of the enemies wit

he other domestic-in foreign war against Paganism and infidelity; in civil

rs, the Church underwent a series of ten persecutions unparalleled for atrocity in the annals of history. Every torture that malice could invent wa

pitch and set on fire to serve as lamp-posts to the streets of Rome. To justify such atrocities, and to smoth

of their chambers, or in the Roman catacombs, which are still preserved to att

her progress. In a short time we find this colossal Empire going to pieces, and the Head of the Catholic Church dispens

ery trace of the old Roman civilization. They [pg 053] 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

ophet, 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

nst the Turks, who were signally defeated in the battle of Lepanto, in 1571. And if the Cross, instead of the Crescent,

atened the overthrow of the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. I speak of

g 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 yie

zerland 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. Cal

055] 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

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

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. Sinc

e 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 humani

sed through all these vicissitudes? Has she not tasted the bitternes

vil governments and institutions mortal as well as men? Why should the Republic of the Church be a

y this argument in the fifth century, with how much more forc

ascribe to any human cause this

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. H

ow can you hope to overturn an institution which for more than nineteen centuries has successfully resisted all the c

rs? They have tried in vain to crush her, from the days of t

es 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

wer. 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

erve what is created

e secret of her strength; strip her of this, and, like Samson shorn of his hair, she will betray all the weakness of a

outlived that period, if the temporal power were essential to her perpetuity? And even since 1870 the Pope has been deprived of his tempor

en told so; but far from hiding our head, like the ostrich in the sand, at the approach of these inventions we hai

nows, virgin forests and trackless deserts; when we had no guide save faith, and hope, and God-if even then we succeeded so well i

ress you into the service of the Church and say: "Fire and heat bless the Lord. Lightnings and cloud

pe called a council of all the Bishops of the world. Without the aid of steam it would have been almost i

nth century? Has she not much to fear from literature, the arts and sciences? She has always been the Patroness of literat

may allude to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the two most famous seats of learnin

sities now existing in Scotland, viz: St. Andrew

truction, she rescued classical writers of those countries from oblivion. Hallam justly observes that, were it not for the diligent labors of the monks

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 inde

owth, where true liberty is found. She is always cramped in her operations wherever despotism casts its dark

st 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

y monuments she is the one monument that stands proudly pre-eminent. Not a stone in this building falls to the ground. Amid the ge

also witness the death of them all [pg 062] and chant their requiem. She was more than fourteen hundred year

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 marvell

h has lasted for nineteen centuries, and will continue [pg 063] 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, b

g