A Short History of Revealed Religion: The History of the Church of Christ

From the Ascension of Christ to the Conversion of Constantine.

28. After the Ascension of our Lord, His disciples returned to Jerusalem, where they persevered in prayer, expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost, whom He had promised to send them. In the meantime, the Apostles chose Matthias one of the disciples, in the place of Judas. On the tenth day, the Feast of Pentecost, there came suddenly a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were assembled. Over the head of each one there appeared the form of a fiery tongue; and all of them, being filled with th' Holy Ghost, began to speak in divers languages and to praise the Lord their God. Peter, the Head of the Apostles, stood up and declared to the innumerable multitude of the Jews who had come together that the same Jesus whom they had crucified, and whom God had raised from the dead, was their Lord and Redeemer, and he called upon them to believe in Him. His discourse was so powerful that no less than three thousand came at once and asked to be baptized. Soon after, Peter and John went to the temple to pray. A lame man was lying there at the gate, and asked an alms of them. Peter said to him : Silver and gold I have none ; but what I have I give thee : in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk ' ; and forthwith the lame man sprang to his feet and walked joyfully with them into the temple, thanking and praising God. All the people were filled with amazement at this miracle, and five thousand more of them asked to be baptized.

29. The Apostles preached the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with great power, and did many signs and wonders. By this their authority increased so much that the people brought the sick into the streets, in order that, when Peter passed by, his shadow, at least, might fall upon them, and deliver them, from their infirmities. The chief priests and their adherents, seeing all this, were greatly exasperated. They caused the Apostles to be apprehended and scourged, and forbade them to preach in the name of Jesus ; they stirred up the people against them, insomuch that St. Stephen was stoned to death ; and they perpetrated many other acts of violence. But no earthly power was able to prevent the spreading of the doctrine of Jesus. The Apostles did not cease to preach the crucified Saviour, both in the temple and from house to house ; and the number of those who presented themselves to be baptized increased exceedingly every day. Even Saul, afterwards called Paul, the most furious enemy and persecutor of the Christians, became, through the grace of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ and the most zealous propagator of the Gospel.

30. The new converts in Jerusalem and its neighborhood formed the first Christian community, called the Church. Their conduct was unblemished and irreproachable; they served God with gladness and in sim- plicity of heart. They all lived in the greatest harmony, and had but one heart and one soul. None of them suffered want; for the rich willingly sold, for the relief of the poor, what they could spare, such as houses and lands, and laid the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles, that they might divide them among the needy. The Apostles were the rulers of the Church, as Christ had ordained; they taught, baptized, and administered the other sacraments ; they managed all ecclesiastical aff airs and governed the community.

31. Although many of the Jews embraced the doctrine of Christ, yet the greater part of them remained obstinate and hardened. God, therefore, permitted the punishment they had been threatened with to be inflicted upon them; about the seventieth year after the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt, by the Romans. An immense number of Jews lost their lives, and the rest were banished from their country and dispersed all over the world, that they might be everywhere and at all times living witnesses of the Divine judgment. The stubbornness of the Jews, and still more an express command of God, had early determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans or heathens. Poor and persecuted though they were, they announced to the nations of the earth the good tidings of salvation, under thousands of hardships and perils, even of death.

'Therefore God visibly blessed their efforts; and thirty jears had scarcely elapsed after the Descent of the Holy Ghost, when there were already Christian communities in all parts of the world. Over these Churches the Apostles placed bishops, to whom they communicated their powers by special forms of prayer and the impo- .sition of hands, and whom they appointed their substitutes and successors. All these communities were most closely united together, and formed, under their common Head, St. Peter, the One, Universal — that is. Catholic — Church. St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch, and afterwards Bishop of Rome, where he suffered martyrdom under Nero a.d. 67 ; and then the supreme authority over the whole Church devolved on his successors, the "Bishops of Rome, or the Popes.

32. The pagans were greatly alarmed at the rapid spreading of the Christian religion, which openly condemned their vicious lives and their monstrous idolatry, ■end they resolved to exterminate it. The Christians had either to abjure their faith or to die under the most cruel torments. They were scourged and lacerated, and were 'Cast before wild beasts; their sides were torn with iron hooks or burnt with torches. They were thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, mutilated, sawn in pieces, and crucified. They were covered with pitch and set fire to, that they might serve to light the nocturnal games of the pagans. Everywhere the Christians suffered tortures beyond all description. Many countries were drenched with their blood, and hundreds of thousands of every age, sex, and condition died under the most dreadful torments. Rome especially, the capital of paganism, and the seat of all the abominations of idolatry, overflowed, as it were, with the blood of the Christians. The number of those who suffered martyrdom in that city surpasses all belief; and their bones, which are still to be seen in the subterraneous caverns or Catacombs, where they were entombed by their fellow-Christians, are witnesses of it to this day.

33. These terrible persecutions lasted, with few interruptions, for three hundred years. Had Christianity been the work of man, it would certainly have been extirpated by the blind fury of its enemies; but being the work of Jesus, the Son of God, it took deeper and deeper root, and spread more and more over the world. The signs and wonders which the confessors of Christ did, but, above all, the imperturbable serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart with which they suffered the most cruel torments and the most painful deaths, convinced the pagans that only the God of the Christians could be the true God. It even often happened that, whilst the Christians were suffering these most horrible tortures, many of the pagan spectators were heard to crv out: We also are Christians ; kill us together with them ! ' and thus the blood of the martyrs was the fruitful seed from which new Christians continually sprang up.

34. By permitting all this. God had sufficiently shown to the world that the establishment of the Church was His work, and that all the powers of the earth could not prevail against her. He now bestowed peace on her by calling Constantine the Great to be the protector of Christianity. This Emperor, while still a pagan, was at war with Maxentius. Seeing that his enemy's army was far greater than his, Constantine prayed fervently to the true God for assistance; and behold, a bright cross appeared in the sky to him and to his whole army, with the following inscription upon it : 'In this sign thou shalt conquer/ In imitation of this cross, Constantine ordered a banner to be made, and had it carried before his army in battle. He then bravely attacked the superior forces of Maxentius, and overcame them; and from that time (a.d. 312) Constantine became the defender and protector of Christianity.

From the Conversion of Constantine to the Rise of Protestantism in the Sixteenth Century.

35. The cross, that had hitherto been the sign of the greatest ignominy, now became a sign of honor and victory. It glittered on the imperial crown of Constantine, and was displayed in Rome — till then the principal seat of paganism — on the pinnacle of the temple of Jupiter, the Capitol; and it thus announced the triumph of the crucified God-Man to the whole world. Constantine granted the free practice of their religion to the Christians, built splendid churches for them, and showed marks of great honor and distinction to priests, and especially to the Popes. His example prompted thousands of the pagans to embrace the Divine doctrine; and the idols were soon abandoned and their temples deserted. In a short time paganism was completely overthrown throughout the Roman Empire, and the Christian Religion was permanently established.

36. The Catholic Church had now to gain victories of another kind — namely, over her internal enemies, the heretics. Several heretical and schismatical doctrines had already been broached at different times and in different places ; they had, however, soon disappeared. But now, by God's permission, some new heretics arose, and gained many followers by cunning and fraud. They impudently left the Church, and formed separate and vast communions or sects, which were mostly named after their founders; as the Arians, jSTestorians, Eutychians. Pelagians, etc. These heretics often succeeded in gaining the favor of princes and emperors, under whose protection they most cruelly oppressed and persecuted the faithful. In the same way as the Apostles had formerly assembled in order to settle, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and under the presidency of St. Peter, such differences as had arisen in matters of religion (Acts XV.), so now also their successors, the bishops of the Catholic Church, assembled under the presidency of the Pope, or of his legates, consulted about the heretical: doctrines, and then condemned them. Such an assembly of bishops is called a General Council; and the decisions of such a council in matters of faith, when confirmed by the Pope, are infallible, because they proceed from the Church, which the Holy Ghost invisibly governs and preserves from all error. One of the most famous councils is that of Nice, in Bithynia, which was held in 325. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were assembled there ; and amongst them were many holy men who, during the persecutions, had suffered for Christ's sake, and had lost their hands or eyes. They unanimously condemned the impious doctrine of Arius, who obstinately maintained that Jesus Christ was not God from all eternity, and they cut him off from the communion of the faithfuL Although this sect, called Arians, was at that time very powerful, the Church, by her solemn decision, had set the seal of reprobation on it, and consequently it was gradually to vanish from the face of the earth. The same sentence of condemnation was passed on all the other heresies that sprang up in subsequent ages; and however hard the conflicts were in which the Church had to engage, she has always come off victorious.

37. During this period, God illustrated His Church also by many holy and learned men who gloriously defended the true doctrine. They are called Doctors of the Church, or Fathers of the Church. Such were St. Athariasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, who had to endure from the Arians a long and severe persecution for the true faith (d. 373) ; St. Basil the Great,- Archbishop of Caesarea (d. 379) ; St. Gregory Nazianzen (d. 389), and St. John, surnamed Chrysostom, that is, Golden Mouth (d. 407), both Patriarchs of Constantinople; St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem (d. 386), and St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 444) ; St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan (d. 397) ; St. Jerome, celebrated for his Latin translation of the Holy Scriptures, called the Vulgate (d. 420) ; St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa, one of the brightest luminaries of the Church (d. 430) ; and the holy Popes St. Leo the Great (d. 461) and St. Gregory the Great (d. 604). Whilst the Holy Fathers of the Church especially distinguished themselves as defenders of the true faith, the Hermits, or Solitaries, and monks, shone as models of the most austere penance. The hermits were pious Christians who fled from the seductive pleasures of the world, to prepare themselves in solitude, by prayer and self-denial, for a happy death. A cave:n in a rock, or a hut made of branches, was their abode ; the bare ground, or a few leaves, their bed ; roots and herbs were their food, and water was their drink. They renounced all the comforts of life, that they might entirely die to the world, and live only for God. The first hermit was St. Paul, who died about 340. St. Anthony, to satisfy the importunities of others, built the first monastery, and is called the Patriarch of Monks (d. 356). Thus the Solitary Life gave rise to the Monastic Life, which was so opportunely and successfully propagated in the West by the great St. Benedict, noted for the wonders he had done. For, not to speak of his miracles, we may safely say that Europe is especially indebted to the religious order he established for the cultivation of its soil and the conversion of its inhabitants. He died in 543. St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, was a Benedictine monk, and introduced this order into England in 596.

38. In the fifth and sixth centuries the Church was exposed to new dangers, when rapacious pagan nations left their own wild homes, and overran the Christian countries in countless swarms, laying' waste all before them with fire and sword. This is called the Migration of Nations. Some of them were named Huns, Alans, Heruli, Goths, Suevi, Lombards, Burgundians, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons; but the most merciless and savage of all these barbarian tribes were the Huns, under their king, Attila, who called himself the Scourge of God. The most celebrated towns were utterly destroyed, and whole countries laid waste and almost depopulated. The Roman Empire, more than one thousand years old, and once so powerful, could no longer resist these savage tribes, and was at last completely overthrown. Odoacer, King of the Heruli, took Rome, and was proclaimed King of Italy in 476. It is impossible to describe the extent of misery which these barbarous hordes inflicted on all Europe, until finally God subdued and civilized them by means of that very Church which they had threatened with destruction. Holy men were sent by the Popes to Which of them was the most savage and cruel? Who was their king, and what did he call himself? Did these savage tribes do much harm? What became of the Roman Empire? Who was made King of Italy? In what year? By what means did God subdue the barbarians? How was this done? When was Ireland converted, and by whom? What peculiarity was theie in the conversion of the Irish? In what centuries was Germany converted and civilized? Who is the Apostle of Austria? Can you name any more of the missionaries to whom Germany owes its conversion? Who is called the Apostle of the Germans? Where was he born? To what order did he belong? Of what town was he made Archbishop? How, and in what year, did he die? What did the missionaries usually do when they had settled in a country? What did, then, the monasteries do for the spreading and strengthening of the faith? For what else is Germany indebted to the monks? What emperor in those days interested himself particularly for the prosperity of the Christian Church, and what did he do? To whom does Hungary owe her conversion? announce the good tidings of salvation to them. These took the cross and the Gospel in their hands; and although they were exposed to the greatest dangers, they preached, with no less courage and confidence in God, the doctrine of the Saviour of the world. St. Patrick was sent by Pope Celestine, in a.d. 432, to Ireland, and labored there for many years, converting the entire country to Christianity, and establishing many episcopal sees, churches, and monasteries. This is the only instance in the history of the Church of the conversion of an entire people without a single martyrdom. St. Patrick has been deservedly styled the Apostle of Ireland, and Ireland was called the Island of Saints. In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries Germany was also converted and civilized. St. Severinus is called the Apostle of Austria, because he converted that country to the Christian faith. He died in 482. St. Columban and St. Gall, both natives of Ireland, preached near the Lake of Constance and elsewhere in Switzerland ; St. Kilian, a holy Irish monk, and St. Willibald, an English West- Saxon, in Franconia; St. Rupert and St. Corbinian, both French missionaries, in Bavaria and the surrounding countries; St. Ludger, a native of Friesland, in Westphalia; St. Anscharius, a French Benedictine monk, in Scandinavia and Lower Germany (d. 865). But the most indefatigable and successful preacher of the Gospel in Germany was St. Winfrid or Boniface, who is therefore justly called the Apostle of the Ger mans. He was born at Crediton, in Devonshire, about the year 680, and was a Benedictine monk at Exeter. On account of his great merits he was created Archbishop of Mentz in 732, by Pope Gregory III. ; and whilst he was engaged in preaching the Gospel to the infidel inhabitants of the northern parts of Friesland he was martyred, in 755. As soon as the missionaries had got a footing in a country, they made it their first busiaess to erect one or several monasteries. These sane- tuaries of religion then sent forth holy men to spread the seeds of Christianity over the country, established schools for the education of young priests, and taught the barbarians to leave off their savage manners, and to follow peaceful and useful occupations. Thus the wild Germans were taught agriculture, the duties of domestic life, trades, and mechanical arts. By the industry and labor of the monks deserts were changed into rich fields, and dark forests into pleasant abodes; in all respects they were the greatest benefactors of mankind. The Emperor Charlemagne, who had especially the propagation and prosperity of the Christian Church at heart, founded more than twenty-four monasteries, and erected several episcopal sees, which he most liberally endowed with lands and estates. His example was followed by the pious King Stephen, to whom Hungary is indebted for her conversion to Christianity.

39. Whilst the Christian faith was propagated in the West with gratifying success, most fatal and deplorable disturbances arose in the East. The Greek Emperors at Constantinople, instead of humbly submitting them' selves to the Church, wanted to rule her, and obtrude upon her their opinions as articles of faith. The people were heedless, the clergy frequently forgot their duties, and pride and dissension supplied at last what was still wanting to bring about that lamentable Schism by which the greater portion of the Greek or Eastern Church seceded from the Pope, the common Head of the Church of Christ (a.d. 1054). But God did not delay to inflict upon them the punishment they had so well deserved. As in former times He had chastised the Israelites for the neglect of His laws, so He now punished the degenerate Christians also. In the beginning of the seventh century (a.d. 622), there had appeared in Arabia an arrogant impostor called Mahomet, who pretended to be a messenger of God, and patched up a new religion out of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian observances and doctrines. At the head of a band of robbers, he first plundered caravans, soon after took cities and countries, and, sword in hand, forced the inhabitants to embrace his religion. His successors, who were called Caliphs, continued, by the force of arms, to subdue one country after another in Asia and Africa, and to spread the doctrine of their false prophet, and, at the same time, barbarism, profligacy, and the most oppressive slavery. Christianity, it is true, was not entirely rooted out in those countries ; but being separated from the true Church, it fell into a state of torpidity and debasement, under which it is still languishing at the present time.

40. In the year 637 Jerusalem, the capital of the Holy Land or Palestine, had fallen under the power of the Mahometans or Saracens (i. e., Arabians; so called from sara, a desert), and had groaned under their yoke four hundred and forty- two years, when, in 1079, it was conquered, together with the fairest portions of Western Asia, by the Seljukian TurTcs, a Tartar tribe, who came in 1048 from the Caspian Sea, and had in the eighth century embraced Mahometanism. The latter were the most relentless foes of Christianity. The enormities which they committed in the Holy Land, and the cruel treatment which they inflicted upon the Christian pilgrims who resorted thither from the West, gave rise, about the close of the eleventh century, to the Crusades. Peter of Amiens, a pious hermit, who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, reported to Pope Urban IL how the Holy Places, where our Saviour had lived and suffered, were profaned by the Infidels, and to what outrages the Christians were there exposed. The Pope was so sensibly affected that he resolved to put an end to the insolence and insatiable rapacity of the Mahometans. He summoned the Christian princes and knights to a Council at Clermont in Auvergne (a.d. 1095), called upon them to engage in a military expedition against the Infidels, and excited their enthusiasm to such a pitch that the whole assembly spontaneously exclaimed, ' God wills it! God wills it!' This cry reechoed through the whole West, and shortly after there stood ready a tremendous host of men armed at all points. They wore, as a badge of their engagement, a red cross on their right shoulder, whence originated the name of Crusaders and Crusade. Full of joy and courage, they marched to Palestine. After having endured inexpressible hardships, and fought many a hot battle, they at last took checked the further progress of the Turks f By whom were they at last completely overthrown? In what battle and in what year? What was the result of this victory?

Jerusalem; and the brave hero, Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, was proclaimed King a.d. 1099. Being presented with a golden crown, he refused to wear it, saying that he would never consent to wear a crown of gold where the Redeemer of the world had worn a crown of thorns; and he never gave himself any other title but that of Duke Godfrey. The new kingdom, however, lasted only eighty-eight years. Owing to the treachery of the Greeks, and to the want of discipline and harmony among the Crusaders, it was unable to resist the superior forces of the Turks, although it repeatedly obtained auxiliaries from the West; and thus Jerusalem was taken by Saladin, Sultan of Egvpt, in 1187. About the year 1300, fresh hordes of Turks, called the Ottomans, poured down from Tartary, subdued the Seljukians, and extended their conquests over Western Asia, Eumelia, Moldavia, Servia, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Morea ; until at last, under that monster of brutality and voluptuousness called Mahomet (II.) the Great, they rendered themselves masters of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek Empire (a.d. 1453), which calamity God no doubt permitted in punishment for the grievous offences it had committed against Him. The further progress of the Turks, however, was checked by the ardent zeal and heroic valor of the Christian princes Huniades and Scanderbcg, of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (who from 1310 were called Knights of Ehodes, and from 1530 Knights of Malta), and of other Christian Orders of Chivalry, till they were at last completely overthrown by the united forces of the Pope, of Spain, and of Venice, and by the evident help of the glorious Mother of God, in the famous battle of Le panto (a.d. 1571). The result of this victory was not only a check to the progress of the Ottomans, but also the beginning of the decline of their power; and thus Catholic Europe, and especially Germany, was saved from the imminent danger of being likewise overrun and subjugated by those ferocious Infidels.

41. In the Western countries of Europe, the Crusades everywhere roused the people to a more vigorous exertion of their mental powers, and to a new spiritual life. During the destructive Migration of Nations (38), the sciences had found an asylum in the monasteries; but now they spread among the people, and were ardently cherished by them. Celebrated schools and universities were established ; and men of wonderful erudition, as St. Anselm (d. 1109), Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), St. Thomas of Aquino (d. 1274), and others, occupied the professorial chairs. Those times, generally called '" The Middle Ages/ are still more renowned for the lustre of Christian virtues, for the firmness of faith, for childlike simplicity, and for an ardent love of God and man. Even at the present time we behold with surprise and wonder those ancient gigantic cathedrals which were erected by the piety of our ancestors; and we are enraptured at the most tender devotion, expressed in the paintings and statues with which they adorned the buildings consecrated to God. Such great and charming works could only be produced by the Religion which filled their hearts and governed all their actions. This same Religion also poured out the greatest blessings over the earth through the holy Founders of Religious Orders, St. Eomuald (d. 1027), St. Bruno (d. 1101), St. Norbert (d. 1134), St. Ber- nard (d. 1153), St. Dominic (d. 1221), St. Francis of Assisium, surnamed the Seraphic (d. 1226), and many other men of God. The numerous monasteries which they built not only produced many great Saints and enlightened prelates, but they also cherished piety and religious zeal among the lower classes of the people. They relieved the wants of the poor, sheltered and nursed the sick, and redeemed those who had been made prisoners and slaves; they sent missionaries into all parts of the world, and obtained, by their devout prayers, abundant graces from Heaven on countries and nations. 42. In the meantime, there appeared also an exuberant growth of cockle among the wheat in the field of God (Matt. xiii.). There were pernicious feuds and wars, various acts of injustice and violence, and many scandals. In several places, and particularly in Germany, the custom had been introduced by temporal princes of putting the newly elected bishops and abbots in possession of their benefices by giving them the Bing and the Crosier, the symbols of Pastoral authority, which ceremony was called Investiture, and seemed to imply the conferring of spiritual jurisdiction. Xot content with this, the Emperor Henry lY. used to bestow bishoprics and abbeys upon the most unworthy candidates, and even on such as offered him the largest sums of money. Pope Gregory YII. courageously inveighed against those crying abuses ; and hence ensued, about 1076, a long and tedious contest, called The Contest of Investiture, out of which the Church indeed came forth victorious, but not till after many hard trials. After that there arose heretics who kindled the fire of revolt first against the Ecclesiastical, and then against the Secular authorities ; as in France the Albigenses, in Upper Italy the Waldenses, in England the Wickliffites or Lollards, in Bohemia thf Hussites. Peace, it is true, was restored to the Church, and men, mighty in words and deeds, as St. Vincenf Ferrer (d. 1419) and St. John Capistran (d. 1456), went through the countries of Europe, preaching penance to princes and people. Nevertheless an unholy fire lay hidden under the ashes; feelings of disrespect and hostility to the Church, and a fondness for innovations, had gained ground, and were increased by many other attendant evils. Nothing was wanted for the fatal eruption of this volcano of wickedness and rebellion but an opportunity; and this presented itself in the beginning of the sixteenth century in Germany. Like a contagious disease, this lamentable evil spread abroad; thousands and thousands abandoned the Catholic Church; bloody wars, revolts, and corruption of morals ensued ; the most splendid establishments, founded by the piety of former ages, were destroyed, and unspeakable misery was prepared both for time and eternity.

From the Rise of Protestantism to the Present Time.

43. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and a professor in the University of Wittenberg, a man of an ir- rit'ble and turbulent disposition, began in 1517 by exclaiming against the abuses which are said to have been practised in the publication of the Indulgences granted by Pope Leo X. to those who should contribute to the rebuilding of St. Peter's Church in Rome. But soon after he arbitrarily set himself up as a reformer of the Church, inveighed against the Ecclesiastical authorities, especially against the Pope, whose supreme power he denounced as usurpation and tyranny, and which he said he would bring to a miserable end. In pursuance of his wrong views, he rejected many articles of faith which the Church had received from Christ and His Apostles. He repudiated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Fasting, Confession, Prayers for the Dead, and many other pious practices; he declared good works to be useless, and taught that man is justified and saved by faith alone. Moreover, he threw open the monasteries and convents, and gave leave to the monks and nuns to marry ; and he presumed to award to princes and sovereigns the right of confiscating the property of churches and convents, and of assigning it to any use they pleased. Finally, he broke the vow of chastity which he had solemnly made as a monk and as a priest, and committed the double sacrilege of taking a nun for his wife. Luther boasted that he took his doctrine from the Bible only; but being misled by the false rule of private judgment in its in- How did he interpret the Bible? Did he teach the pure Word of God? Can you name any of his errors? How was his doctrine received by the people, and how by some Princes? "What did he do to gain the favor of the Landgrave of Hesse? Did any imitate Luther's example? Where and what did Zwinglius teach? Where and what did Calvin teach? What did the Anabaptists proclaim? What havoc did the Zwinglians and the Calvinists make? Did the different Sects agree among themselves? Did their disagreement prevent the spread of their doctrines? In what were they united? What measures did they contrive to propagate their principles? What means did they use in many places to make the Catholics renounce their faith f terpretation, he soon fell into the most palpable contradictions and errors. Thus he asserted that ' man has no free will, and consequently can neither keep the commandments nor avoid evil ' ; ' that sin does not condemn man, provided he firmly believe/ f etc. Nevertheless, he soon obtained many followers; for the thoughtless multitude were very much pleased with such easy doctrine, which allowed them to lead a dissolute life, and covetous princes found nothing more conformable to their wishes than the suppression of churches and monasteries. Besides, Luther eagerly embraced any opportunity of increasing his party, and for this purpose he permitted the Landgrave of Hesse to contract a second marriage whilst his first wife was still living. The way of innovation and revolt being once opened by Luther, several others soon followed him, and they went even further than he did. Zwinglius, in Switzerland, denied the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Calvin, at Geneva, taught that God has predestined a part of mankind, without any fault of theirs, to eternal damnation, and that therefore He blinds and hardens the heart of sinners. % The Anabaptists proclaimed a kingdom of Christ on earth, in which there was to be no private property, no law, no magistrates. Zwinglius, Calvin, and other Sectarians totally demolished in the churches what had been spared by Luther. The images of the Crucified Redeemer and of the Saints, pictures as well as statues, and masterpieces of art, were hewn in pieces; the organs and altars were shattered; nay, even the graves were ransacked, and the bones of the Saints trampled upon and burnt to ashes. Although these pretended Reformers combated and anathem.atized one another, nevertheless their several doctrines spread most rapidly. United only in their hatred against the Catho- ' De Servo Arbitrio. t Epist. ad Melancht. an. 1521. De Captivit. Babyl. torn. ii. fol. 2S4.

X Instit. Relig. Christ. lies, they contrived all imaginable measures to gain the superiority over them. By thousands and thousands of pamphlets they disseminated their erroneous principles, and, at the same time, they most virulently attacked and calumniated the Pope and the Catholic Clergy. Moreover, in many places crying acts of violence were committed, and people were forced by all sorts of oppression and persecution to renounce the Holy Catholic Faith.

44. The Catholics, on their part, made several attempts to restore peace to. the Church, by entering into amicable discussions with' their opponents; but the hatred which Luther bore to the Pope, the Head of the Church, continued implacable. To check the progress of heresy and wickedness, the Emperor Charles V. assembled in 1529 a second Diet at Spires, where a decree was issued that, until the decision of a General Council, Lutheranism should be tolerated wherever it had already been established, but ishould not be spread any further; that no one should be hindered from saying or hearing Mass; and that all invectives against any religion should be prohibited. The Lutherans protested against this decree, and from this circumstance is derived their name of Protestants ; which appellation has since been given also to the other Sects into which they have divided. At length the Holy Father convoked a General Council at Trent, in the Tyrol, in the year 1545. The doctrine of the innovators was examined and unanimously condemned; at the same time, many excellent decrees concerning Ecclesiastical institutions and the reformation of abuses were issued ; in a word, the vigorous and decisive action of this Council gave fresh beauty and new life to the Catholic Church. The Protestants had been repeatedly invited to the Council, as they had in the beginning expressly wished for it in order to adjust their differences; but they refused to appear at Trent. Consequently, the unfortunate Schism continued, and brought unspeakable misery and endless calamities upon the greater part of Europe. Luther had preached liberty and reviled the Emperor, the princes, and bishops ; the peasants lost no time in freeing themselves from their masters. They traversed the country in lawless bands, burnt down the castles and monasteries, and committed the most horrible cruelties against the nobility and clergy. More than one hundred thousand persons were slain during this frightful insurrection (a.d. 1525). Other rehgious wars ensued, and Germany, which once had been so flourishing, became at last the scene of the most frightful desolation and of the most horrible atrocities during the Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648). The other countries which had embraced the new doctrine were likewise devastated by religious and civil wars. In Switzerland, Zwinglius fell in a bloody battle which he fought against his own countrymen. In France, the Calvinists, called Huguenots, with a devastating army, kept the field for many years against the crown and the Church. In their blind fury, they massacred numbers of priests, monks, and nuns ; they ravaged villages and towns, and burnt or pulled down many thousands of churches, some of which were magnificent monuments of Christian art. England also suffered severely for her apostasy, begun by King Henry VIII., who abandoned the Catholic Church because the Pope would not allow him to repudiate his lawful wife, Catharine, and marry Anne Boleyn. From that time, the country was drenched in human blood ; even King Charles I., a successor of the tyrannical Henry, was beheaded by rebels who boasted of professing and practising the purest of all Christian Doctrines.

45. The loss which the Church had suffered from the apostasy in Europe was to be compensated by the conversion of innumerable heathens in other parts of the globe. Missionaries went forth in every direction, and announced the salutary doctrines of the Gospel with wonderful success. It is truly astonishing what St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies, who was so eminently favored by Heaven, alone accomplished. Glowing with zeal for the salvation of the pagans, he crossed the vast ocean, and landing at Goa, in the year 1542, he began his mission by walking through the streets with a bell in his hand, and calling the children to come and be instructed. They joyfully attended and listened to the holy man, who spoke to them so affectionately of their dear Redeemer. When they had returned home, they repeated what they had heard, and so induced the adult persons to come likewise and hear the holy preacher. God rewarded his zeal, and granted him, as He had done to the first Apostles, the power of healing the sick, of raising the dead to life, of commanding the storms ; in short, the power of working the most stupendous miracles. With untiring energy he went from country to country, from island to island, through all India and Japan, and converted, in the short period of ten years, many tribes and kingdoms. He himself testifies in one of his letters that in one month he administered Holy Baptism to ten thousand heathens. After his death, other missionaries continued the pious work, and introduced the Religion of Jesus into China also, that immense, unknown, and till then inaccessible empire. That these heathens had been truly converted was proved in the most convincing manner when the persecution of the Christians broke out in Japan. About one million, one hundred thousand ' died for their faith, and the greater part of them were most horribly tortured. Even tender children, weak old men, and women of rank hastened with joy to martyrdom, dressed in their holiday attire, as if they were going to a wedding feast. So sincere and strong was their faith that even the survivors and their children have continued to preserve it under most adverse circumstances. Though shut out for over two hundred years from the Christian world, and without a priest, and subjected to tyranny and persecution, they taught the Catechism, recited the Catholic prayers they had learned, baptized their children, and strove to live piously. Ultimately the Japanese were forced to repeal their laws for the total exclusion of foreigners. Missionaries have again entered, and have found villages ♦Some authors reckon 1,200,000. of these faithful Japanese Catholics. In America also, that newly-discovered world, the light of the Gospel spread, and overthrew the most abominable idolatry with all its horrors and vices. No people on earth offered up more human sacrifices than the natives of America. The Mexicans sacrificed about twenty thousand human victims every year, and when they had no captives for this purpose, they did not spare even their own children. It is impossible to describe what the heroic missionaries suffered, and what dangers they incurred among those bloodthirsty men. They had to strusfgle not only against the cruelties and vices of the natives, but also against the insatiable avarice of the European settlers. Yet their labors were crowned with success, and the Christian faith was firmly and permanently established on this Continent. The mission of Paraguay, in South America, especially flourished. The brutish natives, who lived among the wild beasts in the forests, who thought of nothing but plundering, murdering, and revenge, who delighted only in eating human flesh, in voluptuousness and drunkenness, were transformed by the indefatigable missionary priests into devout Christians. They became models of modesty and charity, of innocence and piety, and by their untiring industry and labor changed their wild country into a delicious paradise.

46. The holy men who, with such indefatigable zeal, and often even to the shedding of their blood, devotei themselves to the conversion of the pagans, belonged for the most part to Religious Orders. St. Francis Xavier, and those others who planted the faith in China and Paraguay, were Jesuits — that is, members of the Society of Jesus. This order was founded in 1540 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, a man filled with the most ardent zeal for the honor of God. These religious exerted themselves especially in propagating the Catholic Faith, and defending it against the new-fangled doctrines ; and consequently they drew upon themselves implacable hatred and grievous persecutions from the enemies of Religion. God raised also other orders, that might, in concert with the Secular Clergy, heal the wounds which Luther and other heretics had inflicted on the Church. The pious Capuchins, who sprang in 1528 from the Order of St. Francis of Assisium, labored especially for the salvation of souls, and distinguished themselves by their affectionate zeal and austere life. The Oratorians, or Fathers of the Oratory, which was founded in 1574 by St. Philip Neri, devoted themselves to prayer and the instruction of the people, to visiting the hospitals, to attending the poor and the sick, and to literary pursuits. The fathers of the Pious Schools occupied themselves with the in- time? What do they devote themselves to? What is the origin of the Institute of English Ladies? In what was this epoch especially rich? Can you tell me anything remarkable of St. Charles Borromeo? What do you know of St. Francis of Sales? What did St. Vincent of Paul in general do for the temporal and eternal welfare of his fellow-men? What charitable institutions did he found in particular? Who especially labored in the sixteenth century in Germany and Switzerland for the preservation of the true Faith? Were there any other principal Saints who shone in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and who were they? By what Saints was the female sex distinguished at that time? What Saint did particularly illustrate the eighteenth century? What Religious Order did he found? What did all these Saints especially do, and what did they prove by their works and miracles? struction of youth, and other religious, again, with the nursing of the sick. There arose also communities of religious women for the training up of young girls to a pious and godly life; as the Orders of the Visitation, of the Ursulines, and of the Good Shepherd, and the Institute of English Ladies.' Above all, this period was exceedingly rich in heroes of faith and virtue. St. Charles Borromeo, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan (d. 1584), set a bright example of true Christian charity during the plague, by visiting the sick in the most dangerous places, in lazarettos and hospitals, and by giving up all his property, even his bed, for the relief of the sufferers. St. Francis of Sales, Prince-Bishop of Geneva (d. 1622), converted, by the irresistible power of his meekness and humility, seventy-two thousand Savoyards from the errors of Calvin to the true Faith. St. Vincent of Paul (d. 1660) devoted his whole life to the poor and distressed; no misery, of whatever kind or form, escaped the ardor and abundance of his love. He founded orphanages and foundling hospitals ; he established a Congregation of Missionary Priests (called Lazarists, from St. Lazarus College in Paris) for the instruction of ignorant country people ; an association for the reforming of convicts, and also the admirable Institute of the Sisters of Charity for nursing the sick. In Germany, especially in Austria and Bavaria, and in Switzerland, the Venerable Peter Canisius opposed himself as a mighty barrier against Heresy; he combated it by his writings and incessant preaching, and founded schools and pious institutions for preserving and enlivening the true Faith established by Christ and His Apostles. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were also illustrated by St. John of God, St. John of the Cross, St. Thomas of Vil- ' This Institute waa established in the Netherlands for English ladies who were persecuted under Queen Elizabeth for their attachment to the Catholio Faith, and soon spread over Germany, where it is still flourishing under the bove name, though its members have long ceased to be English. lanova, St. Cajetan, St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Camillus of Lellis, St. Josepfi Calasanctius, St; Joseph of Cupertino, St. Francis Borgia, St. Pius V., St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Stanislas Kostka, and by many other men eminent for the sanctity of their lives; and among the female sex were especially distinguished St. Teresa, St. Rose of Lima, St. Angela of Brescia, St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, St. Catherine of Ricci, etc. In the eighteenth century there shone among others, as one of the brightest ornaments of the Catholic Church, St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Bishop of St. Agatha, near Naples (d. 1787), who established the Congregation of the Redemptorists for the instruction of the people. All these Saints did great deeds and wrought innumerable miracles by their mighty intercession with God; and thus they irref ragably proved that the true spirit of Christianity, the spirit of charity, of humility, and self-denial, had not departed from the Church, as the blind adversaries of our faith unfortunately often assert.

47. Awful events, which make nature shudder, remain as yet to be related. We would fain pass them over in silence, if they were not most instructive for us.

As with all liuman productions, so it fared with the doctrine of Luther; it became antiquated, it altered and entirely changed. Sects upon Sects arose: Baptists,. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Quakers, Methodists, Moravians, etc. Each one of these Sects presumed, after theexample of Luther, to reform the faith. At last impious- Free-thinkers, first in England and afterwards in France, carried their presumption to the highest pitch, and contrived the infernal scheme totally to abolish Religion, and to exterminate for ever the Belief in Christ. Under the pretence of enlightening mankind, they deluged the world with writings in which they scoffed at all Holy things, grossly calumniated the Pope and the- Clerg}, and openly advocated the most shameful licentiousness. Their books, written in most attractive language, and sparkling with witticism and satire, found their way too readily among all classes of people, and at the same time the spirit of profligacy and impiety spread with surprising rapidity. At the same time the masses of the people were suffering from misgovernment, oppressive taxation and excessive privileges enjoyed, by theupper classes. These causes combined with the spread of infidel philosophy and the decay of religious faith brought about the French Revolution at the close of the eighteenth century. The Church was attacked, ecclesiastical property was confiscated; religious orders were suppressed by violence; monks and nuns were turned out of their peaceable abodes by force, and many religious houses were plundered and pulled down. Soon after, a sanguinary edict was issued against all priests who should continue faithful to the discharge of their duties. Was any one discovered refractory, he was cast into prison, or immediately hanged up to the nearest Napoleon act as a faithful son of the Church? How did he treat Pius VTL? Did God ever withdraw His hand from the Church? What became of Napoleon, and what of the Pope? In. what year did Pius VIL return to Rome? lamp-post. The Christian era was annulled, the celebration of the Sundays and Festivals "was abolished, the churches were profaned and devastated. Everything that reminded them of Christianity was destroyed. Finally, the madness of these men arrived at such a pitch, that they proclaimed Reason to be the Supreme Being, and conducted a vile woman as an emblem of the Deity, on a triumphal car, into the Cathedral of Paris, where they placed her on the high altar, in the place of the figure of our Crucified Redeemer, and sang hymns in her honor. Order, prosperity, and public safety disappeared together with Religion; fiven the throne was overturned and shattered to pieces. France was for two years the scene of such horrible atrocities as are unequalled in the annals of history. Human blood flowed in torrents. Neither age nor sex was safe from the fury of those monsters. The total number of the people slaughtered in this Reign of Terror was, according to some, two millions. And all this was done under the pretence of promoting the happiness of mankind. Enlightenment was their word when they abolished Religion; Liberty and Equality, when they murdered their fellow-men. At last, in order to stop the complete anarchy that prevailed, the leaders solemnly proclaimed that the nation should once more believe in God and the immortality of the soul. In the year 1799, Napoleon, in quality of First Consul, seized upon the sovereign power;, but he did not venture to govern a people without Religion. He therefore restored the Catholic Religion in France, and made a solemn Concordat with the Pope (a.d. 1801). However, the Church did not long enjoy this peace. Napoleon, blinded by fortune, attempted to extort from the Supreme Head of the Church certain concessions which he could not grant. The French troops invaded Rome, and carried away Pius VII. prisoner in 1809. But as God had visibly proiected His Church ten years before, when Pope Pius VI.

,i&d died a captive, at Valence in France, so now He did not abandon her to her enemies. Napoleon was vanquished by the Confederate Powers of Europe, and dispossessed of his crown, and the Pope reentered triumphant into Rome (a.d. 1814).

48. With the establishment of peace, after the Napoleonic wars, in 1815, a more favorable era opened for the Church. In France she recovered some of her old prosperity. What has been called the Catholic Revivai, besan, first in Germany, to the great progress of religion, and afterwards in England. In 1829 the disabilities under which Irish and British Catholics had so long labored were removed. A few years after, in England, the hierarchy, which had been suppressed at the time of the Reformation, was restored; numerous and notable conversions from Protestantism took place ; and the number of Catholics and Catholic institutions has since grown very rapidly. The infidel doctrines, however, of the French philosophers and subsequent free-thinkers have continued to spread unbelief, so that the Church has to contend everywhere with a spirit of irreligion.

In 1848 Pius IX. was obliged to quit Rome through the machinations of Italian revolutionists. During his short exile he received the respectful sympathy of the Catholic world; and, in 1850, amid the rejoicings of the Eternal City, he returned to his See.

In 1869 Pope Pius IX. convoked the General Council of the Vatican, which defined the dogma of the Pope's infallibility. Before the Council could finish its labors it was obliged to suspend its sittings hecause of the war which, in 1870, broke out between France and Germany. The Italian army took possession of Rome, and the Pope was unjustly deprived of the temporal power and sovereignty enjoyed by his predecessors for ages, and necessary to the complete independence of the Holy See. Pius IX. lived eight years longer, as a prisoner in the Vatican Palace, protesting against the iniquitous spoliation of the Church. The next pope, Leo XIII., passed his long pontificate in the same way. Yet from his prison walls his power reached to the ends of the earth. The enemies of the Church had predicted that the fall of the temporal power would prove the end of the Papacy. But never has the moral and spiritual authority of the Holy See been more powerful throughout the world than it is to-day. The German government, at the instigation of Bismarck, instituted a campaign of legislative persecution against the Church. But the fidelity of German Catholics proved victorious.

In 1903, Leo XIII. died and was succeeded by His Holiness, Pius X. His reign was marked in France by the culmination of a violent anti-Christian movement which began during the reign of his predecessor. Laws were enacted to suppress all religious orders. Catholic schools, and religious instruction in the government schools. The Concordat established with the Holy See was most unjustly abolished, and the Church was robbed of all her property throughout the country.

Shortly after the outbreak of the World War in 1914 Pius X. died and was followed by Benedict XV. whose heroic efforts to promote peace among the nations became fully known only after his death. The present Pontiff, His Holiness Pius XL, elected in the year 1922, is the two hundred and sixty-sixth Pope, including St. Peter. He is regarded as a highly gifted ruler, well informed on the problems of the day.

49. The most wonderful and most consoling fact in recent history has been the Church's unexampled growth in the United States during the past century. From a mere handful a hundred years ago, her children have increased to fourteen millions or more. This growth, too, is as sound and vigorous as it is extensive. Among the external indications of its strength enumerated with admiration by Leo X'ill. (Longinqua Oceani, Jan., 1895) are, our unnumbered religious and useful institutions, sacred edifices, schools for elementary instruction, colleges for the higher branches, homes for the poor, hospitals for the sick, convents and monasteries. Besides, as he observed, there are still surer signs of the faith of the people; for the numbers of the clergy are steadily increasing, pious sodalities and confraternities are held in esteem, schools for religious teaching are in a flourishing' condition ; the strength of popular piety is further manixested by associations for mutual aid, for the relief of the indigent, and for the promotion of temperance. Truly the judgment of the secular historian was well grounded who said that the Church's gains in the New World have compensated her for what she has lost in the Old.

Questions for examination

28. How did the disciples prepare for the coming of the H0I7 Ghost? Whom did the Apostles choose in the place of Judas? When, and how, did the Holy Ghost come? What change did He produce in them? What did Peter, the Head of the Apostles, do? What was the result of his sermon? How was the lame man at the temple-gate healed? What effect had this miracle on the Jews?

29. By what else did the Apostles spread the doctrine of Christ? What did the people do in consequence of this? What impression did this make upon the chief priests and their adherents? What did they do to the Apostles? Who was the first martyr? Did the Apostles, on being persecuted, cease preaching? What can you relate of St. Paul?

30. Of whom was the first Christian community composed! What was their conduct, and how did they serve God? Was there any dissension amongst them? Did any of them suffer from want? How were the poor relieved? By what authority, and how, did the Apostles govern this first community?

31. Were the Jews all converted? Did those Mho refused to believe in Christ remain unpunished? What punishment wag inflicted on them? Why were they dispersed all over the world? What determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans? Under what difficulties, and with what success, did they preach to them? How did the Apostles organize the new Christian communities? Were these communities separated, and independent of one another? Who was their common Head? What do we call all these communities together? What is the meaning of Catholic? Where was St. Peter bishop, and where did he die? Upon whom did his supremacy over the whole Church devolve?

32. What impression did the spreading of Christianity make on the pagans? How did they expect to exterminate if? What torments did they inflict upon the Christians? Were there many ihiis tortured and killed? Where did the persecution of the •Christians chiefly rage? Have we any evidence of this nowadays?

33. How ]ong did these perseentions last? Was the Christian religion extirpated by them? Why not? What convinced the pagans of the Divine origin of Christianity? What occurred oftentimes while the Christians were tortured? With what, then, may the blood of the martyrs justly be compared?

34. Wiiy did God permit these persecutions? Whom did He call to put an end to them? Who was Constantine. and what can you relate concerning his victory? In what year did Constantine gain the battle and become the protector of Christian' ity?

35. What had the cross been before this, and what did it become now? Where was it particularly seen, and what did it announce to the world? What did Constantine do for the Christian Religion? What effect had his example upon the paj2:ans? What became of paganism, and what was established in itB place?

36. Were the contests of the Church now at an end ? Who were her new enemies? Had there not been heresies before? And what was the difference between them and these new ones? Whence did the sects take their names? How did they behave towards the faithful? How did the Church oppose these heresies? What is the name of a general assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church? When and why are the decisions of a General Council infallible? When was the Council of Nice held? How many, and what, bishops were assembled there? What sentence did they pass? What error did Arius maintain? What became of these sectarians after their condemnation? How did it fare with all subsequent heresies? And what became of the Catholic Church?

37. By whom did God especially illustrate His Church at this time? How are those holy and learned men called? Can you name any of them? Did any other men distinguish themselves in the Church about this time? Who were the hermits? \lat was their abode? What was their food and drink? Why did they renounce all, comforts? Who were the first and most famous hermits? What did the solitary Life give rise to afterwards? Who built the first monastery? Who particularly advanced the Monastic Life in Europe? For what is Europe especially indebted to the Benedictine Order? When, and by whom, was it introduced into England?

38. What was the cause of the clangers to which the Church was exposed during the fifth and sixth centuries? What is this ealled in history? Can you name any of these rapacious tribes?

39. What happened in the East, whilst the Christian faith was successfully spread in the West? Who was the chief cause of those disturbances? To what were the people and the clergy inclined? What was the unfortunate result of all this? Did God suffer all this tt» remain unpunished? Who was Mahomet! What did he pretend to be? Of what did he form his new religion? How did he spread it? What did his successors do? Was the Christian religion totally destroyed under them? What became of it, and what was the reason?

40. In what year did Jerusalem fall under the power of the Mahometans? What do you understand by Mahometans, and what by Saracens? When was Jerusalem conquered by the Turks ? What do you call those Turks, and whence did they come? What was their religion? Were they friends of the Christians? What was the cause of the Crusades? Who was Peter of Amiens, and what did he report to Urban II.? What did the Pope do? What did he effect at the Council of Clermont? In what year was the Council of Clermont held? What ensued in the West? What is the origin of the name of Crusade? What can you relate of the first Crusade? In what year was Jerusalem taken? What can you relate of Godfrey of Bouillon? How long did the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem last? What caused its fall? When, and by whom, was it conquered? About what year, and by what Turks, were the Seljukians subdued, and how far did they extend their conquests? In what year, and by whom, was Constantinople taken? Who

41. "What influence had the Crusades on Western Europe! Where had the sciences found an asylum during the invasions by the barbarians, and among whom were they now spread! What learned men of those times can you name? What do we call those times, and what are they particularly remarkable for? What monuments give, even at the present time, evidence of the piety of our ancestors'? What enabled them to produce such stupendous works? Through whom in particular did the Catholic Religion pour out its blessings at that time? What fruits did the numerous monasteries bring forth?

42. Was there in those times no cockle in the field of God? What kind of cockle was it? What custom had been introduced in some places by the temporal princes? What is symbolized by the Ring and Crosier? What was this ceremony called, and what did it seem to imply? What did the Emperor Henry IV. use to do? Who opposed him? What is this contest called, and when did it take place? How did the Church get out of itf What evil came afterwards on the West of Europe? Which were the most notorious heretics of that time? Whom did God send to preach penance to them? Was the evil then entirely suppressed? How and when did the slumbering fire break out iuto a flame? What was the consequence of this?

43. Who was the author of Protestantism? What sort of a man was he? When and how did he begin his conflict with the Church? Did he stop there? How did he behave towards the Pope? What innovations did he introduce? What did he do with regard to monasteries, monks, and nuns? What pretended right did he give to princes and sovereigns? Was his conduct edifying? Whence did he pretend to take his doctrine?

44. What did the Catholics do for the restoration of peace, and what was the result? in what year, and by whom, was the Diet of Spires assembled? What famous decree was issued there? How did the name of Protestants originate? Are only the Lutherans now called Protestants? What measures did the Holy Father at last take? In what year was the Council of Trent convoked, and what was done by it? What did the Church gain by this Council? Did the Protestants come to it? What was the effect of Luther's preaching liberty? What took place during the war of the peasantry? Were there any other wars in Germany, and how long did the great religious war last in that country? What was the consequence of this war? Were any other countries involved in war. and which? Where and how did Zwinglius end his life? What are the French Protestants called, and what atrocities did they commit? Who introduced Protestantism into England, and for what reason! Did England gain anything by the change? What do you know of Charles I.?

45. How was the Church compensated for her loss in Europe? How was this effected? What is the name of the Apostle of the Indies? Where did he land, and in what year? How did he begin his mission? What did the children do? How did God reward and assist his zeal? In what countries did he work, and how long? What was the result of his labors? How many heathens did he christen or baptize in one month? Was Christianity also introduced into China? How was the sincerity of the new Christians, especially in Japan, proved? How many were martyred in Japan? Does the hatred against the Christians still continue there? What can you relate of America in general, and of Mexico in particular? Was the work of the missionaries easy there? What particular obstacles did they encounter? Did they succeed the less for all that? How did the savages of Paraguay live? What did they become after their conversion to Christianity?

46. To what class of men did most of the missionaries belong? Of what order were the Apostles of the Indies, and the first planters of Christianity in China and Paraguay? When, and by whom, was this order established? In what did these religious especially exert themselves? How were they requited for their labor by the enemies of Religion? Did God raise any other orders at that time, and for what purpose? When and how did the Order of Capuchins originate, and by what were they particularly conspicuous? When and by whom was the Oratory founded, and to what does it devote itself? What was the object of the fathers of the Pious Schools, and of other orders? What communities of religious women arose at that

47. What became, in process of time, of the doctrine of Luther? What was the final result of its alterations and changes? What did the Sectarianism lead to? What did the Free-thinkers contrive to do? What principal means did they make use of? Why were their books well received by the people? Whom did the infidels first attack? What became of the ecclesiastical property, the monks and nuns, and the religious houses? What edict was issued against the priests? What did the infidels do to destroy the very name of Christianity? With what particular infamy did they brand themselves in their madness? Why did prosperity and public safety disappear? What became then of France? How many people are said to have been slaughtered during the Reign of Terror? Under what pretence were all these horrible crimes committed? What did the impious wretches finally do in the utmost necessity? By whom, when, and why was the Catholic Religion restored in France? Did

48. When did a more favorable era open for the Church! When did the Catholic Revivai occur? What changes took place in Ireland and England? Relate the flight of Pius IX. from Rome, and his return. Give an account of the Council of the Vatican. When and by whom "was the Pope unjustly despoiled of his temporal power? Did this change ruin the Church? What happened during the reign of Leo XIII.? When d'd he die and by whom was he succeeded? What has happened f' France since the opening of the reign of Pius X.?