Course 3, Chapter 49

Christianity preserved and propagated. — Martyrs of Japan. — Orders of La Trappe and of Refuge. — • Seventeenth Century, continued.

1. Had the church any martyrs in the seventeenth century?

Yes; the most illustrious were those of Japan, nearly all the inhabitants of which were converted by St. Francis Xavier and his companions.

2. At what period was the persecution most violent?

The persecution was most violent in 1622. But

334 CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

the Christians every where displayed an admirable desire of martyrdom.

3. Give some instances?

A poor woman gave her girdle in order to buy a post to which she might be tied and burnt alive for the faith; and children of five and even four years of age astonished their executioners by their constancy. The church, consoled by so many victories, had soon to weep over another heresy.

4. What heresy?

The heresy of Jansenius, bishop of Yprcs, who maintained in a printed work that man is not free, and that it is impossible for him to keep some of the commandments of God. The Jansenists endeavored to withhold the people from the sacraments by exaggerating the dispositions necessary to receive them.

5. How was the church defended?

To defend the truth against the Jansenists, the chief of whom were Arnaud, Nicole and Quesnel, God raised up two illustrious bishops, Bossuet and Fenelon, and to expiate the outrages offered to good morals by scandalous sinners, he caused a new congregation to be founded.

6. What congregation?

The congregation of La Trappe, founded by a young ecclesiastic named Armand de Ranee. Whilst the life of the Trappists, more angelic than human, was expiating the crimes of the world, God opened an asylum for penitent females.

7. What asylum was this?

This asylum was the order of Our Lady of Refuge, into which were received unfortunate females and also females of unsullied virtue, in order to lessen the humiliation of the former. They all lived in community and called one another sisters; for, in the eyes of religion, repentance is the sister of innocence.