m or ■ mm V ^Vv x< ccc o cc ccc c cc - -occc CC c c< : c c. <: Cc C4^ !CC « r c "Cc C4^j( C C 4 ' CTNET/L. FIVE LECTURES ON THE EARLY CHURCH DELIVERED BY / Rev. W. H. O'Connell, AT THE CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL, PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. 1895. PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. : W. LANSING & SON, PRINTERS. ■■', f?\* INTRODUCTION. The following series of conferences were not in- tended originally for publication, at least in their present condition. They were written to serve rather as notes to aid the lecturer, than as lectures. The author had hoped later on to revise and rebuild much in them that is unfinished and lacking in order and composition, and thus present them to the reading public in more acceptable form. Their publication was hastened by the request of indulgent friends, and especially by the generosity of Mr. W. H. Mofhtt, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, believing that the students at the Summer School who had assisted at these lectures would value some memoranda of them, defrayed the entire expense of printing them himself. The haste of preparing them for press will explain whatever inaccuracies they contain. I hope in a later and fuller edition to give text of references and credit to sources which I have consulted. W. H. O'CONNELL. Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 13, 1895. CHRIST, THE BUILDER. Perhaps at no period of the Church's existence has the study of Church history been of such great im- portance as it is to-day. The nineteenth century is essentially a practical one. The subtleness of argument and the finesse of reasoning brought almost to a fault in the scholasticism of the times just passed, have scarcely a place in the mental attitude of the present day. Materialism has invaded the fields of religious doctrine and profane knowledge : facts not theories are what interest the modern mind. Now, history is nothing more or less than the searching out and weighing facts as they have happened, and thus by truthful relation of them to place under the very finger of science and to the eye of study, the story of the past, Outside the church, agnosticism rules the hour : no principle is safe, no premises accepted except those that are approved by positive experience; and so it comes to pass that argumentation towards moral or dogmatic conclusions has absolutely no force with the rationalistic mind, unless it can be proved that these principles and premises are, as it were, working material. History almost alone provides this working CHRIST, THE BUILDER. material. Of itself it frames no theories, it creates no principles; its work is simply a complete collection, a truthful and unbiased narration of positive incidents. Its value, therefore, in the field of modern science is at once manifest, for in proof of its position, it brings forth the handwriting and, so to speak, the very voices of the dead. Christian scholars may discuss among themselves and dispute as to the reasonableness of this or that particular doctrine, without ever arriving at a practical conclusion and agreement ; but if we can produce the tangible and visible testimony of eye witnesses that show beyond all doubt that this, and not that, was the doctrine taught by Christ, it is plain that there is no room for further argument. Now, this is precisely what history does. In this light, I would venture to assert that the his- tory of the first three centuries of the Church's ex- istence is of all times the most important, for it is generally agreed by all those who profess the name of Christian, that during this time, the doctrines and practices of the Church were observed and taught in all their purity. The accusation of error and corruption is never made against the Church as it existed then. The modern, as they call it, Catholic Church, has lost its claim to identity with the true Church of Christ because from the beginning of the fourth century, it departed from the simplicity and purity of doctrine and government of the primitive Church. Therefore, is it not manifest that the whole field of argument becomes purely historical; that is to say, the records and documents of the primitive Church must be unearthed and brought to light, so that the char- acter and conditions of early Christianity may be positively known, and then putting side by side with these, the teachings and practices of the Church of to- CHRIST, THE BUILDER. day, by faithful comparison, thus vindicating the vera- city of the Church's claim to identity with the Church founded by Christ, built by the apostles, and accepted by the earliest professors of the faith. It is of the very essence of the concept of the Church that it is a human organization living by spiritual principles; that is, it has its internal life and its external manifestations. By internal life we mean its doctrine, its worship, in a word, its whole spiritual existence ; by its external relations, we mean its attitude towards the people, the governments, the nations of its time. The present series of conferences deals only with this latter subject, that is with the founders of the Church and their followers, as they influenced society around them merely as a visible organization. Hence, it is plain that we must treat of Christ, the visible Founder, the apostles who propagated the faith among the nations, and the nations themselves who received it. Thus far, we consider the Church with regard to itself and its extension. On the other hand, we must view human society in its opposition to the Church as characterized by its persecutions ; and finally as a supplement to the written history of these times, the testimony which archaeology gives us in the recent discoveries made in the catacombs must be studied. Therefore, the subject matter of these conferences will naturally divide itself under five headings : ist. Christ, the Founder of the Christian Religion. 2nd. The Apostles and their labors. 3rd. The Propagation of the faith. 4th. The Persecutions. 5th. The Catacombs. We come, therefore, in this first conference to give an historical narration of the Founder of Christianity. At the outset, 1 would beg to state that these lectures or conferences are intended to be neither apologetic, CHRIST, THE BUILDER. controversial nor homiletic. The treatment, to be true to its purpose, must be strictly historical, that is, it must busy itself with neither moral conclusions nor mere descriptions, however interesting or fruitful these might be. It has been sought, in their preparation, to adhere most strictly to the scientific-historical method ; which is a simple, straightforward, accurate narration of whatever can be tound in the most trustworthy, authentic and reliable documents bearing upon this subject. It is hoped that what by this process may be lacking in attractiveness shall be more than compen- sated for by accuracy of knowledge; for aside from the fact that this is to be a study in histor}^, the brief time permitted to the consideration of subjects of such magnitude, forces us to confine ourselves to the simplest outlines of the events of this period. The central figure of all history is Christ. All the events that have happened in the world's existence are referred to the date of His coming. Strange as it may seem, of the life and wondrous acts of this great historical figure, extremely little can be gained from written records and authentic accounts. Of these, almost the only ones of indisputable authority and veracity are in the brief and meagre biography founded on the four Gospels. Accepting these as documents of the very highest historical value, inasmuch as they are a description of Christ, either by eye witnesses or by those who narrate what they tell, as coming directly from eye-witnesses, the story of Christ's life may thus be briefly told. Augustus was sitting upon the throne of the Roman Empire, and by a word of command could set into motion the machinery of government over the whole civilized world. He was proud of his power, and, desirous to learn the extent of his dominions and the number of his subjects, issued an edict that all the CHRIST, THE BUILDER. world should be enrolled. One of the countries af- fected by this edict was Palestine, whose king, Herod the Great, was a vassal of Augustus. The people were to be enrolled in the places to which they belonged as members of the twelve tribes. Among those thus driven forth into the highways, were an humble pair in the village of Nazareth of Galilee, Joseph, the carpenter and Mary, His espoused wife. Though peasants, the blood of kings coursed in their veins, and they belonged to the royal and ancient town of Bethlehem away to the south more than a hundred miles. They travelled some days, and at last came to the gate of the little town, he, terrified with anxiety, and she well nigh dead with fatigue. Onward they go to the inn, to find it crowded with strangers and with no room left for them. No house opened its friendly door, so they cleared a lodging in a corner of the inn yard, used as a stable for the beasts of burden. There, that very night, she gave birth to her first born Son, and having at hand no womanly attendants nor proper clothing, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger. How full of pathos is this simple description of the first scene in the life of the King of Kings. Amid the noise and bustle of the citizens of Bethlehem and the strangers who came to be registered, unheeded, unknown, the greatest event in the history of the world had taken place, and an ancient prophecy was fulfilled which said : "Thou, Bethlehem, little among the thousands of Juda though thou be, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be the ruler in Israel." It is not our purpose to enter into the dispute, still unsettled, as to the exact year in which Christ was born. Upon this point the most accurate chronologists and acute critics have not been able to agree. Sum- ming up all the arguments, however, upon this disputed point, the best authorities assign the year 750 or 749 10 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. of the Roman era to be the date ol the birth of Christ. As to the fixing of the exact day, the work is still more difficult. A Jewish tradition embodied in the Talmud fixes Christ's birthday in December. Clement of Alexandria seems uncertain as to whether November 17, April 20, or May 21, is the true day. The Syrians and Greeks clung with tenacity to January 6 ; but it is certain that from the middle of the fourth century the Feast of the Nativity has been celebrated on Decem- ber 25 ; and since 376 the Greeks have observed this day, which is the one set dcwn as proper in the Apostolic Constitutions. Though Christ made His entry on the stage of human life so humbly and so silently, though mankind in its activity went thundering forth next morning in the channels of its ordinary interests, quite unconscious of the event which had happened, yet He lacked not witnesses to His mysterious advent into the world. First came the shepherds from the neighboring fields ; these were the representatives of the peasant people, the laborers and the simple among men, who afterwards formed the bulk of his disciples. Next, came Simeon and Anna, representatives of the old law and the prophets, and from afar, in the countries away to the east, came the Magi, the representatives of the gentile world of science, philosophy and learning. All these gathered around His cradle to worship the Holv Child. But while He inspired within the souls of these, His first worshippers, the love and tenderness which were to be His greatest powers, into the heart of Herod, then ruling Judea, crept the poison of jealousy and fear. From the Magi he had learned the birth of the great King, and fearing a rival in his power he sent his soldiers to murder every babe under two years in Bethlehem. But Christ, with Joseph and Mary, had CHRIST, THE BUILDER. I I fled into Egypt, and the tyrant was foiled in his mur- derous intent. There dwelt the Holy Family, far from their native land, till Herod died, when they returned and dwelt at Nazareth. Up to this point the records are comparatively full and apparently clear ; but from the settlement at Nazareth till His public ministry be- gins, our information almost fails, and of the silent years of Christ's youth and early manhood we know next to nothing. The apocryphal Gospels, pretending to give full details where the inspired Gospels are silent, are of course, of no value historically. It is only recorded that "He grew in wisdom and grace with God and man." Nazareth was a notoriously wicked town, as we learn from the proverbial question : "Can anything good come out of Nazareth ?" And so from the very first, He witnessed the sinfulness of men and the awlul problem which it was to be His life work to solve. He worked as a carpenter in his father's shop, as we know from the fact that His own townsmen, astonished at his preaching, cried out : " Is not this the carpenter ? " Every year after He was twelve years old, He went with His parents up to Jerusalem lor the feast ot the Passover. The story of one of these first visits is the only occasion on which the veil is lifted tor thirty years ; and there we see in His answer to His Mother the shadowing forth of the purpose of His Messianic career : "Do you not know that I must be about my Father's business ?" On that occasion, He had entered the school in which the masters of wisdom taught, and by His questions He sought to turn their minds to search the sacred writings for evidence of His own divine character and mission. He often went back to the temple schools, only to mourn over the shallowness of their far-famed learning and the corruption of the old faith. 12 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. We now approach the time when, after thirty years of silence and obscurity in Nazareth, Jesus was to step forth on the public stage of life. Here, therefore, is the time to glance rapidly at the conditions of the nation and the people among whom He was to labor, for by this survey we can the better understand His future Hie and treatment at their hands. The Jewish nation had lately passed through extra- ordinary vicissitudes ; conqueror after conqueror had marched over it ; the battle of freedom had been often fought and lost. On the throne of David, a usurper sat, and now at last the country was subjected to the mighty power of Rome. Roman soldiers marched through the streets of the Holy City, their standards were set upon the strong places, their tax-gatherers sat at the gate of every town. Its religious condition had fallen equally low ; the forms were strictly observed, but the spirit had fled. The Pharisees, the representa- tives of the religious men of the time, multiplied fasts and prayers, titles and washings but were, nevertheless, an unspiritual and proud ecclesiastical class, avaricious in the extreme and scorning the people. They flaunted a vaunted sanctity while indulging their selfishness and vile passions. Society was rotten within, and veneered with a fair show of religiosity without. The Sadducees, though they praised morality, were no less self-indulgent than their hated opponents, the Pharisees. They belonged to the wealthy classes, the Pharisees formed the middle class, and between both these and the people was a gulf which remained utter- ly uncrossed ; and among these were classed the pub- licans and sinners, for whose souls no man cared. Such was the Jewish nation when Christ stepped forth upon the scene to find a people politically and relig- iously enslaved. And, if in fancy, we fly from the capital of the Jew- CHRIST, THE BUILDER. I 3 ish faith to the capital of the pagan world, we see there epitomized the condition of the gentile nations. The city is filled with idolatrous temples, and the squares adorned with the figures of false gods ; and drunken- ness and lust, war and theft, had their patronal divini- ties. Lying oracles and soothsayers were the only foun- tain of religious taith. And what few there were of men who disdained this pagan worship were led by false philosophy to vague conclusions. This was the world which Christ had come to en- lighten. Throwing down at last the carpenter's tools, and putting aside His workman's dress, He bids fare- well to home and the beloved valley of Nazareth. But first, He prepares Himself for His public career by two events recorded in the Gospels — His baptism by John, and the temptation in the desert. The first was His public inauguration before the world, when God visi- bly and audibly sealed His mission with His approval. In the second, the Prince of darkness was obliged to recognize that the challenge was thrown down. And thus in the face of earth and hell, empowered from abo\e with divine authority, He sets His face to His task and begins His public career. This is generally reckoned to have lasted about three years. As to its exact duration, again chroniclers and historians dis- agree. At the time of St. Augustine, there was an opinion that Christ's public life lasted only one year ; on the other hand, we learn from the Gospels that Christ visited Jerusalem for several festivals — St. John mentions three Passovers during our Lord's public life. Iranaeus and Chrysostom thought that Christ was nearly forty, and reckoned that His ministry lasted ten years. But we must conclude from the argu- ments adduced from the most learned writers, with Origen, Eusebius, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, that the public career ot Christ extended over three and a 14 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. half years. For convenience sake, we may divide this career into three phases; the first, we may call the time of obscurity ; the second, the time of public favor ; and the third, that of opposition. Of the deeds and actions of the first period, the rec- ords are meagre in the extreme. Soon after his trial in the desert, He appeared once more on the banks of the Jordan, where John pointed Him out as the Lamb of God, Who was to take away the sins of the world. At once, the best of John's disciples attached them- selves to Christ. Among these were John, Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathaniel, who had been prepared for this new Master by their intercourse with John the Baptist. With this small following, He went north into Gali- lee to Cana, and there he first displayed his marvellous power by working his first miracle at the marriage feast of Cana, at the request of his mother. Soon after he returned to Judea, to attend the Passover. On this occasion he entered the temple, and in the face of an astonished crowd, cleared the court of the holy place of the money changers, and rid it of an iniquitous traffic. Thus he began his career by an attack upon that force, called the lever of the world, and made his first enemies among the money worshippers. It is a significant fact, and one which indicates the character of his whole career, that His first miracle was wrought to bring joy to the simple feast of the common people, and his first work of reform was di- rected against the rich and the purse proud. Thus far we follow clearly the steps of Jesus ; but here our information comes to a sudden stop, and for the next eight months we learn nothing more of him save that He was baptizing in Judea. From this silence we may readily infer that though He labored much in Jerusalem, which was the chief CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 1 5 scene of his activity during this period, little, however, was accomplished, and as the results were mainly neg- ative the gospels are silent. The second period, lasting over eighteen months, was spent in the north of the country, chiefly in Gali- lee, which is the most northerly of the provinces into which Palestine is divided. The whole province was very fertile, and its surface was covered with large villages and towns. On its eastern boundary lay the lovely harp-shaped sea of Galilee, and this was the cen- ter of his activity. It stretches over a basin about thirteen miles long, and six broad, and its shores were verdant with luxurant groves of olives, oranges, figs and an almost tropical vegetation. The fields were rich with fruit and the waters teemed with fish. The fame of Christ had preceded him into this quiet spot. Pil- grims to Jerusalem had carried back the report of his marvellous preaching, and his wondrous deeds, so that for a time He was the one topic of conversation in the household circle, and the subject of much discussion of every gathering that met in the public squares and market-places. One of the first towns he visited was Nazareth, the home of his childhood and youth. He appeared one day in the synagogue of his native town. His early acquaintances and friends were delighted to have an opportunity of hearing this great preacher whom they had known as a boy and young man, but who had suddenly sprung into great prominence, and was the talk of the hour. He was invited to read from the Scriptures and address the people. He se- lected a passage from Isalas, in which a glowing ac- count is given of the expected Messias, and the work he was to accomplish. With wondrous clearness He unfolded to their attentive ears the mysterious words of prophecy, and as filled with the enthusiasm of the faithful picture, His eloquence grew into a very tor- l6 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. rent of convincing argument and description, the peo- ple held their breath spellbound with the charm and fascination of his power, and in the pause which fol- lowed turned to each other, surprise and wonderment upon their faces, and whispered, "Is not this the car- penter?" Again he takes up his discourse. Calmly he pro- ceeds, amid the hushed silence of the throng, to indicate to them how, one by one, all these signs were verified in Himself. For a while they listened, scarcely daring to believe their ears. At last recovering from their stupor, little by little the murmuring spread among the crowd, until it finally broke into a cry of angry scorn. The whole assembly rose, and gathering round him, still standing calm and unmoved in the face of their anger, they rushed against Him, and forc- ing Him before them out of the synagogue, they fol- lowed upon his steps, fiiling the air with howls of deris- ion, till they rerched a lofty crag behind the town. Some one in the crowd screamed to the rest to hurl him from the height to the ground below. The mob took up the cry and then and there would his career have suddenly ended, and Nazareth would have robbed Jerusalem of its sinful prominence as a deicide, had he not by a miracle concealed himself and withdrew from among them. This was the welcome offered him by his native town, which prompted that saying of his so full of pathos: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." Henceforth Nazareth could no long- er be his home. When, after this, He sought some little respite from his labors, He went to the quiet little town of Capernaum. From there He made frequent journeys inland, and sometimes he made the tour of the villages on the lake. In a few weeks all Gallilee was ringing with his name. Immense crouds followed CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 1 7 Him wherever He went, and the whole region was stirred to a very fire of excitement. His miracles ex- cited the widest attention. When, for the first time, he cured the dread leprosy, the terror of every Jew, the wonder of the people knew no bounds. When first they saw Him drive out the evil spirit from one possessed, they were overcome with awe; when He raised to life the widow's son at Nairn, His marvel- ous power was the theme of a thousand tongues. Soon he was looked for everywhere. The streets of the little villages through which he passed were thronged with the victims of every disease. He labored day and night, and often could not find time to eat. Now all Palestine had heard of Him, and people traveled miles and miles to hear him speak. He attached to himself those whom he had healed, and their friends, who, filled with gratitude towards him, followed him everywhere and at once became His most ardent disciples. Such a one was Mary Magdalen, out of whom we read He cast seven devils. The wonder of his miracles brought tremendous gatherings to hear him speak, and he used these won- derful deeds as a trumpet to draw the people to listen to his doctrines, and to give credence to what He had to say to them. It was a stupendous claim which He was one day to make, when He had prepared their minds to hear it ; one that would need an enormous amount of testimony to make good and sustain. He was going to shake to tneir very foundations all their dearest dreams and pet theories. It would require a wonderful degree of confidence to understand and be- lieve it. And so He spends days and days in showing those people that He came to them as an accredited messenger, whose word was truth. The day would come when He would say to them with unanswerable logic "if you do not believe Me, at least believe My works." IS CHRIST, THE BUILDER. But His miracles were only a means to an end. He had no intention of healing all the world of bodily ills. But He did come to rid humanity of the diseases of the diseases of the mind and soul. And this he did by showing them the truth in his preaching. This was His mission and the mission of His apostles and his church. His preaching created widespread excitement. Even His enemies testified to His won- derful eloquence, saying, never man spake as this man. We possess but few and meagre remains of His dis- courses, but even from these we may learn the force and cogency of His reasoning and judge from the re- sults that followed them, the impression they pro- duced. The form of these utterances is essentially Jewish. He takes hold of a single point which He wishes to impress, He turns it round and round, comes back to it again and again, puts into another form the very same idea, until the general concept of the lesson is unmistakably comprehended. Then, in a few, brief, pointed phrases, He focuses the whole significance of the speech and He has finished. His style, if we may so put it, was brief, epigrammatic, oracular. His sen- tences read like proverbs. They were striking in sound and easily remembered as they were spoken. They stick to the memory like an arrow. When He pictured truth in a parable, it was always just the very aptest possible picture, that would re- main forever on the mind, even years and years after the exact words had been forgotten. There never was speech so simple, yet so profound. The three marked qualities of His preaching are au- thority, fearlessness and power. The gospels tell us that the people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. They never uttered a word without attempt- ing to bolster it up with some other authority. He CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 19 spoke the truth as from His own knowledge, knowing that He Himself was truth. He spoke fearlessly, sparing no one, however high his office; indeed, it was always to the lofty and pow- erful He addressed his sharpest rebukes. He never lost an opportunity to unveil the sham and hypocrisy that sat in the high places. There never was polemic so scathing, so annihilating, as the indignation He hurled againts the scribes, the pharisees and the lev- ites. "His word stirred his audience to the depths. His word was power." The spirit of God which filled him, overflowed from His words into the minds and hearts of those who truly came to hear Him, and fired them with the same enthusiasm and zeal. Of the character of the doctrines He taught, it is the province of theology, not history, to treat. He spoke of God as the common lather of all, and taught His hearers that the time had come when not in Jeru- salem alone, but in every land under heaven, Jehova would be worshipped. He contrasted the new wor- ship which He came to establish, a worship in spirit and in truth, with the arid formalism and mere cere- monial of the old religion. But the centre and soul of His preaching was Himself, He was the son of God. He was the light of the world. He was the way, the truth and the life, and the command that accompanied every address was to come to Him, to hear Him, to follow Him. In Him was the fullness of time, the fulfillment of the law and the verification of the prophecies. In a word He was the Messiah, He was God. And now let us glance at His audience. He spoke to the people wherever He could find them; on the mountain, in the fields, on the sea shore, in the courts, in the synagogues. To one or to ten thousand, it 20 seemed to matter little to Him, so that He delivered His message. Some heard Him and in scoffery turned away; others listened, wondered, then followed Him. These gradually formed around Him a body of disci- ples. To them, from time to time, He gave a fuller in- struction, often taking them aside for a little course of private teaching. This formed the nucleus of that de- voted band which was afterward to spread and perpetuate His teaching. At the open- ing of His Galilean ministry, He set apart twelve of these, whom He called upon to leave their ordinary employments and ordained to the office of the apostolate. He commissioned them to teach the elements of His doctrine, and gave to them miraculous powers. In this way many towns about were evangelized which He had no time to visit. He had in store for them a mission much more far reach- ing, but that time had not yet arrived, and their in- dividual work we shall hear in the next lecture. Suf- fice it to mention here that in the choice, ordination and training of these twelve, he provided for the car- rying out of plans that during his life-time could never be accomplished — i. e., the propagation of his doctrine throughout the whole world. And right here we see the means He took to accomplish that end. He might have put the whole system of His wonderful doctrine down in writing. What a wonderful book it would have been, penned by His own hand; but He wanted His truth learned from a living voice, speak- ing with His own authority. That was undoubtedly the best way, since He would be sure to select only the best. And so, indeed, it has proved. So passed the second period of Christ's public career. Won by His wonderful eloquence, and cap- tivated by the tenderness and affection He showed to all who came to Him, the people followed His foot- CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 21 steps wherever He went, drinking in with avidity every word He spoke, and adding daily to the num- ber of his disciples. They revered Him as a prophet, they marvelled at his eloquence, they stood in awe of His miracles. The whole nation resounded with His name. They wanted to make Him king. Surely one looking in at that time upon Galilee would have the thought that Christ would soon be borne aloft on the wave of public acknowledgement to a victorious pos- session of Jerusalem. But even now, underneath these very signs of popular favor, can be detected the germs of opposition. Let us glance for a moment at the causes already at work, which would in the end pre- vail to turn His growing triumph into complete apparent failure. And first, we have seen the stand which Christ had taken and openly proclaimed against gold worship and power seeking. This drew upon Him at once the hatred of the Sadducees and Herodians. His constant companionship with the people of the lower classes was enough with them to condemn him as an imposter and a demagogue; and to be considered much in the same light as to-day an over-bearing, purse- proud capitalist would consider a leader of the social- ists — a dangerous man and a conspirator against their ease and comfort With the Pharisees, the same causes worked differently. They aspired to be lead- ers of the people in everything ecclesiastical and re- ligious, and so they became jealous of Christ's influence with the masses ; and when he proclaimed Himself the Messiah, He so completely was at variance with all their preconceived notions that His claim appeared both ridiculous and blasphemous. His constant com- panionship with sinners stamped Him in their eyes as one of the sinners Himself. His simple origin could never with their prejudices be reconciled with great- 22 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. ness of soul; He had selected his chosen organs, not from among the students of the temple, the college men of that day, but from peasants and fishermen; in- deed one of them was a publican. Respectable and learned men like the Pharisees could scarcely be ex- pected to mingle with such a class. Then, again, according to their estimate, He had lit- tle regard for the Jewish religion. He disregarded and encouraged his followers to pay little attention to many of the Jewish observances, washings and fasts, which in their eyes were inseparably bound up with ideas of religious life. But most of all he seemed to disregard the sanctity of the Sabbath, and this always remained with them the bitterest ground for hatred. And so when He announced Himself as the Messiah, they stopped their ears and rent their garments as at the sound of a blasphemDus utterance. But, then, there were his miracles; how could they get over these? Simply enough. They might be wrought by false as well as true prophets; they might be diabolical as well as divine. Their origin was to be traced on other grounds, and on these grounds they had made up their minds, that He was from Beel- zebub, not from Heaven. Once their judgment formed, nothing could change it. Finally, let us look at the common people themselves, among whom Christ had succeeded in gaining mo- mentary favor. They had listened to His beautiful and consoling doctrines, and their character of pity and sympathy had won them to His side. They were tired to death of the shallowness of the Pharisaical creed with all its petty observances that made life a burden; the simplicity and grandeur of the new faith appealed to them. Then, too, His miracles, bringing health and sight and life to their own friends and rela- tives, impressed them deeply. They accepted Him as CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 23 a great Teacher, and some even went so far as to ac- knowledge Him as a Prophet. "Perhaps," thought they, "this is the forerunner of the Messiah." But when they heard Him say that He Himself was the Messiah, He so little harmonized with their grossly material ideas of a national deliverer, that they turned aside and followed Him no more. At once perceiving the sudden change of feeling among the people, the Pharisees and Sadducees pressed their advantage, and here begins the last pe- riod of Christ's public life, which I have designated as the period ot opposition. Christ, Himself was the first to recognize the change, and seeing already that the turn of feeling had set in against Him, and that at the capitol. those in power had already drawn up their forces, He starts forth to confront them, and be- fore setting out for Jerusalem plainly foretells the coming conflict and its dread results. He seemed in haste now to meet His enemies, and to bring to a con- summation His life work. On His way up to Jerusalem He again worked wonderful cures, and by the raising of Lazarus at the very gates of the ecclisiastical citadel, roused back for a moment the popular admiration and allegiance to Himself. And so, when after resting over the Sabbath in Bethany, He came forth on Sunday morning to pro- ceed towards Jerusalem, He found the streets and the neighboring roads thronged with the people who had come out from Jerusalem to see Him. At the first sight ol Him among them, they rent the air with their shouts, and strewed the way with their garments and the branches they had plucked hastily from the trees ; and, most wonderful of all, they recognized Him at last as the Messiah, crying out: "Hosanna to the Son of David ; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Mark, He is no longer the carpenter, but the 24 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. descendent of their greatest king ; He is no longer the impositor, but He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. There is no doubting the significance of these words and this enthusiasm. It was a Messianic demonstra- tion, He accepted it as such ; He yielded to the de- sire of the multitude to make Him King at last, but He never allowed them to mistake the character of His kingdom, and, as if to insist upon this idea, He en- tered Jerusalem upon an ass, to typify his reign of sim- plicity and peace, a kingdom not of this world, but of Heaven. Hearing the people's shouts, the rulers asked the cause, and were told that Jesus had entered the city at the head of an army of people. In that moment, they decided that the only way to rid the nation of this disturber was by death. On Tuesday, they came to Him as He taught in the temple, and in all the pomp of official costume, they confronted the simple Galilean while the multitudes looked on. They were determined to make the way easy for the end they had purposed, by discrediting Him first before the people, so they entered into a con- troversy with Him on the most delicate and danger- ous topics. It is illustrative of their cunning that the question they put Him was one, which, answered either way, was sure to work Him disaster. That question was: " Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" An affirmative answer would have turned the people in- stantly against Him; a negative answer would bring down upon Him the punishment of the Roman gover- nor. His answer, so well known, was the saddest dis- appointment to them, and seeing their disadvantage, and profiting by their silence, He let loose the storm of His indignation against them, giving unrestrained expression to the pent-up criticism of a life-time, un- til, by exposing their ignorance and their hypocritical CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 25 practices in sentences that fell like strokes of light- ning, He made them the scorn and the laughing stock of all who heard Him. If anything was needed to settle their determination this was more than sufficient. He must die and die at once. That very evening, the Sanhedrim convened to plan His death, and even while they were maturing their design, one of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot, appeared, and, for a price, offered to deliver Him into their hands. The end now comes rapidly. On Thursday evening, He sat down with the twelve to eat the Passover. In that scene we witness the in- describable tenderness and grandeur of His soul. It is in the face of death that true nobility exhibits itself in its fullest beauty. Not a shadow was visible upon His face during that final feast of love, where, as if be- forehand, He offered Himself as a sacrifice in the mys- terious blessing of the bread and wine in the establish- ment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It seems as if, for Him, the passion was already passed, and the glory of His exaltation even then breaking around Him. Among the deep shadows of the gardens, He wan- dered alone, gazing with His Divine Vision, into all the terrors that awaited Him. His Body shook with dreadest fear, but His Spirit, strengthened by His Father's Presence, controlled the anguish of the fore- sight, and He comes forth deliberately to face a most cruel execution. Through the branches of the olive trees, He sees the crowd, with the traitor at its head, coming to arrest Him. They have brought lanterns, thinking they will be obliged to search through the mountain caves and woods to find Him. Instead of that, He comes forth to the entrance of the garden and awaits them. At sight of Him, majestic even now, they quailed like cravens* He voluntarily surrenders 26 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. Himself into their hands, and they lead Him back to the city. How the Pharisees and Sadducees must have rejoiced. At last, Jerusalem was safe and their power again secure. It was now about midnight: the rest of the night and the early hours of the morning were occupied with the necessary legal proceedings. There must be two trials, the ecclesiastical and the civil, each to be conducted in three stages. The first took place before Annas, then before Caiaphas, and lastly before the Sanhedrim. The civil trial was first conducted before Pilate, the Roman governor, then before Herod, the local ruler, and once more before Pilate. This was due to the political situation of the country. Judea was subject to Rome. Now the Romans were careful always to allow their provinces to retain a semblance of power ; so the Sanhedrim, the supreme ecclesiastical court of the Jews, was still permitted to try religious cases ; but if the sentence passed was a capital one, the Roman governor reserved to himself the right to in- quire into the case himself and pronounce the final sentence. The crime of which Jesus was accused was a religious one : the Sanhedrim passed the death sen- tence, so it must be confirmed by the Roman governor, Pilate, who happened at that time to be in Jurusalem, where he generally came during the Passover. It is needless here to follow all the details of this double trial : the lying, the perjury, the deceitfulness of the witnesses, each of whom contradicted the other, are well known. For a moment, it seemed as if the case had completely broken down. Christ stood before His judges in silent dignity : fearful that he would slip out of their hands, and that all their ingenuity would come to naught, they determined to make Himself His own accuser. Caiaphas rose from his seat, and facing Christ, demanded of Him that He tell them openly, CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 27 and thus to criminate Himself, whether He was the Christ, the Son of God. With great solemnity, yet with perfect simplicity and straight forwardness, He answered that He was. Instantly, the sentence of death was pronounced. The next morning, between six and seven o'clock, He was brought before the governor. The court was held in the open air. Pilate hated the Jews, and re- cognized that the chief cause of their enmity to Jesus was envy. He cared little for their religious conten- tions: conspiracy against the Roman government and his own power, was the only crime which would move him to pronounce condemnation : so he plainly asked Christ, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" arid from His answer, gathered immediately that as a spiritual King, He was no rival of Caesar's authority. He could see nothing of the revolutionist in that pure, peaceful and melancholy face and at once acquitted Him. The announcement was received with shrieks ol disappointment which omened ill for the peace of the city. So he devised a compromise, by sending Him to be tried by Herod. This prince cared only for pleasure and amusement, and was only glad to escape all responsibility of the case by sending Him back to Pilate again. It was the custom at this time, during the Passover, to release any prisoner the people might name. Pilate hoping to escape through this loop-hole from his dis^ agreeable position, offered them the choice between Christ and Barrabas. They chose Barrabas. Again he sought to move them by the pitiful spectacle of the Ecce Homo, but it was useless. The only answer he received was one that made Him tremble for his very position. " If thou let this Man go, thou art no friend of Cassar's." That was the cry that made him throw justice to the winds and sealed the doom of Christ, 2$ CHRIST, THE BUILDER. and immediately He was led forth to the heights of Golgotha. Crucifixon was the death reserved for slaves and revolutionaries. The idea seems to have been sug- gested by the practice of nailing up vermin in an ex- posed place. To this death, horrible in suffering and most infamous in character, Christ was condemned. There is much question and discussion as to the place of execution. It was probably a wide open space near the city, on the side of a much frequented thorough- fare, for we learn that besides the spectators standing about, there were others passing to and fro who shouted out words of mockery at Christ upon the cross. As to the year of this event, there is also much dis- cussion. Julius Africanus, Lactantius and Tertullian place it in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, in the year 29 ol the Christian era. Natullus Alexander argues for the year 33, and Baronius 32. As to the age of Christ Himself, when He met death, there is the same dispute ; the common tradition is that He was 33. Others maintain that He was 34, and still others, perhaps with stronger reasons, hold that He was at least 38. Up to now the question remains unsettled. There was never an enterprise in the world which seemed more completely at an end than did Christ's mission on that day. Death ends all controversies. He was in the grave and all His pretentions with Him. Even His disciples and apostles seemed to accept this as settled. Can anything convince us better of this than the words of the two travelers to Emmaus : "We trusted." Mark — it is in the past tense. " We trusted that it had been He Who should have redeemed Israel." Could words express more utter disappointment ? But by a testimony most irrefutable, coming as it does from eye witnesses of the fact, from the Roman soldiery, who cannot be accused of interest in the narration, — and the apostles, who were perhaps as much surprised CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 29 as the soldiers, Christ, on the third day, came alive from the tomb. Perhaps the very best proof of this is the change in the apostles themselves. Nothing short of the most palpable and material evidence coulcl have persuaded them of this fact; that they were persuaded, is even stronger evidence than the testi- mony of the Roman soldiers. For forty days He lived again among them. He ate with them; He walked with them; He took their hands in His own ; He made them touch Him in the wound He had received in death, — and all this seems to have been necessary to prove that they had not been deluded. And when at last, this had been assured, and when He had explained to them in complete fulness the nature of their work, before their very eyes, He was lifted up above them and borne beyond the clouds, out of their sight, into that world to which He right- fully belonged. In briefest possible outline is thus the life story of the Founder of God's Church indicated. Passing as is this glimpse, we gather here the concept of the origin of Christianity. It is the seed of the greatest organ- ization the world has ever known. To human eyes it began in a stable, and was buried in the sepulchre near Calvary. Humbler and more insignificant birth, no human project ever had : yet to-day, it fills the world, and even now, seems only commencing its career of marvellous development. Without the knowledge of this chapter of the Church's history, that is, the story of its Founder, at the very sowing of the seed, the full force of its later growth can never be truly realized. And so the better to grasp the import of the pages to be deciphered in later conferences, it was necessary to bring the mind back to the first inceptions of this most absorbing and 30 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. interesting story, and thus by gradual stages to pass from the very first scenes of the great drama, through each successive period to our own times. And of all the arguments adduced to prove the divinity of the Church's character and mission, none can possibly be stronger than the simple tale of the life of Jesus Christ. THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. We open the Gospels and read that among those who followed The Lord, Christ chose twelve, and called them apostles. And these were Simon, whom He called Peter, and Andrew his brother ; James and John ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thomas ; James and Simon, called Zealotes ; Judas, son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Him. To them He intrusted the mission which He Himself had re- ceived from His Divine Father ; to represent on earth the person of Christ, to be partakers of His power, to lead the world to the knowledge of the Saviour, and to persuade Jew and Gentile, Greek and Roman, that He was the Son of God, the true Redeemer. Thus He entrusted to them this arduous task : "All power is given to Me in Heaven and on earth ; going, therefore, teach all nations, baptising 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 always, even unto the consummation of the world" (St. Matthew, Chap. 28.) Consider for a moment the import of these words. Christ, Who speaks them, was soon, as He Himself knew, to be treated as the outcast of His own 32 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. race, and they to whom He spoke were men utterly unknown, without influence or power, and yet, like some great ruler of a powerful nation addressing his mighty generals, whose name filled the world with ter- ror, He gives them this command to subdue the whole world to His control. It would seem, according to human wisdom, that this great commission might only be entrusted to men who by talent and known ability, were fitted to carry it out. Yet Christ acted otherwise ; and for the unspeak- ably great work of preaching the Gospel, against which forces most obstinate and strong arrayed themselves in opposition, chose men who seemed of all others least fitted to perfect this work ; men of the lowest class of society, ignorant, timid, inexperienced, and who even in their own country, were looked down upon and de- spised as mere fishermen. Kings must choose their ministers from among the ablest, wisest, boldest and most enlightened of their subjects ; for in imparting to them authority, they cannot with that impart talent and ability, but must presuppose it. But Christ, with the authority which He communicated to His representatives, communicated also the wisdom, the knowledge, the power and strength necessary to ex- tend and enforce it. It was evidently the design of Christ to prove from the very beginning the divinity of the Church's origin, and His own omnipotence ; since it would be plain to all that, humanly speaking, the means He chose were the least fitted to compass the end proposed. For, behold, on one side a handful of men of lowly birth, of no au- thority, unlettered, uncultured and despised ; and on the other, the whole world, Jewish and Pagan, emper- ors, high priests, philosophers and all that is rich, pow- erful and great. Count the forces arrayed for battle on either side, and who will doubt as to which should THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 33 naturally belong the victory ? Picture these twelve standing before the wisest and most learned of their age, and proclaiming to the world in the very face of kings and rulers, "Till now you have all gone astray. You are ignorant of the first rudiments of true philos- ophy. Wise, as you pretend to be, you are less than children in the knowledge of truth. And truth, what is that? It is Christ crucified, whom you, oh, Jewish nation, repute a scandal, and you, Gentiles, consider folly, but to us, who have been called of God, wisdom and virtue." Fancy this picture and then ask who will listen to these twelve or obey their teaching ? If, therefore, notwithstanding the world listens and obeys, it must be plain that not by human means, but by the power of God, this wonder, this greatest of all miracles, is ac- complished. The same power which brought the universe out of nothing transformed these humble instruments into an almost omnipotent agency in the completion of its de- signs ; and made of the lowly fishermen, timid, weak and ignorant as they were, fearless champions, sublime philosophers and most intrepid warriors, who feared not the frown of kings, disputed with great intellects, and challenged the teachings of the most learned schol- ars. This wondrous transformation came upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, which is, therefore, considered the birthday of the church. On that great day, the apostles and disciples "were all gathered in the same place, and there came of a sudden from Heaven, the sound as of a great whirlwind, and it filled all the house where they were assembled ; and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and they rested upon each of them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost ; and they began to speak various tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave 34 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. them to speak. And there dwelt in Jerusalem, Jews, religious men of every nation under heaven, and as the word went abroad there assembled a great multi- tude, and they were all astonished, each one to hear them speaking his own tongue ; and they wondered, saying: 'Are not all these who speak Galileans, and how is it that each of us hears the language in which we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappa- docia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, Egypt and the countries of Lybia which is near Cyrene, and strangers from Rome ; Jews also and proselytes ; the inhabitants of Crete and Arabia: we have heard them speak in our tongues the greatness of God/ And all wondered among themselves, saying : 'What may this be?'" It was by this means that Christ infused into the apostles wisdom of mind and strength of heart to commence the difficult work of preaching to every nation the divine word. The Holy Ghost who on that day descended upon them there in the cenacle, was sent to them as a confirmation and consolation ; flood- ing their intelligence with light, illumining their minds whereby truths invisible before, or vaguely seen, became to their vision clear as the day ; ani- mating their very tongues to marvellous eloquence, and firing their souls with a zeal that made them burn to carry to the ends of the world the doctrines of the new faith. Before, they were, as we know from the Gospels themselves, vacillating, timorous, almost puerile ; always, misunderstanding the words ol their Divine Master, who even after repeated explanations, still found them incapable of grasping His meaning. Now, all is changed : the deepest mysteries are plain to them, and henceforth, no power on earth can move them from their loyalty. THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 35 And see, how on that very day, without waiting for the night to pass, they begin the work which they already yearn to complete. Is it not significant that before they could travel to the ends of the world, the world had come to them? — "Men of every nation under heaven." To that assembly, Peter, chief of the Apostolic senate, first spoke, and preached the doctrine of Christ Crucified, whose Divinity He confirmed by the facts of His Resurrection and Ascension. And as a result, three thousand souls received the light and professed Christ, the first fruit of the Apostolic mission. It is almost impossible to understand in the face of this direct and clear narration, recorded in the Acts, how men can credit the childish imaginations of Renan, who dares to affirm that the fact of Pente- cost never took place ; declaring that the apostles were deceived or deluded in fancying the apparition of tongues, and the rush, as it is described of the Holy Spirit. " These ignorant men," he says, " credulous and imaginative, had come together to wait the coming of the Holy Ghost. With this preconceived idea in their minds, any extraordinary natural phenomenon, happening at the time, would have passed as a super- natural sign. Just at that time, a terrible whirlwind arose and a storm passed over the city, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The windows of the cen- acle were naturally blown open, and the terrified apostles, at this sight, believed that they had received the Holy Ghost. Filled with this delusion and thus excited to a sudden exaltation of mind, they ran out of the house, talking confusedly, whatever came to their lips, and so they believed they had received the gift of tongues. To what depths of folly will not men go in attempt- ing to discredit the supernatural. But all the world 36 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. knows that literary style rather than logic and historical accuracy, is to be found in the writings of Renan. By what laws of criticism does Renan prove that the apostles and the disciples, to the number of one hundred and twenty, were deceived in the matter they person- ally experienced, mistaking for the coming of the Holy Ghost the noise and thunder of a passing storm ? How can he prove that the apostles imagined themselves possessed of the gift of tongues when in reality, they only prattled in fear of the thunder and lightning. How can he demonstrate that the great mass of people who listened to the apostles thus muttering unin- telligible sounds, mistook their ravings for words of their own language so different from the mother tongue of the apostles ? Would the miracle be less or easier to explain, to suppose that inarticulate and confused mutterings should by chance, form complete and dis- tinct sentences in a language unknown ? But to Renan, proof counts for nothing. Any theory, however fanciful and unfounded, seems valid if only he can explain away the supernatural. It is an established rule of criticism that a fact narrated by a trustworthy author, must be admitted as related unless it involves an intrinsic repugnance, or is attested by witnesses unworthy of credence. Now who is it that narrates this fact of the descent of the Holy Ghost? It is the Evangelist, St. Luke, who, in the beginning of his Gospel, affirms that he relates the things that happened as they were told him by those who had seen them with their eyes. This miracle of Pentecost, among the rest, St. Luke had heard from the apostles and disciples themselves. They, therefore, must be considered as the victims of the illusion. But read critically the speech of St. Peter on this occasion delivered to that vast multitude, and judge whether it was likely to be the result of THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 37 phantasy or imagination. It is a masterpiece of calm reasoning and logical persuasion, full of most solid argument, methodically sustained, not a sign or trace that could indicate, even remotely, anything of mental illusion or fanciful deception, and the result strengthens and proves that those who listened to him, heard no raving dreamer but a profound and cogent reasoner; deeply stirred, if you will, to enthusiasm of his subject, but always, nevertheless, deliberate and conclusive. Moved by his discourse, three thousand people gave their assent to the truths he preached. Can Renan ex- plain this fact by the theory of illusion and imagination ? If so, he only adduces one miracle to disprove another. The witnesses to the fact of Pentecost were not dcfew people, but were an immense multitude of three thou- sand souls, strangers to the apostles and even their enemies. If such testimony may be waived aside in proof of a historic fact, then let us close forever the pages of history and bid goodbye to truth and certaiinly in all science. From that day, began the spreading of the knowledge of the new faith. Filled with zeal for their mission, the apostles, from that time, ceased not day or night in their labors, to bring to most distant peoples the knowledge which makes men free. In a short time, the number of believers increased and many of the priests even, who a little while before had clamored tor the blood of Christ, became subject to the faith. '• And they were all of one heart and one mind. " At once, the Jewish rabbis and leaders, seeing this sudden growth of the Church, and fearing for their own posi- tion and influence, arose against the apostles and their followers, and began a virulent persecution by the stoning of Stephen, who full of grace and strength, had worked many and great wonders ; and the disciples of Christ, seeing the danger, fled throughout Judea 38 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. and Samaria, while the apostles remained in Jerusalem to comfort and console the infant Church. It was at this time that Christ called to His service, one who had distinguished himself among- the bitterest enemies of the Cross, and from a merciless persecutor, became a very vessel of election. Saul, the persecutor, became Paul, the apostle, preaching the mysteries of the new faith with all the zeal that had distinguished his former hatred of it. Filled with the love of Christ, who had appeared to him, on the road to Damascus, and persuaded of the truth of the Gospel, he hurried from place to place, and before Jew and Gentile spent himself in preaching,exhorting, writing; and suffering for his zeal and labors the greatest trials, the fiercest persecution, the direst opposition. Beginning the work of his apos- tolate in Damascus, he continued it in Tarsus and An- tioch with such results, that in the last named place those converted were the first to be called Christians. We read of his travels and labors and wonder how it was possible for a single man to accomplish such deeds. When we consider the difficulties of travel which then existed, the perils by sea and by land that beset the wayfarer, and then follow this champion of the faith from one city to another,, over hill and mountain, through strange lands, and across stormy seas, we wonder at the hardships he endured and the dang- ers he underwent. From Antioch, where with Barnabas, he received the imposition of hands, he set out first, to Seleucia, and thence to Salamina, the capital of the Island of Cyprus, the birthplace of St. Barnabas. Thence, passing over the whole island to Paphos, on he went to Perge, in Pamphilia ; to Antioch in Pisidia ; at each place ad- dressing the multitudes and gaining many to the faith. Next we find him at Aconium, whence, driven by the Jews, who threatened to stone him, he flies to Lystra and THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 39 from there to Derbe in Lycaonia, where, on account of his wondrous eloquence, the people believed him to be a god, and thought that Mercury had come among them. Pamphilia is the next scene of his labors. From there he passed to Macedonia and on still to Thessalonica, and then, by sea to Athens, where he disputed in the Synagogue and addressed the philosophers in the Are- opagus with such conviction and force of argument that "some of them adhering to him believed, among them was Dionysius, the Areopagite." We see him next at Corinth, where for a year and a half, he labored incessantly preaching and baptizing. Over the sea he passes into Syria, arriving at length at Ephesus, thence down to Caesarea and Jerusalem, returning again to Antioch. Nor did he remain long in this city among the friends who welcomed him back. He still could not rest from his labors till in other lands and among other peoples he had carried the knowledge of Christ. Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia and Phrygia next hear his voice, returning again to Ephe- sus, where his labors promised so rich a harvest that the pagan priests feared that their temples would be deserted. Although foreseeing the dangers that awaited him in Jerusalem, he returned to the holy city, where he was, at length, cast into prison. Condemned to be scourged, he escapes this punishment by appeal- ing to the emperor, to whom he is sent to be tried. And behold, the great apostle of the Gentiles arrives at the very capital of the pagan world, in Rome, where for two full years, he dwelt in comparative freedom, laboring day and night for the conversion of the Roman people. Unable now to continue his travels, nevertheless, he contrives by writing and letters to hold communica- tion with the Christian world and with the churches which he had founded, instructing, correcting and ex- 40 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. horting them in the faith they had received from him. And into the distant regions where his voice could no longer reach, his pen still carried the message he yearned to deliver. Acquitted in Rome of the crimes with which he was charged, again in distant regions he carried this same message, and never wearied in the work of his glori- ous apostolate till under Nero, in the city of Rome, he offered up his very blood and life for Christ. Let me conclude these words upon the preaching and labors of ^t. Paul with the words of St. Clement. " God's messenger, Paul preaching in the east and the west, taught the whole world, reaching in his zeal to the very ends of the earth. He fought the good fight, suffering till the end. In prison, banished, stoned, he ceased not from his labors till by his glorious martyr- dom he was called from earth to Christ's own kingdom, leaving for us in his life a model of zeal, patient en- durance, and noblest suffering." Let us turn now from this champion of Christ to consider the labors of him, whom Christ had chosen as the Prince of the apostles, the primate of His Church on earth. We have seen already, in the story of the day of Pentecost, that the first work of the apostolate was inaugurated by Peter, who on that occasion, com- menced his labors as head of the Church by preaching to the multitude in Jerusalem, and gathering to the fold of which he was now chief shepherd, three thousand souls. Next, we see him healing in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the poor cripple who, at the beautiful gate of the temple, asked alms of those that went in. At the sight of this miracle the people gathered in great crowds ; and St. Peter again taking advantage of the presence of this multitude, filled with wonder at his power, addressed them ; and as a second fruit of his preaching, many of them who had heard the word THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 41 believed and the number of the men was made five thousand. Stirred to anger and jealousy the priests and Sadducees seized him and cast him into prison. No sooner was he released than he again applied him- self to preaching the word of God and to confirming his doctrines by wonderful miracles. Nor were his labors confined to Jerusalem alone. In the Acts, we read of his miracles performed at Lydda and in Joppa. In the last named place, by a supernatural vision given to him while rapt in ecstacy, he saw that it was the will of God and of Christ that the Church was intended to be truly Catholic, opening its doors not only to the tribes of Israel, but to all the world ; and that not only the Jews, but the Gentiles also, had been redeemed by the blood of Christ ; and recognizing that God is not a respector of persons but that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh justice is acceptable to Him. He went to Cesaraea, and received into the faith Cornelian, a centurion of the Italian cohort, who with all the members of his house was baptized in the Name of Christ. He re- turned to Jerusalem, then went to Antioch where he ruled the Church for seven years. Stirred by the constant increase and growth of the infant Church, the Jews arose in persecution. And Herod Agrippa, not content with putting to death the apostle St. James, sought also to please the Jews, b}^ condemning to a like fate, St. Peter. He seized the apostle, whom he cast into prison, bound with chains, expecting to entertain the Jews by the spectacle of his death, after the days of the Passover. But the angel of God delivered Peter from the hands of the tyrant and the expectations of the Jews, and God, who draws good from evil, sent this prince ol the apostles to preach to other nations. Question has been raised as to whether Christ had 42 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. entrusted to St. Peter the apostolate of the Jews only, or whether it extended to the Gentiles also. Doubt- less, the origin of this discussion arose lrom the words of St. Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians : " To me was committed the gospel of the uncircumcised as to Peter was that of the circumcision. But how can there be any doubt about this question, that to St. Peter was committed also to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, when we know that by Christ Himself, he was ordered in Joppa, to receive into the Church Cornelius, the centurion and his family. And again, when as we see, that at the Apostolic council of Jerusalem, he himself, attests that the mission to the Gentile as well as Jew, was delivered alike to all the apostles; and when moreover we consider that St. Peter occupied the primacy of the whole church, the absurdity of such a question becomes manitest. While St. Peter remained in the east, he especially addressed himself to the Jews, following thus, in the footsteps of our Lord, but no one may suppose from this that he preached to the Jews alone. Liberated from prison and delivered out of the hands of Herod, it would seem as though the writer of the Acts feared to indicate the place to which he fled, saying simply ; " and he went elsewhere. " " Abiit in alium locum. " And what was this place ? Some authorities say that by that is meant Rome. Others, however, think that before reaching the eternal city he went to evangelize the Hebrews who were dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, in Asia and Bithynia. And having sewn the seed of the gospel over these provinces, he came finally to the capital of the Roman empire, there to continue his apostolic labors, and found the Roman church, thus leaving to his successors in the see of Rome, as an inheritance, the primacy of the universal church, which he had received from THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 43 Christ, together with the gifts and prerogatives ne- cessary to the perpetual conservation of the unity of the faith, and of the church- To quote the words of Saint Cyprian : " Primatus Petro datur ut una christi ecclesia, et cathedra una monstretur. " The critics dispute among themselves, as to the ex- act time when the head of the apostolic college first came to Rome. Some place the date at the time of the second year of the reign of Claudius, the 42nd of the Christian era. Others place it at the time ol the reign of Nero. From Mammachi we learn that till the times of Scaligerus, the common opinion was that St. Peter made a first visit to Rome, in the time of Claudius, and after an absence of a short period, returned during the reign of Nero, and thus the two other opinions are not contradictory, but supplementary the one of the other. Nor can we here ignore the fact that some writers, have denied altogether the coming of St. Peter to Rome, and that in consequence the claim of the Roman church to the primacy is utterly unfounded ; inasmuch as the Roman Pontiffs cannot be considered the suc- cessors of St. Peter. Among others, Gavazzi standing on this ground calls the popes usurpers of Peter's authortity, false and lying pretenders, their prerogatives merely grounded on fables without any real historical foundation. Permit me therefore in this place, to briefly notice this asser- tion, which though again and again refuted with the most substantial and forcible historical arguments, even by Protestants and infidels, who cannot be sus- pected of favoring the claims of the popes or the church in this matter, is nevertheless constantly re- peated as if it had never been answered, and were indeed, unanswerable. It is not surprising to us that the vile calumniators of the church should refuse to 44 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. consider fairly and with the impartiality that ought to be the first characteristic of the true historian, the in- contestible arguments that settle completely and de- finitively this important question. They value little the testimony of witnesses the most convincing, unless they make for the proof of their own pet theory. But I confess to feeling somewhat astonished and disap- pointed to find a man of the supposed erudition and breadth of view oi Canon Farrar, casting suspicion upon a fact so freely admitted by all reliable historians. We may not here linger over the long list of arguments, each one of them sufficient in itself to establish this fact of history beyond all possible doubt. Let me simply indicate briefly a few of the chief. And first let me ask, upon what grounds do our opponents base their denial, and then we must endeavor to weigh the force of their argumentation upon these premises. Their best argument is at most only a nega- ive one. They assert that we do not find in Holy Scripture any mention of St. Peter being in Rome. To this we might reply : granted. The Scripture is not a universal history, and we are treating now, not of a fact of revelation as such, but a purely historical fact. If, therefore, our position can be established and confirmed by other incontest- able documents, the silence of the Scriptures proves nothing. But we do not concede this assertion. On the contrary, in Holy Writ sufficiently clear mentien is made by St. Peter himself of his presence in Rome, for in his first epistle he writes to those whom he ad- dresses : "The church in Babylon salutes } t qu." Now ^ve maintain that by Babylon is meant the Eternal City. If, therefore, we can prove that this very Epis- tle of St. Peter was written while he was at Rome and that by Babylon is meant Rome, it is manifest that the Scriptures are not silent on this point. THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 45 Nothing can be surer than that all the Fathers of the Church and all the very earliest writers and commen- tators, both of the Eastern and Western churches agree upon this point : that among the early Christians the capital of the Roman Empire was known as the modern Babylon. Beginning with Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius, we have only to name Dionysius of Corinth, St. Iranaeus, Origen and the great Eusebius. Add to this the testimony of Tertullian, St. Cyprian, Lactantius, St. Ambrose and innumerable others, who may be supposed to have had the most correct knowl- edge of the meaning attached to this word. On the contrary, our opponents can name no single author of the slightest authority who holds their opinion. Can they explain such extraordinary lack of testimony, es- pecially when we consider that if by any possible ar- gument it could be proved that the Babylon here men- tioned signified the Babylon of geography, the whole catalogue of oriental fathers and commentators would have seized upon this interpretation to claim for the oriental church the great honor of the primacy? Is it possible to suppose that in all its struggles and at times bitter dissensions between the bishops of the Orient and the See of Rome, on questions of the greatest import and touching time-honored customs, which, nevertheless, for the sake of unity they were compelled to abandon in submission to the early popes, that not once was it even insinuated that at Babylon and not at Rome, St. Peter founded his See and ruled the church. The glory ol the oriental church, its in- dependence of the West were at stake ; and yet unani- mously, these fathers agree in the same interpretation of this word, put upon it by the Latin church. Can argument be stronger or proof more convincing? How can we understand such absolute agreement among them upon this subject, while at variance upon 46 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. others, unless we admit that no other interpretation was possible? Therefore from the very Scriptures themselves, it is clear that St. Peter was at Rome. We might ask of our opponents the question, simple enough, if St. Peter, during the last twenty-five years of his life was not the bishop of Rome, and finally ended his life there, of what church was he bishop and where else did he die? Surely of an event of such im- portance there could be no lack of testimony, and yet, no other church in all the world lays claim to this honor but the See of Rome. Are we not familiar with the fact, that frequently different cities or countries claim the honor of birthplace ot great men ? Homer, Virgil and even St. Patrick are familiar examples of such dispute. How is it that no city or See has ever disputed with Rome the glory of Peter's last home and death? In this short conference it were impossible to dwell longer upon a subject which is no longer a matter of dispute among fair historians, who without exception affirm with Calvin : "I cannot withstand the consent of those writers who prove that Peter died at Rome." Every day archaeology, by its wonderful researches and discoveries, confirms beyond every possibility of doubt, the validity of these proofs. Therefore, we must either admit the fact of Peter's presence and death at Rome, or deny every other fact of history, and proclaim the reign of universal scepticism. As to the period during which St. Peter ruled the church in Rome, I do not delay here to discuss. I respect time-honored tradition which enumerates the length of years as 25, though upon this point there is much dissension among critical writers. Cardinal Bartolini proves by solid argument that St. Peter was martyred in the year 67. Conceding therefore, that he came to Rome in the second year of the reign of Claudius, the THE FOUNDATIONS. 47 year 42 of the vulgar era, it is clear that his- tory and tradition agree as to the number of years of St Peter's reign. As to the question whether St. Peter, once arrived in Rome, con- tinued to remain there till his death, or at times de- parted from the Eternal City for short intervals, the latter opinion seems more probable ; for he was not only bishop of Rome, but still remained an apostle, and therefore would not be content to simply govern, but was anxious himself personally to spread the faith among the other people. In fact, we learn from Pope Innocent I. that he founded many churches through- out Italy and the adjacent islands, but finally return- ing to Rome, he became a victim to the Neronian de- crees and shed his blood for the faith, crucified head downwards in the year 67 of the Christian era. The place of his crucifixion is somewhat disputed. Some affirm that he suffered martyrdom on the Janiculum, a lofty hill overlooking Rome, where to this day the spot is pointed out where his cross was raised. On the contrary, many of the most excellent of modern historians and archaeologists, among them, Duchesne and Armellili, maintain by sufficiently strong argu- ment, that this place was not on the Janiculum but on the Vatican hill, in fact, on the very spot where now stands the sacristy of the Basillica dedicated to the name of the great apostle. Thus ended the life work of him who, chosen to be the rock upon which the Church of Christ was founded, proved his love, thrice confessed for Christ, his Master, Whom he had thrice denied, by incessant labors, toils and sufferings, until at last, he verified the words of Christ "Follow thou Me" by imitating Him even in His death. The question now arises what do we know of the work of the other apostles, and what the validity of the claim of the other churches to apostolic founda- 48 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. tion. At the start, we must confess that of this ques- tion little is positively known, and much that is as- serted is of very uncertain proof. For first of all, none of the early writers have left us a complete his- tory of the acts and preaching of all the apostles ; much that was written by single authors of individual apostles has been lost or destroyed ; much that is left is of doubtful authority and genuinity. Yet there are not lacking some documents, authentic and convincing, which shed some light upon the story of the scenes of the labors of the rest of the apostolic band. We learn from the Acts that St. James, the Greater, brother of the Evangelist St. John, spread the Gospel in Judea, and so great was the number of conversions he wrought for the faith that he earned for himself the jealousies of Herod Agrippa, who in the year 44, had him put to death, to the great horror and indignation of the whole people, who universally loved and rev- ered him. It is claimed by some that he extended the work of his apostolate into Spain, and that indeed he was the founder of the church in that country. In proof of this, there is little more than mere assertion, as is evident from the works of the Boliandists and the dissertation on this subject by Natalis Alexander. Origen, in his various writings, speaks of the preach- ing of the apostles, Thomas, Andrew and John. Ac- cording to him, St. Thomas labored among the Parthians, Andrew sowed the good seed among the Scythians, and John evangelized the inhabitants of Asia Minor. (Eusebius, Book III, Chap. I). We know moreover from the Acts that St. John, before leaving Palestine, in company with St. Peter, instructed the Samaritans in the new faith ; and Ter- tullian, and St. Jerolymus locate him at Rome, where during the reign of Domitian, he was condemned to be thrown into a cauldrom of boiling oil, but coming THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 49 forth unhurt, he was banished to the island ot Patmos. From Theodoretus, in his commentary on the Psalms, we learn that St. Andrew spread the Gospel in Greece, St. Gregoy Nanizianza affirms that he evangelized Epirus. According to St. Jerolomus, Achaia was the scene of his labors, where according to the same author, he ended his apostolic career by his death upon the cross, of which fact we have ample testimony from the description of his martyrdom written by the priests and deacons of the church of Achaia. And though the genuinity of these letters has been questioned, the truthfulness of their testimony is generally admitted. On the testimony of Jerolymus, we learn that St. Thomas labored not only in Parthia, but was carried by his zeal into farthest India, where he ended his life according to Theodoretus, at Matapore, by a glorious martyrdom, being transfixed by a sword. As to the apostle Philip, Eusebius quotes the letter of Polycrates to Pope Victor, to prove that he died in Hieropolis ; but it would seem that the great historian in this place confounded Philip the apostle with Philip the deacon, who is sometimes called also the apostle, in reality, we know extremely little of the story of the life and labors of St. Philip. The writings of Hypolitus Portuensis on the life of this apostle are considered universally by critics to be spurious. We have simply as a source of knowledge on this point, the tradition of the people of Phrygia that in that place he labored and died for the faith. Of the life of St. James the Less, we have clearer and more certain knowledge. He it is who was surnamed the Just, and was called the brother of the Lord. Ordained by the apostles, bishop of Jerusalem, he never left the region of Palestine, but gave his whole life to increasing and ruling the church, whose see was the holy city. 50 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. In the council of Jerusalem, assembled to decide the question of the binding force of the ceremonies of the law upon the followers of the new faith, he adhered to the opinion of St. Peter, dispensing from the observance of the old decrees the Gentiles converted to the church. Moved however by the obstinacy of the Hebrews he counseled Paul to submit to the observance of these ceremonies, and St. Paul, in accordance with his wish, underwent the ceremony of purification. But neither his discretion and prudence, nor the holiness of his life saved him from a cruel death. The Jews, roused to indignation at St. Paul, who by his appeal to Caesar, had foiled the cruel conspiracy which they had planned against him, turned all their anger and hate against the holy bishop of Jerusalem. Leading him up to the roof of the temple, they demanded of him that to the tribes assembled in the square below, he should de- nounce Christ as an impostor; but instead, with wonderlul eloquence, he cried out to the enraged multitude that Jesus was the true Messias, whom they indeed in their blindness had put to death, but Who now, reigned in heaven at the right hand of His Father, and that one day He would return to judge the living and the dead. Infuriated by this impassioned dis- course, they flung him from the temple roof to the earth below, into the very midst of his enemies, who seizing the stones from the pavement hurled them upon his prostrate body, and so, still praying to the end for his heartless murderers, he breathed his last. And thus ended the life of this apostle, whose name still lives glorious even among the Jews. And Josephus Flavius attributes the ruin of Jerusalem to his unjust death from the hands of his countrymen. Of St. Bartholomew, little is known, except that Eusebius, Rufinus and Socrates affirm that he carried the Gospel into India. St. Chrysostom, in his homily on THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 5 1 the apostles, attributes to Bartholomew the conversion of the people in Licaonia, and Armenia. Pantenus in the second century of the church, found already among the Christian of India, the tradition that the Gospel had been preached in that country by St. Bartholomew ; a tradition which confirmed as it is, by the statement of many excellent of the earlier writers, deserves to be considered as a sure and well founded historical argu- ment. Where he died and the manner of his death are still questions for debate among historians. Some affirm that he was crucified in Urbanopolis, a city of Armenia ; others, with some show of argument, held that he suffered by decapitation at Albanopolis, another city of the same country. The question is still un- settled. It was thought for a long time that the body of St. Bartholomew was preserved in Rome, and was vener- ated in the church of St. Bartolomeo all Isola, but now, it seems more certain according to the Bolland- ists, that the body there preserved is the body of St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, and that the relics of St. Bartholomew are really preserved in Benevento. To come to St. Matthew, the Evangelist, again we grieve at the lack of real historic testimony regarding his life and preaching. We know little more than that Rufinus and Socrates, very early historians and Chris- tian chroniclers, trace his mission to Ethiopia. The life of Simon, the apostle is. also shrouded in mystery. Nicephorus Calixtus, a writer of the four- teenth century, attempts to prove that he carried the faith into Egypt, Lybia, Numidia, Mauritania, and even to the British isles ; but the learned Bollandists reject his testimony, adding : "Of the life of St. Simon, the apostle, we are utterly ignorant. Even from the Gos- pels we learn nothing but his name." Of all the apos- tles, Simon has left the smallest record. 52 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. Of the apostle Jude, we know that he wrote the Epistle called Catholic, which Origen describes as full of robust reasoning concerning supernatural grace ; but of his apostolate and preaching, again we are left in almost complete ignorance. St. Paulinus writes that he preached in Lybia, by which name in the early times was designated all Africa. But the best critical scholars reject this opinion as utterly unfounded. Were there any truth in this, indeed, how could we ex- plain that St. Augustine concedes that the African church could not trace its origin to apostolic times, and that Victor, an African bishop, imploring against the Arian Vandals who devastated Africa, the aid of the apostles, makes no special mention of St. Thad- deus, that is Jude, who, as the founder of that church would certainly have been invoked as its patron and defender. On the other hand, it can be amply proved that he preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia, for, ac- cording to the traditions of Syria and Chaldea, this apostle is considered the founder of their church ; or at least, that among the other apostles who personally preached to these people is to be reckoned also, Judas Thaddeus ; and the calendars and other ecclesiastical monuments of the oriental church, some genuine and others apocryphal, agree with perfect accord, upon this fact. It is the opinion ol the orientals that he ended his life by martyrdom in the city of Palmyra. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that St. Mat- thias was selected to fill the place of the traitor Judas, God himself, directing his choice by lot. With the other apostles he received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and later became with them participator of their great mission, to preach the Gospel to all nations. But again we ask where was the special scene of his labors and where did he carry on the work of his apostolate. It is the common opinion that he THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 53 preached in Macedonia and Ethiopia, based chiefly upon the authority of St. Jerolymus, who asserts that in the last named place he died and was buried. The manner of his death is entirely uncertain. A book written in the Hebrew language, entitled "the Acts of St. Matthias," asserts that he was stoned to death, and then beheaded, but this book is of doubtful authority ; and documents of equal historical value, describe his death by crucifixion. But whatever was his death, we are certain that he spent his life in the preaching of the Gospel and in the conversion of the peoples redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Neither of him, as of none of the other apostles, was the story of his lite recorded in books. The first laborers in the Lord's vineyard, made small account of Chronicles and records in per- ishable writing. Constantly employed in preaching and the labors of their ministry, those best able from close acquaintance with the apostles, to narrate the record of their lives, had little time for writing or the compiling of such memoirs as would have been to his- tory utterly beyond all value. From these brief outlines of the apostolic twelve, which I have here faintly described, it is easily under- stood that the knowledge of the apostles and their preaching is extremely limited. Of St. Paul alone, thanks to the author of the Acts, we have a somewhat detailed narration of the career. But while of the rest much remains in uncertainty either because the sources are apocryphal, or the writers are of a date long posterior to the apostolic times, still we must not con- clude that nothing of their lives is truly known; for the knowledge of a fact may not be historically certain and still the fact may be true. In these days, of doubt and iconoclasm, oi all revered traditions, how often is criticism abused ; by rejecting entirely every indica- tion or sign that is not established as of the utmost $4 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. certainty, too many of our modern historians treat with contempt opinions worthy at least, on account of their venerable age, of respect and reverence. The apostles certainly received irom Christ the mis- sion to preach to all nations. He prophesied to them that they would be treated as criminals and dragged before the tribunals of kings and magistrates. They fulfilled their mission and verified His prophecy. The world will never know the true extent of their zeal, heroism and sell-sacrifice. No book will ever tell the complete record of their wondrous labors, of the days and nights spent in prayer and preaching, of the hours of terror, of hunger, of fatigue, which succeeded one another from the day of Pentecost to that of martyrdom. Looking back over the space of nineteen hundred years, considering the condition of that time, the lack of every convenience for travel and communication, we stand utterly amazed and speechless at the results they accomplished. Within a few short years, so short as to appear almost incredible, they had carried the faith into almost every region of the then known world, so that it could truthfully be said that their voice had reached to the very ends of the world. Thus was the faith of Christ established everywhere, and' these twelve humble fishermen, transformed by the Holy Spirit into valiant champions and intrepid generals, performed such miracles of daring conquest as the world has never known in all its history. We can read now but faintly the .story of their complete triumph over self, over the opposition of the whole world and the direst tyranny of the most powerful princes that have ever ruled. We must wait to fully and clearly comprehend their unspeakable virtue, zeal, magnanimity and sublimity of their lives till we behold them clothed in all the glory of princes upon the twelve thrones promised them by the lips of the Eternal Son of God. THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. In the last conference, we watched the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost, in the little cenacle at Jerusalem ; and tracing- the earliest indications of its growth, we followed the apostles in their career from Palestine, through all the different lands, where driven by persecution, and carried on by the zeal of their faith, they spread the new doctrines throughout the world. In different lands they planted this little seed, and then watered the soil that had received it with their life blood. We must push our research still further, and watch with interest, how warmed by the sun of God's providence and protection, the buried germ sprung forth into a thriving and sturdy tree, which, spreading its branches wider and wider, gave shelter to an innumerable throng and withstood the storms of centuries or persecution. In connection with this subject, namely, the propaga- tion of the Christian faith in the first three centuries, three questions present themselves as especially worthy of consideration, inasmuch as each has been the sub- ject of attack by those who would consider the spread of Christianity to be of no weight in establishing the divinity of its doctrines. And first, is it true that from $6 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. the very start, the number of converts to the new- faith was very considerable, in fact, wonderfully great ; or were the followers of the new religion a mere hand- ful, an inconsiderable few ? Secondly, what was the character, intellectually and socially, of the first be- lievers? Were they people of no position, a credulous and infatuated multitude, or were they rather of all classes, many of them among the richest, noblest and most learned of their day? Thirdly, can the propaga- tion of the faith among the nations be attributed to purely natural causes, or must we look for an explana- tion of its marvellously rapid growth in the divinity of its origin and its providential protection ? For a truthful answer to these questions, we must, like true historians, read the testimony of those, who have left to us a faithful description of the Church in the first centuries of its existence. Renan, speaking of the propagation of the faith, as it is recounted in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Letters of St. Paul, writes that there is little to boast of in the success of the Apostles in evangelizing the nations, " for, " says he, " they considered that they had spread the Gospel in a county when they had made a few addresses and preached a few sermons, " that as a rule, they considered themselves quite fortunate when they had made a dozen or so of converts ; that not unfrequently, the churches established in different places by the Apostles, of which we hear so much in the Acts and Epistles, consisted of fifteen or tw r enty people, and that all the converts brought to the faith by St. Paul in the East, and in the West, did not exceed a thousand. So that in Renan's eyes, the descriptions given by St. Luke and St. Paul, of the growth of the infant Church, are simple exaggerations, or, indeed open lies. Gibbon and Montesquieu, admitting the wonderful growth of the Church, pretend to explain it all by the THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 57 operation of purely natural causes. But after all, un- like Renan, they do admit that the number of converts was very considerable, and indeed enormous. The accusation that the early Christians were of the lowest classes of society, people of little repute, and credulous women, is almost as old as Christianity it- self. For Origen himself, was obliged to refute this calumny which was common enough even in his time, and Menucius Felix also assures us that this was a common accusation against the followers of Christ. So that if to-day, we hear it said that after all, the Catholic Church is made up of people of no education or position, and is simply a gathering of the credulous and illiterate of the world, we must remember that this assertion has been repeated in all ages, back to the time of Christ Himself. But assertions are not argu- ments, and words are not facts. In studying the history of any event or any country, it is necessary to gather our knowledge from docu- ments which can be proved to be the most trustworthy description of the events narrated. According to this criterion, the story of the propagation of the faith in the earliest times is best studied in the Acts of the Apostles, whose author is St. Luke. It matters not now, whether the student be a Christian, a Jew or a Mohammedan. We are considering the credibility of the documents from a purely historical standpoint. Putting aside therefore, the question of inspiration, and looking at it simply as a book of human authority, this testimony of the Evangelist Luke fulfills all the requisites of credibility. How can our opponents prove that St. Luke did not know the facts he des- cribes, how can they prove that he was deceived or in- tended to deceive his readers ? He was a writer who described contemporaneous facts ; he was, moreover, a learned man and a veracious $8 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. witness. Some of the' things of which he writes, he saw with his own eyes, and the rest he describes as they were narrated to him by the apostles themselves, that is, by immediate witnesses. It, therefore, from a purely critical standpoint, we deny credence to a man who possesses all these pre- rogatives of credibility, of what facts of history can we be certain ? Now let us open the Acts of the Apostles to the place where is recorded in simple and concise terms, the story of the day of Pentecost. We find there that the number baptized and received into the Church on that occasion was three thousand people. Again later on, the same author tells us that on the occasion of the miracle wrought by St. Peter at the gate of the Temple, five thousand people believed and were aggregated to the faith. Here, therefore, within a few days from the birth of the Christian Church, we find that the number of converts made at Jerusalem alone, was over eight thousand. Now when we con- sider that in the natural order of events, the influence of this great number would be very considerable among their relatives, friends and circle of ac- quaintances, added to the fact that it became a duty of each one in turn to spread the knowledge of the true religion and become himself an apostle, it is evi- dent that in a very short time, this number would be at least doubled. And in point of fact, St. Luke con- firms the supposition, when he says, "that the multitude of believers increased every day," so that it was nec- essary to choose seven deacons to relieve the apostles of some of their minor duties. In this light we can understand how terrified the high priests and Pharisees became at the sight of such great desertion among their followers. What else can be assigned as a reason of the bitter jealousy they en- tertained towards the leaders of the new faith ? Nor THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 59 were their conversions among the people alone, for upon the same authority we know that many, even among the priests, renounced the old religion and gave their allegiance to the new doctrines. If, therefore, as is narrated in the Acts, a great crowd of the priests became subject to the faith, it is evident that the in- fluence of this fact alone would have its effect upon a very wide circle of the Jews. It is true, indeed, that seeing the rapid spread of the new tenets, a fierce persecution was raised against the Church in Jerusalem during which St. Stephen was martyred and the disciples scattered. But this disper- sion of the Christians of Jerusalem was the \ery best means of carrying the faith to other lands. The disciple Philip, one of this number, evangelized the Samaritans, and with such fruit, that even Simon the Magician, who had for a long while deluded the people, himself received Baptism and brought over a great number of converts with him, so that it became necessary that the apostles, Peter and John, should go among them to ad- minister to them and properly constitute the church. How can we explain the necessity of this special atten- tion if we suppose that the number of converts was a mere handful ? Again we learn that the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron, countries between Mt. Tabor and the Sea of Tiberius, who had heard the Gospel from the apostle Peter, and who had seen the dead raised to lite, in great crowds, embraced the faith. And the word which the Evangelist uses to designate the number of converts is very strong, for he says : "And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and were con- verted to the Lord." (Acts. IX. 35) Mark that he says "all." Therefore, the two towns, en masse, came over to the faith. Later on, we read of a like accession in Joppa, where again, after hearing the preaching of 6o THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. the Prince of the Apostles, confirmed by another mir- acle, the resuscitation of Tabitha, St Luke says : '*et crediderun multi in Domino." Now Joppa was a city of no small population : " many " is a comparative term. It is evident there- fore, that not a dozen or fifteen, — but a large number, perhaps hundreds, entered the fold on this occasion. The persecution which the Christians were obliged to endure at Jerusalem and in the immediate neighbor- hood, drove them into such distant regions as Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch. This last city was the metropolis of Syria and the seat of the Roman Proconsuls. Here again, it is recorded that a great number gave their names to the faith (Acts XI), so that for the work of organization of this great body, the apostles sent to them Barnabas, who in turn, brought "great multi- tudes to the Lord. " (Acts. XI, 24). The conversions multiplied so rapidly and the Church grew to such large proportions that St. Barnabas was obliged to call for more assistance, which he received in the person of St. Paul, himself a convert. Such was the zeal and continuous labors of these two mis- sionaries who during a whole year took up their resi- dence in that city, that the Church at Antioch became one of the most numerous and best known, and it was there that the disciples were first called Christians. At that time, Antioch contained at least two hundred thousand inhabitants : now will Renan please explain to us how a Church consisting of ten or a dozen people could have arisen to such extraordinary prominence among all the congregations of that. time. It is not ex- aggerating in the least to calculate that at least a tenth part of the citizens of Antioch became Christians. We can therefore estimate the number of the faithful in the time of St. Paul to be at least twenty thousand souls. THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 6 1 Now if we lollow St. Paul and Barnabas to Iconium, the capital of Lycaonia, we see again the enormous strides the faith continues to make in its constant pro- gress. St. Luke designates the faithful as " copiosa multitude, " a very great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks, and he adds, *' every day the num- ber increased. " The same story is told of Thessalonica, where the defection among the Jews from the old religion became so threateningly great that the obstinate Hebrews raised a persecution against them. Is it likely that they would have arisen against a handful of dissenters? Now in reality, the accusation made against the new converts which moved the magistrates to take measures against them, was that they had set the city in an up- roar. Now in a city like Thessalonica of a numerous population, it would require a good share of the in- habitants to be considered capable of disturbing the peace of the whole city. By this expression is intended to mean a religious revolution. It is hard to under- stand how Renan's interpretation can be made to agree with the plain words of the narration. In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, we are again enlightened on the point of this marvellous increase in the number of the Christians. The proof of this won- derful growth in the city of Ephesus is of a nature so singular and striking as to leave no doubt as to its meaning. The preaching of St. Paul was followed with such fruit, that the temples of Diana, the goddess whose worship was especially cultivated there, were utterly deserted. And not only in Ephesus, but all over Asia the same results followed the labors of this apostle. The proof of this is manifest from most com- petent authority, and from a source which can scarcely be denied. Demetrius, a silversmith by trade, who gained a livelihood by manufacturing articles used in 62 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. the worship of Diana, complained bitterly to his brethren that his trade had been ruined by the preach- ing of the apostles inasmuch as the people, not only ol Ephesus, but of all Asia, no longer venerated images made by hand, and so " not only this our craft " says he, " is in danger to be set at naught, but also the temple of great Diana shall be reputed for nothing: yea, and her majesty shall begin to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. " Now, how can we suppose, considering the matter in all fairness and impartiality, that Demetrius could have made this plea, with any show of sense or hope of attention, unless it was an evident fact that in the city of Ephesus and the country around, an alarming number of conversions had taken place. Another singular fact may be adduced to prove how futile and false is the supposition of Renan and all his fol- lowing. It seems that magic or witchcraft was prac- ticed as a science among these people who seemed to have possessed whole libraries on this curious art. The apostles naturally condemned this practice and the books used by the magicians. Just at this time, some of their number had attempted by this art to per- form wonderful deeds, but with small success ; in fact the magicians themselves were visibly injured by their diabolical pretensions. Whereupon all these people who possessed the books brought them to the apostles to be burned ; that is they submitted to the teaching of St. Paul. We can calculate the number of these new converts from the value of the books which- they brought. This we are told amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver, a sum equal to about twelve thousand dollars, which in that day was a very large sum of money, representing a great many people. Before St. Paul had preached in Ephesus, he had labored in Corinth, and founded in that city, a church THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 63 numbering a very large congregation. St. Luke nar- rates that Crispus, a ruler of the synagogue, believed and all his family, and many of the Corinthians were baptized. Indeed, Christ Himself had said in His ap- parition to the apostle, "I have many people in this city" (vio). St Paul lived in Corinth a year and a half, which is of itself sufficient proof that the harvest of souls must have been very rich in that place. Now again, if Renan reads history aright, what does St. Paul mean writing to the Colossians (I. 6) when he assures them that "the Gospel as they had heard it, had been spread throughout the world" and in writing to the Romans (I. 8) that "their faith is spoken of in the whole world." He was not writing in hyperbole or exaggeration ; he was telling the simple truth. We know from the character of St Paul that he would never have gloried in a feeble conquest, such as would have been a few conversions here and there in the principal cities ; he would have accounted that very small fruit. When, therefore we hear of St. Paul boasting of the wide spread of the Gospel, we can eas- ily argue that already the numbers of the faithful had grown to enormous proportions. And here, I might notice the opinion of some au- thors, who, though they are obliged to concede that during the apostolic times a great multitude of people in various countries embraced the faith, nevertheless contend, that from the time of Nero to that of Trajan, the harvest of the preachers was very small. Now, from the beginning of the reign of Nero to the end of that of Trajan there was a period of sixty-two years ; and not to dwell too long upon this discussion, 1 will content myself with bringing forward the testimony of writers of that very time, who prove that this opinion is entirely unfounded. First of all, Cornelius Tacitus, in his fifteenth Book 64 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. of Annals, recounting the infamous calumny cast upon the Christians by Nero, that they were the cause of the great incendiary of Rome at that time, but which no one believed, takes occasion to indicate something of the proportions which the Christian religion had at- tained ; and he writes that the Christians thrived in great numbers, not only in Judea but in Rome ; that of these a great crowd were put to death, not as guilty of incendiary, but as enemies of the human race. If, therefore, Tacitus says a great number of Christians suffered martyrdom, it is plain that in Rome at that time, the number of Christians must have been very considerable ; for certainly not all were denounced to the magistrates, but by far the greater part went into hiding to escape this punishment. Then, again, Pope St. Clement, who in his first letter to the Corinthians, written, according to the judgment of critics, a short time after the persecution of Domi- tian and before the death of that emperor, recalling to the memory of the faithful of Corinth the martyrdom of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, writes that in Rome was gathered a great multitude of the faithful. Therefore, by the testimony of Tacitus the pagan, and St. Clement the Christian, it is plain that even at the times of the heaviest persecutions, the Christian flock was extremely large. But if we consider the Church which flourished at this same time in the provinces and in the kingdoms subject to the Roman Empire, there can be no doubt that the number of the faithful reached very large dimensions. For Pliny the Younger, pro- praetor of Bythinia, wishing to consult the emperor as to how he should act towards the Christians, in- forms Trajan that the cities and towns of that province were filled with them ; so that there seemed a danger that the contagion of their susperstition, as he designates Christianity, would spread over the whole country ; THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 65 and he complains that the temples were desolated and the sacred solemnities entirely forgotten. I do not wish to deny that by the fierceness of the persecution of Domitian, the Church suffered some loss. But neither can it be disputed that when the un- just and cruel decrees of that tyrant were abolished, the Christians took on new strength and vigor, spread- ing again even more rapidly in the East and the West. Of this we have ample testimony in the writings of Lucius Caecilius Lactantius, who writing of the per- secution of Domitian says : " On the recision of the acts and decrees of the tyrant, the Church was not only restored to its pristine state, but shone forth even more clearlyand vigorously, stretching out its ample arms to East and West until no corner of the earth was there so remote, unto which the religion of God had not penetrated. " Now, the persecution of Domitian lasted but a short time, and therefore brief was the suffering of the Church and the fear of those who had embraced it. Besides, if there had been many apostasies, it would be hard to explain the splendid condition of the Church so very soon after, in the time of Trajan ; and difficult also to understand what Tertullian says at the end of the second century or the beginning of the third : " If we should separate ourselves from you, your kingdom would scarcely stand, weakened by the loss of so many and such good citizens. " And so certain was he of what he wrote that he feared not to cry out in the very face of the pagans, that the Christians filled every province that belonged to the empire, the cities, the islands, the forts, the towns, the camps, the palace, the senate, the forum, — all places save the temples where they worshipped their lying divinities. Passing over every other testimony upon this point, let me conclude this part of my argument by affirming 66 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. that either Tacitus, Pliny, Clement the Roman, and Tertullian were utterly deceived upon a point con- cerning which they had certainly the best possible in- formation, or Renan and all his followers are utterly unworthy of credence. For surely, if they refuse to believe Clement and Tertullian, accusing them of wish- ing to add glory to the Christian Church, they cer- tainly cannot accuse Tacitus and Pliny of the same motives. It seems to me, therefore, that nothing can be plainer from a historical standpoint than the fact that from the very beginning the number of converts won over to Christianity was marvelously large. So we may consider as established the first proposi- tion we set out to prove, namely, from its very begin- ning the Christian Church was no mere handful of people, but a vast organization, whose influence and power were promptly recognized by the rulers, both ecclesiastical and civil, of the Jewish and pagan world of that day. We now come to the second question: What was the character of these converts ? What was their po- sition, socially and intellectually ? Were they people of the lowest classes only and a multitude of credulous women, or were they rather gathered from every class ? The object of our enemies in asserting that the Church's following is made up, and from the first al- ways consisted, of people worthy of small considera- tion, is to throw a shadowupon the noble character of the Church's influence. Were this not historically false, we might pass it over in silence without delaying to refute it. For by the followers of the true faith, no- bility and greatness do not consist in mere pride of birth, ancestry, or wealth ; but in the virtue of the soul, in humility, in justice and charity. But for the sake of historical truth, if for no other reason, we must turn THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 6j the light of research upon the origins of the Church. In this light it will be easily visible that the doctrine of Christ while giving consolation and comfort to the lowly, nevertheless, in all times, has brought to its al- legiance, the rich, the powerful and the learned ; be- cause incomparably better and clearer than any other system of philosophy, it solved the great questions of life. And to begin with the time of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea, one of the early disciples of Christ, was a rich man and a member oi the Sanhedrim . Again, Nicodemus, also one of the early disciples, was a Jew- ish prince. Lazarus was a rich ruler who had great possessions. Joanna, one ol the women who minis- tered to Him, was wife of Chusa, Herod's steward. Zacheus too, was a nobleman and very rich. In the Acts, we are told that a great number of priests became subject to the faith, and we know that the priests, among the Jews, were of the most honor- able class of society. Among those who first received the faith from the apostles, was Cornelius, a noble cen- turion, who became converted with all his family and was baptized by St. Peter. One of the early converts of St. Paul was Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyp- rus. We are distinctly told that the chamberlain of the queen of the Ethiopians, who was baptized by Philip the disciple, was a man of great authority. That the new faith satisfied the minds of the most learned philosophers of the day, is plain from the fact of the conversion of Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopogus, the greatest school of learning ot its day. St. Luke, again writing of the converts made by the preaching of St. Paul, tells us that among the num- ber were many noble women. Now, to turn from the Sacred writings to authors of the period just later, how and by what arguments can our caluminators prove that among the immense num- 68 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. ber of Christians spoken of by Tacitus, and described by Clement, were only people of the lowest classes ; since we know that in the times of Titus and Domitian among the Christians of that day, are to be numbered Flavius Clemens, a consul, and Flavia Domitilla, who was the niece of Domitian ; as well as Glabrio, who was a consul under Trajan. Moreover, we learn from the Apologists that many of those who dwelt in the im- perial palace professed the faith, some of them even of the blood of the Caesars ; which fact is attested by St. Paul in his letters to the Philippians from Rome : "All salute you, especially they that are of Caesar's house- hold." (Phil. iv. 22). Pliny, the Younger, writing to Trajan about the be- ginning of the second century, describing the inroads which Christianity was making in the province of Bithynia, assures the Emperor that the professors of the Christian religion were ol every age and condition and rank. In the Acts oi the Marytrs, we read that about the year 150, one of those who suffered for the faith under the emperor Antoninus, was St. Felicitas, who was designated as "illustris femina," by which appellation it was intended to indicate her noble birth. And again in the same place mention is made of a cer- tain Marius, a general of the army, put to death dur- ing the persecution of Adrian. Eusebius of Caesarea, in his fourth book of Ecclesiastical History, has a magnificent eulogy on Vitius Epagatus, a member of a noble senatorial family who suffered martyrdom under Lucius Virus. To conclude this list of testimony, which more than proves the absurdity of the calumny, we might finally cite the words of Tertullian who in his apology for the Christians, boldly declares "that they filled every office, and even were to be numbered among the Senate, and that they were no strangers in the Curia, the palace of the army." THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 69 It is plain, therefore, that the Church was Catholic in every sense, from the very beginning. As Christ had died for all, the rich and the poor, the titled and the humble, so His voice and His inspiration reached to every class and position in life, and His apostles and disciples who were no respecters of persons, invited to His divine banquet plebian and patrician alike. And so was fulfilled the design of His commission, " Go preach the Gospel to every creature. " And now we come to the third part of the Conference which is to show that this great multitude of people of every class, were moved to place themselves under the banner of Christianity, not by human considerations or natural causes, but by supernatural motives, and that, therefore, the wonderful spread of the Gospel was the result of a special Providence and one of the greatest proofs of the Divine origin of the Church. To understand the difficulties that confronted the apostles and early preachers of the Word, in propogat- ing the faith, and in persuading men of the truth of the Christian religion, it is necessary to glance at the character of the superstitions which prevailed at that time, and at the general opinion in which the faith of Christ was held. The two religions prevailing were the Hebrew and the Pagan. The first was, as it were, the inheritance of a particular nation, which was to all intents and purposes completely isolated from the rest of the world, and which held all other nations in con- tempt. It nevertheless could boast and truly, that it was the true religion and one revealed by God ; whereas the religion of the gentiles was totally rotten and corrupt, a religion in which the human passions were allowed freest indulgence ; indeed, their very gods were the divinized patrons of crime. Both, from different causes, had the strongest possible hold upon the people which professed them. The Hebrew be- JO THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. cause they were sure of the truth which their religion preserved, and which had been confirmed again and again by sublime miracles and marvelous prophecies. The gentiles clung most tenaciously to their worship of idols because it laid no restraint upon their passions, it satisfied their desire of public pomp and ceremony ; and, besides, it was maintained by the state, and its chief patrons were the Roman emperors, the princes of the various countries, and therefore it was the fashionable religion. Now, what was the opinion which the followers of both these religions entertained of the religion of Christ ? St. Paul sums it all up when he writes to the Corinthians " that he preached Christ Crucified, a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. " Therefore to convert either Jews or Gentiles to the faith, it was necessary to prove that this same Christ, a blasphemy to one and a ridicule to the other, was God Himself, Wisdom and Virtue in- carnate, in Whose Name alone could be found eternal .salvation. To realize the full extent of the tremendous change of sentiment which was necessary to take place in the heart and mind of a Jew, before he could give his as- sent to the doctrines of Christianity, we need but recall the story of the life of Christ, as it was described in the first conference, to review the scenes, in which are plainly set forth the fierce tenacity, the obdurate pre- judice, insurmountable even by the sight of the great- est miracles with which the Hebrew nation clung to its ancient religion, and the dreadful opposition carried out with the most cruel heartlessness, with which it spurned every attempt to draw it from its stubborn allegiance to the traditional faith. If, on the other hand, we consider the obstacles which paganism placed in the path of Christianity, the diffi- culty seems even greater. For the Jews, at least, al- THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 7 1 ready possessed a moral code, and a knowledge of the attributes of the true God. The substance of Christ- ianity was already foreshadowed in their laws and doctrines. But with the Gentiles there was absolutely no foundation to work upon, and no common field whereon to meet. In fact, Christianity was the very reverse of paganism. It had to start from the begin- ning, and even must demolish what existed before it could establish its first principles. It meant the utter destruction of its most cherished idols ; and with all their laxity of morals and corruption of ideals, their gods of bronze and marble were dear to them as the apple of the eye. Were not the imperial Caesars them- selves honored as gods ? And, therefore, to destroy the gods meant the destruction of the Caesars ; and that of course, was highest treason. Again, consider the prejudices of caste which the magnificent democrary of Christianity completely ignored. With the Roman, the slave was a possession, a chattel, a thing, whose very existence depended upon the clemency of his master. The new religion pro- claimed that God was no respecter of persons ; that in His eyes, the soul of the slave was quite as precious and of precisely equal value as the soul of the senator, the consul and the emperor. How could a Roman ever be brought to accept such a doctrine? Then, again, Christianity put a bridle upon the passions, it prohibited the sinful debaucheries that characterized their festivals and holidays ; in fact, it meant the com- plete subversion of every law and custom in which they had been brought up and educated, and which formed an essential part of the national life and their individual existence. Is it any wonder that St. Paul calls the faith " a scandal " to the Jews, and '* foolish- ness to the Gentiles ? " Could any human power prevail against such opposi- 72 THE NATIONS, THE -BUILDING. tion? With the Jews, Christ was a false pretender, a lying imposter; with the Romans and the Gentile world, He was simply a common criminal, a vile male- factor, for as such His death upon the cross had stamped Him. To the words and preaching of Christ, the Jews cited in opposition, Moses and their prophets ; to the preten- sions of this crucified slave, the Romans held up to view the glorious attributes of Jove. If the common people were told that this Christ was God, they would naturally laugh and ask: "How is it, then, that he could not liberate Himself from the hands of the Jews ?" And as a reward for giving up all their cherished gratifications, and indulgences in the freedom of life, all that was offered to them by Chrtstianity was tribulation, persecution and the contempt of their fellow men. Now, besides, who were these people who preachad this strange doctrine ? They had neither learning nor fame nor weaith to give them standing or reputation with even the poorest and humblest of the people. When we cousider all this, the natural hesitation to give up a religion cherished by one's ancestors, and in which one has been reared, added to the apparent un- reasonableness and disadvantage of. the whole system of belief, what human reason or force could prevail to turn the veneration of Menes and Penates into the ad- oration of the Son of God ? And yet this came to pass. The rites of the Gentiles fell into disuse, the statues and images of their idols were broken into pieces ; the cross of Christ was planted in the public places ; the emperors themselves submitted to the yoke of Christ, and the whole world rang with the victory of Christianity. Christ finally conqured. Christ ruled even in Jerusalem and Rome itself. This is the greatest miracle which God has ever wrought. It is the fact which never can be explained, unless it be at THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 7$ once admitted that not for human motives or by hu- man causes or by human influence, but by the special providence of God this wonderful change was accom- plished. There were, indeed, some circumstances which, though they were utterly unavailable to explain the wonderful propagation of Christianity, nevertheless favored and assisted its growth once established. Thus, for instance, the uniting of nearly all the world under the single dominion ol the Roman Empire, thus estab- lishing facility of intercourse and communication be- tween all the provinces and the great capital ;. the al- most universal use of the Greek language, establishing thus a common means of disseminating ideas, and the active trade which at that time was carried on be- tween the various nations. But is it not plain in the light of after events, that all these circumstances were designs of that great Providence which wished to lead back to the knowledge of the truth, and bind together in the bonds of brotherhood, the scattered children of men ? Suppose the better to realize the extent of this won- derful diffusion of the truth, we briefly trace its march through the various countries where it successively set up its throne. First, it becomes visible in Pales- tine and Syria ; thence it spreads to Mesopotamia, to Asia Minor, to Egypt. Onward still farther to the south, it marches in triumph to Nubia and Ethiopia, extending even into Arabia. Westward we follow its course through Greece and Italy, till it reaches the very center of Paganism, Rome. From Rome, its champions carry the banner of the cross into Gaul, invading the strongholds of infidelity at Aries, Limoges, at Marseilles and Aix. Crossing the snowy heights of the Pyrennes, it descends into the confines of Spain, to Sarogossa and Terracogna ; 74 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. then across the seas into the islands of the oceans thought then to be the ends of the world. To York, and London, and Lincoln, the new faith is borne by these heralds of the cross. The impassable Alps proved no barrier to its prog- ress, for next we see in Germany along the Rhine, the people gathered to hear the tidings of peace. At Col- ogne, at Mayence and Strasburg, the northern barbar- ians were led willing captives to Christ. Nor did the arid plains, nor burning deserts of the East prove more impassable than the Alps, the Pyrennes and the sea. To the farthest East, to Assyria, to Persia and distant Parthia and onward still to India, the voice of God was carried, was heard and obeyed, so that it might be truly said : "In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum ;" for at that time, these were the limits of the known world. So that in three short centuries, with every human agency against them, with the threats of rulers sound- ing in their ears, and the sword of princes gleaming before their eyes, undaunted, undismayed, the first fol- lowers of Christ stood before frowning strangers and sneering philosophers, and in spite of every obstacle won the whole world back from blackest night of su- perstition and idolatry, to the bright light of Christian truth. THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. The story of the persecutions of the Church of Christ is a record so singular and extraordinary that it may be called unique in the history of the human race : and indeed, might seem incredible were it not that witnesses and monuments above any possible exception, render it certain beyond any doubt. For who would believe that emperors, rulers, governors, magistrates and men in general of all classes, would unrelently harass, combat and punish a religion whose sole object and purpose is to teach justice and holiness here, in this life, and point to peace and happiness in the life to come : a religion which led the world back again to the knowledge of truth, and taught men, rulers and ruled, their duties toward God, their neighbor and themselves, duties which rightly fulfilled could have but one effect, the diffusion through all the world of calmest peace, mak- ing earth an image of the kingdom of Heaven. Yet, " Fremuerunt gentes : adstiterunt reges terrae, et principes convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum, et adversus Christum ejus." If we consider only the Roman emperors, from Tiberius, under whom Christ completed His mission, and died upon the cross for our salvation, down to Constantine the Great, we may enumerate 76 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. forty-seven imperial Caesars. Of these, not all indeed were like Nero, monsters of cruelty and inhumanity ; many in fact, distinguished themselves by military valor and wise government, caring deeply for the wel- fare ot their people and the glory of their kingdom, and yet even among these, were many who enacted laws and drew the imperial sword, fierce and sharp against the Christians, flooding the Roman empire with the blood of the innocent. And mark, we pass over now, the persecutions raised by the Jews and by the nations of the provinces of imperial Rome. For, were we to take an account of these also, we might well assert that from the birth of the Church of Christ, down through three long weary heartless centuries, Christianity had no peace, or enjoyed it at such brief intervals, that we may well say that one storm had scarcely abated till one could hear in the distance the rumbling and murmur of another that soon beat with increased fury. The argument which Christians draw from the fierce- ness of the persecutions, the invincible constancy of the martyrs, and the triumph of the Church in spite of universal opposition, is one of the strongest, in de- monstrating the divinity of its origin. This explains why the enemies of the Church endeavor to extenuate the fierceness of the persecutions and diminish the number of the martyrs. Henry Dodwell, in his " Quaestiones Cyprianicae, " published in 1684, seeks to prove that the number of those who shed their blood as confessors and martyrs of the faith, is greatly ex- aggerated ; while in our days, Renan among others, to the same end, attempts to disprove the indubitable in- humanity of the Church's earliest foes. But the most learned students of that period allow neither Dodwell nor Renan room for credence. Among these, worthy of special praise, are Ruinart and Mamachio. But the THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. J? glory of refuting beyond all response Dodwell and Renan was reserved to the learned and conscientious French student Paul Allard, who, in his five volumes of the " History of the Persecutions of the First Two Centuries, " based upon the most trustworthy and au- thentic documents of archaeology, with wonderful erudition and precision of argument, closes forever the mouths of the Church's enemies on this subject. Upon the subject of to-day's conference, we must consider many points, for under this subject I must look into the causes, the occasions, the pretexts of the persecutions, their extent, duration, ferocity and num- ber. You are not unaware that the story of the perse- cutions even summarily told, would fill volumes, and therefore, I need hardly state that in this lecture I shall be compelled to merely indicate what history reveals. Let us first consider the causes which have been assigned for the early trials ot the Church. As there was no real cause for opposition, tyranny and hunting down of an organization, so purely beneficent in design and pacific in measures as Christianity, many causes and reasons were invented. And these we may gather from the contumelious names by which the Christians were designated. They were called factions, enemies of the emperor, dangerous to the state, haters of the human race, sacrilegious, criminals, irreligious and atheists. From these calumnious appellations, we may gather the causes which roused the early pagans against our fathers in the faith. They were considered as the enemies of the religion of the empire and its divinities, and therefore, of the state itself. Moreover, they were accused of the most infamous crimes. Were the book "De Officio Proconsulis" still extant, in which the famous advocate Domitius, in the time of Alexander Severus (222-235) nas gathered all the edicts of the emperors against the Christians, we should have at ?S THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. hand the true causes which they alleged to have moved them in the suppression of Christianity ; but unfortu- nately, this book has perished and we remain still un- certain as to the exact reasons, Nevertheless, the great historian Eusebius, has con- served some edicts, published by the later emperors, from which we may argue the true causes assigned by their predecessors as inspiring them to act with such relentless hatred and persistent tyranny. In that of Maximianus, promulgated in 311, we read that his dis- trust and fear, and consequently his persecution of the Christians of his time, arose from the fact that they despised the rights and institutions of the empire, that they dared to make laws for their own governance, in- dependent of the state, and held aloof from the public rites. The emperor Maximinus, in his letter dated the year 312, affirms that the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, were impelled to persecute the Christians, because nearly all the men abandoning the worship of the idols embraced the faith of Christ. "Diocletianus et Maximianus cum cunctos fere homines relicto De- orum immortalium cultus, ad Christianorum sectam se applecuisse cernerant." It is plain therefore from this edict, that the cause assigned by these emperors, for their animosity against their Christian subjects, was their detestation of idola- try. But from the calumnies hurled against them by the people, as well as from the jests and caricatures of which they were the butt, we may well argue that in the imperial edicts, other causes and motives were as- signed for their harsh and cruel treatment. Enmity towards the human race and criminal superstition and witchcraft, which were all crimes against the state, were among these ; and both Tacitus and Suetonius in- tend to indicate just these accusations when he first writes that the Christians in the persecutions under THE STORM. 79 Nero were convicted "de odio humani generis," and the other, accuses them "superstitionis novae et malficae." But whatever the causes alleged for the persecu- tions enacted against the Christians, and so bitterly carried out, they were all unfounded, unjust and un- reasonable. The real causes were the foolish super- stition of the pagans themselves, the private jealousies and hatred of the common people towards their Christian neighbors, the fear of the priests of loosing their clientele ; and at times, the weakness of the em- perors to yield to the whims of the people, at times, their desire to turn away the torrent of distrust and dislike which the people bore towards themselves. We can best understand the opposition, the hatred, and consequently the punishment urged against the followers of the cross, if we place ourselves for a mo- ment, back into the times of which we write, and among the people who arrayed themselves against the new faith. The golden age of Augustus had not all passed away ; poetry, eloquence and the fine arts still tickled the ear and dazzled the eye. Luxury, following in the wake of wealth and the enormous riches which the Romans of that day revelled in, it had begun its effects upon its devotees. Pleasure and enjoyment were the only occupations of the hour, even the temples were but theatres where magnificent pomp and glittering ceremonial satisfied the craving of the Roman heart for show and pageantry. Bacchus and Venus re- ceived fullest adoration from all classes, the noble Patrician, the prosperous merchant, the freedman and the slave. Their religious festivals were nothing more than origies, where the most absolute license was permitted, and decency and the last vestiges of modesty were thrown to the winds under the veil of worship to the gods. The feast day of the emperor SO THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. was a time when voluptuousness, drunkenness, dis- order were the best proofs of loyalty to the imperial majesty. The whole day was spent at the bath, which served as a place of most frightful sensual recreation, and what time could be spared from this debauchery was filled up by attendance at the cireus, where by a singular transformation, cruelty and the most out- rageous heartlessness succeeded to the utmost effem- inancy and luxuriance. For there the same eyes that turned their languishing gaze upon the most finished works of art, gloated upon the most fierce combat of the gladiators and the most revolting scenes of bloodshed. The gravity and power of the senate had vanished, the honest, vigorous manli- ness that had made Rome what it was, was no longnr visible. The Palatine gleamed all night in the effulgence of banquet halls, filled with the gay and dissolute court. Seriousness, moral law, justice, moderation were gone forever. And now, behold in the midst of this effeminate pleasure-loving, licentious throng, a little group, who by the strong contrast of their dress, their bearing, their very coun- tenance, appeared distinct and different from all their surroundings. They took no part in the long, gorge- ous processions that filed under the triumphal arches, along the gayly decorated streets, up to the marble temples, where the fragrant incense was burned, and the dazzling scene of crowds of vestals and gold-robed priests stood around the altar, and to softest music from a thousand pipes, sang the praises of their false divinities. They shrink into the byways and hurry on to out of the way temples, to join still others already assembled at the simplicity of ceremonial that distinguished this strange religion. Issuing from these quiet places, they meet the rollicking and reckless crowd that, half drunk THE STORM. 8 1 from their libations, and wreathed with garlands torn from their shrines, rent the air with lascivious jest and indecent mirth and song. To the invitations to join their baccanalian dances, where men and women half nude, gave free vent to their lawless passions, these worshippers of Christ turned their heads in unfeigned disgust and disap- proval. Even in the emperors' feasts, they still held themselves from the mad gatherings and their wild ex- cesses. At the baths they were never seen, and they never entered the portals of the great amphitheatre to witness the great gladiatorial feats and the slaughter of the slaves. And so, forsooth, judged from their absence from the feasts of both gods and emperor, they were at once stamped as atheists and traitors. And above the music of the dance, the coarse song of the orgies and the vivats that rose up to the imperial palace, ascended the cry which spread from lip to lip, bringing terror to the souls of the early faithful, " To the lions with the Christians, the Christians to the lions. " This is the picture that Tertullian hands down to us in describing the causes which prompted the pagans of his day to single out as enemies of the human race, de- spisers of the gods, and rebellious citizens, the men and women who, faithful to the teachings of the true faith, refused to participate in these scenes of crime and licentiousness. Reproached for their singular indiffer- ence to the common pastimes and public holidays, and absence from the temples, he thus responds : " The theatre is the scene of impure love. What Christian mother could gaze upon these views of immodesty un- shocked ; what Christian but would blush at the com- pany he finds there. " Again he answers, " Truly Christians are savages aud enemies of the state, be- cause they do not assist at your festivities, but celebrate 82 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. with a joy wholly interior, and not with debauchery, your emperor's feast days. How truly deserving- of death we are lor offering up prayers for the emperor without ceasing to be chaste and modest. " Here we have indicated plainly the first reasons which turned towards the Christians the hatred and suspicion of their pagan neighbors. Once made the mark of pagan hatred, on account of this singular abstention from the public festivities, the imagination soon helped to fill out other and more explicit accusations. Their meetings in private, to which none but the initiated were admitted, soon made them appear as political conspirators and social revolutionists. Some renegades, maliciously misinterpreting the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrament of the Eucharistic Feast, noised it abroad that these secret observances were the scenes of human sacrifice in which the Christians murdered an innocent babe, and then consummated the horrible crime by drinking its blood. Moreover, the frequent miracles wrought by the Christians were ascribed to them as the results of witchcraft and necromancy. So that at the very beginning of the reign of Nero, the Roman people had learned to consider them as a dangerous as- sociation which plotted in secret places and in the darkness of the night against the welfare of the govern- ment and the life of the emperor. As the new religion continued to grow with marvel- ous rapidity, extending from Rome throughout all the provinces of the empire, so that finally the temples themselves were deserted, the priests of paganism were roused to a sense of their waning influence ; and so to the suspicion was soon added the jealousy of priests. Only a match was needed to turn all this smouldering mass of antipathy into a fearful conflagration. That match was the burning of Rome. The early part of Nero's reign was distinguished by THE STORM. 83 justice and prosperity, but this was due rather to the wisdom and honesty of Seneca and Burrhus, to whom at that time was intrusted the management of affairs. But soon matters changed, and the Roman people became fully conscious of the real character of the imperial profligate. Crime after crime had succeeded in turning towards himself the contempt of the Roman people. The climax of his mad excesses was reached in the setting fire to the city. This would have been also the sudden close of his reign were it not for the ingenious subtlety with which he diverted from him- self the accusations which his subjects had arrayed against him, who, tired of the infamous actions of this monster, at last determined to rid themselves of a ruler who showed absolute disregard for his subjects. His wife was a Jewess, and among his most in- fluential advisers were to be reckoned many rich Jews. These courtiers advised him to avert suspicion from himself by laying the charge of incendiarism at the door of the Christians. Nobody believed the calumny, not even the Romans themselves, as Tacitus plainly writes, and the Christians, hurried before the magis- trates, interrogated and examined juridically, proved beyond doubt, that they were utterly innocent, but they were nevertheless convicted, not of the burning of the city it is true, but forsooth, of hatred to the .human race. This pretext sufficed to turn the minds of the angry Romans from the emperor himself, and so, instead of the cry " Bread and the show, " arose the shout, " The Christians to the beasts. " And so the first legal persecution dates its origin from the greatest monster of inhumanity and crime that ever sat upon a throne ; the worthy ancestor of all who, in times succeeding up to this, our day, have molested the church of God. Well may we repeat with Tertullian: "We glory in a persecution inaug- 84 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. urated by such a tyrant." This persecution may be taken as a type oi all those that followed up to the peace of Contantine. The causes alleged were the same, the accusations against the Christians the same, the manner of torment and character of the punish- ments inflicted were alike. Whether this persecution under Nero was confined to Rome, or extended to the provinces cannot be de- termined with perfect historical accuracy, though Sul- picius , Severus and Orosius inform us that it raged throughout the whole empire. Tacitus is our author- ity for affirming that during this persecution, an enormous multitude (multitudo ingens) of Christians suffered death. As to the characters of these punishments allotted to the victims of this unjust malice, the mere mention of them makes us shudder, and on reading the authentic accounts given us of these awful scenes of cruelty, we wonder how men with any vestige of feeling left in them could measure out such brutal tortures lor even beasts. To enumerate a few, we have only to repeat a description left us by Tacitus. Some were nailed to the cross, some were sewn up in the skins of wild beasts and the dogs of the streets set upon them, and most horrible of all, others covered with pitch and tar were bound to stakes in the arena and set on fire to il- luminate the circus at night, while Nero himself, dressed as a chariotee, drove among these human torches. Among those first to give their lives for the faith in this reign of terror, were St Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and St. Paul, his co-laborer in Rome. The conversion by St. Peter, of one of the concubines of Nero, brought upon him the wrath of the tyrant. He was arrested and thrown into the dungeon of the Mamertine Prison, whence he was led forth to cruci- THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 85 fixion in the very gardens of Nero, on the Vatican, on June 7, of the year 67. About the same time St. Paul met his glorious death by decapitation near the Fulvian waters in a place now called the Three Fountains, still venerated at the present day. It was a common form of death to which the Christians were sentenced, to be condemed to wild beasts in the arena. Those con- demned to this death were called "bestiarii." At first, they were stripped naked and flogged by the Vena- tores or hunters, who stood all around the arena brandishing great whips in their hands. Before these flagellators, the marytrs were driven, compelled to run through this frightful gauntlet till the blood streamed from their bodies. They were then dressed in the garments of the priests of Saturn, and so like human sacrifices to this cruel god, they were led forth to meet the lions and death. In reading the accounts of these persecutions, one cannot fail to recognize that the evil spirit himself had entered into the minds of the persecutors, so that no means were left untried to make the Christians waver in the faith and renounce Christ. Let me repeat here a few of the tortures, of which we have authentic ac- counts in the best accredited writers of that time. It is not a pleasant scene to review, but as a mere matter of history, confirming the proposition we have set out to prove, we cannot pass it by in silence. One of these refinements of cruelty, according to Ruinart, was the extraction of the longue and all the teeth. Some were cut open and filled with grain and thrown to the swine to be devoured ; some were dragged upon a pavement of sharp stones; some were buried ali\e, as we learn from St. Gregory of Tours ; some, like St. Lawrence, were broiled alive. Sometimes the martyrs were burned "according to law," that is, as Lactantius ob- serves, condemned to die by slow fire ; the ashes were 86 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. ground to dust and thrown into the river or to the winds. Horrible as is the mere mention of such a death as these here narrated, they are but a few specimens of the almost endless varieties of cruelties which the con- fessors of the faith were subjected to. It is enough for our purpose to indicate these. Now, if we go down through the long weary period of three hundred years, the history of the Church at this period seems, with but a few brief intervals, sim- ply a catalogue of these heartrending scenes. Surely, this was for the infant Church a very baptism of blood ; and if in later times Christianity rose to its true posi- tion as a powerful, influential and magnificent organiza- tion, reflecting in a measure, the glory of the Church triumphant, it can always look back to these three first centuries as the proof of its indefectibility and the price of its future prosperity. To Nero succeeded Vespasian and Titus. During their reigns the Church enjoyed a short respite ; then came Domitian, whom Juvenal calls another Nero. Clement the Roman, who lived at this very time, was an eye-witness of many a bloody scene enacted by the cruelty of this tyrant. In his letter to the Corinthians, he speaks of the awful multitudes that suffered the most terrible tortures during these years of trial. It is significant of the high position, socially and politically, which distinguished many members of the Church of this time, that among those whom Domitian put to death, were Flavius Clemens, the consul, and Flavia Domitilla, his own niece. We have this on the author- ity of Dion Cassius, of Eusebius, and Brusius, a pagan author of the same period. The most distinguished martyr of this time was St. John the Evangelist, who was condemned to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil before the Lateran gate. It has been attempted to THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 87 impugn the veracity of this statement, but on the authority of St. Jerome, and Eusebius, the most learn- ed students and critics of history universally admit it. It is more than likely that towards the end of his reign, perhaps weary of the fight which proved utterly use- less against Christianity, Domitian, by private orders, mitigated the cruelties of his early reign, for Tertullian assures us that he allowed many of those whom he had banished for the faith to return to their homes. Nerva succeeded Domitian, and his policy was an entirely peaceful one, but he reigned only two years, when of a sudden, the fire blazed out afresh, when Trajan renewed the severest edicts of Nero and Dom- itian. It is a singular fact that men otherwise noted for their clemency and wisdom, when it is a question of the Church become most narrow, ignorant and heartless. This was the case with Trajan. By the pagan authors of his time, he is described as one of the very best of the Roman emperors ; in fact the senate conferred upon him the title optimus. Yet from the Acts of the Martyrs, and the letters of St. Ignatius, we learn that though he was kind and just to the rest of his subjects, he was implacable in his hatred of the Christians. It seems that he had a supertitious dread that unless he propitiated the gods by ridding his kingdom of these atheists, that the pagan divinities would wreak their vengeance upon his empire and himself. From the letters of Pliny the Younger, who was the governor of Bithynia, we may gather the harshness of the edicts published by command of the emperor. It was at the suggestion of this same Pliny that Trajan reduced his measures to a better regulated mode of proceeding. He forbade the detecting and spying out of the Christians, but made a regular legal procedure necessary, so that for a while, the command SS THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. of the emperor had the effect of suppressing the too active inquisition of the pagans. Nevertheless, he did not withdraw any of the laws enacted against them, but left them in full force ; so that a Christian once ac- cused and refusing to abjure the faith, was immediately punished ; for the words of his rescript read : "Si deferantur et arguantur puniendi sunt." Eusebius com- menting upon this strong decree says, that though it for awhile dampened the too ardent zeal of their per- secutors, nevertheless the jealousies and hatred of the pagan people continued a sufficient excuse for denun- ciation and consequent punishment of the Christians. The duration ol this persecution was from the year 107 to the year 117, making thus a period of ten bitter years of trial for the church. One after another, emperor succeeded emperor, nearly all of whom, with the exception of Alexander Severus, who preserved the statue of Christ among his household gods, and Philip the Arab, who was con- sidered to be a Christian himself, repeated over and over again the same story of hostilities. Besides the three persecutions we have already named, passing over the times, when owing to private broils and for- eign wars, our forefathers were left for a time unmol- ested, we may with St. Augustine, enumerate seven others, commonly called, on account of their ferocity and extent, general persecutions. These were the forth under Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 116 to 180: the fifth under Septimius Severus (193-21 1); the sixth, under Maximian the Thracian (235-238); the seventh, under Decius (249-251); the eighth, under Valerian (253-260); the ninth, under Aurelian (270-^75 ; the tenth, under Diocletian (284-305). Of these, we may only consider the two most im- portant on account of their duration and bitterness, namely that of Marcus Aurelius, at the end of the THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 89 second century, and Diocletian at the end ol the third century. This M. Aurelius, though a stoic philosopher, considered the Christians as stubborn and enemies of the state. Melitus, bishop of Sardis, in his apology which he presented to Marcus Aurelius, did not fear to state openly that the sufferings which his people were compelled to endure under his very eyes, were monstrous and barbarous in the extreme ; that inform- ers excited by the new decrees promulgated through- out Asia, ceased not day and night to insult his people and despoil them of their goods. Eusebius, moreover, informs us that this tyrant gave orders to the prefect of Gaul to put to death every Christian who remained constant in the profession of his faith. Athanagorus besought him to show a little sympathy lor these suf- fering people, and not to allow them to be treated like mere cattle, but the appeal was without avail. What the apologists and bishops sought from the emperor in vain was finally brought about by the in- terposition of Providence itself. The prayers of his subjects he heeded not, but he was compelled to at least a temporary relaxation of his cruelties by a most wonderful miracle. When the emperor was forming his troops, thus writes Eusebius, in order of battle against the Germans and Sarmatians, he was re- duced to extremities by a failure of water. It was in the heat of summer and the soldiers were dying of thirst. The enemy was before them ready to com- mence the attack, but the fainting army had no strength to lift their arms against them. The em- peror was dismayed and saw sure defeat staring him in the face. At this awful juncture, the very Christians whom he had so terribly persecuted came to his assistance. The legion called Melitine, com- posed of Christian soldiers, knelt down upon the ground, and to the surprise of the emperor and the 90 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. army, besought God to show His power. Wonder followed surprise, and fear followed upon wonder ; for behold, a fierce storm suddenly arose in a clear sky. The lightening gleamed above the enemy, and terrible thunder bolts, leaping from the clouds carried death and destuction into their ranks and they fled in terror, while upon the army of the Romans a gentle rain de- scended, and the perishing soldiers, catching the grateful drops in their helmets, were soon refreshed and saved from a terrible overthrow. This leigon was ever afterwards known as the Thundering Legion. Tertullian tells us that in a formal document, the em- peror acknowledged this miracle as obtained by the prayers of the Christians, and Eusebius narrates that in consequence of this favor, Aurelius issued an edict by which those accused of Christianity should be par- doned, and their informers should undergo the penalty instead. A memorial of this wonderful event is sculp- tured on the celebrated Antonine column at Rome where is represented a figure of Jupiter Pluvius scat- tering lightning and rain upon the enemy, and their horses lying prostrate, while the Romans, sword in hand, are rushing upon them. This event took place in the year 174. It is wonderful how soon even so marvellous an interposition of God may be forgotten. Three years after, the emperor seemed to have remem- bered nothing of it, and from that time until the end of his reign there was no cessation of constant perse- cution. Among the most illustrious martyrs put to death during his reign, were Ptolemy, Lucius, Justin, the Apologist, St. Cecilia, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Bothinus, bishop of Lyons. Higher and higher rose the awful tide of hatred to the church of Christ, until the Christians began to be- lieve that the days of anti-Christ had come at last. THE STORM. 91 Hundreds upon hundreds were dragged from the quiet of home, from their hiding places, from their oc- cupations in the open day and the silence ol the night, hurried before tribunals, accused by slanderous wit- nesses, the*n condemned to dark prisons and loathsome cells to wait for that release which came only through the gate of death. We come, finally, to view briefly, the last and most terrible of all the storms that raged against the Church of God. Under the Emperors Galerius and Aurelian and their three immediate successors, the Church en- joyed a long season of respite, so that when Diocletian came to the throne, the Christians were no longer con- sidered enemies ot the state and were allowed to prac- tice their worship openly and with perfect freedom. Many of them had attained to the highest and most in- fluential positions in the empire. Under these new con- ditions, the Church increased and flourished with mar- vellous prosperity. Magnificent churches were erected rivalling in splendor of architecture the very temples of the pagans. All day long, great throngs passed in and out under their beautiful portals, and on Sundays and feast days, large as they were, they were not ca- pacious enough to hold the enormous concourse of the faithful that crowded to participate in the sacred so- lemnities. As many of their number were exceedingly rich and prosperous, the society of the faithful grew more and more wealthy, and though as yet, the pagan religion still flourished, in reality it might be said that Christianity drew the greatest number to its following. The religion of Christ was everywhere respected, and the Christian rites were celebrated with sumptuous magnificence. Bishops were exceedingly beloved on all sides, and an enormous number of the noblest and gentlest blood now professed the faith of Christ. God's blessing was visibly upon his Church: He had 92 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. delivered them out of the hands of their enemies and showered prosperity upon them. One would surely imagine that after all the terrible tortures and trials which they and their ancestors had undergone for the faith that, now, they would remem- ber what it had cost them, and prove grateful for the peace which they at last enjoyed. But according to Eusebius, God's blessings were soon forgotten, and in- stead of growing more strong and loyal in the taith, they gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the good things of life and became lukewarm in the matters of religion. And so the same men who in adversity were signalized by virtue and courage in the Church's de- fence, became in prosperity both sluggards and cowards. They began to envy one another : to sow discord among themselves, and thus breaking the bonds of Christian peace. Then the chastisements of God were poured forth. In the beginning of his reign, Diocletian was far from unfavorable to the Christians. Frequently urged to oppose their 'increasing force and influence, each time he refused, until finally at the urgent solicitation of Galerius, he yielded, and seeing dissension among their own ranks, he determined upon their extermina- tion, to establish the state upon a firmer basis and en- dow it with additional splendor. The immediate course which led Diocle tian to enter upon a cruel policy is handed down by Lactantius (chap. 10) De Mortibus Progenitorum. The emperor, anxious to know what events the future held in store for him, and to learn what secret evils thre atened the empire, gathered around him his pagan priests. Ac- cording to the usual custom, they set about to consult the omens in the palpitating entrails of birds. It seems that some Christians, probably officers of the palace, were present at this scene. One of them made the THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 93 sign of the cross and the pagan priests confessed them- selves unable to give an answer to the emperor's curiosity. Immediately a discussion arose as to why there was no response to the omens. It was soon re- vealed that the Christians by some sign had cast a spell upon the operations, and at once, the emperor, roused to an awful fury, gave orders that the edicts asrainst the faithful should be executed. In the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, on the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, Easter day, the occasion of happiest spiritual joy, the edicts of persecution were promulgated. By these it was de- creed that all the churches of the Christians should be levelled to the ground, the sacred books delivered to the flames, the noble personages who professed the Christian faith disgraced publicly, and the people who dared to assemble for Christian worship to be deprived of liberty. And as it this did not suffice, later on new edicts were decreed, by which the bishops and pre- fects of the churches were to be cast into prison, and by every torment constrained to offer sacrifice to the gods. Imagine the fear that now filled Christian com- munities in all parts of the world ! "From the East to the West," writes Lactantius,"could be heard the savage roars of the wild beasts that ruled the empire, and had I a hundred tongues speaking a hundred languages, with a voice strong as steel, I could not begin to re- late the cruelties which were enacted and the punish- ments with which we were afflicted." The first to be seized and put to death were those who held positions in the imperial palace : after them the bishops, priests and sacred ministers were dragged to execution. No proof or pretext of public fault or civil crime was thought necessary ; even the appear- ance of the customary forms of justice was omitted. Men of every age and condition, after being first de* 94 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. livered to the mob and by them beaten almost to in- sensibility, were then taken by the executioners and thrown into the flames. The servants and domestics and all of humble station, were bound hand and foot, weighted with stones about the neck, and thrown into the sea. The prisons groaned with their Christian oc- cupants, and so full were they of these confessors of the faith that there was no room lelt for the common criminals. Diocletian himself often took delight in being present in person at the martyrdom of these poor victims in the public places. The only ones to whom he showed any mercy were the apostates. The magistrates seemed to vie with one another in gaining the greatest number of these from among the body of the Christians. Knowing the pleasure it gave to the emperor to succeed in this work, they took every pos- sible means to swell the number of apostates which they recorded and sent to Diocletian. Unfortunately there were not lacking some, who yielding to the awful terrors before them, sacrificed to the gods. But oftentimes, the magistrates enrolled many upon their books as perverts, who were in reality faithful. For example, some constant for their professions to the true faith were thrown into the flames and when half dead again rescued by the inquisitors. On being asked whether they would offer incense to the gods, being unconscious and unable to speak, their silence was taken as an indication of consent: and so many, through this deceit, were pretended to have given up the faith. It may be wondered how we know so fully the de- scription of the legal inquiries, the questions asked and the answers given by the Christians during the process of examination and martyrdom, as described in the Acts of the Martyrs. The fact is that from the very earliest period, provision was made for the emergency. St. Clement, the Roman Pontiff, appointed seven notaries, THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 95 who were short-hand reporters, to take down all the particulars they could learn of the actions and words of the martyrs in the district separately confided to each of them. The legal trials of the martyrs, which in the provinces usually took place in the pro-consul's palace called the Pretorium, were carried on inside of a railing and be- hind a curtain. Of course only the pagan notaries could there be present and take note of the questions of the magistrates and the answers of the Christians. Sometimes, by bribery, copies of these official reports were obtained from the pagan notaries. The Christian notaries used to mingle in the crowd outside the Pre- torium to jot down privately everything that happened during the time of the process. These notes were afterwards copied in regular form, and were read in the churches and sent to Christians in distant coun- tries. Ruinart shows that it was customary in many churches, especially in Africa, Gaul and Spain, to read these Acts of the Martyrs in public on the anniversary of their death. Eusebius describes vividly the awful character of the punishments meted out by the emperor. Some were roasted on gridirons, others were devoured piece- meal by leopards, or gored by wild bulls set loose upon them in the arena. Throughout Africa, Mauritania, Egypt and Thebiades, the number of martyrs was sim- ply incalculable. It is stated, upon excellent authority, that during the very first month of this persecution, from fifteen thousand to seventeen thousand were put to death. Among the distinguished soldiers of Christ who sealed their faith with their life blood, we find mentioned Dorotheus and Gorgon, two of the emperor's most trusted chamberlains. Sebastian, a captain of the im- perial guards, was shot to death with arrows, and 96 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORMT. Thymus, bishop of Nicomedia, was beheaded; St. Pancratius, martyred at Rome ; St. Januarius, at Bene- ventum ; Sts. Cosmos and Damian, at Selicia ; St. Agnes, a Roman maiden; St. Theodora, at Antioch, and St. Justina and Rufina, at Seville. So confident was the emperor of utterly blotting out the name of Christian, that he erected pillars upon which his apparent victory was described as the "vic- tor}^ of paganism," the "extinction of Christianity," the "extirpation of superstition." This cruel war waged even after the resignation of Diocletian, losing none of its fury under Galerius and Maximin, who succeeded him. And not until the year 312, when Constantine the Great, entering Rome under the gleaming banner of the cross, was the hand of the oppressor uplifted and the Church restored to peace. Thus the bloody strug- gle of three centuries was ended, and Christianity at length gained a complete triumph over paganism. We have now to consider the value set upon mar- tyrdom by the Christians themselves (that is what might be called its intrinsic value) and the value which it bears as a confirmative evidence of an historical truth or fact. And first, nothing can be surer than that they who suffered confiscation and imprisonment and banishment, but especially death, were honored with the highest veneration, and besought as protectors and intercessors, whose influence was all powerful with God. Evidence of this, we have yet in the Catacombs where it is plain as we shall see from inscriptions still legible, that it was considered the greatest privilege to be buried near a martyr's tomb. Moreover, too, from the earliest times, the Holy Sacrifice was offered up over the ashes of the martyrs. As to the merely human value of an attestation sealed by death, to confirm an historical fact, there can be no greater proof of sincerity and fidelity : and hence THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 97 it is that no stronger argument of the truths and facts of Christianity exists than the testimonies of the martyrs themselves. For whether we consider the number, their personal qualities, or the fortitude they displayed, it is equally evident that what they asserted really happened. One does not die to maintain a doubtful proposition. Many of the early martyrs were eye witnesses of the works of Christ : others saw with their own eyes the miracles of the apostles and still others were convinced by the testimony of those in whom they must have had most perfect con- fidence. Then consider that in defence of this they were ready to forfeit everything they possessed, even life itself. It is vainly urged by mockers of religion that they were fanatics, but the whole story of the facts in the case, and the only one which history has handed down to us, gives the lie to this calumny. Their conduct was the very contrary of fanatical. They were quiet, peaceful, retiring men and womem, who desired only to escape publicity. What human motive could have urged them to give up their lives ? Was it vanity? Thousands of them were children, slaves, and men and women of the low- est rank, who died without leaving the record of their names ; and so common was martyrdom in those days, that death for the faith seemed an every day matter and received little notice. There is only one motive that the impartial study of the case can reveal. They were certain of what they professed, and for that certainty they died. That cer- tainty is Christ crucified and risen from the dead. The story, therefore, of the first three ages of the Church, written as it is in the blood of thousands of wit- nesses to the truth of Christianity, is the strongest pos- sible testimony to the divinity of the faith, which our ancestors have handed down to us. And surely, the 98 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. fact that notwithstanding the opposition of every human power and dignity, the church continued to grow and increase in fervor, strength and numbers, is sufficient evidence of its divine origin. What human institution during three hundred years could defy the greatest civil power the world has ever known, the im- perial Caesars, and not only survive, but succeed to a greater and more universal power than the Caesars themselves had ever known, in the very city of the Caesars, Rome itself? What greater argument can be adduced to prove the divinity of the Church's mission and the constant protection of Christ, its Founder, than the story I have briefly told you of the sufferings of the followers of Christ in the first three centuries ? If the Church could ever fail, here was the time for its complete extinction. If kings, or emperors, or con- suls, or prefects, or magistrates had ever power to crush the Christian faith, here surely was the time it would have been blotted out. If edicts, laws and proclamations were ever to impede the progress of the Church's triumph, here was the time to place an im- movable barrier against its march. If sufferings, tor- tures, inhuman cruelties or death itself were of any avail against the Spirit of God, revealed in the doc- trines of the Church, surely after three hundred years of all that fiendish ingenuity could devise, were Christianity not divine, it would then have perishhd in oblivion. But on the contrary, we know that it came forth from the fiery ordeal glorious and triumphant, purified by the trial, strengthened by its combat with enemies. And the story of the infant Church may well serve as a solace to Catholics in times of trouble, and a warning to our enemies. God's word is truth, and His promises endure forever. "Behold;" said Christ, "I am with you always, un- til the consummation of the world." THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 99 And so I draw to a conclusion, this conference. We have accompanied the early Christians through their period of grief to that of rejoicing, from the time of Nero, through the reign of persecution to the be- ginning of the days of peace. THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. In bringing to a close this series of conferences on the history of the Christian Church during the first three centuries, it appears to me not inappropriate to glance, in parting, at a subject, which of recent years has attracted world-wide attention, and is constantly growing in interest among the students of our times, I mean Christian archaeology. For a long time the Church has battled against er- rors which combatted this or that doctrine of faith, this or that interpretation of dogma. The general fountains of knowledge were still to be recognized in common. It seemed rather a matter of agreeing upon deductions. It was the false logic, the poor reasoning of the Church's opponents that led them to their false conclusions, and so the Church turned all her forces into the field of philosophy and dogmatic theology, so as to send forth to combat her enemies, champions of sound logic, right argument, acute reasoning. But to- day the enemy has shifted its camp ; the attack comes from another side. It is no longer a question of reas- oning from common premises ; it is a question of the premises themselves. The question is not now, what is meant by such a text, but does the text itself really THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. IOI exist ? The very fountains of knowledge are denied, and so the warfare takes on a new aspect. History, that is, the proving facts as they existed, of documents as they were written, this is now the field of battle between us and infidelity. The science ol to-day is strictly materialistic, the reasoning ac- counted the only true method is from facts, not prin- ciples. Scientists believe only what they can see, touch and handle ; all else may be considered beauti- ful poetry, interesting legend or folk-lore, but is not considered science. To-day, therefore, the importance of true history which brings us face to face with the origin, founda- tion and beginnings of our religion, is more and more recognized by the Church. Does it not seem provi- dential that till this period of rationalistic science, the very strongest and aptest argument has been pre- served through many centuries in the very bowels of the earth ; and that when now doubt is cast upon the meaning of texts, when the origin of documents has been denied or cast into obscurity, the dead as it were have been brought to life, and from the catacombs have walked forth, living witnesses of the belief, the practices, the ritual of the church as it existed in the very first days of its history. Archaeology is, there- fore, to-day, the eye and the right hand of ecclesiastical history, for by the discovery of inscriptions, paintings, sculptures, documents, which by proof incontestable are demonstrated to be contemporaneous with the earliest Christian times, indeed some of them of indu- bitable apostolic origin, it brings under the eye and finger of the scientist the very material proofs which he alone will admit as convincing. To combat the ravages of modern criticism, to ar- rest the march of that Attila of history, archaeology has arisen, and bringing to the front the very proofs 102 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. concerning which doubt had arisen, puts an end to its destructive progress. And so learned Christians have appeared all over the world, who, versed in this mod- ern defence of Christianity, have set their faces against the attacks of scepticism. In Italy, in France, in Eng- land, and in Germany, these indefatigable champions, with an activity really admirable, have searched to the very depths the ancient archives and libraries, de- ciphered worn and withered manuscripts, gone down into the earth among the tombs to rouse from the re- pose of centuries the ashes of the very dead, to make them stand in defence of Christian faith. Christian archaeology is the surest guide to the his- tory of the beginnings of Christianity. It furnishes a source of irrefragable proofs, witnesses in marble, in bronze, in wood, ivory and crystal, whose veracity is superior to all the subtleness of the human intellect. All the monuments which have come down to us from the hands of the first Christians, even those most in- significant in appearance, from the grand system of crypts of the Roman cemeteries and the basilicas ol Constantine, down to the simplest bit of stone or terra cotta, give testimony of some fact, and their composite evidence forms the story of primitive Christian soci- ety. An important text of a writer may be altered or poorly reproduced or effaced ; but an epigraph in marble, a picture still almost intact, revealed to us by the pick of the excavator cannot lie ; and therefore the testimony of such witnesses as these is of the highest value. Again, during these later years, we are constantly being told that in the primitive ages of the Church, the faith was pure and the ceremonies and rites after the mind of Christ ; but that after the third century all this was changed, innovations crept in and so the THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 103 Church's identity was lost. If, therefore, by archaeol- ogy, it becomes evident to the eyes that the Church's doctrine upon the very points at issue were then what they are now, it is manifest that this science is the one of all the rest which can best settle the question as to the legitimate and genuine succession of the Catholic Church of the nineteenth century to the Church of the first and second centuries, called by our opponents "the centuries of gold." As the Rosetta stone was the key to languages cen- turies forgotten, so the inscriptions and documents of the catacombs are the key by which we read the con- nection between the present Church and the Church of the apostles. But the field of Christian archaeology is extensive in the extreme. It means the study of all the ancient manuscripts, documents, relics of all kinds that have come down to us from the earliest Christian times. The works of the holy fathers of the Church, the apologies of the earliest writers, the Acts of the Martyrs, the martyrologies, calendars, pontifical and liturgical, all are included in this science. It would be utterly impossible here, even to indicate the wonderful range over which it extends. We may only consider one of its important branches, namely, the study of the Roman catacombs. At the very mention of the word catacombs, we al- most seem to see the early Christians gathered in the tombs below the earth, surrounded by the bodies of the dead, seeking in the very bowels of the earth to escape the fury of unjust persecution. We seem to see the living witnesses of the faith by the uncertain light of the sepulchral lamps, lilting to heaven their pure hands to implore peace and mercy for the Church, strength for the faithful who groaned within the prfson walls, and fortitude lor those destined to greater tor- ments, and finally death. 104 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. We seem to see the priests and bishops, and the Ro- man pontiffs, too, lifting to heaven the Host of peace and salvation, and offering to God the sacrifice ol the Immaculate Lamb, slain for our redemption. In a word, at the name of the catacombs, we represent to ourselves the dark habitations of the dead become the dwellings of the living ; the place which witnessed at once, the most terrible fears and the most joyous hopes. In this conference I shall continually make use of the science and erudition of the great archaeologist, John Baptist de Rossi, in endeavoring to set forth be* fore you to-day the truth as regards the origin and use of the Christian catacombs. It is by means of words that we express ideas, and therefore to the word catacomb must correspond the concept which it signifies. The name itself, catacomb, is derived from the Greek prefix "kata," meaning "near," and the Latin word "cumbere," "to lie." Entymologically, therefore, this word signifies a place near the sepulchres ; and this is the signification as- signed to the word by modern archaeologists. In consequence, it is plain, that properly considered, the word catacomb itself does not mean a sepulchre or cemetery, but a place near the cemetery. And that clever archaeeologist, de Rossi's successor, Mariane Armellini, Professor of Sacred Archaeology in the Col- lege of the Propaganda, tells us that the word cata- comb was a topographical term, used to signify a tract of country on the Via Appia, about two miles beyond the present walls of Rome. In the course of time this name came to signify the cemetery of St. Sebas- tian, and afterwards, in the middle ages, it was ex- tended in meaning and application to all subterranean cemeteries of the Christians. The earliest Christians, however, by the name cata- THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 105 comb, never intended to indicate at all their subter- ranean cemeteries. These were already in existence long before this term came into use, which only long afterwards was turned to its present signification. In the course of centuries the two ideas became confused, so that by the name of catacomb was understood the Christian cemeteries under ground. Now, this word cemetery, while it recalls to our minds the places where those dear to us are buried, at the same time consoles us with the sweet hope of their eternal happi- ness and of the future resurrection. For cemetery, derived from the Greek word which signifies repose, reminds us that those who lie there, though bodily dead, still live the life of the soul, which will one day at the so\ind of the archangel's trumpet, return anew, to take up again these spoils of mortality. And so death is likened to a sleep from which the dead shall wake again at the last day. This was the belief and the faith and the hope which gave origin to the Christian sepulchres, which to-day are called the catacombs. Jews and Gentiles had their sepulchres, but St. Paul had proclaimed that there could be no communication between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial, and so from the beginning it was repugnant to Christian sentiment to deposit in the same place the bodies of the saints who were temples of the Holy Ghost, and who should one day rise again to be invested with immortal glory, and the ashes of those, who dying without faith, cher- ished no hope of immortality or future glory. Sepa- rated by the character of Baptism given in life, in death too, they wished still to be distinct ; and this distinc- tion was visible also by the inscriptions upon their tombs. Upon the pagan's was written "mortuus est," upon the Christian's, *'Secessit in pace." St. Ilarius re- minds us of a prohibition which then existed of bury- 106 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. ing Christians in the same place with infidels, when he writes : "The Lord has admonished us not to mingle with the memory of the saints those who die without the faith." This same prohibition was sanctioned by the Coun- cil of Laodicea, when those of the faithful who interred the Christians in the cemeteries of heretics were ex- communicated, and this, it is evident from very early writers, was even at that time no new law. We read for instance in St. Cyprian, that the bishop Martial was deposed from his See because, among other ac- cusations brought against him, was this one, of having permitted his children to be buried in the cemetery of the pagans. In this matter, it appears the Church has ever been most particular, especially in the earliest ages of the Church, on account of the pagan superstition re- garding the dead. Impious rites were performed and sacrifices offered to the evil spirits in the pagan places of burial. In consequence, it was natural the church should endeavor to prevent the burial of her children in such places. It was, therefore, a reason of faith and communion which impelled the Christians to keep their own burial places separate from the sepulchres of the gentiles and the heretics of their times, in order that without scan- dal to the faith, they might kneel at the resting places of their loved ones, pour forth in peace their prayers to God, and mark their tombs by those sculptured or painted symbols, emblems or images, which expressed the certainty of their faith and hope. The word cemetery, at least in Rome, comprehended the whole place of burying, as well under as above the ground, including also the houses built thereupon, and the basilicas, oratories and dwellings found there. When, therefore, we read in the Liber Pontificalis, for example, in the life of Liberius. that "Constantius sent THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 107 messengers to recall Liberius from the cemetery of Agnes where he lived," or again in the life of St. Boni- face, that he lived in the cemetery of St. Felicitas, we must not suppose that these popes lived under the earth in the catacombs, but in the basilicas, oratories and dwellings which were erected in that place or tract of ground under which were the sepulchres, now called catacombs. The form of the sepulchres was different in different places, according as they were above or under the earth. The subterranean burial places were great galleries or corridors, which in Rome went by the name of cuniculi, or were also called crypts, and the whole subterranean part of the cemetery was called arenarium. The part above the ground was called the field or the gardens. In the underground sepulchres, the bodies of the faith- ful were placed in niches dug out of the galleries, and these to-day are called by the archaeologists, loculi, which accordfng to their depth or capacity to contain two or three bodies were called bisomi or trisomi. These were closed up with bricks or by slabs of marble, according to the wealth and condition of the owner ; and these slabs were called tabulae if placed verti- cally over the tomb, or if horizontally, they were called mensae. If these sepulchres had the form of an arch enclosed by a tablet and were surmounted by an arched niche, they were called archisolia. At times also, bodies were buried beneath the pavement of the galleries just as we see them still in the churches of Europe ; and upon these tombs, covered with slabs of marble, some- times epitaphs were engraved ; sometimes they were left uninscribed. The rooms or places called cubicula, which are found at intervals in the catacombs were excavated in various forms and dimensions. Some 108 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. are rectangular, some oblong, some polygon shaped. To give air to the rooms and passages, shafts were cut in the earth which were sometimes vertical, sometimes oblique ; and for the entrance of light to the under- ground passages, luminaria, that is lanterns, namely openings reaching to the outer air, were dug and the rooms and passages were designated with reference to their position regarding the luminaria. These subterranean galleries were frequently exca- vated to a remarkable depth, and were reached by means of stairs which connected with the various stories into which the catacombs were divided. These steps or stairs may be classified into two categories ; those prior to the Peace of Constantine, and those later than that time. The first kind were very narrow and steep, and penetrated into the various regions of the subterranean cemetery. But after the peace which the church enjoyed during the reign of Constantine, other stairs were cut out of the earth, easier of descent, and leading generally to the crypts of the more ven- erated of the martyrs ; sometimes, too, being con- nected with the basilicas and oratories built above the cemeteries. The name given to these steps is cata- baticum. It would not be a correct idea to imagine that all the cemeteries of the Christians were catacombs, that is, subterraneous. It is a fact demonstrated by recent discoveries that above most of the subterranean ceme- teries of Rome, were established and preserved other burial places. The most illustrious of these was the Vatican cemetery, where was buried the body of St. Peter. In 1883, was discovered another similar burial place over the Catacombs of St. Callistus, on the Ap- pian Way, and many others, traces of which were dis- covered by the Jesuit Father Marchi, de Rossi, and Armellini. THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. IO9 The early Christians, as we of to-day, planted above the graves of their dead, shrubs and flowers, turning the graves into little gardens, as a sign of the gardens of Paradise, where now those blessed souls enjoyed eternal peace. The guardians of the cemeteries were the grave diggers, whose office was accordingly held in very high repute and honor. In some of the earli- est writings they are named alter the sub-deacons, and St. Jerome calls them clerics. De Rossi demonstrates that in the Christian speech the word bene facere sig- nified the burying of the dead ; and so the grave dig- gers came to be known as benefactors. As many of the subterranean cemeteries of Rome have been discovered to be connected with each other by passages in the tufa, or rocky earth, it was believed in the sixteenth century that the catacombs were not excavated by the Christians, but that they found them already dug and turned them to their own use, but Professor Armellini, in his work on the Roman Cata- combs, combats with solid argument this opinion, and demonstrates that granted that this fact were true of one cemetery, it certainly does not apply to the rest. And now comes the question, natural enough, how could the Christians, constantly persecuted and har- rassed through the first three centuries of the Church, excavate such immense cemeteries and bury there the blessed remains of the Christians and martyrs. De Rossi answers this question thus: Although the Ro- man laws allowed no tolerance or peace to the Chris- tian religion, nevertheless, by force of a common law due to the natural reverence lor the places of the dead, the cemeteries, no matter to what sect or reli- gion they belonged, were always considered inviolable, and the ground or earth in which the dead were buried was by that very fact considered sacred, and most severe penalties were sanctioned against those IIO THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. who dared to violate the burying places of the dead, punishing this crime even by banishment. Nor alone was that soil considered sacred where the body ol the dead was placed, or above which was raised the sepulchral monument, but all that tract of ground surrounding it, which the founder of the sepulchre considered annexed to it. Hence we find sepulchral areas 2400 feet long and 2000 wide. Since, therefore, these areas around the tomb en- joyed the privilege of inviolability, it is easily under- stood that the catacombs and Christian cemeteries could be excavated with security in the private prop- erty of a Christian family, and that the dead Christians were sure of a quiet resting place, protected by the laws of the same government in death which had al- lowed them no rest while living. This we learn from a law of Marcus Aurelius, who decreed that all bodies who had received "just burial/' that is, consigned to the earth, could not be disturbed in their repose. Therefore, it is not difficult to see how the Christians of the early ages dug this city of the dead even during the times of the fiercest persecution. When in the third century, the multitude of the faithful increased to great numbers, the private sepul- chres were no longer sufficient to contain the dead, and it was necessary to enlarge them. It was in pre- cisely this time, as de Rossi observes, that a great number of burial associations were formed, allowed by the law to possess places of sepulchre ; and the Christian church, though proscribed by law, could nevertheless legally form such an association. It was then that the pagans were enraged to see this privilege accorded to the Church, which like any other burial society, was allowed to possess its public cemeteries, and there in secret offer solemn prayers for the repose of the faithful departed. Again and again they at- THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. Ill tempted to deprive the Christians of this legal right, but the law always sustained them, and the Christian church, under the guise of a funeral association, en- joyed the privileges accorded to any other corporation of the pagans, and so, as Allard writes, the Church in the third century found itself in a double and contradic- tory situation. As a religion it was illegal and pun- ishable ; as an association it was licit and free ; in the same way that St. Paul asserted his rights as a Roman citizen and compelled them to be respected, though as a Christian he was put to death. The Christian sepulchres which belonged to a pri- vate family, or to an association, were composed of three principal parts : the monumentum, the area and the crypt. The monumentum was the visible part, and as it were, the sign or index of the burial place ; the area was the tract of ground which was considered a part of the cemetery ; the crypt was the subter- ranean room or chamber, in the walls of which the niches were cut which received the bodies ; and these niches were called Columbria, because they looked like dove cots. Frequently the whole sepulchre was called the monumentum from its principal and visible part. The question has been asked, why are the cata- combs always found outside the walls of the city. The answer is that by the Roman law, burial within the city limits was prohibited, and the Christians nat- urally obeyed this law. However, the distance of the cemetery from the city wall was never great, in order thatthey might have less difficulty in transporting thith- er the bodies of the martyrs and that by their proximity they might serve as convenient places of meeting. The cemeteries which we find more than two or three miles beyond the city did not belong, properly speak- ing, to the Roman Christians, but to the little settle- 112 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. merits of the faithful scattered through the Campania. The ancient documents and especially the itineraries give us the precise number of the Roman cemeteries, and the greater number of them correspond to the number of the ancient titles of the parishes of the city, which in the third century numbered 25 or 26. Of these we may here only notice four of the greater catacombs, those of Callistus, Priscilla, the Ostrian and the Vatican. One of the first great cemeteries legally established by the Roman Church is that which is commonly called the cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way near the Basilica of St. Sebastian. In the Philosoph- oumna, we read that Pope Zepharinus toward the year 197, gave to Callistus, one of his deacons, the care and administration of this cemetery, hence called the cem- etery of Callistus. This catacomb, as modern archae. ologists prove, is the combination of many smaller cemeteries, namely of the crypt of Lucina, a matron of apostolic times, of the Calcilii, of St. Soter, and finally of the cemetery of the apologists. In the crypt of the Cecilia family was buried the glorious Virgin, St. Cecilia of that family. The popes of the third century, from Zephirinus to Miltiades were buried there together with other bishops and per- sonages and martyrs, and among these the acolyte St. Tarcisius. Pope St. Damasus has left us a beautiful eulogy on this glorious martyr, which illustrates the story of the martyrs, of the Holy Eucharist there con- secrated, of the rite of carrying it to the absent, of the violence of the pagans against the faithful, and oi the discipline of the secret. This cemetery of Callistus can with justice be called a museum of sacred archaeology and the summary of the ecclesiastical history of the first centuries of the Church and of the various rites and observances which THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. II3 were practiced by the early Christians. There are still found images of the saints, illustrating the truth of the veneration of holy persons by the Church ; the symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist ; frescoes illus- trating the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, the pri- macy of St. Peter, the resurrection of Lazarus, the story of Jonah ; inscriptions of St Damasus which il- lustrate the questions of the fallen ; the sepulchres of many popes, among others, Anterus, Fabianus, Luctus, Eutichianus, and many other monuments which incon- testably prove, as if by living witnesses, the story of Christ, the Gospel and the truth which the Church be- lieves today, as it believed when those images, monu- ments and inscriptions were first placed on the walls of the catacombs. The cemetery of Priscilla is situated on the Via Sal- aria, and is thus named from the Priscilla the mother ot Pudans, contemporary of the apostles, who was there buried. Here also were the tombs ot Prudentiana and Praxides ; and of Prisca and Aquila, named by St. Paul and St. Luke in the Acts, and here also was laid the body of St. Justin the Apologist, with a multitude of unknown martyrs who perished in the days of Dioc- letian. Here afterwards, too, in the days of peace, were buried Sjdvester, Liberius, Sirisius and Vigilius, popes. This cemetery of Priscilla is connected with the cemetery Novella, whose historical origin was first re- vealed bv the distinguished professor of the Univer- sity of Paris, Duchesne, in his studies on the Liber Pontificalis. This Necropolis is excavated in two stories, in both of which we trace the vestiges of a re- mote antiquity. Nearly all the sepulchres of this cem- etery are dissimiliar to those of the other catacombs. Inscriptions are painted ink. The language used is generally Greek, the text most simple, being for the 114 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. most part merely the name of the defunct, with the apostolic salutation Pax tecum, or simply Pax. For example, the sepulchre of the virgin and martyr, St. Philomena, discovered in 1802, was decorated with the following inscription : Pax tecum Philomena. It is also a specialty of this cemetery that herein is most frequently found the name Petrus, and this fre- quent repetition as de Rossi observes, demonstrates the relations which the apostle had with the family of Pudens, buried in this cemetery. Among the beautiful pictures which we here ad- mire is that of the Blessed Virgin, with the infant Jesus at her breast, the star over her head, and a prophet with a scroll in hand opposite to her. In another place is represented the Adoration of the Magi, a scene of the Passion of Christ ; and in another still is depicted St. Peter, who receives the new law from the Hands of Christ, represented as sitting upon the world as the king of the universe. Among the inscriptions most important is one at- tributed to Pope Liberius, well known up to the end of the seventh century, then lost and re-discovered by de Rossi in the imperial library of St. Petersburg, and represented also by Duchesne in his Liber Pontihcalis. This splendid collection of monuments and inscriptions make this cemetery of Priscilla one of the most im- portant of all the catacombs. The Ostrian cemetery, however, is of no less value, especially on account of the knowledge it brings us of the Prince of apostles. The origin of this cemetery on Yia Nomentana, dates to the epoch of the first visit of the apostle to Rome. Up to within a few years it was believed to be a branch of the cemetery of St. Agnes ; this, however, is proved to be false. It is a distinct and independent cemetery, and has no connection with that of St. Agnes. The ancient ecclesiastical THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 1 1 5 documents have preserved to us the various names by which this cemetery was called ; among others are those of "greater," "ad nymphas," "ad capream," and finally "Ostrianum ;" and this last name we know was a corruption of the name of Ostorius, one of the most ancient Roman families ol the first centuries of the em- pire. It was called ad nymphas because it was situated in a marshy place. De Rossi thinks it was called ad capream on account of its proximity to the capream swamps, famous for the death of Romulus ; and there- fore it was merely a topographical appellation. The title "greater," "majus," was given to it doubtless be- cause in this cemetery St. Peter baptized the new con- verts to the faith, and here was preserved his episcopal throne. That St. Peter administered here the Sacrament of Baptism, we gather from the ancient monuments of the Roman cemeteries, where the Ostrian catacombs are called the cemetery of St. Peter's font ; and in the Act of the Martyrs, Maurus and Papiris, under Diocletian, we read that their bodies were buried "on the Via Nomentanum, in the place called ad nymphas, where Peter baptized." We find the same testimony in the Acts of Liberius, in which speaking of this same cemetery, he says : "the place where the apostle Peter administered baptism." Though these Acts are apoc- ryphal, nevertheless it cannot be supposed that their compiler had invented a fact which was already well known in the Roman tradition ; besides, recent dis- coveries amply prove this tradition to be true. In the days of St. Gregory the Great, here was ven- erated a chair of St. Peter, preserved in this necropo- lis with great honor, and before which lamps were kept burning constantly, as was the custom of that time with all the more noteworthy relics ; and indeed Il6 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. some drops of the oil used in the lamps were collected in a phial from the tomb of Theodolinda. This phial is now preserved in the treasury of Monza, and upon the papyrus attached to it are written these words : "Sedes ubi prius seditsanctus Petrus,"and in the Index of oils is registered this one : "Oleum deesede ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus." This would seem to in- dicate that there were two different chairs of the apostle, and indeed two different feasts of this chair were celebrated, that of the Ostrian chair was cele- brated the eighteenth of January, that of the Vatican chair the twenty-second of February. The most notable relics of this cemetery are the epitaphs which are easily proved to be contemporan- eous to the time ot the apostles. A crypt, discovered by Bosio and rediscovered again in 1876 by Professor Armelhni, has the form of a little church. Here in an inscription much worn by time, and of which there re- main but a few words, we read the names of St Em- erantiana and St. Agnes; and still is seen the column on which was placed the little basin filled with oil — the lamp which burned before the chair of St. Peter, preserved formerly in this little church. It is impossible to describe minutely all the pictures of this cemetery. The most celebrated ofthese is a rep- resentation of the Blessed Virgin with the head veiled, the arms extended in prayer, and her little Son at her bosom ; in another place is depicted the scene of the Magi led by the star. Again, still plainly visible from the walls of this cemetery is the picture of the resur- rection of Lazarus, the symbols of the Eucharist, the icthus, and the monogram of Christ. Here, too, is represented the Prince of the apostles, St Peter, as a second Moses drawing water from the arid rock, by the touch of his rod or staff. Next in importance comes the cemetery of the Vati- THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. WJ can. This is located in the valley which extended be- tween the Tiber and the Janiculum hill. This region was called the Vatican, either because the pagan prophets there gave forth the oracles and their re- sponses, or from the Etruscan divinity named Vati- canus, who was said to preside over the first wailings of all inlants. St. Augustine accepts this second etymol- ogy of the word as we learn from his City of God, book IV. chap. VIII. In this place were the gardens of Caiius Cassar, and it was here that Nero put to death the innocent Chris- tians accused by him of setting fire to the city of Rome. 1 1 is not, therefore, strange that the Christians established here a vast necropolis, and archaeological discoveries have evidently proved that the apostle St. Peter was buried in this place. The Vatican cemetery was not constructed of sub- terranean passages and catacombs ; they were only a series of burial fields above ground, marked in some way by slabs or monuments. To these memorials it is evident that Caiius, a priest of the Roman Church, al- ludes when he writes Procul the Montanist : "I can point out to you the plainly visible trophies of the apostles, for if you wander through the Vatican region or along the Ostrian way, you will find there the memorials of those, who by preaching and authority established the Roman church." As we learn from the Liber Pontificalis, it was Pope Anacletus who constructed the monument or tomb of St. Peter. This is called in that book, memoria apos- toli, which in the epigraphic language signifies a bur- ial chamber. Near the tomb of St. Peter, was established the bur- ial place of the popes ; and Severanus narrates that when, under Urban VIII, the Confessional of St. Peter was reconstructed, several bodies were discov- Il8 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. ered in separate sarcophogi vested in pontifical garb ; and though no names marked their tombs, it was be- lieved to be most probable that they were the bodies of the ten holy pontiffs who immediately succeeded St. Peter in the See of Rome ; for in that same place was found a tablet marked with the inscription St. Linus. These bodies were allowed to remain undis- turbed in that same place. Torrigius was an eyewitness of this discovery. In the ancient martyrologies we read that St. Linus was buried "juxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticano" "near the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican cemetery." This burial-place would have furnished us with most valuable testimony of apostolic times, but it was destroyed to make room for the basilica of Constan- tine, and so we lost forever this collection of archae- ological treasures. These four catacombs just mentioned and briefly described, are among the principal of the Roman cat- acombs, of which, in round numbers, there are about fifty. It is plain that we cannot linger further upon a more detaiied account of individual cemeteries, but rather we must draw some conclusions from their gen- eral study. They served in times of persecution a splaces of meet- ing, of prayer and of worship. Here the Christians came to pray over the graves of their dead, especially on the anniversaries of their death. Here the martyrs were honored by special rites, and over their tombs, the Holy Sacrifice was offered up. Doubtless in times of persecution they served to some as a momentary refuge but it is utterly groundless to suppose that the Chris- tians lived in the catacombs ; and if we read at times that such a pontiff was called forth to death from his hiding in the catacombs, we must generally understand it in the sense of the writer, namely, that he was dis- THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. II9 covered in the houses or oratories built upon the ground above the cemetery, and not in the under- ground burial place itself ; though we do know that Pope Sixtus II, surprised by the pagans during the holy functions, was decapitated upon his own episco- pal chair, which was bathed with his holy blood ; and at another time, a great number of Christians gathered in the cemeteries of the Salarian Way, were suddenly discovered and put to death. But this, it must be re- membered, was while they were gathered for divine worship, not while living in the catacombs. The graves of the martyrs are recognized by the presence inside the sepulchre of glass vases, and fre- quently added to the name upon the slab marking the tomb, is inscribed the palm, the sign of martyrdom, or even the word martyr. The glasses which we find affixed to the external walls of the tomb are not of the same significance, but were used to contain balsams and fragrant liquids with which the body during sepulture was sprinkled. The first kind of vase we find during persecutions ; the last in the times of peace ; thus at once is established a sign between the martyr who lived in troublous times, and the Christian who was buried here in times of quiet to the Church. The pictures which we find in the catacombs can be divided into three distinct periods of time and art. The first period begins with that of excavation, and extends along through the end of the first till the end of the fourth century. The catacombs must be con- sidered not only as the cradle of faith, but of Christian art. The second period extends from the epoch of peace under Constantine, when these sepulchres were changed into venerated sanctuaries, and when the enigma and mystery visible in the art of the first period flowered into a freer and franker representation of the 120 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. subject. The third period may be called the period of decadence ; this was the Byzantine epoch, during which, in the ninth century, the cemeteries were com- pletely abandoned. Hence by the knowledge of the manner and style characteristic of these three periods, it can be known with certainty at what time the fresco was painted. The most ancient pictures of the catacombs reflect all the indications of classicism ; in the elegance of style, the simplicity of conception, and beauty of dec- oration, reminding us of the frescoes of Pompeii and of the baths of Titus. The subjects are always sacred and religious, but the style of treatment is much the same, and the dec- oration even similar to the pictures of pagan painters of the same epoch. Among the pictures of the cata- combs we discover a set system of symbols : the anchor, symbol of hope, is constantly met with, painted upon the walls and cut upon the tablets. The fish, the ac- cepted symbol of Christ, is one of the oldest symbols of the tombs : the dove, the symbol of the Christian soul, is another of these. The fish, coupled with the representation of bread, veils the mystery of the Eucharist; while a fountain signifies the sacrament of baptism. A bird with the olive branch in its beak sig- nifies the passage to Paradise of the Christian soul ; the lamb signifies one of the flock of Christ, and the horse alludes to our terrestrial wanderings ; the ship expresses the voyage of life, and the lighthouse, shed- ing its light from afar, represents divine grace. The most common allegory taught by the represen- tations of the catacombs is that of the wandering sheep and the Good Shepherd. Among the most interest- ing frescoes of the catacombs are those which repre- sent bible scenes, illustrative of an interpretation char- acteristic of the new church, Thus, Noah's ark is THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 121 represented as the Church, Moses is represented as striking the rock, but underneath the figure is written Petrus. In some places we see representations of liturgical scenes, such as the administration of Baptism and the consecration of the Eucharist, as well as a scene of holy ordination. The rarity of these is ac- counted for by the existence of the discipline, of the secret and the reticence of the Christians with regard to the sacred mysteries. Nothing can be more certain than that the images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints were re- vered by the earliest Christians. We see constantly the figure of our Lord seated in the midst of His apos- tles, receiving from them their homage and adoration, In all these pictures, St. Peter is placed on the right and next to Christ. Frequent, indeed, is the repre- sentation of the Blessed Virgin met with in the tombs and chapels of the catacombs, and from the style and representation is most manifest the honor in which she was held and the dignity accorded to her by the primitive Church. She is depicted there as seated upon a throne holding the Infant Jesus to her breast; or erect upon her feet, her arms extended in the act of prayer and intercession. Again she is seated before the magi, who come to offer gifts to her divine Son. These all, by their style and composition, are easily trac- ed to the first three centuries. Later, we find other rep- resentations in the Byzantine style. The covering, pose, and drapery are different, but the symbolism rep- resenting her position in the new faith is always the same. From these pictures, too, of priests and pontiffs we gather the style of \estment used in the celebration of the sacred mysteries. From the inscriptions, too, which still remain legible and clear, we learn various indications of the character of the early faith. For 122 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. example, take this one from the tomb of Basilla: "Domina Basilla commendamus tibi crescentinum et Micinam filiam nostram." Is it not plain from this that the doctrine of invocation of saints was practised in the primitive Church ? And here is another from another tomb: "Spiritum tiium Deus refrigeret." What is this but prayers for the dead ? Upon the tomb of some is the word designating their office and from these we gather that the orders existing in the early church were precisely the same as those of the present day." From one simple inscription is gathered the doc- trine of the Divinity of Christ : "In Deo Domino Christo," "In Christ the Lord God." Most frequent is allusion made to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity and the Unity of God ; and the doctrine of the resurrection is also taught by the epitaphs of the catacombs. Then, too, we learn the worldly condition of the Christians of that time. It is plain from proofs which these cem- eteries furnish, that not only slaves, servants, domes- tics and people of low condition were among the faith- ful professors of Christianity, but men and women of the highest dignity and social position, even of sena- torial rank and blood relationship to the emperors. Therefore, to draw to a close this conference upon the catacombs, we may remark that in confirmation of what history already knows of the Church's condition and character in the earliest times, these burial places of the dead have become the strongest possible wit- nesses. As day by day their study progresses, bring- ing to light more and more the richness and fullness of the records so providentially conserved to us in these hidden treasuries, brighter and more potent must ever shine the true story of the Church's origin, condition and present and constant apostolicity ; so that any one who enters* these tombs with an unbiased mind, open THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 1 23 to conviction by scientific proof after he has wandered amid the burial places of those, who centuries ago, shed their blood for the faith; after he has stood in the cor- ridors where our forefathers walked in fear, yet con- fidence ; after standing within these sacred under- ground chapels, at whose altars priests and pontiffs offered up the Holy Sacrifice ; after reading inscrip- tion, which tell the truths they believed, and gazing upon the pictures which illustrate the doctrines and practices of their faith, he must finally be convinced, that aside from the conditions which arise from the di- versity of circumstances, in all else, the Catholic church of 1895 is identical in belief, in practice, in ritual, in government, with the Church of the first, second and third centuries. Brief as this conference is, attempt- ing merely to indicate in simplest outline the story of the origin and use of the Christian catacombs, and the value of the testimony they afford, in confirmation of historical documents, in tracing the doctrines and practices of the Church, and the customs and life of the early Christians, it may suffice to open up a sub- ject which, to the student will surely prove a field of wonderful attractiveness and interest. If I may hope to have aroused an increased desire to know more of this comparatively recent science of Christian archae- ology, my feeble efforts will have reaped ample fruit. In the works of John Baptist de Rossi, Prof. Armel- lini, and Messrs. Brownlow and Northcote, will be found a very mine of valuable information regarding the most important and most recent discoveries in this branch of knowledge, which daily grows to vaster proportions and is constantly attracting more respect- ful and universal consideration. And so I beg to finish this series of conferences which has led us from the cradle at Bethlehem through the streets of Jerusalem, the paths and by-ways of 124 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. Judea, and along the banks of the sea of Galilee, into the garden of Gethsamane. up to the summit of Cal- vary, where for a while we rested under the shadow of the Cross. Thence, with the messengers of the new Gospel, we hastened along the huge thoroughfares that led to foreign lands and strange nations, arriving at last with the Prince of the apostles in the very city of the imperial Caesars. One by one, we have wit- nessed the apostles giving testimony of the faith by their blood ; we have seen the proud rulers of the earth lifting aloft their mighty voice and drawing the cruel sword against the converts to the Church, until all the world was filled with the cry of the martyrs and the protests of apologists. Through three long cen- turies we have followed the spread of the Gospel, drawing to its sweet yoke in the face of unspeakable terrors, men of every class and nation, until the very household of the Caesars was filled with the confessors of Christ; who, not permitted to offer in the light of day the homage of their hearts and souls to Christ, their God, undaunted in times of bitterest persecution, gathered amid the tombs in the very bowels of the earth to hear, the voice of His ministers speaking in His Name, to offer up the Sacrifice of the Mass, and re- ceive from the hand of the Christian priest and bishop the Bread of Life, their strength and consolation in all afflictions. At last a happier day arrives when a Christian emperor sits upon the imperial throne ; when from its hiding places the Church is summoned forth to triumph and honor. This is the sunshine which finally comes to brighten the period of gloom through which we have just passed. 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