A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion/From the Ascension of Christ to the Conversion of Constantine
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
From the Ascension of Christ to the Conversion of Constantine.
28. [1]After the Ascension of our Lord, His disciples returned to Jerusalem, where they persevered in prayer, expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost, whom He had promised to send them. In the meantime, the Apostles chose Matthias one of the disciples, in the place of Judas. On the tenth day, the Feast of Pentecost, there came suddenly a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were assembled. Over the head of each one there appeared the form of a fiery tongue; and all of them, being filled with the Holy Ghost, began to speak in divers languages and to praise the Lord their God. Peter, the Head of the Apostles, stood up and declared to the innumerable multitude of the Jews who had come together that the same Jesus whom they had crucified, and whom God had raised from the dead, was their Lord and Redeemer, and he called upon them to believe in Him. His discourse was so powerful that no less than three thousand came at once and asked to be baptized. Soon after, Peter and John went to the temple to pray. A lame man was lying there at the gate, and asked an alms of them. Peter said to him: 'Silver and gold I have none; but what I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk '; and forthwith the lame man sprang to his feet and walked joyfully with them into the temple, thanking and praising God. All the people were filled with amazement at this miracle, and five thousand more of them asked to be baptized.
29. [2]The Apostles preached the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with great power, and did many signs and wonders. By this their authority increased so much that the people brought the sick into the streets, in order that, when Peter passed by, his shadow, at least, might fall upon them, and deliver them, from their infirmities. The chief priests and their adherents, seeing all this, were greatly exasperated. They caused the Apostles to be apprehended and scourged, and forbade them to preach in the name of Jesus; they stirred up the people against them, insomuch that St. Stephen was stoned to death; and they perpetrated many other acts of violence. But no earthly power was able to prevent the spreading of the doctrine of Jesus. The Apostles did not cease to preach the crucified Saviour, both in the temple and from house to house; and the number of those who presented themselves to be baptized increased exceedingly every day. Even Saul, afterwards called Paul, the most furious enemy and persecutor of the Christians, became, through the grace of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ and the most zealous propagator of the Gospel.
30. [3]The new converts in Jerusalem and its neighborhood formed the first Christian community, called the Church. Their conduct was unblemished and irreproachable; they served God with gladness and in simplicity of heart. They all lived in the greatest harmony, and had but one heart and one soul. None of them suffered want; for the rich willingly sold, for the relief of the poor, what they could spare, such as houses and lands, and laid the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles, that they might divide them among the needy. The Apostles were the rulers of the Church, as Christ had ordained; they taught, baptized, and administered the other sacraments; they managed all ecclesiastical affairs, and governed the community.
31. [4]Although many of the Jews embraced the doctrine of Christ, yet the greater part of them remained obstinate and hardened. God, therefore, permitted the punishment they had been threatened with to be inflicted upon them; about the seventieth year after the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt, by the Romans. An immense number of Jews lost their lives, and the rest were banished from their country and dispersed all over the world, that they might be everywhere and at all times living witnesses of the Divine judgment. The stubbornness of the Jews, and still more an express command of God, had early determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans or heathens. Poor and persecuted though they were, they announced to the nations of the earth the good tidings of salvation, under thousands of hardships and perils, even of death. Therefore God visibly blessed their efforts; and thirty years had scarcely elapsed after the Descent of the Holy Ghost, when there were already Christian communities in all parts of the world. Over these Churches the Apostles placed bishops, to whom they communicated their powers by special forms of prayer and the imposition of hands, and whom they appointed their substitutes and successors. All these communities were most closely united together, and formed, under their common Head, St. Peter, the One, Universal — that is. Catholic — Church. St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch, and afterwards Bishop of Rome, where he suffered martyrdom under Nero a.d. 67; and then the supreme authority over the whole Church devolved on his successors, the Bishops of Rome, or the Popes.
32. [5]The pagans were greatly alarmed at the rapid spreading of the Christian religion, which openly condemned their vicious lives and their monstrous idolatry, and they resolved to exterminate it. The Christians had either to abjure their faith or to die under the most cruel torments. They were scourged and lacerated, and were cast before wild beasts; their sides were torn with iron hooks or burnt with torches. They were thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, mutilated, sawn in pieces, and crucified. They were covered with pitch and set fire to, that they might serve to light the nocturnal games of the pagans. Everywhere the Christians suffered tortures beyond all description. Many countries were drenched with their blood, and hundreds of thousands of every age, sex, and condition died under the most dreadful torments. Rome especially, the capital of paganism, and the seat of all the abominations of idolatry, overflowed, as it were, with the blood of the Christians. The number of those who suffered martyrdom in that city surpasses all belief; and their bones, which are still to be seen in the subterraneous caverns or Catacombs, where they were entombed by their fellow-Christians, are witnesses of it to this day.
33. [6]These terrible persecutions lasted, with few interruptions, for three hundred years. Had Christianity been the work of man, it would certainly have been extirpated by the blind fury of its enemies; but being the work of Jesus, the Son of God, it took deeper and deeper root, and spread more and more over the world. The signs and wonders which the confessors of Christ did, but, above all, the imperturbable serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart with which they suffered the most cruel torments and the most painful deaths, convinced the pagans that only the God of the Christians could be the true God. It even often happened that, whilst the Christians were suffering these most horrible tortures, many of the pagan spectators were heard to cry out: 'We also are Christians; kill us together with them! ' and thus the blood of the martyrs was the fruitful seed from which new Christians continually sprang up.
34. [7]By permitting all this. God had sufficiently shown to the world that the establishment of the Church was His work, and that all the powers of the earth could not prevail against her. He now bestowed peace on her by calling Constantine the Great to be the protector of Christianity. This Emperor, while still a pagan, was at war with Maxentius. Seeing that his enemy's army was far greater than his, Constantine prayed fervently to the true God for assistance; and behold, a bright cross appeared in the sky to him and to his whole army, with the following inscription upon it: 'In this sign thou shalt conquer.' In imitation of this cross, Constantine ordered a banner to be made, and had it carried before his army in battle. He then bravely attacked the superior forces of Maxentius, and overcame them; and from that time (a.d. 312) Constantine became the defender and protector of Christianity.
- ↑ How did the disciples prepare for the coming of the Holy Ghost? Whom did the Apostles choose in the place of Judas? When, and how, did the Holy Ghost come? What change did He produce in them? What did Peter, the Head of the Apostles, do? What was the result of his sermon? How was the lame man at the temple-gate healed? What effect had this miracle on the Jews?
- ↑ By what else did the Apostles spread the doctrine of Christ? What did the people do in consequence of this? What impression did this make upon the chief priests and their adherents? What did they do to the Apostles? Who was the first martyr? Did the Apostles, on being persecuted, cease preaching? What can you relate of St. Paul?
- ↑ Of whom was the first Christian community composed? What was their conduct, and how did they serve God? Was there any dissension amongst them? Did any of them suffer from want? How were the poor relieved? By what authority, and how, did the Apostles govern this first community?
- ↑ Were the Jews all converted? Did those who refused to believe in Christ remain unpunished? What punishment was inflicted on them? Why were they dispersed all over the world? What determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans? Under what difficulties, and with what success, did they preach to them? How did the Apostles organize the new Christian communities? Were these communities separated, and independent of one another? Who was their common Head? What do we call all these communities together? What is the meaning of Catholic? Where was St. Peter bishop, and where did he die? Upon whom did his supremacy over the whole Church devolve?
- ↑ What impression did the spreading of Christianity make on the pagans? How did they expect to exterminate if? What torments did they inflict upon the Christians? Were there many thus tortured and killed? Where did the persecution of the Christians chiefly rage? Have we any evidence of this nowadays?
- ↑ How long did these persecutions last? Was the Christian religion extirpated by them? Why not? What convinced the pagans of the Divine origin of Christianity? What occurred oftentimes while the Christians were tortured? With what, then, may the blood of the martyrs justly be compared?
- ↑ Why did God permit these persecutions? Whom did He call to put an end to them? Who was Constantine. and what can you relate concerning his victory? In what year did Constantine gain the battle and become the protector of Christianity?