A Complete Catechism of the Catholic Religion/From the Conversion of Constantine to the Rise of Protestantism in the Sixteenth Century

by Joseph Deharbe

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

35. ^[1]The cross, that had hitherto been the sign of the greatest ignominy, now became a sign of honor and victory. It glittered on the imperial crown of Constantine, and was displayed in Rome — till then the principal seat of paganism — on the pinnacle of the temple of Jupiter, the Capitol; and it thus announced the triumph of the crucified God-Man to the whole world. Constantine granted the free practice of their religion to the Christians, built splendid churches for them, and showed marks of great honor and distinction to priests, and especially to the Popes. His example prompted thousands of the pagans to embrace the Divine doctrine; and the idols were soon abandoned and their temples deserted. In a short time paganism was completely overthrown throughout the Roman Empire, and the Christian Religion was permanently established.

36. ^[2]The Catholic Church had now to gain victories of another kind — namely, over her internal enemies, the heretics. Several heretical and schismatical doctrines had already been broached at different times and in different places; they had, however, soon disappeared. But now, by God's permission, some new heretics arose, and gained many followers by cunning and fraud. They impudently left the Church, and formed separate and vast communions or sects, which were mostly named after their founders; as the Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians. Pelagians, etc. These heretics often succeeded in gaining the favor of princes and emperors, under whose protection they most cruelly oppressed and persecuted the faithful. In the same way as the Apostles had formerly assembled in order to settle, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and under the presidency of St. Peter, such differences as had arisen in matters of religion (Acts XV.), so now also their successors, the bishops of the Catholic Church, assembled under the presidency of the Pope, or of his legates, consulted about the heretical: doctrines, and then condemned them. Such an assembly of bishops is called a General Council; and the decisions of such a council in matters of faith, when confirmed by the Pope, are infallible, because they proceed from the Church, which the Holy Ghost invisibly governs and preserves from all error. One of the most famous councils is that of Nice, in Bithynia, which was held in 325. Three hundred and eighteen bishops were assembled there; and amongst them were many holy men who, during the persecutions, had suffered for Christ's sake, and had lost their hands or eyes. They unanimously condemned the impious doctrine of Arius, who obstinately maintained that Jesus Christ was not God from all eternity, and they cut him off from the communion of the faithful. Although this sect, called Arians, was at that time very powerful, the Church, by her solemn decision, had set the seal of reprobation on it, and consequently it was gradually to vanish from the face of the earth. The same sentence of condemnation was passed on all the other heresies that sprang up in subsequent ages; and however hard the conflicts were in which the Church had to engage, she has always come off victorious.

37. ^[3]During this period, God illustrated His Church also by many holy and learned men who gloriously defended the true doctrine. They are called Doctors of the Church, or Fathers of the Church. Such were St. Athariasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, who had to endure from the Arians a long and severe persecution for the true faith (d. 373); St. Basil the Great,- Archbishop of Caesarea (d. 379); St. Gregory Nazianzen (d. 389), and St. John, surnamed Chrysostom, that is, Golden Mouth (d. 407), both Patriarchs of Constantinople; St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem (d. 386), and St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 444); St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan (d. 397); St. Jerome, celebrated for his Latin translation of the Holy Scriptures, called the Vulgate (d. 420); St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa, one of the brightest luminaries of the Church (d. 430); and the holy Popes St. Leo the Great (d. 461) and St. Gregory the Great (d. 604). Whilst the Holy Fathers of the Church especially distinguished themselves as defenders of the true faith, the Hermits, or Solitaries, and monks, shone as models of the most austere penance. The hermits were pious Christians who fled from the seductive pleasures of the world, to prepare themselves in solitude, by prayer and self-denial, for a happy death. A cavern in a rock, or a hut made of branches, was their abode; the bare ground, or a few leaves, their bed; roots and herbs were their food, and water was their drink. They renounced all the comforts of life, that they might entirely die to the world, and live only for God. The first hermit was St. Paul, who died about 340. St. Anthony, to satisfy the importunities of others, built the first monastery, and is called the Patriarch of Monks (d. 356). Thus the Solitary Life gave rise to the Monastic Life, which was so opportunely and successfully propagated in the West by the great St. Benedict, noted for the wonders he had done. For, not to speak of his miracles, we may safely say that Europe is especially indebted to the religious order he established for the cultivation of its soil and the conversion of its inhabitants. He died in 543. St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, was a Benedictine monk, and introduced this order into England in 596.

38. ^[4] In the fifth and sixth centuries the Church was exposed to new dangers, when rapacious pagan nations left their own wild homes, and overran the Christian countries in countless swarms, laying' waste all before them with fire and sword. This is called the Migration of Nations. Some of them were named Huns, Alans, Heruli, Goths, Suevi, Lombards, Burgundians, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons; but the most merciless and savage of all these barbarian tribes were the Huns, under their king, Attila, who called himself the Scourge of God. The most celebrated towns were utterly destroyed, and whole countries laid waste and almost depopulated. The Roman Empire, more than one thousand years old, and once so powerful, could no longer resist these savage tribes, and was at last completely overthrown. Odoacer, King of the Heruli, took Rome, and was proclaimed King of Italy in 476. It is impossible to describe the extent of misery which these barbarous hordes inflicted on all Europe, until finally God subdued and civilized them by means of that very Church which they had threatened with destruction. Holy men were sent by the Popes to announce the good tidings of salvation to them. These took the cross and the Gospel in their hands; and although they were exposed to the greatest dangers, they preached, with no less courage and confidence in God, the doctrine of the Saviour of the world. St. Patrick was sent by Pope Celestine, in a.d. 432, to Ireland, and labored there for many years, converting the entire country to Christianity, and establishing many episcopal sees, churches, and monasteries. This is the only instance in the history of the Church of the conversion of an entire people without a single martyrdom. St. Patrick has been deservedly styled the Apostle of Ireland, and Ireland was called the Island of Saints. In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries Germany was also converted and civilized. St. Severinus is called the Apostle of Austria, because he converted that country to the Christian faith. He died in 482. St. Columban and St. Gall, both natives of Ireland, preached near the Lake of Constance and elsewhere in Switzerland; St. Kilian, a holy Irish monk, and St. Willibald, an English West-Saxon, in Franconia; St. Rupert and St. Corbinian, both French missionaries, in Bavaria and the surrounding countries; St. Ludger, a native of Friesland, in Westphalia; St. Anscharius, a French Benedictine monk, in Scandinavia and Lower Germany (d. 865). But the most indefatigable and successful preacher of the Gospel in Germany was St. Winfrid or Boniface, who is therefore justly called the Apostle of the Germans. He was born at Crediton, in Devonshire, about the year 680, and was a Benedictine monk at Exeter. On account of his great merits he was created Archbishop of Mentz in 732, by Pope Gregory III.; and whilst he was engaged in preaching the Gospel to the infidel inhabitants of the northern parts of Friesland he was martyred, in 755. As soon as the missionaries had got a footing in a country, they made it their first business to erect one or several monasteries. These sanctuaries of religion then sent forth holy men to spread the seeds of Christianity over the country, established schools for the education of young priests, and taught the barbarians to leave off their savage manners, and to follow peaceful and useful occupations. Thus the wild Germans were taught agriculture, the duties of domestic life, trades, and mechanical arts. By the industry and labor of the monks deserts were changed into rich fields, and dark forests into pleasant abodes; in all respects they were the greatest benefactors of mankind. The Emperor Charlemagne, who had especially the propagation and prosperity of the Christian Church at heart, founded more than twenty-four monasteries, and erected several episcopal sees, which he most liberally endowed with lands and estates. His example was followed by the pious King Stephen, to whom Hungary is indebted for her conversion to Christianity.

39. ^[5]Whilst the Christian faith was propagated in the West with gratifying success, most fatal and deplorable disturbances arose in the East. The Greek Emperors at Constantinople, instead of humbly submitting themselves to the Church, wanted to rule her, and obtrude upon her their opinions as articles of faith. The people were heedless, the clergy frequently forgot their duties, and pride and dissension supplied at last what was still wanting to bring about that lamentable Schism by which the greater portion of the Greek or Eastern Church seceded from the Pope, the common Head of the Church of Christ (a.d. 1054). But God did not delay to inflict upon them the punishment they had so well deserved. As in former times He had chastised the Israelites for the neglect of His laws, so He now punished the degenerate Christians also. In the beginning of the seventh century (a.d. 622), there had appeared in Arabia an arrogant impostor called Mahomet, who pretended to be a messenger of God, and patched up a new religion out of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian observances and doctrines. At the head of a band of robbers, he first plundered caravans, soon after took cities and countries, and, sword in hand, forced the inhabitants to embrace his religion. His successors, who were called Caliphs, continued, by the force of arms, to subdue one country after another in Asia and Africa, and to spread the doctrine of their false prophet, and, at the same time, barbarism, profligacy, and the most oppressive slavery. Christianity, it is true, was not entirely rooted out in those countries; but being separated from the true Church, it fell into a state of torpidity and debasement, under which it is still languishing at the present time.

40. ^[6]In the year 637 Jerusalem, the capital of the Holy Land or Palestine, had fallen under the power of the Mahometans or Saracens (i. e., Arabians; so called from sara, a desert), and had groaned under their yoke four hundred and forty- two years, when, in 1079, it was conquered, together with the fairest portions of Western Asia, by the Seljukian Turks, a Tartar tribe, who came in 1048 from the Caspian Sea, and had in the eighth century embraced Mahometanism. The latter were the most relentless foes of Christianity. The enormities which they committed in the Holy Land, and the cruel treatment which they inflicted upon the Christian pilgrims who resorted thither from the West, gave rise, about the close of the eleventh century, to the Crusades. Peter of Amiens, a pious hermit, who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, reported to Pope Urban II. how the Holy Places, where our Saviour had lived and suffered, were profaned by the Infidels, and to what outrages the Christians were there exposed. The Pope was so sensibly affected that he resolved to put an end to the insolence and insatiable rapacity of the Mahometans. He summoned the Christian princes and knights to a Council at Clermont in Auvergne (a.d. 1095), called upon them to engage in a military expedition against the Infidels, and excited their enthusiasm to such a pitch that the whole assembly spontaneously exclaimed, ' God wills it! God wills it!' This cry reechoed through the whole West, and shortly after there stood ready a tremendous host of men armed at all points. They wore, as a badge of their engagement, a red cross on their right shoulder, whence originated the name of Crusaders and Crusade. Full of joy and courage, they marched to Palestine. After having endured inexpressible hardships, and fought many a hot battle, they at last took Jerusalem; and the brave hero, Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, was proclaimed King a.d. 1099. Being presented with a golden crown, he refused to wear it, saying that he would never consent to wear a crown of gold where the Redeemer of the world had worn a crown of thorns; and he never gave himself any other title but that of Duke Godfrey. The new kingdom, however, lasted only eighty-eight years. Owing to the treachery of the Greeks, and to the want of discipline and harmony among the Crusaders, it was unable to resist the superior forces of the Turks, although it repeatedly obtained auxiliaries from the West; and thus Jerusalem was taken by Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, in 1187. About the year 1300, fresh hordes of Turks, called the Ottomans, poured down from Tartary, subdued the Seljukians, and extended their conquests over Western Asia, Eumelia, Moldavia, Servia, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Morea; until at last, under that monster of brutality and voluptuousness called Mahomet (II.) the Great, they rendered themselves masters of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek Empire (a.d. 1453), which calamity God no doubt permitted in punishment for the grievous offences it had committed against Him. The further progress of the Turks, however, was checked by the ardent zeal and heroic valor of the Christian princes Huniades and Scanderbcg, of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (who from 1310 were called Knights of Rhodes, and from 1530 Knights of Malta), and of other Christian Orders of Chivalry, till they were at last completely overthrown by the united forces of the Pope, of Spain, and of Venice, and by the evident help of the glorious Mother of God, in the famous battle of Le panto (a.d. 1571). The result of this victory was not only a check to the progress of the Ottomans, but also the beginning of the decline of their power; and thus Catholic Europe, and especially Germany, was saved from the imminent danger of being likewise overrun and subjugated by those ferocious Infidels.

41. ^[7]In the Western countries of Europe, the Crusades everywhere roused the people to a more vigorous exertion of their mental powers, and to a new spiritual life. During the destructive Migration of Nations (38), the sciences had found an asylum in the monasteries; but now they spread among the people, and were ardently cherished by them. Celebrated schools and universities were established; and men of wonderful erudition, as St. Anselm (d. 1109), Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), St. Thomas of Aquino (d. 1274), and others, occupied the professorial chairs. Those times, generally called " The Middle Ages," are still more renowned for the lustre of Christian virtues, for the firmness of faith, for childlike simplicity, and for an ardent love of God and man. Even at the present time we behold with surprise and wonder those ancient gigantic cathedrals which were erected by the piety of our ancestors; and we are enraptured at the most tender devotion, expressed in the paintings and statues with which they adorned the buildings consecrated to God. Such great and charming works could only be produced by the Religion which filled their hearts and governed all their actions. This same Religion also poured out the greatest blessings over the earth through the holy Founders of Religious Orders, St. Romuald (d. 1027), St. Bruno (d. 1101), St. Norbert (d. 1134), St. Bernard (d. 1153), St. Dominic (d. 1221), St. Francis of Assisium, surnamed the Seraphic (d. 1226), and many other men of God. The numerous monasteries which they built not only produced many great Saints and enlightened prelates, but they also cherished piety and religious zeal among the lower classes of the people. They relieved the wants of the poor, sheltered and nursed the sick, and redeemed those who had been made prisoners and slaves; they sent missionaries into all parts of the world, and obtained, by their devout prayers, abundant graces from Heaven on countries and nations.

42. ^[8]In the meantime, there appeared also an exuberant growth of cockle among the wheat in the field of God (Matt. xiii.). There were pernicious feuds and wars, various acts of injustice and violence, and many scandals. In several places, and particularly in Germany, the custom had been introduced by temporal princes of putting the newly elected bishops and abbots in possession of their benefices by giving them the Ring and the Crosier, the symbols of Pastoral authority, which ceremony was called Investiture, and seemed to imply the conferring of spiritual jurisdiction. Not content with this, the Emperor Henry IV. used to bestow bishoprics and abbeys upon the most unworthy candidates, and even on such as offered him the largest sums of money. Pope Gregory VII. courageously inveighed against those crying abuses; and hence ensued, about 1076, a long and tedious contest, called The Contest of Investiture, out of which the Church indeed came forth victorious, but not till after many hard trials. After that there arose heretics who kindled the fire of revolt first against the Ecclesiastical, and then against the Secular authorities; as in France the Albigenses, in Upper Italy the Waldenses, in England the Wickliffites or Lollards, in Bohemia the Hussites. Peace, it is true, was restored to the Church, and men, mighty in words and deeds, as St. Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419) and St. John Capistran (d. 1456), went through the countries of Europe, preaching penance to princes and people. Nevertheless an unholy fire lay hidden under the ashes; feelings of disrespect and hostility to the Church, and a fondness for innovations, had gained ground, and were increased by many other attendant evils. Nothing was wanted for the fatal eruption of this volcano of wickedness and rebellion but an opportunity; and this presented itself in the beginning of the sixteenth century in Germany. Like a contagious disease, this lamentable evil spread abroad; thousands and thousands abandoned the Catholic Church; bloody wars, revolts, and corruption of morals ensued; the most splendid establishments, founded by the piety of former ages, were destroyed, and unspeakable misery was prepared both for time and eternity.

1. What had the cross been before this, and what did it become now? Where was it particularly seen, and what did it announce to the world? What did Constantine do for the Christian Religion? What effect had his example upon the pagans? What became of paganism, and what was established in its place?
2. Were the contests of the Church now at an end? Who were her new enemies? Had there not been heresies before? And what was the difference between them and these new ones? Whence did the sects take their names? How did they behave towards the faithful? How did the Church oppose these heresies? What is the name of a general assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church? When and why are the decisions of a General Council infallible? When was the Council of Nice held? How many, and what, bishops were assembled there? What sentence did they pass? What error did Arius maintain? What became of these sectarians after their condemnation? How did it fare with all subsequent heresies? And what became of the Catholic Church?
3. By whom did God especially illustrate His Church at this time? How are those holy and learned men called? Can you name any of them? Did any other men distinguish themselves in the Church about this time? Who were the hermits? What was their abode? What was their food and drink? Why did they renounce all, comforts? Who were the first and most famous hermits? What did the solitary Life give rise to afterwards? Who built the first monastery? Who particularly advanced the Monastic Life in Europe? For what is Europe especially indebted to the Benedictine Order? When, and by whom, was it introduced into England?
4. What was the cause of the clangers to which the Church was exposed during the fifth and sixth centuries? What is this called in history? Can you name any of these rapacious tribes? Which of them was the most savage and cruel? Who was their king, and what did he call himself? Did these savage tribes do much harm? What became of the Roman Empire? Who was made King of Italy? In what year? By what means did God subdue the barbarians? How was this done? When was Ireland converted, and by whom? What peculiarity was theie in the conversion of the Irish? In what centuries was Germany converted and civilized? Who is the Apostle of Austria? Can you name any more of the missionaries to whom Germany owes its conversion? Who is called the Apostle of the Germans? Where was he born? To what order did he belong? Of what town was he made Archbishop? How, and in what year, did he die? What did the missionaries usually do when they had settled in a country? What did, then, the monasteries do for the spreading and strengthening of the faith? For what else is Germany indebted to the monks? What emperor in those days interested himself particularly for the prosperity of the Christian Church, and what did he do? To whom does Hungary owe her conversion?
5. What happened in the East, whilst the Christian faith was successfully spread in the West? Who was the chief cause of those disturbances? To what were the people and the clergy inclined? What was the unfortunate result of all this? Did God suffer all this to remain unpunished? Who was Mahomet! What did he pretend to be? Of what did he form his new religion? How did he spread it? What did his successors do? Was the Christian religion totally destroyed under them? What became of it, and what was the reason?
6. In what year did Jerusalem fall under the power of the Mahometans? What do you understand by Mahometans, and what by Saracens? When was Jerusalem conquered by the Turks? What do you call those Turks, and whence did they come? What was their religion? Were they friends of the Christians? What was the cause of the Crusades? Who was Peter of Amiens, and what did he report to Urban II.? What did the Pope do? What did he effect at the Council of Clermont? In what year was the Council of Clermont held? What ensued in the West? What is the origin of the name of Crusade? What can you relate of the first Crusade? In what year was Jerusalem taken? What can you relate of Godfrey of Bouillon? How long did the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem last? What caused its fall? When, and by whom, was it conquered? About what year, and by what Turks, were the Seljukians subdued, and how far did they extend their conquests? In what year, and by whom, was Constantinople taken? Who checked the further progress of the Turks. By whom were they at last completely overthrown? In what battle and in what year? What was the result of this victory?
7. What influence had the Crusades on Western Europe! Where had the sciences found an asylum during the invasions by the barbarians, and among whom were they now spread! What learned men of those times can you name? What do we call those times, and what are they particularly remarkable for? What monuments give, even at the present time, evidence of the piety of our ancestors'? What enabled them to produce such stupendous works? Through whom in particular did the Catholic Religion pour out its blessings at that time? What fruits did the numerous monasteries bring forth?
8. Was there in those times no cockle in the field of God? What kind of cockle was it? What custom had been introduced in some places by the temporal princes? What is symbolized by the Ring and Crosier? What was this ceremony called, and what did it seem to imply? What did the Emperor Henry IV. use to do? Who opposed him? What is this contest called, and when did it take place? How did the Church get out of it? What evil came afterwards on the West of Europe? Which were the most notorious heretics of that time? Whom did God send to preach penance to them? Was the evil then entirely suppressed? How and when did the slumbering fire break out into a flame? What was the consequence of this?