Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 500 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

ROMAN See also:CATHOLIC See also:CHURCH , the name generally given to that See also:great See also:branch of the See also:Christian Church which acknowledges the See also:pope, or See also:bishop of See also:Rome, as its See also:head, and holds as an See also:article of faith that communion with and submission to the authority of the see of Rome is essential to effective membership of the Catholic Church as founded by See also:Christ. This belief is based upon the See also:commission given by Christ to See also:Peter as " See also:prince of .the apostles," " Feed my See also:sheep " (See also:John xxi. 15-17); the saying, " See also:Thou See also:art Peter, and upon this See also:rock I will build my church; and the See also:gates of See also:hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the See also:kingdom of See also:heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on See also:earth shall be See also:bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven " (Matt. xvi. 18, 19). The authority thus conferred upon St Peter is held by Roman Catholics to be permanently vested in the bishop of Rome, as successor to Peter, first bishop of the imperial see. As such, the pope is regarded as " See also:vicar of Christ, head of the bishops, and supreme See also:governor of the whole Catholic Church, of whom the whole See also:world is the territory or See also:diocese." His See also:peculiar See also:powers as pope he exercises immediately on See also:election. Thus he may See also:grant indulgences, issue censures, give dispensations, canonize See also:saints, See also:institute bishops, create cardinals—in See also:short, perform all the acts of his See also:jurisdiction, even though he be no more than a layman; but by See also:custom certain of his more See also:solemn acts are postponed till after the ceremony of his See also:coronation, from which his pontificate is officially dated. To exercise the actus ordinis of a See also:priest or bishop, however, he must, if not already in orders, be specially ordained and consecrated. Hence his See also:office is a dignity, not of See also:order, but of jurisdiction (see PAPACY and POPE). The most distinctive characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church, at least as contrasted with the various See also:Protestant communions, is its vigorous insistence on the principle of ecclesiastical authority. Of this authority the pope is regarded as the centre and source, so far as the See also:interpretation of the Divine Will to the world is concerned in matters of faith and morals.

His pronouncements are held to be infallible whenhe defines a See also:

doctrine concerning faith or morals ex cathedra to be held by the universal church (see See also:INFALLIBILITY and VATICAN See also:COUNCIL). The See also:government of the Roman Catholic Church being centred at Rome, an elaborate organization has been See also:developed there for the See also:administration of its affairs. At the head of this is the See also:college of cardinals, who are the princes and senators of the Church, the counsellors of the pope, and his vicars in the functions of the pontificate. By those of them who are members of the various Congregations and other offices of the See also:Curia the greater See also:part of the government of the Church is directed. (For accounts of the organization of the Roman Curia the reader is referred to the articles See also:CARDINAL and CURIA See also:ROMANA.) The characteristic See also:note of the Roman Curia is its intense conservatism and its slowness to move, whether in approving or condemning new developments of See also:opinion or See also:action. This is explained by the nature of its organization and by the tradition on which it is based. For, just as the Roman Church as a whole preserves in the spiritual See also:sphere the spirit and much of the organization of the Roman See also:Empire, so the administration of the Curia carries on the tradition of Roman government, with its reverence for precedent and its practice of deciding questions, not on their supposed abstract merits, but in accordance with the rules of See also:law as defined in the codes or by previous decisions. Thus the See also:genius of Rome remains, as it always has been, administrative rather than speculative. The great dogmas of the Christian Church were shaped by the interplay of the subtle wits of the theologians of the See also:Oriental Churches. The new dogmas promulgated by the See also:Holy See from See also:time to time have been the outcome of the slow growth of ages, built up from precedent to precedent, .and only defined at last when the accumulated See also:weight of See also:evidence in their favour, or the See also:necessity for precise See also:definition to meet the contradictions of heretics, seemed to demand a decision. This See also:temper and the See also:process in which it finds expression are well illustrated in the See also:case of the See also:dogma of the Immaculate Conception (q.v.) and in the authorization given to the cult of the Sacred See also:Heart (q.v.). This conservative spirit and extreme reverence for authority pervades the whole Roman Catholic Church in exact proportion to the degree of effective See also:control which the see of Rome has succeeded in obtaining over its branches in various countries.

To pretend to an See also:

independent See also:judgment in questions of faith or morals is for a Roman Catholic to commit See also:treason against his Church; and even in the wide sphere of questions lying beyond the dogmas defined as de fide a too curious discussion is discouraged, if not condemned. As opposed to the See also:critical and See also:analytical tendencies of the See also:modern world, then, the Roman Catholic Church assumes the See also:function of the See also:champion of moral and intellectual discipline, an attitude defined, in its extremest expression, by See also:Pius IX.'s See also:Syllabus of 1864 (see SYLLABUS), and the famous encyclical Pascendi of Pius X. in 1907. The development of this attitude, known—in so far as it depends on the full pretensions of the Papacy—as See also:Ultramontanism, since the definition of the Roman Catholic Church by the council of See also:Trent in 1564, will be found sketched in the See also:historical See also:section attached to this article. The earlier See also:history, which is that of the Latin Church of the See also:West, will be found in the articles PAPACY, CHURCH HISTORY and See also:REFORMATION. Under the supreme authority of the pope the Roman Catholic Church is governed and served by an elaborate See also:hierarchy. This, so far as its pot estates ordinis are concerned, is divided into seven orders: the three " See also:major orders " of bishops and priests, deacons, and subdeacons (bishops and priests forming two degrees of the ordo sacerdotium), and the four " See also:minor orders " of acolytes, exorcists, readers, and See also:door-keepers. These various orders do not derive their potestas ordinis from the pope, but from See also:God, in virtue of their See also:direct ministerial See also:succession from the apostles.' So far as jurisdiction is concerned, however, those Thus sacraments administered by validly ordained or consecrated priests and bishops are regarded as valid, even when those who administer them are heretics or schismatics. members of the hierarchy known as prelates (praelati), who possess this See also:power (potestas jurisdictions in foro externo), whether bishops or priests, derive it from the pope. These jurisdictions are of very varied See also:character, and in most cases are not peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church. They include those of patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans and bishops in the first See also:rank of the hierarchy, with their subordinate officials, such as archdeacons, archpriests, deans and canons, &c., in the See also:lower ranks. All of these will be found described under their proper headings (see also ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION). The basis of the organization of the Church is territorial, the world being mapped out into dioceses or, in countries where the Roman Church is not well developed—e.g. See also:missions in non-Christian lands—into Apostolic Vicariates.

The dioceses are grouped in various ways; some are immediately dependent upon the Holy See; some are grouped in ecclesiastical provinces or metropolitanates, which in their turn are sometimes grouped together to See also:

form a patriarchate. According to the See also:official Gerarchia Cattolica, published at Rome, there were in 1909 ten patriarchates, with fourteen patriarchal See also:sees (including those of the Oriental rite, i.e. those Eastern communities which, though in communion with Rome, have been al-lowed to retain their peculiar See also:ritual discipline). Of these the four greater patriarchates are those of See also:Alexandria (with two pe triarchs, Latin and Coptic) ; Anticch (with four, Latin, Graeco-Melchite, Maronite and See also:Syriac) ; See also:Constantinople (Latin) and See also:Jerusalem (Latin). The lesser patriarchates are those of See also:Babylon (Chaldaic), See also:Cilicia (Armenian), the See also:East Indies (Latin), See also:Lisbon (Latin), See also:Venice (Latin) and the West Indies (Latin). (See See also:PATRIARCH.) The archiepiscopal sees number 204. Of these 21 are immediately subject to the Holy See, while those of the Latin rite having ecclesiastical provinces number 164. There are 19 of the Oriental rite : 3 with ecclesiastical provinces, viz. Armenian, Graeco- Rumanian and Graeco-Ruthenian respectively; the See also:rest are subject to the patriarchates, viz. 2 Armenian, 3 Graeco-Melchite, 3 Syriac, 2 Syro-Chaldaic, 6 Syro-Maronite. Of episcopal sees of the Latin rite 6 are suburbican sees of the cardinal bishops, 85 are immediately subject to the Holy See, and 662 are See also:suffragan sees in ecclesiastical provinces. Of those of the Oriental rite one (Graeco-Ruthenian) is immediately subject to the Holy See; 9 are suffragan sees in ecclesiastical provinces, viz. 3 Graeco-Rumanian and 6 Graeco-Ruthenian; the rest are subject to the patriarchates, viz.

15 Armenian, 2 Coptic, 9 Graeco-Melchite, 5 Syriac, 9 Syro-Chaldaic, 2 Syro-Melchite. The whole number of these residential sees, including the patriarchates, is 1023. Besides these there are 610 titular sees, formerly called sees in partibus infidelium, the archbishops and bishops of which are not bound to See also:

residence. These titles are generally assigned to bishops appointed to Apostolic Delegations, Vicariates and Prefectures, or to the office of coadjutor, See also:auxiliary or See also:administrator of a diocese. - (See See also:ARCHBISHOP and Bisxor.) The dioceses are divided into parishes, variously grouped, the most usual organization being that of deaneries. In the See also:parish the authority of the Church is brought into intimate See also:touch with the daily See also:life of the See also:people. The See also:main duties of the parish priest are to offer the See also:sacrifice of the See also:mass (q.v.), to hear confessions, to preach, to baptize and to administer extreme See also:unction to the dying. It is true to say that in the " cure of souls " the See also:confessional plays a larger part in the Church than the See also:pulpit (see See also:CONFESSION and See also:ABSOLUTION). For the official See also:costume of the various orders of See also:clergy see the article See also:VESTMENTS. The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church are furthermore divided into See also:regular and See also:secular. The regular clergy are those attached to religious orders and to certain congregations (see See also:MONASTICISM). Of these the former are outside the normal organization of the Church, being exempt from the See also:ordinary jurisdiction of the diocesan bishops, while the more recently formed congregations are either wholly or largely subject to episcopal authority.

By far the most powerful of the religious orders are the See also:

Jesuits (q.v.). The secular clergy, on the other See also:hand, are bound by no vows beyond those proper to their orders. Both regular and secular clergy (those at least in major orders) are under the See also:obligation of See also:celibacy, which, by cutting them off from the most intimate See also:common interests of the people, has proved a most powerful disciplinary force in the hands of the popes (see CELIBACY). The more See also:complete See also:isolation of the regular clergy, however, together with their direct relation to the Holy See, has made them, not only themore effective See also:instruments of papal authority, but. more See also:obnoxious to the peoples and governments of countries where they have gained any considerable power. Their privileged position, moreover, leads everywhere to a certain amount of See also:friction between them and the secular clergy. In doctrine the Roman Catholic Church is divided from the orthodox communions of the East mainly by the claims of the papacy, which the Orientals reject, and the question of the " Procession of the Holy See also:Ghost " (see CHURCH HISTORY).: From the Protestant communities which were the outcome of the Reformation the divergence is more profound, though the central dogmas of the faith are common to Roman Catholics and orthodox Protestants. The difference lies essentially in the belief held as to the means by which the truths defined in these dogmas are to be made effective for the salvation of the world. It was defined in the canons of the council of Trent, as promulgated by Pope Pius IV. in 1564, in which the main theses of the Reformers as to the character of the Church, the sufficiency of Holy Scriptures, the nature of the sacraments, and the like were finally condemned (see TRENT, COUNCIL oF). The Roman Catholic Church is by far the most widespread, numerous and powerful of all the Christian communions. It is the dominant Church in the See also:majority of See also:European states, in See also:South and Central See also:America and in See also:Mexico; it is the largest single religious See also:body in the See also:United States of America, while in certain Protestant countries, e.g. See also:Prussia and the United Kingdom, it has great religious and See also:political See also:influence. Any See also:statistics of its membership, however, must necessarily be misleading.

Those published are generally based on the principle of deducting the Protestant from the See also:

general See also:population of " Catholic " countries and ascribing the rest to the Roman Church. This may be possible in See also:Germany and other countries where there is a religious See also:census; but it is, at best, a rough-and-ready method where, as in See also:Italy or See also:France, besides the class of " political " or " non-practising " Catholics, large See also:numbers of the people are more or less actively hostile to See also:Christianity itself. (For Roman Catholic missionary See also:work see MISSIONS.) The Uniat or United Oriental Churches.—The overwhelming majority of the adherents of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world belong to the Latin rite, i.e. follow the usages and traditions of the Western Church.' Ever since the See also:schism of East and West, however, it has been an ambition of the papacy to submit the Oriental Churches to its jurisdiction, and successive popes have from time to time succeeded in detaching portions of those Churches and bringing them into the obedience of the Holy See. This has only been possible owing to the temper of the Oriental mind which, while clinging tenaciously to its See also:rites, values dogma only in so far as it is expressed in rites. The popes, then, or at least the more politic of them, have been content to See also:lay down as the See also:condition of See also:reunion no more than the See also:acceptance of the distinctive dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the supremacy and infallibility of the pope; the ritus of the Uniat Oriental Churches —liturgies and liturgical See also:languages, ecclesiastical law and discipline, See also:marriage of priests, beards and costume, the monastic See also:system of St See also:Basil—they have been content for the most part to leave untouched. The attempts of Pius IX., who in 1862 established the Congregatio de propaganda fide See also:pro negotiis ritus orientalis, to interfere in a Romanizing sense with the rites of the Armenians and Chaldaeans (by the bulls Reversurus of 1867 and Cum Ecclesiastica of 1869) led to a schism; and See also:Leo XIII., who more than all his predecessors interested himself in the question of reunion, reverted to and developed the wiser ' The Latin word ritus covers not only the ordinary meaning of the modern See also:English word " rite," i.e. " a formal See also:procedure or See also:act in a religious or other solemn function," or any " custom or practice of a formal See also:kind," but the sense in which it is now obsolete in See also:England—except in the religious See also:connotation here used—of " the general or usual custom, See also:habit or practice of a See also:country, people, class of persons, &c." (New English See also:Diet. s.v.). For the liturgies of the Latin and Oriental Churches see See also:LITURGY. principle of. not aiming at any assimilation of rites, but only at " the full and perfect See also:union of faith " (Encyclical Praeclara gratulationis of See also:June 1894). This principle has even been carried to the extent of recognizing several bishops having jurisdiction over the adherents of various rites in the same see; thus there are three uniat patriarchs of See also:Antioch (Graeco-Melchite, Maronite and Syrian). Exact statistics of the membership of the Churches of the Oriental rite are almost impossible to obtain; the numbers of their adherents, moreover, are See also:apt to vary suddenly with the shifting currents of political forces in the East, for political factors have always played a considerable part in these movements towards reunion or the See also:reverse. In 1908 their numbers were estimated at approximately 5,500,000.

The Churches of the Oriental rite fall under four main divisions: See also:

Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Coptic; and—with the exception of the Armenian—these are again subdivided according to See also:nationality or to peculiarities of cult or See also:language. The Churches may be further grouped according to the character of their constitution, i.e. (1) those having their own rite only in a restricted sense, since they have no hierarchy of their own but are sub-See also:ordinate to Latin bishops, i.e. the Greeks in Italy (Italograeci), the scattered Bulgarian Uniats, the Abyssinians, some of the Armenians and the " Christians of St See also:Thomas "; (2) those having their own bishops and sometimes their own metropolitans, as in See also:Austria-See also:Hungary; (3) the Eastern patriarchates. Geographically, the Uniat Churches may be grouped as follows:—(A) See also:EUROPE, where their association with the Roman Church is at once the See also:oldest and the most intimate. (1) The Italograeci. These are distributed in scattered See also:groups throughout Italy, but are most compact in See also:Apulia and See also:Sicily, and number in all some 50,000. They are under the jurisdiction of the Latin diocesan bishops, but their priests are ordained by bishops of their own rite specially appointed by the pope. (2) The Uniat Churches of Austria-Hungary. With the exception of the Armenian, these are all of the Greek rite, but are divided according to nationality and ritual language intothe following groups : —(a) Ruthenian Church.—This, though still the most important numerically of all the Uniat Churches, is but a fragment of the Church which proclaimed its union with Rome at the See also:synod of See also:Brest in Lithuania in 1596, a union which, after See also:long and See also:bitter resistance, was completed by the submission of the dioceses of See also:Lemberg and Luzk in 1700 and 1702. The Church was broken up by the successive partitions of See also:Poland, and those parts of it which See also:fell to See also:Russia were, notably under See also:Catherine II. and See also:Nicholas I., forcibly absorbed into the Orthodox Church. The Church, however, still numbers some 3,000,000 adherents in See also:Galicia, and 500,000 in Hungary. In Galicia it has an independent organization under the Greek-Catholic archbishop of Lemberg, with two suffragan sees: See also:Przemysl, for West Galicia, and Stanislawov for East Galicia.

In Hungary there are two bishoprics, Munkacz and Eperies, under the Latin See also:

primate of Hungary, the archbishop of Gran. The Serb bishopric of Kreutz in Croatia, under the Latin archbishop of See also:Agram, may be also grouped with the Ruthenian Church, since the rite is identical. Its adherents number from 15,000 to 20,000. The liturgical language of the Uniat.Slav Churches is Old See also:Slavonic, and, so far as their rite is concerned, they differ from the Orthodox Slav Churches only in using the Glagolitic instead of the See also:Cyrillic See also:alphabet. (b) Rumanian Church.—This numbers about 1,000,000 adherents and has its own organization under the See also:metropolitan of Fogarasch or See also:Alba Julia, with 'three suffragan sees: See also:Lugos, See also:Gross-Wardein and Szamos-Uvjar. It has had its own ritual language since the 17th See also:century. (c) Armenian Church.—This numbers in Austria-Hungary only some 4000 to 5000 members. It has an archbishopric at Lemberg, which has jurisdiction also over the Uniat Armenians at Venice. (3) Uniat Churches in Russia and See also:Turkey in Europe. (a) In Russia the Uniat Ruthenian Church (see above) ceased to exist with the See also:incorporation of the little See also:Polish diocese of Chlem in the Orthodox See also:Russian Church under See also:Alexander II. in 1875. The Holy See, however, has never withdrawn its claim to jurisdiction over it, nor have the Ruthenians ever been wholly reconciled to their absorption in the Russian Church. The See also:ukaz of Nicholas II.

(See also:

Easter, 1905), granting See also:liberty of See also:worship, produced a See also:movement in the direction of Rome; but this appears to have been checked by the refusal of the government, even now, to recognize in Russia a Roman Catholic Church of the Greek rite. Converts to Rome have, therefore, to accept the Latin rite (see Prince Max of See also:Saxony, Vorlesungen fiber See also:die orientalischen Kirchenfragen, 1907). The scattered communities of the Uniat Armenian Church in Russia are subordinate to Latin vicars apostolic. The Uniat Armenian Church in the See also:Caucasus, however, is under the jurisdiction of the patri-archate of Cilicia. (b) In European Turkey the Uniat Churches are represented by tiny groups, scattered about the See also:Balkan See also:Peninsula, attached to Latin " missions." The movement in favour of the union of the Bulgarian Church with Rome, which See also:grew up in 1860, was the outcome of the See also:national opposition to the Greeks, and with the See also:establishment of the Bulgarian exarchate in 1872 it died away. There are not more than ro,000 to 15,000 Uniat Bulgarians, who have been ruled since 1883 by three vicars apostolic. The Uniat Armenians and See also:Melchites in Constantinople belong to the Eastern patriarchates. (B) See also:ASIA AND See also:AFRICA.—The Uniat Churches in Asia and Africa occupy a peculiar position in so far as Rome has recognized the traditional rights of the patriarchates (see, e.g., Leo XIII.'s en-cyclical Praeclara gratulationis of June 1894), and they therefore enjoy almost complete See also:autonomy; thus the patriarchs nominate their own suffragans and have the right to summon synods for specific purposes (see PATRIARCH). There are six Uniat Patriarchates: (I) The Patriarchatus Ciliciae Armenorum. The Armenian patriarch, whose jurisdiction embraces the Catholic Armenians in the Balkan Peninsula, in Russian See also:Armenia and in See also:Asiatic Turkey, formerly resided in See also:Lebanon, but has had his seat since 1867 at Constantinople. Under him are 19 dioceses, including a small one in See also:Persia. The number of Catholic Armenians under his jurisdiction is, roughly, See also:ioo,000 (see ARMENIAN CHURCH).

(2) The three patriarchates of Antioch. (a) The Melchite (Patriarchatus Antiochenus Graeco-Melchitarum). The patriarch resides in the monastery of See also:

Ain-Traz in the Lebanon and has jurisdiction over all the Uniats of Greek nationality in the See also:Turkish Empire, who number about 120,000. Under him are 3 archbishops and 9 bishops (see MELCHITES). (b) The See also:Maronites (Patriarchatus Antiochenus Syro-Maronitarum), whose seat is in the Lebanon. The patriarch has jurisdiction over about 500,000 people (see MARONITES). (c) The Syrian (Patriarchatus Antiochenus Syrorum). The patriarch, who resides at See also:Mardin near Diarbekr on the upper See also:Tigris, is obeyed by from 15,000 to 20,000 people, who represent a See also:secession from the Jacobite Church (see JACOBITE CHURCH). He has 3 archbishoprics and 5 bishoprics under his jurisdiction. (3) The Chaldaeans (Patriarchatus Chaldaeorum Babylonensis). The patriarch has jurisdiction over the Uniat Nestorian Church, which numbers, roughly, about 50,000 adherents, and is divided, under the patriarch, into II dioceses (see See also:NESTORIANS). (4) The Coptic (Patriarchatus Alexandrinus Coptorum).

This was founded on the 26th of See also:

November 1895 by Pope Leo XIII. The patriarch, who was given two suffragan bishops, has his seat at See also:Cairo. The number of Uniat See also:Copts is nominal. (5) The Uniat Abyssinian Church. This has scaracely any adherents. Such as there are are under the authority of a vicar apostolic residing at Keren. (6) The Christians of St Thomas (See also:Malabar See also:coast). For these Leo XIII. established in 1887 three See also:special vicariates apostolic (Vicariatus See also:apostolici Syro-Malabarorum); the vicars apostolic are Latins, but have the right to pontificate and to confirm according to the Syrian rite. The number of Christians of St Thomas in the obedience of Rome is said to be about Ioo,000.l• (W. A. P.) The Church in Europe since the Reformation. The See also:term " Romish Catholique " is as old as the days of See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth?

It is not happily chosen, for catholic means universal, and what is universal cannot be peculiar to Rome. But the term is inoffensive to Roman Catholics, since it advertises their claim that communion with the see of Rome is of the essence of Catholicity, and to Protestants, since it serves to emphasize the fact that the See also:

religion of modern Rome differs widely in many important respects from that of the undivided See also:medieval Church. The See also:change has brought both See also:good and evil. Protestant controversialists have some show of See also:reason on their See also:side when they argue that See also:Luther saved the Roman Church by forcing it to put an end to many intolerable abuses. On the other hand, under stress of his revolt the papacy could not but develop in a strongly See also:anti-Protestant direction, laying exaggerated emphasis on every point he challenged. The more fiercely he denounced infallibility, the confessional, the sacramental system, the larger these things bulked in the eyes of Rome. Not that this consequence showed itself at once. The Reformation was well established before it attracted any serious 1 This See also:account of the Uniat Churches is largely condensed from the excellent article " Unierte Orientalen," by F. Kattenbusch in See also:Herzog-Hauck Realencyklopadie (3rd ed., See also:Leipzig, 1908), where numerous authorities are given. 2 It was officially adopted in the See also:Relief Act of 1791 in See also:place of the designation " Protesting Catholic Dissenters," to which the vicars apostolic objected. See also:notice at Rome. The popes of the See also:Renaissance were profoundly uninterested in See also:theology; they were far more at See also:home in an art See also:gallery, or in fighting to recover their influence as temporal See also:Italian princes; gravely shattered during the long residence of the papal See also:court at See also:Avignon in the 14th century.

But these secular interests came to an end with the so-called See also:

sack of Rome in 1527, when See also:Charles V. turned his arms against See also:Clement VII., and made the pope a prisoner in his own See also:capital. Thence-forward there was no more thought of territorial aggrandisement. The popes, as the phrase went, became See also:Spanish chaplains, with a fixed territory guaranteed to them by Spanish arms; apart from the addition of See also:Ferrara and one or two other See also:petty principalities on the extinction of the reigning See also:house, its boundaries remained unchanged till See also:Napoleonic times. Under Clement's successor, See also:Paul III., a new See also:state of things began to See also:dawn. Hitherto the way had been blocked by a See also:horde of protonotaries, dataries and other officials—purveyors of indulgences, dispensations and such-like spiritual favours—to whom reform spelt ruin. Even the Reformation did not move them; if less See also:money came in from Germany, that was all the more reason for leaving things unchanged in France and See also:Spain. But among Paul's cardinals were three remarkable men, the Italians See also:Contarini and Sadolet, and the Englishman Reginald See also:Pole, afterwards archbishop of See also:Canterbury under See also:Mary. All three were disciples of See also:Erasmus, the great apostle of a new, tolerant, scholarly religion very different from the grimy pedantry of the medieval doctors. It was better, he said, to be weak in See also:Duns Scotus, but strong in St Paul—than to be crammed with all the learning of Durandus, and ignorant of the law of Christ. Men trained in this school were not likely to be See also:tender towards vested interests in darkness, least of all when they stood in the way of a reconciliation with the Protestants: for the cardinals thought that the strength of the Reformation lay much less in the attractiveness of Luther's doctrines than in his vigorous denunciations of the vices of the clergy. Once See also:root out abuses with a See also:firm hand, and they believed that a few timely See also:con-cessions on points of doctrine would tempt most Protestants back within the Roman See also:pale. This belief was shared by The Charles V.

Together they persuaded the unwilling council pope to See also:

call a general council. It met in See also:December of Trent. 1545, at the Tirolese See also:city of Trent, with Pole as one of the three presidents (see TRENT, COUNCIL OF). As a means of reconciliation the council was a See also:signal failure. The Protestants refused to attend an See also:assembly where even the most conciliatory See also:prelate could hardly condescend to meet them on equal terms. Nor was Pole allowed to use the only possible means of overcoming their reluctance. He had wished to begin by reforming abuses before proceeding to sit in judgment on doctrinal errors. But this arrangement was cried down as a revolutionary departure from all established precedent; and he had much See also:ado to secure the See also:compromise that doctrines and See also:practical reforms should be simultaneously discussed. But in the midst of its labours the council was prorogued (See also:March 1547) in consequence of a See also:quarrel between the pope and See also:emperor. In 1551 it met again, only to be again prorogued in 1552. Ten years later it met again for a third and final session, lasting throughout 1562 and 1563. During those ten years great changes had taken place.

Charles V. had followed Pole and his See also:

peace-loving colleagues to the See also:grave; in his place stood his son, See also:Philip II. of Spain, while the intellectual leadership of the council fell to Jaime See also:Laynez, general of the newly founded Society of Jesus. There was no longer any question of reconciliation with the Protestants. See also:North Germany, England, Scandinavia were irretrievably lost to Rome; See also:wars of religion had broken out in France. Clearly the one See also:hope was to enter into a desperate struggle for the See also:possession of such countries as still hung in the See also:balance; and that could best be done by striking at the heart of the Reformation. Protestantism centred—or was by Catholics supposed to centre—in a mysterious " right of private judgment "; the council accordingly retorted by hymning the praises of obedience, of submitting to authority and never thinking foroneself. To waverers it held up an absolutely sure and See also:uniform See also:Rule of Faith, contrasting impressively with the already multitudinous See also:variations of the Protestant Churches. Moreover, thanks to Laynez, it accomplished this task without See also:running the obvious danger of tying itself hand and See also:foot to the past. When old-fashioned theologians talked about the canons and See also:councils of antiquity, Laynez answered that the Church was not more infallible at one time than another; the Holy Ghost spoke through the decrees of Trent quite as plainly and directly as through the See also:primitive Fathers. Thus the council's authority became at once See also:peremptory and elastic. But the real gainer was the pope. Hitherto infallibility had been thought of as the supreme weapon of the Church's armoury, destined only' for use at some extraordinary crisis; hence it was naturally conceived of as residing only in the extraordinary authority of a general council presided over by the pope. Since the outbreak of the Reformation, however, extraordinary crises, calling for immediate decision, might arise at any moment.

It was no longer possible to wait for the assembling of a general council; stronger and stronger grew the tendency to ascribe infallibility to the pope alone, as being always on the spot. Doctrine and discipline once settled at Trent, the work of See also:

counter-reformation could begin. Rebels were won back by force wherever force could be applied. In Spain The the See also:Inquisition soon snuffed out the few Reformers. Counter-In Italy, though declared Protestants were few, there Reforms-was widespread sympathy with some of Luther's tf'n. ideas; a See also:committee of cardinals at Rome was accordingly organized into an Inquisition, with branches at the See also:chief Italian towns. For See also:half a century trials were many at Venice and elsewhere, but actual executions were only common at Rome; the most illustrious victim was the philosopher See also:Giordano Biuno, burnt in 1600. In the imperial dominions, however, there could be no recourse to the stake. The peace of See also:Augsburg (1555) forbade the See also:German princes to persecute, though it recognized their right to determine to what religion their subjects should belong, and to banish nonconformists. At first this compromise had worked in favour of the Reformation, but presently the Catholic princes began to turn it against their Protestant subjects. " Governments learned to oppress them wisely, depriving them of church and school, of pastor and school-See also:master; and by those nameless arts with which the See also:rich used to coerce the poor in the good old days. Fervent preachers came amongst them, widely differing in morality, See also:education, earnestness and eloquence from the parish clergy, whose deficiencies gave such succour to Luther. Most of those who, having no See also:taste for controversy; were repelled by scandals were easily reconciled.

Others, who were conscious of disagreement with the theology of the last thousand years, had now to meet disputants of a more serious type than the adversaries of Luther, and to meet them unsupported by experts of their own. Therefore it was by honest conviction, as well as by calculated but not illegal See also:

coercion, that the Reformation was driven back " (See also:Acton, Lectures on Modern History, p. 123). This system was not an unmixed success; for its See also:extension to Bohemia See also:early in the 17th century brought about the See also:Thirty Years' See also:War. But it obliged the authorities to pay anew See also:attention to the training of the clergy. The " See also:seminary system " came into being—that is, the custom of obliging candidates for ordination to spend several years in a theological college, whence lay influences were carefully excluded. But ecclesiastical learning of a wider type was also promoted. See also:Gregory XIII. (1J72–85) and See also:Sixtus V. (1585–90) dreamed of making Rome once more the capital of European culture. Gregory re-formed the See also:Calendar, and founded the university that bears his name. Five years of power were enough for Sixtus to reform the central government of the Church and the administration of the Papal States, to set on foot the Vatican See also:press and issue an official edition of the See also:Vulgate.

Their efforts See also:

bore See also:fruit in many quarters. In Rome arose Cardinal See also:Baronius, first of modern Church historians; Spain produced See also:Suarez, most philosophical of divines. A See also:generation later the See also:French See also:Oratory became the home of See also:Malebranche and of See also:Richard See also:Simon, See also:father of Biblical See also:criticism. See also:Mabillon and his See also:Benedictines of See also:Saint-Maur paved the way for the systematic investigation of historical records. The Flemish Jesuit Bolland brought the See also:light of criticism to See also:bear on the legends of the saints (see See also:BoLLANDISTS). His French colleague, See also:Petau, better known under his latinized surname of Petavius, opened still wider floodgates when he taught that theological dogmas, like everything else, have a history. Lastly, the Jansenist " hermitage " at See also:Port Royal contributed the historian See also:Tillemont, whose bigotry See also:Edward See also:Gibbon declares to be overbalanced by his erudition, veracity and scrupulous minuteness. Other such communities and " congregations "—semi-monastic bodies See also:standing in closer touch with the world than did the medieval orders—undertook the See also:diffusion of knowledge. Wherever they went the Jesuits opened See also:grammar-See also:schools, which had the See also:double See also:advantage of being excellent and cheap. An Italian sisterhood, the See also:Ursulines, was founded for the higher instruction of girls; See also:late in the 17th century a French priest started the Christian See also:Brothers, pioneers of elementary education. Other communities again devoted themselves to parochial work. Such were the Oratorians of St Philip See also:Neri, founded to evangelize the See also:middle classes of Rome.

Such, again, were the Lazarists of St See also:

Vincent de Paul, whose See also:duty was to preach in neglected country districts. But the most interesting of all these new See also:foundations was the Sisters of Charity, also founded by St Vincent de Paul. This admirable body represents a significant departure from medieval ideals. The old-fashioned See also:nun had spent her time behind high walls in prayerful contemplation; the one See also:object of the See also:Sister of Charity was the service of her See also:neighbour. Not that medieval ideals were by any means dead; they never burned more brightly than in the Spain of St Teresa (1515-82). Her first See also:idea had been to combat alike the heresies and the worldliness of her time by a return to the austerities of a more heroic See also:age. With this object she founded her order of " Discalced " or barefooted See also:Carmelites; it presently became the See also:refuge of See also:Louise de la Valliere and many another penitent of rank. But See also:mere bodily rigours were not enough for Teresa; she See also:felt the need of rising to a state of complete detachment from all earthly interests and ties. Her whole theology centres in the lines " The love of God flows just as much-As that of ebbing self subsides; Our See also:hearts, their scantiness is such, Bear not the conflict of these See also:rival tides." How, then, subdue the rivalry? Teresa turned to the mystical writers, and learnt from them how to root out the last See also:relics of self-love from the mind by a long discipline of mystical See also:trance and " contemplation." These ideas, in a very modified form, were introduced into France by the great devotional writer, St See also:Francis of Sales; in the latter half of the 17th century they were pushed to the extravagant length known as See also:Quietism by See also:Fenelon, and especially by Madame See also:Guyon and See also:Michel de See also:Molinos. Meanwhile, the leading conception from which St Teresa started had developed along characteristically different lines in the mind of her compatriot and contemporary, See also:Ignatius See also:Loyola. He quite agreed that self-will was the enemy; The but was there no quicker way of checkmating it than Jesuits. an interminable course of ecstasies and austerities?

The thoughts of the converted soldier flew back to the military virtue of obedience. In the long-run no self-imposed hardships could prove quite as disagreeable as always being under the orders of some one else. Obedience accordingly became the typical virtue of Ignatius's society (see JESUITS). The individual Jesuit obeyed his See also:

superior, who obeyed the See also:rector, who obeyed the provincial, who obeyed the general, who obeyed the pope, who took his orders straight from God Al-mighty. Such a theory was of untold practical value to the Church of Rome, more especially during the era of the Reforma-tion. Laynez at the council of Trent has given one signal instance of its working, but its operations were by no means confined to the abstract See also:field of dogma. If men were really to be made obedient, it could only be by stopping them from thinking for themselves about the everyday problems of conduct; and the best way to do this was to furnish them beforehand with a ready-made See also:code of answers to such problems, warranted to meet all needs. Hence See also:casuistry and the confessional casuistry. loomed large on the Jesuit See also:horizon. The casuist's duty was to apply the general precepts of the Church to particular cases. He explained, for instance, when a See also:man was strictly bound to tell the truth; when he might avail himself of the mild See also:licence of an equivocation; and when the Church placed at his service the greater See also:indulgence of a See also:mental See also:reservation. The See also:confessor brought the casuist's principles to bear on the See also:conscience of his penitents, and thus saved them from the danger of acting on their own responsibility (see CASUISTRY). In its origin this system was a perfectly honest See also:attempt to widen the sphere of obedience by making morality wholly See also:objective and independent of the vagaries of the individual conscience.

But what was begun in the See also:

interest of obedience was carried on in those of laxity. Experts proverbially differ, and the casuists were no exceptions to the rule. But when great authorities were at variance, it See also:ill became an See also:average priest or penitent to decide. Whatever a grave See also:doctor said must have some solid reasons behind it—aliqua niti probabilitate—and humble lay-folk could act upon it without a twinge of conscience. Thus arose lax casuists of the type of See also:Antonio Escobar (1589-1669), the central figure of See also:Pascal's Provincial Letters. Their whole business was to See also:hunt through the older authorities in See also:search of " benign " decisions. Their temptation is easy to understand. Half Europe was full of waverers between Protestantism and Catholicism tolerably certain to decide for the Church that offered them the cheapest terms of salvation; and even in wholly Catholic countries many, especially of the upper class, might easily be scared away from the confessional by severity. Thereby their money and influence would be lost to the Church, and their souls robbed of the priceless benefit of priestly absolution. On the other hand, these " Escobarine morals " by no means passed unchallenged; ever since the See also:foundation of the society the aims and methods of the Jesuits had called forth lively opposition in many parts of Catholic Europe, and not least in Loyola's native See also:land of Spain. But the most effective protest against them was a movement which began when Michel de See also:Bay, a See also:professor at the Flemish university of See also:Louvain, put forward certain theories on See also:grace and See also:free-will in the latter part of the 16th century. In 164o a much more elaborate statement of the same ideas appeared in a See also:posthumous See also:treatise Ja on the theology of St See also:Augustine from the See also:pen of See also:Cor- ism.nsennelius See also:Jansen, also a Louvain professor (see See also:JAN- sENISnI).

Into the technical detail of the controversy there is no need to enter. It is enough to say that two rival doctrines of grace and free-will were struggling for mastery in the Roman Church. One theory emphasized the necessity of grace; having been put together by St Thomas See also:

Aquinas, it was known as Thomism, and was especially championed by the See also:Dominicans. The other laid the chief stress on free-will; it was known as Molinism from its inventor, the Jesuit See also:Louis de See also:Molina, and was in great favour with the society. The two orders came into violent collision at Rome between 1588 and 16o6. But the quarrel, known as the controversy de auxiliis gratiae, was brought to an end by Pope Paul V., who closed the debates and adjourned his decision sine die. At first sight this abstract question seemed endlessly remote from the practical policy of Escobar; really there is a See also:close connexion between the two. The whole system of the Jesuits rested on a basis of free-will. Their See also:quarry was the average man; and the best way of impressing the average man is to set before him duties that he feels himself fully capable of performing. Then he will really feel morally responsible if he leaves them undone, hence the necessity of free-will. .On the other hand, as Jansen pointed out, free-will tends to make the average man's estimate of his own powers into the supreme criterion of all that is good and right. God must perforce be satisfied with whatever common sense thinks it See also:fair and reasonable that He should expect.

Jansen acco;dingly denounced free-will as dishonouring to God, and destructive of the higher interests of morality. But, if men threw over common sense, what was to be their See also:

guide in life? Jansen answered with his doctrine of Irresistible Grace. This was simply a cumbrous way of saying that God awakens in the righteous heart an intuitive See also:faculty of discerning right from wrong. " This holy taste or relish, " says a follower of Jansen, " distinguishes between good and evil without being at the trouble of a See also:train of reasoning; just as the nature and tendency of a heavy body, let fall from a height, shows the way to the centre of the earth more exactly in a moment than the ablest mathematician could determine by his most accurate observations in a whole See also:day." That being so, the Jansenist obeyed his Inner Light, and paid little heed to the earth-bound See also:standards of unregenerate common sense. Nor was he much more respectful towards the official standards of the Church. Why should he consult a casuist rather than his Inner Light? Thus the Jesuits saw themselves menaced by a grave revolt. What would become of the confessional if penitents were allowed to act on what they fondly took to be a heaven-sent See also:inspiration? In a twinkling they would be off to some spiritual Wonderland, where no confessor could bring them to See also:book. On the other hand, only preach to them a strong doctrine of free-will, and all these dangers vanished. They would feel bound to disregard their sporadic intuitions, and act only for reasons that would be clearly set out in See also:black and See also:white.

Their past performances could then be checked, and their future actions forecast by the priest; and there was small danger of their straying beyond the limits marked out by authority. Thus within the spiritual sphere free-will led up to Jesuit obedience. But in the secular world this See also:

paradox failed to obtain; there free-will was only too ready to come into conflict with the Church. The 15th and 16th centuries had seen the final break-up of the medieval system of reverence for authority and tradition. In art and learning, morals and government, the old walls came crashing down; in the general See also:bankruptcy of authority men were forced to depend on them-selves. And the contemporaries of See also:Machiavelli soon learned to take the fullest advantage of this liberty to pursue their own best interests in the way that pleased them best. But if individuals might be guided by self-interest, why should that See also:privilege be denied to associations of men? On the The ruins of a medieval Christendom, hierarchically Papacy organized under the pope, grew up the " new mon- and the archy, " or modern state, owning no law but its See also:Mew man- own will. Yet the popes laid aside none of their aichies. medieval claims, or even their traditional weapons. In 16o6 Paul V. laid Venice under an See also:interdict, on the ground that the See also:republic had infringed the immunities of the clergy; the See also:doge replied by threatening with See also:death any one who took any notice of the papal thunders. Thenceforward the thunders continued chiefly on See also:paper. In 1625 Catholic Europe was scandalized by the De Schismate of the Jesuit Santarelli, in which he claimed for the pope an See also:absolute right to interfere in the concerns of secular princes, whenever he See also:chose to declare that the interests of religion were in any way concerned.

He could dictate their policy at home and abroad, revise their See also:

statute-book, upset the decisions of their law-courts. If they refused to listen he could punish them in any manner he thought See also:fit; in the last resort he could See also:release their subjects from See also:allegiance and head a crusade of Catholic powers against them. These pretensions roused a special burst of indignation in France. There, on the divisions of the wars of religion, had followed an irresistible reaction towards patriotism and national unity. France had suddenly grown to her full stature; like the contemporary England 491 of John See also:Milton, she was become a " See also:noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after See also:sleep." Even the clergy were swept away by the current, and meant to be patriots like every one else. " Before my ordination, " said the eminent theologian Edmond Richer, " I was a subject of the See also:king of France: why should that ceremony make me a subject of the pope? " Subjection to the pope implied an Italianization of French religion; and most Frenchmen looked on the Italians as an inferior See also:race. Why, then, should the right to decide ecclesiastical disputes be taken away from their own highly competent See also:fellow-countrymen, and reserved for a set of incapable See also:judges in a See also:foreign land? Germany and Spain might let themselves be bitted and bridled if they chose, but for centuries France had prided herself that, thanks to her Gallican liberties, she stood on a different footing towards Rome. The Liberties in question were certain See also:ancient rights, whose origin was lost in the mists of time. One forbade papal bulls to be published in France without the consent of the See also:crown. Another exempted French subjects from i sam.

iiican- the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and other Roman tribunals—such as the See also:

Index of Prohibited Books. In the 17th century such immunities were all the more valuable since French statesmen found themselves in an awkward position. The great aim of See also:Henry IV. and See also:Richelieu was to exalt France at the expense of See also:Vienna and See also:Madrid. But Madrid and Vienna were the official champions of the papacy; hence to make war on them was indirectly to make war on the pope. This was enough to trouble the consciences of many excellent men; and it became necessary to devise a compromise that should set their minds at rest, by showing them that they could be at once good citizens and good Catholics. This compromise is known as See also:Gallicanism. In the hands of See also:Bossuet and other eminent divines it was developed along both theological and political lines. Theological Gallicanism refused to recognize papal decisions on questions of doctrine, until they had been ratified by the bishops of France. Political Gallicanism maintained that lawful sovereigns held their power directly of God, and not mediately through the pope. Hence no amount of misgovernment, or neglect of Catholic interests, could justify Rome in interfering with them. In other words, Bossuet only answered Santarelli by setting up the divine right of See also:kings. However, this dogma by no means scandalized the subjects of Louis XIV., for the worship of the See also:sovereign was one of their most cherished instincts.

And Louis's ecclesiastical policy flattered their national See also:

pride. He introduced no theological novelties; all he did was to insist that, in matters of administration, he would be master in his own house. He supported pope and bishops so long as they took their marching orders from him. If they refused he was perfectly ready to make war on the one and send the others to the See also:Bastille. It is eminently characteristic of his methods that, just at the same time as he was turning loose dragoons on his Protestant subjects after the revocation of the See also:edict of See also:Nantes (1685), he was employing other dragoons to invade the papal territory at Avignon, to punish See also:Innocent XI. for having refused institution to some of his nominees to bishoprics. The revocation of the edict of Nantes owes quite as much to the See also:dream of political See also:absolutism, inherited from Richelieu, as to religious bigotry. In the words of Saint-Simon, the See also:Huguenots were " a See also:sect that had become a state within the state, dependent on the king no more than it chose, and ready on the slightest pretext to embroil the whole country by an See also:appeal to arms." So long as they were powerful, the crown had treated with them; but when once their power began to dwindle, it was certain that the crown would crush them. But during Louis's latter years, when the War of the Spanish Succession had brought a See also:rain of disasters thickly upon him, bigotry got the upper hand. The broken old man became feverishly anxious to propitiate offended Heaven, and See also:save himself another See also:Blenheim or See also:Malplaquet, by exterminating the enemies of the Church. And his Jesuit confessors had no doubt that the first and foremost of those enemies were the Jansenists. Not only did their doctrine of grace defy the favourite Jesuit principle of obedience to authority, but it bade fair to set aside the whole Catholic machinery of infallibility and sacraments. If God spoke directly to the individual conscience, what was the use of intermediaries?

Led by his Jesuits, Louis wrung The See also:

Bull from the unwilling Clement XI. the Bull Unigenitus untgent- (1713), which was intended to deprive believers in in- dividual inspiration of all possible foothold within the Roman Church. The bull caused a violent uproar. Fenelon, although personally an admirer, admits that public opinion credited it with " condemning St Augustine, St Paul, and even Jesus Christ "; and the few Jansenist bishops appealed and " re-appealed " against it. But the government was inexor- able; in 1730 the Unigenitus became part and See also:parcel of the law of the land. Still, to make a law is one thing; to get it administered is quite another. The See also:parlement of See also:Paris was a strongly Gallican body, and had many grievances to avenge on Louis XV. and his ministers. To See also:annoy them, it put every possible difficulty in the way of an See also:execution of the bull. Under the fostering care of the judges, a belief sprang up that to call oneself a " Jansenist, " and oppose the Unigenitus, was to show oneself a See also:lover of See also:civil and religious liberty. This feeling was intensified by the conviction that every See also:blow struck against the bull was a blow against the Jesuits, its authors. For the Society, as befitted the great exponent of authority and the keeper of the consciences of many kings, had always been on the side of political See also:autocracy; and therefore it became in- creasingly unpopular, when once the See also:tide of French intelligence began to set in the direction of revolutionary reform. Nor were the Jesuits in much better odour among other nations. Their perpetual meddling in politics, and even in See also:speculation and See also:finance, stank in the nostrils of every government in Europe; while their high-handedness and corporate greed in the See also:matter of ecclesiastical privileges and patronage alienated the clergy.

Their reform was more than once discussed; and death alone prevented See also:

Benedict XIV. (1740-58), the most remarkable of the 18th-century popes, from taking some very stringent See also:measures. A See also:year after Benedict's death the Suppres- first blow fell. See also:Pombal, the great reforming See also:minister soon of in See also:Portugal, expelled them from that country on a the See also:charge of having conspired against the life of the Jesuits. king. Two years later the Paris parlement had its See also:chance. La Valette, superior of the Jesuit missions in See also:Martinique, had set up as a West-See also:India See also:merchant on a large See also:scale. His enterprises were unsuccessful; in 1761 he became insolvent, and the Society refused to be responsible for his debts. The French courts made the consequent bankruptcy proceedings the excuse for a general inquiry into the Society's constitution, and ended by declaring its existence illegal in France, on the ground that its members were pledged to absolute obedience to a foreigner in Rome. Louis XV. now proposed that the French Jesuits should be placed under some special organization, less obnoxious to his parlement. The general only made the famous reply: " Sint ut sunt, See also:aut non sint." Thereupon Louis let the judges have their way. In 1762 the Society was suppressed in France; in 1767 it was also declared illegal by Spain, See also:Naples and other Italian powers. Pressure was now put on Clement XIII. to dissolve the Society altogether.

He refused; but his successor, Clement XIV., was more pliable, and in 1773 the Jesuits ceased to be. In France the philoso plies and the quarrels over the Unigenitus had effectually killed the spirit of religion; nor was the Christianity of other countries at a much higher ebb. Spain was utterly dumb; Italian fervour could only boast the foundation of two small orders of popular preachers—the Passionists (1737), and the Redemptorists, instituted in 1732 by St Alfonso See also:

Liguori (q.v.), who also won for himself a dubious reputation on the unsavoury field of casuistry. German Catholicism was still in a very raw, unsophisticated state. It is characteristic that, while Paris had its Bossuets and Bourdaloues, Vienna was listening to See also:Abraham a Sancta See also:Clara, the punning Capuchinwhom See also:Schiller, regardless of See also:dates, introduces into the opening See also:scene of his See also:Wallenstein. However, from Germany was to come a serious attempt at reform. There the See also:vision of a reunion with the Protestants had haunted many Catholic brains ever since Bossuet and Leibniz had corresponded on the subject. Faithful to the ancient tradition of Contarini and Pole at Trent, these good men persisted in supposing that the Reformation was nothing more than a protest against practical abuses: remove the abuses, and the rest would follow of itself. And, inasmuch as they held that most abuses were due to the slippery and procrastinating greed of Roman officials, the Feb 1. first step should be ruthlessly to curtail the power anisro. of Rome and extend that of See also:local Churches. Such was the theme of a book, De statu Ecclesiae, ad reuniendos dissidentes in religione Christianos compositus, published by one Justinus Febronius in 1763. The author was Johann Nikolaus von See also:Hontheim (q.v.), suffragan in partibus to the elector-archbishop of Treves.

Hontheim's theories could not but prove attractive to the local Churches, more especially when they were governed by bishops who were also temporal great lords. The three ecclesiastical See also:

electors and the prince-archbishop of See also:Salzburg met in See also:congress at See also:Ems in 1786, and embodied Hontheim's proposals, though in a very modified form, in a document known as the " See also:punctuation of Ems " (see See also:FEBRONIANISM). Meanwhile, their overlord, the emperor See also:Joseph II. (178o-9o), was dealing with the question of a much more See also:radical spirit, and actually abolishing abuses wholesale. The reign of " See also:Brother Sacristan, " the See also:nickname given to Joseph by See also:Frederick the Great, was one continual suppression of superfluous abbeys, feast-days, pilgrimages. More dignified were his attempts to broaden the minds of the clergy. Instead of being brought up in diocesan seminaries, centres of provincial narrowness, candidates for ordination were to be collected into a few large colleges set up in university towns. Still, Joseph only touched the See also:surface; his brother, the See also:grand-See also:duke See also:Leopold of See also:Tuscany, aspired to cut deeper, and provoke a religious revival on the lines of See also:Jansenism. His plans, which made a great stir at the time, were outlined at a synod held at See also:Pistoia in 1786 (see PISTOIA, SYNOD OF). Three years later, however, the world had more important things to think of than Leopold's ecclesiastical reforms. At first the French Revolution was by no means anti-Catholic—though the Constituent Assembly remembered too much of the quarrels about the Unigenitus not to be bitterly hostile to Rome—and its great aim was to turn the French Church into a purely national body. Hence it decreed the " civil constitution of the clergy.

" Bishops and rectors were made elective, with salaries paid by the state; and all priests were required to take an See also:

oath of fidelity to the government: those who refused the oath rendered themselves liable to banishment. Three years later the See also:triumph of the See also:Jacobins brought with it the " abolition of Christianity," and a spell of violent persecution, which gradually slackened under the See also:Directory (1795-99). In 1799 See also:Napoleon became First See also:Consul, and at once set himself to See also:deal with the ecclesiastical problem. There must clearly be a Church, and the small success of the Civil Constitution made clear that public opinion would not put up with a Church practically detached from Rome. On the other hand, Napoleon quite agreed with Louis XIV. in wishing to be master in his own house, and to turn the clergy into a supplementary See also:police. Accordingly, in 18o1 he negotiated with Pius VII. a See also:Concordat, which remained in force till 1905 (see CONCORDAT). The state undertook to pay the bishops and parochial clergy; it was directly to France appoint the one, and to have a See also:veto on the appoint- and the ment of the other. But for the religious orders no papacy. See also:provision was made; and Napoleon refused to tolerate the presence of unsalaried clerics on whom the government had no hold. When his fall brought about the restoration of Louis XVIII. (1815), this restriction was relaxed. and the " congregations " returned in large numbers to France. But the See also:Bourbon government had no intention of encouraging them The French Revolution. too much; it clung as closely as Napoleon himself to the idea of a State Church, taking its orders from the government.

In this way Gallicanism, which had once stood for all that was national and progressive, now came to mean subservience to a feeble autocracy already tottering to its fall. "A free Church in a free State " became the See also:

motto of the See also:group of brilliant men, led by See also:Lamennais, See also:Montalembert and See also:Lacordaire, who started up as soon as the See also:July Revolution of 183o replaced Charles X. by Louis Philippe. They felt that Catholicism was strong enough to stand alone, without artificial support. For the Revolution had not " abolished Christianity," even among the educated classes, quite so thoroughly as it imagined. Many were only kept back from going to church by the fear that their neighbours would think them superstitious or narrow-minded. But in 1802 See also:Chateaubriand had published his See also:epoch-making Genie du Christianisme, in which he declared that of all religions Christianity was " the most poetical, the most human, the most favourable to freedom, art and letters." If that were so, no one need be ashamed to profess it; and the younger generation of Frenchmen began to gravitate back to the Church. Meanwhile, Germany was being profoundly influenced by the great aesthetic revival known as the Romantic Movement, which began with the worship of medieval art and literature, and ended with the worship of medieval religion. And even Italy and Spain presently began to See also:play their part in the Christian reaction. Rosmini in one country, and See also:Balmes in the other, " brought piety to the learned, and learning to the pious." These writers, however, only touched the few; and the great aim of Lamennais and his See also:friends was to reach the mass of the people. Immediately after the See also:accession of Louis Philippe they started their famous newspaper, L'Avcnir, hoping thereby to reconcile the Church with See also:democracy, and make the pope the See also:leader of the party of progress. The enterprise was hazardous, since democracy had hitherto brought nothing but ill to Rome. In 1798 French troops had entered the papal states, proclaimed a republic in Rome, and kept Pius VI. a prisoner till his death (1799).

In 18o8 Napoleon arrested his successor, Pius VII., threw the papal states into his new Italian kingdom, and dragged Pius about from See also:

prison to prison till the See also:eve of his own fall in 1814. When the congress of Vienna gave the pope back his dominions, the one thought of the broken old man was to restore, as far as possible, the ancient order of things. But the traditional methods of Roman ad-ministration were deplorably ineffective; on the accession of Gregory XVI. (1831–46), the powers presented a memorandum strongly urging reform. Some reforms of detail were introduced; but Gregory declared that to grant a constitution to the States of the Church would be incompatible with the principle of the papacy. Such a man was hardly likely to listen to the plans of Lamennais. In 1832 the Avenir was condemned, and the disgusted Lamennais See also:left the Roman Church. Lacordaire and Montalembert, however, continued their democratic See also:campaign, by no means without success; for the revolution of 1848, which drove Louis Philippe from the See also:throne, was far less hostile to Catholicism than that of 183o. Under the short-lived Second Republic (1848–52) the position of the Church grew even stronger, for the introduction of universal See also:suffrage brought to the polls great masses of new voters strongly clerical in sympathies. In 1850 was passed the Loi See also:Falloux, which See also:broke down the Napoleonic idea of a state-See also:monopoly of teaching, and allowed the opening of voluntary schools. Of this concession the religious orders took full advantage. Meanwhile in Rome things had gone from See also:bad to worse.

Gregory XVI.'s refusal to grant a constitution called forth a See also:

series of sporadic outbursts, inspired by Mazzini and the " See also:Young Italian " party, between 1832 and 1838. These were put down by ,French and See also:Austrian arms, with the result of focusing the hatred of Young Italy on the pope. One last attempt was made to save him. In 1843 the Piedmontese priest See also:Gioberti brought out a remarkable book, in which he 493 end. Pius might no longer rule over the papal states; but there was See also:consolation in the thought that, within the See also:realm of con-See also:science, his power had increased by leaps and See also:bounds. "ultra. The whole history of the 19th century is one vast montanconspiracy to exalt the importance of the papacy. At ism." its opening both the intellectual and administrative guidance of the Church was entirely in French and Italian hands; and the first instincts of those countries is to lean on an all-sufficing government. The French Revolution had supposed itself to be fighting for the " rights of man "; really it was trying to replace an autocratic kingship by an equally autocratic "general will" of the multitude. And it failed because no general will could make its See also:voice rise above the conflict of particular inclinations. Thankfully did men See also:bow before Napoleon, who undertook to relieve them of the responsibility of having to make up their minds. Nor did the emperor's fall by any means See also:entail the fall of his ideas; See also:Count Joseph de See also:Maistre, the great orator of ultramontanism, did little more than transplant them on to the ecclesiastical domain.

Bossuet and the old-fashioned divines had believed in an elaborate system of checks and balances—popes, councils, bishops, temporal sovereigns each limiting and controlling the other—just as See also:

Montesquieu and Alexander See also:Hamilton had believed in a careful separation of the executive from the legislative power. Napoleon swept away the checks and balances, and made the will of a single man the one and only See also:sanction of government. In like manner de Maistre proposed to sweep away the ecclesiastical checks and balances, and vest the.whole of the Church's authority in urged his countrymen to combine into an Italian See also:confederation with the pope at its head. For a moment it seemed as thougl Gioberti's dream were about to translate itself into reality. In 1846 Gregory died, and was succeeded by Pius IX., one of the youngest of the cardinals, and well known for his popular sympathies. He at once granted an See also:amnesty to political prisoners, of whom the Roman gaols were full; two years later (March 1848) he issued a constitution to the papal states, and seemed about to throw in his See also:lot with the forces making for Italian See also:independence. But the first step thereto was deliverance from the Austrian yoke; and Pius, the Italian prince, was grievously hampered by his position as head of the Church. How could a pope make war on Austria, the one power that had never faltered in its allegiance to the Church ? Accordingly Pius soon See also:drew back, and his popularity waned. In the autumn the revolutionary See also:fever, which had swept through all Europe earlier in the year, spread to Rome. The pope's See also:prime minister, Count See also:Rossi, was murdered, and Pius himself, escaping to. See also:Gaeta, threw himself under Neapolitan See also:protection.

In Rome Mazzini proclaimed a republic. Once more France and Austria intervened; in 185o Pius went back to Rome, and ruled there under the See also:

shadow of foreign bayonets. Meanwhile the Second Republic had come to an end in France; in 1852 the prince-See also:president, Louis Napoleon, was elected emperor. At first he greatly needed the support of the clergy to secure him on his See also:precarious throne. But, as he grew stronger, his See also:desire for their good opinion paled before an overmastering propensity to meddle in the affairs of foreign nations. He allied himself with See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel, and marched into Italy in 1859, with the object of expelling the Austrians from the peninsula. This expedition led directly up to the unification of Italy. Two years later Victor Emmanuel was master of the whole country, except Venice and the " Patrimony of St Peter." This last—about one-third of the papal states—was all that was left to Pius; and even this was only held for him by French troops. When Napoleon withdrew his See also:garrison in 1866, See also:Garibaldi immediately raised a body of See also:volunteers to march on Rome; and Napoleon was obliged to send back his troops. Three End years later, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of the (July 1870) led to their recall. In the following temporal See also:September, ten days after the final collapse of Louis Power. Napoleon at See also:Sedan, the troops of Victor Emmanuel entered Rome; and the temporal power of Pius came to an the pope.

That would See also:

bar out for ever all See also:risk of a conflict of clerical See also:wills. See also:Fortune favoured his enterprise. The French bishops of the age of Bossuet had been a powerful See also:estate of the realm, able in some degree to make their own terms with the king himself; their successors in the 19th century were a mere group of salaried public officials. Still more significant changes took place across the See also:Rhine. An appreciable part of the Holy Roman Empire had been in the hands of clerical rulers. At their head stood the electors of See also:Cologne, See also:Mainz and Treves, ,temporal princes of no mean rank, usually chosen from the cadets of royal houses. But in 1803 electors and prince bishops came to an end. Their domains were secularized, and divided up among their lay neighbours, Prussia securing the See also:lion's See also:share. Thenceforward the German bishops became mere officials, as in France, and Rome had no cause to fear the opposition of another Febronius. Still remoter was the danger of another Louis XIV. or Joseph II. The time had gone by when sovereigns could decide what particular shade of, Catholicism their subjects should assume. Everywhere there was a growing belief that a man's religious tenets were his private affair, with which the state had nothing to do; and that a government only made itself ridiculous if it attempted to lay down which See also:creeds were true and which were false.

Hence the clergy were left to do as they pleased, so long as they respected the law of the land; and most of the modern collisions between Church and State have occurred on the debateable ground where their respective See also:

spheres overlap, over questions concerning education or the marriage-See also:laws. Noticeable among these quarrels were the so-called Kolnische Wirren of 1837-40, when the archbishop of Cologne defied the Prussian government over the question of " mixed marriages, " and paid for his rashness by a long imprisonment. Such conflicts did much to increase the power of the pope, by encouraging local Churches to turn to him as their See also:protector. To ride rough-shod over individual bishops was nothing to Prussia; but to quarrel mortally with Rome was a serious matter for a sovereign reigning over millions of Catholic subjects. Even more successful were the papal incursions on to a more ethereal domain. Ever since the time of See also:Kant and See also:Goethe, the intellectual leadership of Europe had been slowly passing into the hands of the Germans, and Catholic theology shared the lot of other branches of learning. But the German divines were much more in touch with the world at large than were their brethren in Italy or France; and more than one interesting attempt was made to bring theology into See also:line with modern schools of thought. Joseph von GSrres read the medieval mystics in the light of the newer See also:mysticism of See also:Schelling. See also:Hermes of See also:Bonn defended Catholicism from the standpoint of Kant Catholic and See also:Fichte. Continuing his work on a bolder scale, develop- the Viennese priest See also:Gunther undertook to show that meats in the articles of the Christian creed are only a rough-Germany. and-ready popular statement of the conclusions of See also:philosophy. Of more enduring value have been the researches of the historical school, founded by John See also:Adam See also:Mohler (1796-1838), whose famous Symbolik (1832) was perhaps the heaviest See also:literary blow ever dealt at the Reformation. On his early death his .See also:mantle fell on to the shoulders of Ignatius Dellinger (1799-1890).

This school claimed that its methods, unlike those of Hermes and Gunther, avoided all danger of speculative caprice. Catholicism was considered as an organic growth, developing from certain seminal principles in accordance with certain definite laws. The business of a See also:

sound theology was to discover and apply those laws, not to patch up fleeting compromises with the intellectual fashions of an age. On the other hand, the Historical School found but little favour at Rome. " Truth, " as Malebranche quaintly says, " always has a few Rome and hairs on her See also:chin "; and the conclusions of sound the " His- learning must needs be slow, fragmentary and tentative. torical But Italian taste was all for bold, highly-coloured, School." slashing statements, that any one could understand; what it wanted was a method that should be at once intel-lectually impressive, and free from the usual clouds that beset the See also:scholar's path. It found what it asked for, when the Jesuits, whom Pius VII. had recalled to life (1814), revived the methods of Aquinas and the medieval Schoolmen. Under the fostering care of Pius IX., this " neo-See also:Scholasticism " spread from Italy to the German Catholic See also:universities, and especially the seminaries of France. The See also:secret of its power was that it gave See also:scope for an immense amount of intellectual subtlety, and at the same time saved men from all danger of independent thought. Although a metaphysic, it was not, and did not pretend to be, an unbiased search for truth. It admittedly started by taking the truth of Catholicism for granted; and its only object was to make intelligible to reason the dogmas that faith already accepted. Thus the whole neo-Scholastic movement played straight into the hands of authority. So comprehensive were its methods, so self-confident its bearing, that those who had once fallen under its spell would never need to doubt or hesitate again.

They knew exactly what to think on every conceivable subject; and there was small danger of their suspecting that there might be things in heaven and earth undreamed of in its philosophy. To the learned Rome might serve up authority with a See also:

garnish of neo-Scholastic See also:metaphysics; for average mankind authority pure and See also:simple was enough. Terrified out of their lives at the way in which science and criticism were taking one theological citadel after another, the more militant section of the clergy declared war on thought itself. Not only was faith made independent of reason, but it was considered all the purer, the less it owed to any kind of mental process. If it was a merit to believe without evidence, it was a shining virtue to believe in the See also:teeth of evidence. Credo, quia absurdum was applied, notably by the popular writers of the French Second Empire, in a See also:fashion grotesquely literal enough to scandalize See also:Tertullian himself. " There had always existed in France, as elsewhere, those who loved traditional stories of a marvellous nature, and tended to multiply the number which were presented as facts rather than legends. The existence of this school has always been inseparable from the See also:element of pious belief which enters so much into popular devotion. But in pre-Revolution days there had also been the critical school of the See also:Maurists, which offered an alternative to minds averse from implicit reliance on tradition. This had passed away, and was not yet replaced. The Acta sincera Martyrum by Ruinart was replaced by the thoroughly uncritical and inexact Actes See also:des martyrs of Gueranger. Church history was allowed to be represented by such men as the See also:Abbe Darras; and many French Catholics were ready to accept without question what the Bollandist Pere de Smedt has not hesitated to call the historical errors and lies of Charles Bartelemy.

Incredible and unsupported stories in history, and extravagances in dogma were the order of the day. Those traditions or doctrines which were most uncongenial to the modern world were placed in strong relief; and the disparagement of the individual See also:

intellect was extended to the disparagement of scientific See also:research itself " (See also:Wilfrid See also:Ward, Life of W. G. Ward, vol. ii. p. 119). The faithful were encouraged to drown all tendency to thought in an ever-increasing See also:flood of sensuous emotionalism. In thirty years Pius IX. canonized more saints than all his predecessors together for a century and a half. In 1854 he gave a great impulse to the cultus of the Pius Ix. Virgin by proclaiming her Immaculate Conception and the a dogma of the Church (see IMMACULATE CONCEPTION). New In the following year he imposed on Catholicism at Dogmas. large a special " devotion " to the Heart of Mary Immaculate. Next year he added a similar devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (see SACRED HEART). That these things only widened the See also:breach between the Church and the outside world was of no account to Pius.

Ever since his return from Gaeta, he had made up his mind to a policy of no surrender; and the curtailment of his own dominions in 186o only made him the keener to denounce the iniquities of other rulers. In 1864 appeared the encyclical Quanta Cura, together with a Syllabus of eighty of the most important " errors of our time " (see SYLLABUS). These two documents caused The an excitement nowadays hard to understand. Apart syllabus from some fulminations against such modern pests 011864. as " See also:

socialism, See also:communism, secret See also:societies, See also:Bible societies, clerico-liberal societies," the Syllabus says nothing that the papacy had not been saying for hundreds of years. Its real object is to attack such professedly Catholic governments as have fallen in with modern ideas—as for instance, by allowing freedom of worship to their Protestant subjects, or by refusing to punish See also:brawling in Catholic churches more severely than other breaches of the peace. In other words, Pius utterly rejected the whole principle of See also:toleration, and declared that the Church would still impose itself by force, whenever it got the chance to do so. However, any hopes he may have had of finding another Philip II. were soon dashed to the ground. Eighteen months after the publication of the Syllabus broke out the Austro-Prussian War (June 1866), when the one faithful ally of Rome was trampled under the feet of the See also:arch-Protestant Hohenzollerns. But the pope's spirit was not broken. If he could not See also:lord it over one sphere, at least he could be master in another. In 1869 he summoned a general council at the Vatican, avowedly for the purpose of getting it Definition to declare his See also:personal infallibility. For although of the the old rivalry between pope and council had long ago dogma been practically settled in favour of the pope, no of papal lafalll- council had yet formally acknowledged its defeat.

bility. Indeed, many prominent French and German divines still denied papal infallibility altogether; and Louis Napoleon had regularly fallen back on Richelieu's old See also:

device of stirring up the embers of Gallicanism, whenever the French clergy grew restive about his See also:alliance with Victor Emmanuel. And even the more moderate believers in the pope's infallibility maintained that it was merely negative, a heaven-sent See also:immunity against falling into See also:error. But Pius and his immediate circle argued that this was not enough. The great need of the age was authority; and authority was most likely to strike the See also:imagination of the faithful if it found a vivid See also:concrete embodiment in the See also:person of the pope. He must not simply be immune from error; truth must stream down on his head from heaven, and on his head alone. " We all know only one thing for certain," wrote the great Catholic pamphleteer, Louis See also:Veuillot, " and that is that no one knows anything, except the man with whom God is for ever, the man who carries the thoughts of God." But this view was too extreme for the council; the most Pius could hope for was to be declared immune from error, instead of positively inspired. Even this negative in-fallibility was stoutly contested by the French and German bishops during the eight months that the council lasted (December 1869 to July 1870). But they were richer in talents than numbers: out of six See also:hundred prelates they only commanded eighty votes. Most left Rome before the final session; only two—one from Naples, one from the United States—continued their protest up to the end. On the 18th of July the pope's decrees were declared " irreformable of themselves, irrespectively of the consent of the Church," always provided that they dealt with doctrines of faith and morals, and were delivered ex cathedra—that is, with the intention of binding the consciences of all Catholics. These limitations were the work of the moderate infallibilists, but the real See also:hero of the day was Pius.

Theologians might draw their See also:

fine-spun distinctions between realms where the pope was actually infallible and realms where he was not; but Pius knew well that loyal Catholic common sense would See also:brush their technicalities aside and hold that on any conceivable question the pope was fifty times lhore likely to be right than any one else (see VATICAN COUNCIL and INFALLIBILITY). So absolute became the papal See also:sovereignty over conscience that more than one government took alarm. While the council was still sitting the Bavarian minister, Prince Chlodwig zu See also:Hohenlohe-Schillingsfiirst, suggested to See also:Bismarck that the Powers would do well to bring its deliberations to an end; and495 immediately after the publication of its decrees Austria notified the pope that so vast an extension of the Church's claims would necessitate a revision of the concordat. And when the ex-communication of Dellinger and other anti-infallibilist divines 0871) led to the formation of an independent Old Catholic Church (see OLD CATHOLICS) See also:Bavaria, See also:Switzerland and other countries gave it a warm wel- come. So also did See also:Berlin. The new German empire, consolidated through wars with Catholic Germany and Catholic France, was of all countries least likely to tolerate Roman attempts to dictate to its subjects. Tension was increased by the fact that the Centre, or Catholic, party in the Reichstag was led by Windhorst, formerly prime minister to the dispossessed king of See also:Hanover, and thus naturally became identified with the opposition of the smaller German states to the supremacy of Prussia. The quarrel began in 1871 when the Prussian government supported some teachers in state-aided Catholic schools whom the bishops wished to dismiss on account of their anti-infallibilist opinions. A year later, under the See also:ministry of See also:Falk, it developed into what the great scientist, See also:Rudolf See also:Virchow, called a Kulturkampf , or conflict of civilizations. The famous May laws (1873) were a determined attempt The to bring the literary education, See also:appointment and dis- cipline of the clergy under state control, and to regulate &a'X. the use of such spiritual penalties as deprivation and See also:excommunication. When the bishops refused to obey, Falk fell back on force. The Jesuits were banished from the German Empire, and most of the other orders from Prussia.

The archbishops of See also:

Gnesen and Cologne and many minor dignitaries were imprisoned (1874); and the so-called " See also:Bread-See also:basket Law " was passed to coerce the parish clergy by suspending the salaries of the disobedient. The result of these severities was exactly the opposite of what Falk intended. He had meant only to lop off a few ultramontane extremists; he succeeded in sending Catholics of every shade and See also:colour See also:pell-mell into the arms of Rome. And the effect remained long after the cause had died away. On the death of Pius IX. (See also:February 1878) his successor, Leo XIII., at once showed himself willing to come to terms. Negotiations were long and difficult; for Bismarck would not abolish the May laws outright, and Leo had much ado to hold in check the zelanti of the Vatican. But Falk retired in 1879; various mutual concessions were made which led to a See also:gradual See also:abrogation of the May laws. Yet—thanks to its organization, its press, and the elaborate network of alliances spun by Windhorst—the Ultramontane Centre still remains a powerful force in German politics. This conciliatory policy towards Berlin was the first-fruits of a new regime; Leo XIII. was in every way a complete contrast to Pius IX. Pius had fed on inspirations; Leo was a man of See also:calm, deliberate judgment, little likely to yield to the promptings of his monsignori. He was a polished scholar of the old-fashioned type; early in his reign he threw open the Vatican Archives to the students of the world.

Having spent his youth in the papal See also:

diplomatic service —he was See also:nuncio at See also:Brussels from 1843–46—he had a certain knowledge of the workings of See also:parliamentary institutions, while the years immediately before his accession had been spent as archbishop of See also:Perugia, so that he was not closely identified with any of the Vatican parties. The results of a change of master were soon seen. Pius IX. had died at war with almost every country in Europe. He had quarrelled with Austria; Russia was persecuting its Catholic subjects; France was under the spell of See also:Gambetta and his doctrine that clericalism was the enemy; Spain and See also:Belgium followed France; even Switzerland was waging a Kulturkampf on a small scale. In a few years Leo had made peace with Austria, pacified Switzer-land and Belgium, opened up negotiations with Russia; while his See also:elevation of See also:Newman to the cardinalate (1879) made• a great impression in Great See also:Britain. About r886 hopes even ran high that he was on the eve of a reconciliation with King See also:Humbert at the Quirinal. These hopes were vain. Leo was absolutely convinced that a territorial sovereignty was required to old Catholicism. Pope Leo XIII. ensure the moral independence of the papacy; and he believed that the new Italian kingdom was a See also:mushroom growth, that might fall in pieces at any moment. Hence he followed in the steps of Pius IX. and refused to recognize the existence of the de facto government in any way whatsoever; he would not accept the subsidies it offered him, or allow Catholics to take any part in political life. During the earlier years of his reign he undoubtedly had hopes of recovering his lost dominions with the help of Germany, and Bismarck was not the man to discourage such expectations.

They were suddenly blasted when Germany, Italy and Austria entered into a Triple Alliance at the end of 1887. Thereafter Leo turned to France. Already in 1884 he had warned the French clergy against meddling in royalist intrigues; in 1892 he issued a much more stringent exhortation to French Catholics to rally to the Republic. An idea got abroad that he was looking to the time when the old dream of Lamennais and Gioberti might become a reality, and Italy would split up into a number of republics, amongst which the temporal power of the pope might find a place. Certainly his public pronouncements took on an increasingly democratic See also:

tone. From the first he had shown great interest in social questions; and his encyclicals deal much less with theology than with citizenship, socialism, labour, the marriage-laws. Under his influence a Christian Socialist movement sprang up in France and Belgium, and soon spread to Italy, Germany and Austria. It had undoubtedly done much to awaken interest in social problems, and to call forth philanthropic zeal; but the movement soon travelled far beyond the limits that Leo would have set to it. In Germany, in particular, it has grown into a political party connected with the Social Democrats; nor have the democratic socialists been slow to exploit their Christian See also:allies for their own ends. And in other countries the attempt to bring religion into politics has sometimes had the effect of lowering religion, rather than ennobling politics. In an age of universal suffrage public men cannot afford to appeal to pure reason, or even to pure sentiment. Christian socialism becomes a real force when it translates itself into anti-Semitism; and anti-Semitism is at its strongest when it is pursuing one particular Jewish See also:captain in the French See also:artillery.

Much on the same lines stands the Italian Catholic attempt to show that the Freemasons are the real founders of Italian independence, and to take the field against them with the help of See also:

Leon Taxil and " See also:Diana See also:Vaughan." And, quite apart from their political colouring, such attempts to meet the devotional tastes of the masses as the miracles of See also:Lourdes, or the modern French religious press, See also:lie well within the range of criticism. Nor have they even had the dubious merit of success. Dying in 1903, Leo XIII. was spared from seeing the failure of his policy of reconciliation with the French Republic; for the " denunciation of the concordat " (December 1905) and consequent Pius x separation of Church and State took place under his successor, Pius X. What results this measure may have on France it must be left to the future to decide. Nor is it yet possible to forecast the result of the only other sensational event that the reign of Pius X. has yet produced—his condemnation in 1907 of the complex movement known as Modernism. This began as an attempt to break loose Modern- from the neo-Scholasticism so ardently patronized ism. both by Pius IX. and Leo XIII., and to supplant the critical methods of the medieval doctors by those of modern scholarship; and its leaders have won special distinction in the See also:fields of Biblical criticism and ecclesiastical history. But Modernism soon broadened into a thoroughgoing revolt against the modes of thought and methods characteristic of the latter-day Vatican; its motto is that Catholicism is the strength of popery, but popery the weakness of Catholicism. By "popery" must here be understood the belief that spiritual doctrines always lend themselves to a precise embodiment in black and white, and can thereafter be dealt with like so many clauses of an act of See also:parliament. Modernists deny that the spirit of religion can be thus imprisoned in an unchangeable See also:formula;they hold that it is always growing, and therefore in continual need of readjustment and restatement. On the other hand, they maintain that the See also:present always has its roots in the past, and therefore they are opposed to any violent change; they. consider, for instance, that See also:northern Europe would have done better to listen to Erasmus than to Luther. But progress can leave little See also:room to individual initiative, if it must always be orderly and systematic; and the Modernists accordingly show little sympathy with Protestantism.

The core of their creed is a fervid belief in the infallibility of Catholic See also:

instinct, if only Catholic theology can be induced to leave it to develop in peace. Hitherto the theologians have shown small disposition to hold their hand; and several of the leading Modernists have been excommunicated (see especially the article See also:Loisy, A. F.), while the whole movement was condemned in bitter and scathing language by Pius X.'s encyclical (Pascendi gregis) against the Modernists. But ideas are difficult to kill, and it is possible that the Modernist movement may yet prove to be the opening See also:chapter of a mighty revolution within the Church of Rome.' (ST C.) The Church in England. The origin of the English Roman Catholics as a community separated from the National Church is generally held to date from the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1558. In the following year was passed an Act of Supremacy, whereby all public officials, clerical and lay, were required to acknowledge the supremacy of the queen " as well in spiritual things or causes as temporal." This See also:declaration all the existing bishops, with two exceptions, refused to make; some fled the country, some were imprisoned, others simply deprived and placed under surveillance.2 To the parish clergy the declaration was not systematically tendered; of those deprived of their livings a large number were allowed to remain on as chaplains in private families. From laymen, unless they happened to hold some public office, no declaration was expected; and during the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign most of them continued to attend at their parish church. The line of See also:division became much more acute when Pius V. deposed Elizabeth from her throne (1570); thenceforward her government looked on every Catholic as a potential See also:rebel. Already it had passed a severe act against the Catholics in 1562; this was followed by other measures in 1571, 158o, 1584, 1585, 1593. During the See also:forty-five years of Elizabeth's reign, however, only about 18o persons suffered death—less than half the number of those whom the Catholic zeal 1 For a criticism of the modern tendencies of the Roman Catholic Church from an outside point of view see ULTRAMONTAIcISM. 2 From the Roman Catholic point of view the ancient English hierarchy came to an end with the death of Thomas See also:Goldwell, some time bishop of St See also:Asaph, at Rome on the 3rd of See also:April 1585. Some six months previously Thomas See also:Watson, formerly bishop of See also:Lincoln, had died in prison in England.

' Not as heretics, by burning, but as traitors, by See also:

hanging, See also:drawing and quartering. But, since to say or hear mass was constructive treason, the distinction was, in many cases, without a difference. Christian Socialism. of her sister, Queen Mary, had burnt in one-ninth of the time. Under See also:James I. an attempt was made to distinguish between the loyal and disloyal Catholics, the latter comprising all those who maintained the pope's right to depose sovereigns from their throne. This led to a violent division among the Catholics themselves. Many forswore the deposing power; the majority, acting under imperative orders from Rome, refused to deny it. The government retorted by adding several new penal laws to the statute-book, though less than thirty Catholics were brought to the See also:scaffold during James's reign. Under Charles I. the position of the Catholics was greatly improved, largely owing to the king's marriage with a French princess. Although not actually repealed, the penal laws were seldom put in force, and mass was openly celebrated in See also:London and elsewhere. On the outbreak of the Civil War the Catholics naturally sided with the king, and a great many fell fighting for the royalist cause; towards the survivors See also:Cromwell was unexpectedly merciful. Very few were put to death, though a number of estates were confiscated.

Under Charles II. came a new See also:

period of prosperity; two Catholics, Lords See also:Arlington and See also:Clifford, were admitted to the inner circles of the government. Protestant suspicion was excited; in 1673 was passed the Test Act, obliging all office-holders to receive the See also:sacrament in the Established Church, and to declare their disbelief in See also:transubstantiation.' Five years later (1678) popular exasperation found a more See also:savage outlet, and greedily swallowed the tales of See also:Titus See also:Oates about a mythical " popish See also:plot." A number of victims were brought to the scaffold, and Catholics were declared incapable of sitting in either house of parliament. James II., however, was utterly indifferent to the feelings of his subjects. He packed the privy council, the See also:army and the universities with Catholics, and tried to legalize the exercise of their religion by an utterly unconstitutional Declaration of Indulgence. Three years were enough to convince the nation that he was " endeavouring to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom"; and on his deposition in 1688 Roman Catholics, or persons married to Roman Catholics, were declared incapable of succeeding to the throne. A new oath of allegiance was imposed on all holders of civil or military office; they were required to swear that no foreign prelate had, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, whether civil or ecclesiastical, within the realm. Further, a number of statutes were passed with the object of putting every possible obstacle in the way of Catholics educating their See also:children in their own creed, or of inheriting or buying land. That they remained so long " utterly disabled from bearing any public office or charge " was due to the participation of many of their number in the Jacobite revolts of 1715 and 1745. After See also:Culloden, however, it was seen that all serious danger of a See also:Stuart restoration was passed; and in 1778 Catholics who abjured the Pretender and denied the civil authority of the pope were relieved from their most pressing disabilities. A proposal to extend this measure to See also:Scotland led to violent agitation in that country. Feeling soon spread to England, and culminated in the See also:Gordon riots of 1780. Meanwhile, however, strenuous efforts were being made by the Roman Catholics to obtain relief by establishing a reasonable modus vivendi with the government.

Within the Catholic body itself there was even at this time a more or less pronounced anti-Roman movement, a reflection of the Gallican and Febronian tendencies on the See also:

continent of Europe, and the " Catholic Committee," consisting for the most part of influential laymen, which had been formed to negotiate with the government, was prepared to go a long 1 This declaration, which denounced the mass as " idolatrous and superstitious," was taken by all office-bearers, including bishops on taking their seats in the House of Lords, until the Relief Act of 1829. It was imposed by the Act of See also:Settlement on the sovereign also, in order to make impossible any repetition of the policy of James II. This " Declaration of the Sovereign " formed the subject of heated debate on the accession of kings Edward VII. and See also:George V., and in See also:August 1910 parliament substituted for it a simple declaration of See also:adhesion to the Protestant religion.way in repudiating the extreme claims of the Holy See, some even demanding the creation of a national hierarchy in merely nominal dependence on Rome, and advocating the substitution of English for Latin in the services. This attitude led to a somewhat prolonged conflict between the Committee and the vicars apostolic, who for the most part represented the high ultramontane view. The outcome of the Committee's work was the great Protest, signed by 1500 bishops, priests and leading laymen, in which the See also:loyalty of Catholics to the crown and constitution was strenuously affirmed and the ultramontane point' of view repudiated in the startling declaration, " We acknowledge no infallibility in the pope." As the result of the negotiations preceding and following this action, the government in 1791 passed a See also:bill relieving from all their more vexatious disabilities those Roman Catholics 2 who rejected the temporal authority of the pope; and during the first See also:quarter of the 19th century a series of attempts was made to abolish Catholic disabilities altogether. To this, however, George III. and his successors were bitterly opposed; only in 1829 did George IV. give way, and allow the passage of the Catholic Relief Act. This virtually removed all restrictions on Catholics, except that it left them incapable of filling the offices of See also:Regent, Lord See also:Chancellor, or Lord See also:Lieutenant of See also:Ireland; and it expressly debarred their priests from sitting in the House of See also:Commons. Ecclesiastical Administration.—During the reign of Elizabeth this was necessarily in a chaotic state. As the Marian clergy died out, their place was taken by priests trained at theological colleges established for this purpose at See also:Douai, Rome, See also:Valladolid and other places. These were the " seminary priests," See also:objects of great suspicion to the government. About 1580 Jesuit missionaries began to come, and soon became involved in bitter quarrels with the secular missionaries already at work. Mutual jealousies were only increased when the seculars were grouped together under an arch-priest in 1599.

Nor were matters much bettered when. the papacy took advantage of the presence of a Catholic queen in England, and sent over in 1625 a vicarapostolic3—that is, a prelate in episcopal orders, but without the full authority of a diocesan bishop. He was soon compelled to withdraw, and the direction of affairs fell to an intermittent series of papal envoys accredited to Henrietta Maria or Catherine of See also:

Braganza. On the accession of James II. a new vicarapostolic—John Leyburne, bishop of Adrumetum in partibuswas at once appointed (1685); three years later England was divided into four districts—the London, Midland, Northern and Western—each under a vicar-apostolic. This arrangement lasted till 184o, when the number of vicariates was doubled by the addition of the Welsh, Eastern, See also:Lancashire and See also:Yorkshire districts. In 185o came the " restoration of the hierarchy " by Pope Pius IX., when England was mapped out into an arch-bishopric of See also:Westminster' and twelve suffragan sees, since in-creased to fifteen (sixteen including the Welsh see of Menevia). This " papal aggression " caused great excitement at the time, and an Ecclesiastical Titles Act was passed in 1851, though never put in force, forbidding Roman Catholic prelates to assume territorial designations.5 2 They were described in the first draft of the bill as " Protesting Catholic Dissenters," but this was changed, in deference to the strenuous remonstrances of the vicars-apostolic, into " Roman Catholics." 2 Richard See also:Smith, bishop of See also:Chalcedon in partibus (d. 1655). Cardinal See also:Wiseman (q.v.) was the first archbishop of Westminster. It was on his See also:advice that Pope Gregory XVI. increased the number of English vicariates-apostolic in 1839, and from 184o onward, as vicar-apostolic first of the Midland and afterwards of the London See also:district, he was mainly instrumental in bringing the English Roman Catholic Church into closer touch with " the spirit of Rome." The outward sign of this was the substitution of the Roman rituai for the English pre-Reformation use hitherto followed in the services, while English Roman Catholicism became increasingly ultra-montane in temper, a tendency much strengthened under Cardinal See also:Manning. 5 The titles of the sees could not by law be the same as those of the Established Church. In several cases, however (e.g. See also:Birmingham, See also:Liverpool, See also:Southwark, See also:Newcastle), sees have since been created by Population.—No trustworthy figures are forthcoming as to the numbers of the English Roman Catholics at the different stages of their history.

At the accession of Elizabeth they undoubtedly formed a large proportion of the population. During her reign they greatly decreased, and the decrease continued during the 17th century. A return, made with some apparent care soon after the accession of See also:

William III., estimates their See also:total number at barely 30,000. During the 18th century they began to increase; a return presented to the House of Lords in 1780 estimates their number at nearly 70,000. Joseph Berington, himself a distinguished Catholic priest, considers that this number was above the See also:mark; he reports that his co-religionists were most numerous in Lancashire and London; next came Yorkshire, See also:Northumberland and See also:Stafford-See also:shire. In many of the See also:southern counties there were scarcely any Catholics at all. Even in Berington's time, however, there was a certain tendency to increase; and the great number of conversions that followed the Relief Act of 1791 was a stock See also:argument of opponents of the act of 1829. Of late years, notably since the See also:Oxford Movement within the Established Church, the number of converts has been much increased; for some time past it has aver-aged about 800o souls a year. But a far more potent See also:factor in swelling the numbers of the Catholics has been the See also:immigration of the Irish, which began early in the 19th century, but was enormously stimulated by the See also:famine of 1846. In 187o Mr Ravenstein reckoned the total number of Roman Catholics in England as slightly under a million, of whom about 750,000 were Irish, and 5o,000 foreigners. By 1910 the general total is considered to have risen to about a million and a half. (ST C.) English Law See also:relating to Roman Catholics.—The history of the old penal laws against Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom has been sketched above and in the article IRELAND, History.' The See also:principal English acts directed against " popish recusants "2 will be found in the See also:list given in the acts repealing them (7 & 8 Vict. c.

102, 1844; 9 & 10 Vict. C. 59, 1846). The principal Scottish act was 1700, c. 3; the principal Irish act, 2 See also:

Anne c. 3. Numerous decisions illustrating the practical operation of the old law in Ireland are collected in G. E. See also:Howard's Cases on the Popery Laws (1775). The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act 1829 (10 Geo. IV. c. 7), although it gave Roman Catholic citizens in the main complete. civil and religious liberty, at the same time left them under certain disabilities, trifling in comparison with those under which they laboured before 1829.

Nor did the act affect in any way the long series of old statutes directed against the See also:

assumption of authority by the Roman see in England. The earliest of these which is still law is the Statute of Provisors of 1351 (25 Edw. III. st. 4). The effect of the Roman Catholic Charities Act 1832 is to place Roman Catholic schools, places of worship and education, and charities, and the See also:property held therewith, under the laws applying to Protestant nonconformists. The Toleration Act act of parliament bearing the same titles, so that there are now often two bishops bearing the same See also:style. From tre point of view of the State, that of the Roman Cathclic bishop Is, of course, only a See also:title of See also:courtesy, the See also:Anglican bishop alone having the legal right to bear it. ' See also See also:Stephen's History of the Criminal Law, vol. ii. p. 483; See also:Anstey, The Law affecting Roman Catholics (1842) ; See also:Lilly and See also:Wallis, See also:Manual of the Law specially affecting Catholics (1893). ' A See also:recusant signified a person who refused duly to attend his parish church.does not apply to Roman Catholics, but legislation of a similar kind, especially the Relief Act of 1791 (31 Geo. III. c. 32), exempts the priest from parochial offices, such as those of church-See also:warden and See also:constable, and from serving in the See also:militia or on a See also:jury, and enables all Roman Catholics scrupling the oaths of office to exercise the office of See also:churchwarden and some other offices by See also:deputy.

The priest is, unlike the See also:

nonconformist minister, regarded as being in holy orders. He cannot, there-fore, sit in the House of Commons, but there is nothing to prevent a peer who is a priest from sitting and voting in the House of Lords. If a priest becomes a convert to the Church of England he need not be re-ordained. The remaining law affecting Roman Catholics may be classed under the following five heads: (1) Office.—There are certain offices still closed to Roman Catholics. By the Act of Settlement a papist or the See also:husband or wife of a papist cannot be king or queen. The act of 1829 provides that nothing therein contained is to enable a Roman Catholic to hold the office of See also:guardian and See also:justice of the United Kingdom, or of regent of the United Kingdom ; of lord chancellor, lord keeper, or lord See also:commissioner of the great See also:seal of Great Britain or Ireland or lord lieutenant of Ireland; of high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, or of any office in the Church of England or Scotland, the ecclesiastical courts, See also:cathedral foundations and certain colleges. The See also:disability in the case of the lord chancellor of Ireland was removed by statute in 1867, with necessary limitations as to ecclesiastical patronage. The act of 1829 pre-served the liability of Roman Catholics to take certain oaths of office, but these have been modified by later legislation (see 29 & 30 Vict. C. 19; 30 & 31 Vict. C. 75; 31 & 32 Vict.

C. 72; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 48). Legislation has been in the direction of omitting words which might be supposed to give offence to Roman Catholics. The only offices which Roman Catholics are not legally capable of holding now are the lord chancellorship of England and the lord lieutenancy of Ireland (see, however, Lilly and Wallis, pp. 36-43). (2) Title.—The act of 1829 forbids the assumption by any person, other than the person authorized by law, of the name, style or title of an archbishop, bishop or See also:

dean of the Church of England. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 went further, and forbade the assumption by an unauthorized person of a title from any place in the United Kingdom, whether or not such place were the seat of an archbishopric, bishopric or deanery. This act was, however, repealed in 1867, but the provisions of the act of 1829 are still in force. (3) Religious Orders.—It was enacted by the act of 1829 that " every Jesuit and every member of any other religious order, community or society of the Church of Rome bound by monastic or religious vows " was, within six months after the commencement of the act, to deliver to the clerk of the peace of the See also:county in which he should reside a notice or statement in the form given to the See also:schedule to the act, and that every Jesuit or member of such religious order coming into the realm after the commencement of the act should be guilty of a See also:misdemeanour and should be banished from the United Kingdom for life (with an elcception in favour of natural-See also:born subjects duly registered). A secretary of state, being a Protestant, was empowered to grant licences to Jesuits, &c., to come into the United Kingdom and remain there for a period not exceeding six months. An account of these licences was to be laid annually before parliament.

The See also:

admission of any person as a regular ecclesiastic by any such Jesuit, &c., was made a misdemeanour, and the person so admitted was to be banished for life. Nothing in the act was to extend to religious orders of See also:females. These provisions exist in posse only, and have, it is believed, never been put into force. (4) Superstitious Uses.—Gifts to superstitious uses are void both at common law and by statute. It is not easy to determine what gifts are to be regarded as gifts to superstitious uses. Like con-tracts contrary to public policy, they depend to a great extent for their illegality upon the discretion of the court in the particular case. The act of 23 See also:Hen. VIII. c. to makes void any assurance of lands to the use (to have obits perpetual) or the continual service of a priest for ever or for threescore or fourscore years. The act of 1 Edw. VI. C. 14 (specially directed to the suppression of chantries) vests in the crown all money paid by corporations and all lands appointed to the finding or See also:maintenance of any priest, or any anniversary or See also:obit or other like thing, or of any light or See also:lamp in any church or See also:chapel maintained within five years before 1547.

The act may still be of value in the construction of old grants, and in affording examples of what the legislature regarded as superstitious uses. Gifts which the courts have held void on the See also:

analogy of those mentioned in the acts of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. are a devise for the good of the soul of the testator,a See also:bequest to certain Roman Catholic priests that the testator may have the benefit of their prayers and masses, a bequest in See also:trust to apply a fund to circulate a book teaching the supremacy of the pope in matters of faith, a bequest to maintain a See also:taper for evermore before the See also:image of Our See also:Lady. The court may compel See also:discovery of a secret trust for superstitious uses. Since 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 115 gifts for the See also:propagation of the Roman Catholic faith are not void as made to superstitious uses. It should be noticed that the doctrine of superstitious uses is not confined to the Roman Catholic religion, though the question has generally arisen in the case of gifts made by persons of that religion. The Roman Catholic Charities Act 186o enables the court to See also:separate a lawful charitable trust from any part of the estate subject to any trust or provision deemed to be superstitious. It also provides that in the See also:absence of any written document the usage of twenty years is to be conclusive evidence of the application of charitable See also:trusts. (5) Patronage.—A Roman Catholic cannot present to a See also:benefice, prebend, or other ecclesiastical living, or collate or nominate to any free school, See also:hospital or donative (3 Jac. I. c. 5).

Such patronage is by the act vested in the universities, Oxford taking the City of London and twenty-five counties in England and See also:

Wales, mostly south of the Trent, See also:Cambridge the remaining twenty-seven. The principle is affirmed in subsequent acts (1 Will. and Mary, sess. 1, c. 26; 12 Anne, st. 2, c. 14; II Geo. II. c. 17). If the right of presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice belongs to any office under the crown, and that office is held by a Roman Catholic, the archbishop of Canter-See also:bury exercises the right for the time being (to Geo. IV. c. 7, s. 17).

No Roman Catholic may advise the crown as to the exercise of its ecclesiastical patronage (Ibid. s. 18). A Roman Catholic, if a member of a lay See also:

corporation, cannot See also:vote in any ecclesiastical appointment (Ibid. s. 15). Grants and devises of advowsons, &c., by Roman Catholics are void, unless for valuable See also:consideration to a Protestant purchaser (II Geo. II. c. 17, s. 5). Where a quare impedit is pending before any court, the court may compel the See also:patron to take an oath that there is no secret trust for the benefit of a Roman Catholic. (J. W.) The Church in the United States. The history of Roman Catholicism in the New World begins with the Norse discoveries of See also:Greenland and See also:Vinland the Good.

In the former the bishopric of Gardar was established in 1112, and extinguished only in 1492. To the latter (the coast of New England), the Northmen during the same period made " temporary visits for See also:

timber and peltries, or missionary voyages to evangelize for a See also:season the natives." Beyond these facts, the Norse sagas and See also:chronicles contribute little that is certain (cf. " The Norse Hierarchy in the United States," Amer. Cath. Quart. See also:Review, April 1890). Although a bishop was appointed by the pope for the vaguely defined territory of See also:Florida so early as 1528, the oldest Catholic community in what is now the United States dates from 1565, when the Spanish See also:colony of St Augustine was founded. . Hence the aboriginal tribes of the South were evangelized. In 1582 the missions of New Mexico were undertaken, and from 16o1 Catholic missionaries were at work along the Pacific coast, especially in See also:California. Early in the 17th century trading posts and See also:mission centres were established on the coast of See also:Maine, and during the same century French priests laboured zealously in northern New See also:York, along the entire coast of the See also:Mississippi from See also:Wisconsin to See also:Louisiana, and around the Great Lakes. Their principal concern was for the savages, over whom they acquired an extraordinary influence. Political jealousies, human avarice and treachery arrested the progress of most of their missions.

The English colony of See also:

Maryland, planned by the Catholic George See also:Calvert (1st Lord See also:Baltimore), and founded (1634) by his son the Catholic Cecilius Calvert (2nd Lord Baltimore), and See also:Pennsylvania, founded (1681) by the tolerant Quaker William See also:Penn, first permitted the legal existence of Catholicism in English-speaking communities of the New World. It is from these centres that it spread during the 18th century. In 1784 the Rev. John See also:Carroll was appointed See also:prefect-apostolic for the Catholics of the English colonies hitherto dependent on the vicar-apostolic of London. In 1790 Father Carroll was made bishop of the see of Baltimore, and given charge of all the Catholic interests in the United States. There were then about 24,500 Catholics in the land, of which number 15,800 were in Maryland, and 7000 in Pennsylvania, 200 in See also:Virginia and 1500 in New York. In 1807 they had grown to 150,000 with 8o churches. In the following year Baltimore found itself the first metropolitan see of the United States, with New York, See also:Philadelphia, See also:Boston and Bardstown as suffragans. The growth of the Catholic population by decades since 1820was calculated by a competent historian, the late John Gilmary Shea, as follows: 1820 . 244,500 1860 3,000,000 1830 . 361,000 187o . . 4,685,000 184o .

I,000,000 188o 7,067,000 185o . 1,726,470 1890 . . 10,627,000 The number in 1906 was 12,079,142 (U.S. Census, Special See also:

Report, 191o). The main source of this growth has been immigration. Originally the Irish and the Germans furnished the greater See also:quota. Later the French-Canadians, Italians, Poles and Bohemians added notably to the number; an appreciable percentage of Oriental Catholics is also found,—Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, &c. Natural increase, especially among the first Catholic immigrants, and a certain percentage of conversions from Protestantism, are contributory See also:sources. Being under the protection of the constitution, and enjoying the advantages of the common law, Catholicism could not meet with any official opposition; such few outbursts of fanaticism as there have been were but temporary or local, and did not represent the true feelings of the country. As to the future of the Church in the United States, all Catholics feel, with their latest historian, that " the Catholic Church is in See also:accord with Christ's See also:revelation, with See also:American liberty, and is the strongest power for the preservation of the Republic from the new social dangers that threaten the United States as well as the whole civilized world. She has not grown, she cannot grow so weak and old that she may not maintain what she has produced—Christian See also:civilization." Internally, Catholicism in the United States has been free from any noteworthy schisms or heresies that might impede its development—its doctrinal history offers nothing of importance. The discipline differs little from that of the other churches of Catholicism.

The unity of doctrine, liturgy and moral ideals is preserved by an intimate union with the see of Rome. The general canonical legislation of the Church, the legislation by papal rescript and the See also:

Congregation of the Propaganda, the decisions of the Apostolic Delegation at See also:Washington, and a certain amount of immemorial custom and practice, form the code that governs its domestic relations. Decennially each bishop of the United States is expected to pay a visit to Rome (Ad Limina Apostolorum), and to make a report of the spiritual condition of religion within his diocese. In addition a system of synods provides for local unity among bishops, priests and laity. Thus each See also:province or body of bishops under a metropolitan holds provincial councils, while at greater intervals a plenary or national council is held. Of these last three have taken place—their decrees, when approved at Rome, are binding on all Catholics in the United States. In education the Catholic Church endeavours to keep abreast with the best. There are, according to See also:Hoffmann's Directory (See also:Milwaukee, 1907), 4364 parochial schools, in which 1,096,842 children of both sexes receive instruction. The total number of children in Catholic institutions is given as 1,266,175. There are 198 colleges for boys and 678 See also:academies for girls. This system of education is crowned by the Catholic University of America at Washington, established by Leo XIII. and the American hierarchy, and endowed with all the privileges of the old pontifical universities of Europe. In addition there are several other schools that rank as universities.

The education of the clergy is provided for by 86 seminaries, in which there are 5697 students. The charitable institutions in the Church are very numerous. There are 255 See also:

orphan asylums, with 40,588 inmates. The other charitable institutions are 992 in.number, and include every form of public and private charity; no diocese is without one or more such establishments. The actual government of the Church in the United States is represented by one cardinal, 14 archbishops, 89 bishops, 11,135 diocesan clergymen, under the See also:sole and immediate direction of their bishops, 3958 members of religious orders subject to episcopal supervision—in all 15,093 clergymen. There are 8072 churches with See also:resident priests, and 4076 mission churches—in all 12,148, to which must be added 3358 chapels. Several hundred weekly publications are printed in English and foreign See also:tongues, to minister to the needs of the Catholic population. There exist also several literary and academical magazines and reviews of a high order of merit. The principal religious events in the See also:recent history of the Church were the holding of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884), 500 the Catholic Congress (1889), the opening of the Catholic University (1889), the Columbian Educational Exhibit at See also:Chicago (1893), the establishment of the Apostolic Delegation at Washington (1893). The Catholic Church in the United States conducts no foreign missions, but takes care of its own percentage of See also:Indians and Negroes. Of the See also:Indian population of the United States about 48,194 are Catholics, and they are attended by 65 priests, who look after 96 churches or chapels; there are 50 schools conducted by members of 1.6 See also:sisterhoods, in which 4430 children are educated. The Catholic negroes are about 138,573 in number.

They have 47 churches conducted by 43 white clergymen; 114 schools, in which 6294 children are educated by 31 sisterhoods, who also conduct 11 charitable institutions. The expenses of these missions are See also:

borne by private charity, and by a general See also:annual collection. (Et J.

End of Article: ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
ROMAN ART 		[next]
ROMAN DE LA ROSE

Site © 2006 - Net Industries