1 10 3 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/f93b4c7a681762a486dbb49dd9722686.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=Ll14Oob%7EDZbXz0wazZ9nUs1grpPptfDCQlbvxjb5uVW-mrXKPp0OnrXhbYduTc9UTLysA9iYlxTS-OmcBQV3UGa-k9NN0VvxSFGELOigDKsozFhgmvUYTMaE7IAPul3NwyDyummjTgsTGrZKyEmcwz-WLD29UJGmYTpxieyudnegeVPVFVH6ssor3D%7EE2boOBfVcaWv1LzRAq95aP76JgpfjlS3eybbd20gcf8ekGtDK-U9kjLCAIvF84PrPCXPIJNj-qFxl42kPvflxLV-eyUF8TGrq%7Eso1mbXAeaeI8guJ9YTvRpc9OzEmlYJhjOEJQzColB1oaI16ybnM0nLXHw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 2e4c73f5682f4fca7713a3aad045c7e7 PDF Text Text Second Million. Ube Explanatory Catechism of GbHstfan Doctrine CHIEFLY INTENDED FOR THE USS OF Children in Catholic Schools WITH AN APPENDIX All rithtt rtitrvti. LONDON: BURNS, OATES & WASHBOURNE, LTD. aS Orchard St. W.i. 8-10 Paternoster Row E.C.4. And at Manchester, Birmingham & Glasgow. �"Ribil ©bstat: GUL. CAN. 8UT0LIFFB, imprimatur • FRANOISCUS CARDINALIS BOURNE, Archiepiscopus, Westmonasterieh, Die 23 Novembris, 1921. SUMMARY or the CATECHISM OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 1. As to Man. I. Faith...- 2. TheBeukt to F The Our Father. II. Hcpe...- III. Charity { The Hail Mart. The COMMAND­ MENTS F IV. The Sacraments The Seven Great Means of Grace, CORRESPOND­ ING TO His first beginning. His last end. in God the Father; in Jesus Christ; in the Holy Ghost; in the Holy Catholio Church. V { The seven Blessings 1. To be hoped for and 2. To be prayed for. { Assistance of the Blessed Virgin and of the Angels and Saints. 1. of God; 2. of the Church. '1. ths birth, 2. the growth, 3. the nourishment, 4. the medicino, and - 5. the journey of the soul ; 6. the Christian Triest. hood, and ,7. the Christian Family. fl. \ 2. '1. 2. - 3. 4. («) The Virtues and contrary Vices, (ft) The Christian’s Rule of Life, (e) The Christian’s Daily Kxerciso. �WXA3 NATI0Nal SECULAR society €be Bjplanatotp Gatecbfem of Christian doctrine FAITH. CHAPTER I. 1. Q. Who made you 1 A. God made me. 2. Q. Why did God make you ? A. God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in the next. To know God. By hearing instructions, reading good books, knowing what He is, and what He has done for us. To love and eerve God. By keeping His Commandments, and doing all we can to please Him. 3. Q. To whose image and likeness did God make you 7 A. God made me to His own image and likeness. Image. That which exactly represents anything. Likeness. That which resembles a thing, as a picture or a portrait. 4. Q. Is this likeness to God in your body, or in your soul 7 A. This likeness to God is chiefly in my ' soul. 5. Q. How is your soul like to God 7 A. My soul is like to God because it is a spirit, and is immortal. Spirit. An immaterial living being, having free-will and understanding, as God, the Angels, our souls. We cannot touch or see a spirit. Immortal. Not mortal, can never die. The soul has a twoA �A THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM fold life—(1) natural, which it receives at its creation, and never loses; (2) supernatural, or the grace of God, received in Baptism, lost by mortal sin, but regained by a worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance, or by an act of perfect coutriiion. 6. Q. What do you mean when you say that your soul is immortal? A. When I 6ay that my soul is immortal, I mean that my soul can never die. 7. Q. Of which must you take most care, of your body or of your soul ? A. I must take most care of my soul: for Christ has 6aid, ‘ What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul ? ’ (Matt. xvi. 26.) Profit. That which is for a person’s good. Suffer the loss, Ac. To lose one's soul and go to helL 8. Q. What must you do to save your soul ? A. To save my soul I must worship God by Faith, Hope, and Charity; that is, I must believe in Him, I must hope in Him, and I must love Him with my whole heart. Worship. To adore, as in the case of Almighty God; to honour or respect, as in the case of the Angels, or of the Saints. Faith. To believe: to have trust or confidence in what a person says. There are two kinds of faith—(1) divine faith, which is relying on the word of God; (2) human faith, which is relying on the testimony of man. CHAPTER II. 9. Q. What is fhith? A. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, which enables us to believe without doubting whatever God has revealed. Without doubting, Ac. We must believe firmly all that God has made known to us. Firmness and entirety are the two qualities of faith. The denial of an article of faith by one who has professed the Christian religion is called heresy; to renounce or turn away from our religion is called apostasy; denying the existence of God is called infidelity. 10. Q. Why must you believe whatever God has �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 3 revealed? A. I must believe whatever God has revealed because God is the very truth, and can neither deceive nor be deceived. The very truth. God is truth itself; He is all truth. Deceive. To cause a person to go wrong, or to try to make him believe that which is not true. 11. Q. How are you to know what God has revealed ? A. I am to know what God has revealed by the testi­ mony. teaching, and authority of the Catholic Church. Testimony. To bear proof or witness to anything. The Church tells us what she has been taught by our Lord. Authority. The power or right to do a thing. 12. Q. Who gave the Catholic Church divine autho­ rity to teach? A. Jesus Christ gave the Catholic Church divine authority to teach, when He said, ‘Go ye and teach all nations.’ (Matt, xxviii. 19.) THE APOSTLES’ CREED. 13. Q. What are the chief things which God has re­ vealed? A. The chief things which God has revealed are contained in the Apostles’ Creed. Contained. To be found or hold in it. Creed. A form of belief. There are five forms of the Creed —(1) the Apostles’, supposed to have been composed by the Apostles before they separated to preach the Gospel throughout the world ; (2) the Jficene, composed at the Council of Nice; (8) the Athanasian ; (4) the Creed of Pops Pius IV., which was drawn up immediately after the Council of Trent, and (5) the anti-modernist Creed of Pope Pius X. The Creed teaches us oxxr faith, or what we must believe in order to be saved. 14. Q. Say the Apostles’ Creed. A. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth ;— and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;—who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; —suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;—He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;—He ascended into feesven ; sitteth at the right hand of God the Father �4 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM Almighty from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.—I believe in the Holy Ghostthe Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints;—the forgiveness of sins;—the resurrection of the body; and life everlasting. Amen. Amen. ‘ 3o be it,’ or ‘ May it be »o.’ This word at the eDd of prayer expresses a wish that what we have been praying * for may be granted. 15. Q. How ia the Apostles’ Creed divided 1 A. The * Apostles Creed is divided into twelve parts or articles. Articles. 8mall parts or divisions, short clauses. The articles of the Creed may be divided into three parts—(1) the first article, which treats especially of God the Father and the work of Creation; (2) from the second to the seventh in. elusive, is which particular mention is made of God the Son and the work of Redemption; (3) from the eighth to the twelfth, which treat of God the Holy Ghost and the work of Sanctification. FIRST ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 16. Q. What is the first article of the Creed ? A. The first article of the Creed is ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.’ Almighty. Being able to do all things ; all-powerful. Creator. One who produces or makes something out of nothing. 17. Q. What is God ? A. God is the supreme Spirit, who alone exists of Himself, and is infinite in all per­ fections. Supreme. Greatest, highest, above all others. There can be only one who is supreme, and that one is God. Rxists gf Himself. He depends on no one for His life or being. God is the origin of all life. Infinite. Without end or limit in any way. Perfections. Good qualities or attributes. God alone is per­ fect in all things. Some of God’s perfections are—His omnipotence, or being able to do all things; His omniscience. or knowing all things; His omnipresence, or being in all places ; His eternity, or having neither a beginning nor an end ; His goodness, His me ret/, His justice, <fcc �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 5 18. Q. Why is God called Almighty? A. God js called * Almighty ’ because He can do all thingB : ‘ With God all things are possible.’ (Matt. xix. 26.) Possible. That which one is able to do. 19. Q. Why is God called Creator of heaven and earth ? A. God is called ‘ Creator of heaven and earth ’ because He made heaven and earth, and all things, out of nothing, by His word. Sis word. God had only to command, and what Ho wished was done. 20. Q. Had God any beginning? A. God had no beginning; He always was, He is, and He always will be. 21. Q. Where is God? A. God is everywhere. 22. Q. Does God know and see all things ? A. God knows and sees all things, even our most secret thoughts. Secret. Hidden, concealed. 23. Q. Has God any body ? A. God has no body : He is a Spirit. 24. Q. Is there only one God ? A. There is only one God. 25. Q. Are there three Persons in God? A. There are three Persons in God : God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. 26. Q. Are these three Persons three Goda? A. These three Persons are not three Gods: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all one and the same God. 27. Q. What is the mystery of the three Persona in one God called ? A. The mystery of the three Persons in one God is called the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Mystery. The five chief mysteries of our faith are—the Unity and Trinity of God, who will render t<> every man according to his works; the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord. Besides these there are many other great mysteries, as the Creation, and the Holy Eucharist. We are bound to believe all the mysteries of our faith, because God commands us to do so. Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Three Persons in one God, equal to one another in every respect. �6 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 28. Q. What do you mean by a mystery ? A. By a mystery I mean a truth which is above reason, but revealed by God. 29. Q. Is there any likeness to the Blessed Trinity in your soul? A. There is this likeness to the Blessed Trinity in my soul, that as in ono God there are three Persons, so in my one soul there are three powers. 30. Q. Which are the three powers of your soul ? A. The three powers of my soul are my memory, my understanding, and my will. Memory. That power which helps us to retain or keep what we have learnt. Understanding. That power of the soul by which it grasps the meaning of things. Will. The power by which we determine our choice, or by which we act. THE SECOND ARTICLE. 31. Q. What is the second article of the Creed ? A. The second article of the Creed is ‘And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.’ And in Jesus Christ. The words ‘ I believe ’ are understood here after the word ‘ and.’ Our Lord. Jesus is our Lord—(1) because He has redeemed usjby His Precious Blood ; (2) because He preserves us from sin by tlio Sacraments; and forgives us our sins, and will judge us at the end of our life. 32. Q. Who is Jesus Christ 1 A. Jesus Christis God the Son, made man for us. 33. Q. Ia Jesus Christ truly God ? A. Jesus Christ is truly God. Is truly God. Jesus Christ is really God, and proved that He was so by His miracles, by what took place at Hie Baptism, and at His Transfiguration; by His Resurrection from the dead, and His Ascension into heaven. 34. Q. Why is Jesus Christ truly God? A. Jesus Christ is truly God because He has one and the same nature with God the Father. 8S, Q. Was Jscus Christ always Gcd? A. Jesus �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM ? Christ was always God, born of the Father from all eternity. 36. Q. Which Person of the Blessed Trinity is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. 37. Q. Is Jesus Christ truly man? X Jesus Christ is truly man. It truly man. Jesus Christ is really man, because fie has » human nature like ours, consisting of a body and a souL Our Lord proved that Ho had a body by suffering the pains of the body, such as hunger, thirst, weariness, and death. He had a totif, for we learn that the sufferings of His passion and death began with His soul: ‘ My soul is sorrowful oven unto death.’ (Matt. xxvi. 88.) . 88. Q. Why is Jesus Christ truly man? A. Jesus Christ is truly man because He has the nature of man, having a body and soul like ours, 39. Q. Was Jesus Christ always man? A. Jesus Christ was not always man : He has been man only from the time of His Incarnation. Tims of His Incarnation. Our Lord took unto Himself our human nature when His Blessed Mother said to the Angel Gabriel, * Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto mo according to thy word.’ Thia occurred at the Annunciation, March 25th. — 40. Q. What do you mean by the Incarnation ? A. I mean by the Incarnation that God the Son took to Himself the nature of man: 'the Word was made Flesh.’ (John i. 14.) 41. Q. How many natures are there in Jesus Christ ? A. There are two natures in Jesus Christ, the nature of God, and the nature of man. There are two, Ac. The union of the divine with the human nature, in the person of God the 8on, is called the ‘Hypostatic Union.’ . 42. Q. Is there only one Person in Jesus Christ ? A. There is only one Person in Jesus Christ, which is the Person of God the Son. 43. Q. Why was God the Son made man? A. God �8 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM the Son was made man to redeem us from sin and hell, and to teach us the way to heaven. Redeem. To buy back, to save. Hell. The place, or state of eternal punishment, set apart for the wicked, after death. 44. Q. What does the holy name Jesus mean? A. The holy name Jesus means Saviour. (Matt. i. 21.) Saviour. Ona who saves others from evil. 45. (?. What doos the name Christ mean? A. The name Christ means Anointed. Christ. The Anointed, the Messiah. Our Lord is called ‘Christ’ because He is a king, a priest, and a prophet; the person chosen for either of these offices being always anointed. Jesus is King of Heaven : He offers Himself in sacrifice in the Mass, and is therefore a Priest: He prophesied when on earth, and taught the law of God. interpreted His will, and consequently is a Prophet. 46. Q. Where is Jesus Christ? A. As God, Jesus Christ is everywhere. As God made man, He is in heaven, and in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. THE THIRD ARTICLE. 47. Q. What is the third article of the Creed ? A. The third article of the Creed is * Who was conceived by thfplloly Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.’ Conceived by the Holy Ghost. Our Lord was made man by the power of the Holy Ghost. He had no earthlv father. St. Joseph was His Foster-Father. The Virgin Mary. The Mother of our Lord, who by the power of God remained a virgin all her life. She was descended from King David. 48. Q. What does the third article mean? A. The third article means that God the Son took a Body and Soul like ours, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 49. Q. Had Jesus Christ any Father on earth ? A. Jesus Christ had no lather on earth : St. Joseph was only his Guardian or Foster-Father. Guardian. One who takes care of another. Poster-father. One who takes the place of its father 1b bringing up a child. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM q 60. Q. Where was our Saviour born? A. Our Saviour was born in a stable at Bethlehem. Bethlehem. The City of David, about six miles from Jeru­ salem. Our Lord was born here on ths 25th of December, as the prophet Micheas had foretold. 61. Q. On what day was our Saviour born? Our Saviour was born on Christmas Day. A. THE FOURTH ARTICLE. 62. Q. What is the fourth article of the Creed? A. The fourth article of the Creed is ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.’ Pontius Pilate. The Roman Governor who ruled over Judea, the southern part of Palestine. Crucify. To put to death by fastening the body by the hands and feet to a cross. 53. Q. What were the chief Bufferings of ChriBt? A. The chief sufferings of Christ were—first, His agony and His sweat of blood in the Garden ; secondly, His being scourged at the pillar, and crowned with thorns ; and thirdly, His carrying His cross, His crucifixion, and His death between two thieves. Chief sufferings. The greatest or principal sufferings. There were many others besides these. . Scourging. Whipping with great severity. Our Lord was scourged in Pilate s ball. Here He was also crowned with thorns. Carrying His cross. Our Lord carried his cross from Pilate’s hall to the summit of Calvary. The ‘ Stations of the Cross ’ is a devotion in honour of this journey. 54. Q. What are the chief sufferings of our Lord called ? A. The chief sufferings of our Lord are called the Passion of Jesus Christ. 55. Q. Why did our Saviour suffer ? A. Our Saviour suffered to atone for our sins, and to purchase for us eternal life. 56. Q. Why is Jesus Christ called our Redeemer? A. Jesus Christ is called our Redeemer because His Precious Blood is the price by which we were ransomed. Ransomed. Redeemed or bought back, and eo tnad» fr»a �IO THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 57. Q. On what day did our Saviour die ? A. Ous Saviour died on Good Friday. Good Friday. So called because on that day we were saved from sin and hell, and therefore a great good was done for us. 58. Q. Where did our Saviour die? A. Our Saviour died on Mount Calvary. Mount Calvary. This is a hill Just outside Jerusalem, and was used as a place of execution for criminals. Here St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, erected the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was she who dis­ covered the true cross, after it had remained hidden for a long time. 59. Q. Why do we make the sign of the cross? A. We make the sign of the cross—;first, to put us in mind of the Blessed Trinity; and secondly, to remind us that God the Son died for us on the cross. Sign of the cross. We make this sign—(1) to show that we are Christians, or followers of Christ; (2) to ask God's help in all that we do ; (3) to arm ourselves against temptation. The cross is the sign of our Redemption. 60. Q. In making the sign of the cross how are we reminded of the Blessed Trinity? A. In making the sign of the cross we are reminded of the Blessed Trinity by the words, ‘ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ In the name. This is to signify our belief in the Unity of God. Of the Father, &c. By using these three names we express our faith in the Trinity of God. 61. Q. In making the sign of the cross how are we reminded that Christ died for us on the cross ? A. In making the sign of the cross we are reminded that Christ died for us on the cross by the very form of the cross which we make upon ourselves. THE FIFTH ARTICLE. 62. Q. What is the fifth article of the Creed? A. The fifth article of the Creed is * He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead.’ Descend. To go down. Sell. Here It means * Limbo,' where the souls of the Just were �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM II detained. The word 'hell' is now always used for the place where the devils and lost souls are punished. 63. Q. What do you moan by ths words, ‘He de­ scended into hell’? A. By the words ‘He descended into hell,’ I mean that, as soon as Christ was dead His blessed Soul went down into that part of hell called Liinbo. 64. Q. What do you mean by Limbo ? A. By Limbo I mean a place of rest, where the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained. The just. The souls of those who died in a state of grace. Detained. Held back, kept Bhut in, not being able to leave. 63. Q. Why were the souls of the just detained in Limbo? A. The souls of the just were (retained in Limbo because they could not go up to the Kingdom of Heaven till Christ had opened it for them. 66. Q. What do you mean by the words, ‘ The third day He rose again from the dead ? A. By the words, * ‘The third day He rose again from the dead,’ I mean that, after Christ had been dead and buried part of three days, He raised His blessed Body to life again on the third day. He raised His blessed Body, &c. By His own divine power our lord raised His Body from death to life, thus proving that lie was God, and that He had gained the victory over sin and death. Our Lord kept His five sacred wounds—(1) that they might be proofs of Bis Resurrection; (2) that He might present them to His heavenly Father as everlasting memorials of His Passion ; (8) that we might meditate on them as the sources of grace and the refuge of sinners. 67. Q. On what day did Christ rise again from the dead ? A. Christ rose again from the dead on Easter Sunday. Softer Sunday. On this day Christians commemorate their deliverance from the slavery of sin and the devil through the Resurrection of their Saviour. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith and our hope. This festival is therefore celebrated with great pomp and ceremony. �Ia THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM THE SIXTH ARTICLE. 68. Q. What is the sixth article of the Creed? A. The sixth article of the Creed is ‘He ascended into heaven ; sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.’ Ascend. To go up. As God, our Lord had always been in heaven ; but as man, He was there only from the time of His Ascension. At the right hand, Ac. This means that Jesus is equal to the Father as God, and next to Him as man. 69. Q. What do yon mean by the words, * He as­ cended into heaven ’ ? A. By the words, ‘He ascended into heaven,’ I mean that our Saviour went up Body and Soul into heaven on Ascension Day, forty days after His Resurrection. On Ascension Day. Our Lord went to heaven—(1) to receive His reward as man ; (J) to be our advocate ; (3) to prepare a p'ace for us ; (4) to send the Holy GhoBt. 70. Q. What do you mean by the words, ‘Sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty ’ ? A. By the words, ‘ Sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,’ I do not mean that God the Father has hands, for He is a spirit; but I mean that Christ, as God, is equal to the Father; and, as man, is in the highest place in heaven. * THE SEVENTH ARTICLE. 71. Q, What is the seventh article of the Creed? A. The seventh article of the Creed is, ‘From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.’ From thence, Ac. Our Lord will come from heaven to judge and pass sentence on all mankind. 72. Q. When will Christ come again? A. Christ will come again from heaven at the last day, to judge all mankind. The last day. The end of the world, when the following signs will warn us that it is at hand -(1) the Gospel will be preached throughout the whole world (Halt. xxtv. 14); �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 13 (2) great numben will forsake the faith; (8) the coming of Klias, Henoch, and Antichrist. (2 Thes. ii.) 73. Q. What are the things Christ will judge 7 A. Christ will judge our thoughts, words, works, and omissions. 74. Q. What will ChriBt say to the uicked? A. Christ will say to the wicked, ‘ Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.’ (Matt. xxv. 41.) 75. Q. What will Christ say to the just? A. Christ will say to the just, ‘ Come, ye blessed of My Father ; possess ye the kingdom prepared tor vou,' (Jfott. xxv. 34.) 76. Q. Will every one be judged at ueath, as well as at the last day? A. Every one will be judged at death as well as at the last day : * It is appointed unto men once to die ; and after this, the judgment,’ (Heb, lx 27.) Judged at death, <L-e. Every one must undergo two Judg­ ments—(1) the particular at the hour of death, when the soul is Judged alone; (2) the general at tbs last day, when the body and soul will be again united. This will be held in the valley of Josaphat. THE EIGHTH ARTICLE. 77. Q. What is the eighth article of the Creed? A. The eighth article of the Creed is * believe in the 1 Holy Ghost.’ holy Ghost. Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is God like the Father and the Son, and is a distinct Person in liimselL He proceeds from the Father and Son, and is equal to them in every roapect. He is often called the ‘Love of God,' the ‘Paraclete’ or Comforter, and the ‘Dove.’ lie appeared in the form of a dove at our Lord s Baptism, and in the form of tongues of fire on the day of PentecoBt. 78. Q. Who is the Holy Ghost? A. The Holy Ghost Is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. 79. Q. From whom doth the Holy GhoBt proceed? A. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. �14 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 80. Q. Io the Holy Ghost equal to the Father and to the Son? A. The Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and to the Son, for He is the same Lord and God as they are. 81. Q. When did the Holy Ghost come down on the Apostles? A. The Iloly Ghost came down on the Apostles on Whit-Sunday, in the form of ‘parted tongues, as it were, of fire.’ (Acts ii. 3.) . Whit-Sunday. Thia is also called ‘ Pentecost.' which means fiftieth, because it is the fiftieth day after Easter. 89. Q. Why did the Holy Ghost come down on the Apostles? A. The Holy Ghost came down on the Apostles to confirm their faith, to sanctify them, and to enable them to found the Church. Confirm. To make firm or to strengthen. Sa rurf (fy. To make holy and pleasing to God. Enable. To help, to assist, to make able. THE NINTH ARTICLE. 83. <?. What is the ninth article of the Creed? A. The ninth article of the Creed is ‘The Holy Catholic Church ; the Communion of Saints.’ Church. The whole body of Catholic Christians. It is divided into three parts—(1) the Church triumphant, com­ posed of the Saints in heaven; (2) the Church Buffering, composed of the holy souls in Purgatory; (3) the Church militant, composed of the faithful on earth. 84. Q. What is the Catholic Church? A. The Catholic Church is the union of all the faithful under one head. Union. The being Joined together. " Ths faithful. All those who have been baptized and who profess the true faith. The whole body of Catholics. 85. Q. Who is the Head of the Catholic Church? A. The Head of the Catholic Church is Jesus Christ our Lord. 86. (J. Has the Church a visible Head on earth? �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 45 A. The Church has a visible Head on earth—the Bishop of Rome, who is the Vicar of Christ. PwiWe. That which we can gee. Our Lord la the Invisible Bead of the Church. Invisible means that which we cannot »•«. Bitlop. An overseer, one who has charge of a diocese; a successor of the Apostles. Borne. The residence of the Popes, and the chief city of Italy. St. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome. Vicar. One who performs the office or duty of another; one who supplies the place of another. 87. Q. Why is the Bishop of Rome the Head of the Church? A. The Bishop of Rome is the Head of 'i-o Church because he is the Successor of St. Peter, whom Christ appointed to be the Head of the Church. Successor. One who comes after or takes the place of another, and is equal to him in power and authority. Appointed. Chosen or picked out, placed over. 88. Q. How do you know that Christ appointed St. Peter to be the Head of the Church ? A. I know that Christ appointed St. Peter to be the Head of the Church, because Christ Baid to him : ‘ Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ {Matt. xvi. 18,19.) Peter. A rock. Our Lord added Peter to Simon’s name. Oates of hell. The chiefs of the fallen angels. Prevail. To overcome or to conquer, to defeat. The keys, ice. The power given to the Apostles and their successors to forgive Bins, and to rule the Church. 89. Q. What is the Bishop of Rome called ? A. The Bishop of Rome is called the Pope, which word signi­ fies Father. Pope. Father. The Pope has charge of our souls, and is therefore our spiritual Father. 90. Q. Is the Pope the spiritual Father of all Christians ? A. The Pope is the spiritual Father of all Christians. 91. Q. Is the Pope the Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians ? A. The Pope is the Shepherd and Teacher �r6 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM of all Christians, because Christ made St, Peter the Shepherd of the whole flock when lie said, ‘ Feed My lambs, feed My sheep.’ He also prayed that his * faith ’ might never fail, and commanded him to ‘confirm ’ his brethren. (John xxi. 15-17 ; Luke xxii. 32.) 92. Q. Is the Pope infallible ? A. The Popo is in­ fallible. 93. Q. What do you mean when you say that the Pope is infallible? A. When I say that the Pope is Infallible, I mean that the Pope cannot err when, as Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals, to be held by the whole Church. The Pope is infallible. The doctrine of the Infallibility was solemnly defined at the Vatican Council in 1870. 94. Q. Has the Church of Christ any marks by which we may know her? A. The Church of Christ has four marks by which we may know her : she is One—she is Holy—she is Catholic—she is Apostolic. Marks. The signs or notes which distinguish the true Church from all others. 95. Q. How is the Church One ? A. The Church is One because all her members agree in one Faith, have all the same Sacrifice and Sacraments, and are all united under one Head. Because all her members, dec. The Church is One in faith, in worship, and in government. The members of the Church are those who belong to it, or form a part of it. 96. Q. How is the Church Holy? A. The Church is Holy because sbe teaches a holy doctrine, offers to all the means of holiness, and is distinguished by the emi­ nent holiness of so many thousands of her children. Because she teaches, &a. The Church 1b Holy in her doctrine, in her means of holiness, and in the effects of her teaching upon her children, which has made so many of them Saints. Those means which help us to become holy are the Sacra­ ments, prayer, Holy Mass, good example, hearing instruc­ tions, reading good books, &c. Distinguished. Marked out in a special manner. Eminent. Rising above others, very remarkable. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 17 97. Q. What does the word Catholic mean ? A, The word Catholic means Universal. Universal. Extending over the whole world or universe. 98. Q. How is the Church Catholic or Universal? A. The Church is Catholic or Universal because she subsists in all ages, teaches all nations, and is the one Ark of Salvation for all. Because she subsists, Ac. The Church is Universal in time, in place, and in doctrine. 99. Q. How is the Church Apostolic? A. The Church is Apostolic because she holds the doctrines and traditions of the Apostles, and because, through the unbroken succession of her Pastors, she derives her Orders and her Mission from them. Apostolic. Coming down from the time of the Apostles. Because she holds, Ac. The ^Church is Apostolic in her doc­ trine, or teaching; in her orders, or priesthood; and it her mission, or that which she has been sent to do. Pastors. The bishops and priests of the Church, who are the shepherds of the fold of Christ. Unbroken. To go on without break or interruption. 100. Q. Can the Church err in what she teaches ? A. The Church cannot err in what she teaches as to faith or morals, for she is our infallible guide in both. To err. To make a mistake. Faith. What we must believe. The Apostles’ Creed teaches us the chief articles of our faith. Morals. What we must do. The Commandments teach us morals. 1 nfallibleauide. One who cannot deceive or lead in a wrong way. The Pope, when speaking to the Church ex cathedrd, as the successor of St. Peter, cannot err in faith or in morals. 101. Q. How do you know that the Church cannot, err in what she teaches? A. I know that the Church cannot err in what she teaches, because Christ pro­ mised that the gates of hell shall never prevail against His Church; that the Holy Ghost shall teach her all things ; and that He Himself will be with her all days B �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM even to the consummation of the world. {Matt. xvi. 18; John xiv. 16-26 ; Matt, xxviii. 20.) 102. Q. What do you mean by the Communion of Saints ? A. By the Communion of Saints I mean that all the members of the Church, in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory, are in communion with each other, as being one body in Jesus Christ. Communion. To make common, to share, to join or unite together. 103. Q. How are the faithful on earth in com­ munion with each other? A. The faithful on earth are in communion with each other by professing the same faith, obeying the same authority, and assisting each other with their prayers and good works, 104. Q. How are we in communion with the Saints in heaven? A. We are in communion with the Saints in heaven by honouring them as the glorified members of the Church ; and also by our praying to them, and by their praying for us. 105. Q. How are we in communion with the souls in purgatory? A. We are in communion with the sou’s in purgatory by helping them with our prayers and good works; ‘It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.’ (2 Macch. xii. 46.) Purgatory. A place for cleansing or purifying. 106. Q. What is purgatory? A. Purgatory is a place where souls suffer for a time after death on account of their sins. 107. Q. What souls go to purgatory? A. Those souls go to purgatory that depart this life in venial sin, or that have not fully paid the debt of temporal punishment due to those sins of which the guilt has been forgiven. Debt. That which one owes to another. Temporal. Lasting only for a time. 108. Q. What is temporal punishment? A. Tern * �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 19 poral punishment is punishment which will have an end, either in this world or in the world to come. 109. Q. How do you prove that there is a purgatory ? A. I prove that there is a purgatory from the constant teaching of the Church; and from the doctrine of Holy Scripture, which declares that God will render to every man according to his works; that nothing defiled shall enter heaven; and that some will be Baved, ‘yet so as by fire.’ {Matt. xvi. 27; Apoo. xxi. 27 ; 1 Cor. iii. 15.) Scripture. A writing; the books of the Bible, the written word of God. Render. To pay back, to give. Defiled. Corrupted or stained, polluted, made dirty. THE TENTH ABTIOLE. 110. Q. What is the tenth article of the Creed ? A. The tenth article of the Creed is ‘ The forgiveness of sins. ’ 111. Q. What do you mean by ’ The forgiveness of sins’? A. By ‘The forgiveness of sins’ I mean that Christ has left the power of forgiving sins to the pastors of His Church. {John xx. 23.) 112. Q. By what means are sins forgiven ? A. Sins are forgiven principally by the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance. Principally, dee. Because sin is forgiven by worthily receiv. ing other Sacraments, as the Holy Eucharist and Extreme Unction. 113. Q. What is sin? A. Sin is an offence against God, by any thought, word, deed, or omission, against the law of God. An offence. Something which displeases, either by doing a wrong, or neglecting to do good when we ought. We may offend God by thinking of what is bad, and desiring it, as in the case of the fallen angels; or by saying what is bad, as in the case of cursing, swearing, using bad language, telling lies: or by doing what is bad, as in the case of Cain killing his brother Abel; or by omission, which is neglect­ ing to perform our duty, aa in the case of missing Mass on Sunday. �20 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 114. Q. How many kinds of sin are there ? A. There are two hands of sin, original sin and actual sin. 115. Q. What is original sin? A. Original sin is that guilt and stain of sin which we inherit from Adam, who was the origin and head of all mankind. Inherit. To receive or possess, as from an ancestor. 116. Q. What was the sin committed by Adam ? A. The sin committed by Adam was the sin of disobedience when he ate the forbidden fruit. 117. Q. Have all mankind contracted the guilt and stain of original sin? A. All mankind have contracted the guilt and stain of original sin, except the Blessed Virgin, who, through the merits of her divine Son, was conceived without the least guilt or stain of original sin. Conceived., dec. Not having tne slightest stain of sin on the soul from the first moment of her existence. 118. Q. What is this privilege of the Blessed Virgin called? A. This privilege of the Blessed Virgin is called the Immaculate Conception. Privilege. A particular favour or benefit. 119. Q. What is actual sin ? A. Actual sin is every sin which we ourselves commit. 120. Q. How is actual sin divided ? A. Actual sin is divided into mortal sin and venial sin. Mortal sin. That sin which causes the death of the soul. Three conditions are necessary in order to make a mortal sin—(1) the matter must be grave; (2) the person who commits it must have a clear knowledge of the guiltof the action ; (3) there must be full consent of the will. Venial sin. That sin which does not contain the conditions necessary to make a mortal sin. Nonumber of venial sins will destroy God s grace in the soul or make a mortal sin. 121. Q. What is mortal sin? A. Mortal sin is & grievous offence against God. A grievous offence. A serious or great offence, 122. Q. Why is it called mortal sin ? A. It is called mortal sin because it kills the son! and deserves hell. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 21 123. Q. How does mortal sin kill the soul? A. Mortal sin kills the soul by depriving it of sanctifying grace, which is the supernatural life of the soul. Depriving. Taking away from one that which he possesses. Supernatural. Above nature. 124. Q. Is it a great evil to fall into mortal sin? A. It is the greatest of all evils to fall into mortal sin. 125. Q. Where will they go who die in mortal sin ? A. They who die in mortal sin will go to hell for all eternity. 126. Q. What is venial sin? A. Venial sin is an offence which does not kill the soul, yet displeases God, and often leads to mortal sin. 127. Q. Why is it called venial sin ? A. It is called venial sin because it is more easily pardoned than mortal sin. THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE. 128. Q. What is the eleventh article of the Creed? A. The eleventh article of the Creed is ‘ The resurrec­ tion of the body.’ Resurrection. The act of rising again. The bodies of the just will be immortal and have the four gifts of—impassi­ bility, which will prevent them suffering; agility, which will enable them to pass as swift as thought from one end of creation to the other; brightness, which will make them shine like stars for all eternity ; and subtility, which will enable them to overcome all obstacles. 129. Q. What do you mean by ‘ The resurrection of the body’? A. By ‘The resurrection of the body ’ I mean that we shall all rise again with the same bodies at the day of judgment. THE TWELFTH ARTICLE. 130. Q- What is the twelfth article of the Creed ? A. The twelfth article of the Creed is ‘Life everlasting.' Everlasting. That which has a beginning, but no end. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM ' 13L Q. What does 'Life everlasting mean? A. * * Life everlasting * means that the good shall live for ever in the glory and happiness of heaven. 132. Q. What is the glory and happiness of heaven ? A. The glory and happiness of heaven is to see, love and enjoy God for ever. To ses, <kc. This Is called the * Beatific Vision.' 133. Q. What does the Scripture say of the happi­ ness of heaven? A. The Scripture says of the happi­ ness of heaven * That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him. * (1 Car. ii. 9.) 134. Q. Shall not the wicked also live for ever? A. The wicked also shall live and be punished for ever in the file of helL HOPE. CHAPTER III. 135. Q. Will Faith alone save us ? A. Faith alone will not save us without good works; we must also have Hope and Charity. Good works. To keep the Commandments; to go to the Sacraments; to attend at instructions and sermons; to read good books; prayer, fasting, and alms-deeds. In order to be saved it is necessary to perform good works: 'For even as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith withont works is dead.’ (James U. 26.) 186. Q. What is Hope ? A. Hope is a supernatural gift of God, by which we firmly trust that God will give us eternal life and all the means necessary to obtain it, if we do what He requires of us. Hope. To expect or desire anything. The sins against the virtue of Hope are—(1) despair, or a want of confidence in God, or distrusting God's goodness and His promises to us: Caln and Judas were guilty of this sin ; (2) presumption, �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 23 which is a foolish expectation that God will give us salva­ tion even if we do not make use of the proper means to obtain it. 187. Q. Why must we hope in God? A. We must hope in God because He is infinitely good, infinitely powerful, and faithful to His promises. 138. Q. Can we do any good work of ourselves to­ wards our salvation ? A. We can do no good work of ourselves towards our salvation; we need the help of God’s grace, r Of ourselves. By our own power, without the help of any one. Orace. A gift, a favour. The principal kinds or grace are— (1) sanctifying or habitual grace, which is the state of the soul possessed by the Holy Ghost, and which makes it holy 2? 1 actual yraccy or the action of the Holy Ghost upon the soul, by which God enlightens our understanding, and inclines our will to avoid evil and to do what is good ; (3) Sacramental grace, which is the special ion dlstlnguishinggrace conferred by each Sacrament. 139. Q. What is grace ? A, Grace is a supernatural gift of God, freely bestowed upon us for our sanctifica­ tion and salvation. Freely bestowed. Given to us by the free will of God. Sanctification. Making us holy and pleasing to God. ^oiration. Saving our souls and gaining heaven. 140. Q. How must wa obtain God’s grace ? A. We must obtain God’s grace chiefly by prayer and the holy Sacraments. Prayer, Asking, beseeching. The two chief kinds of prayer are—(1) mental, or praying with the mind alone; (2) vocal, or praying with the voice as well as the mind. PRAYEB. 141. Q. What is prayer? A. Prayer is the raising up of the mind and heart to God. 142. Q. How do we raise up our mind and heart to God? A. We raise up our mind and heart to God by thinking of God ; by adoring, praising, and thanking Him; and by begging of Him all blessings for soul and body �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM ' 143. Q. Do those pray well who, at their prayers, think neither of God nor of what they say ? A. Those who, at their prayers, think neither of God nor of what they say, do not pray well; but they offend God, if their distractions are wilful. Distraction. A wandering of the mind, idle thoughts. Wilful, That which is consented to. 144. Q. Which is the best of all prayers? A. The best of all prayers is the * Our Father,’ or the Lord’s Prayer. TAs .Lord's Prayer. This prayer was made by our Lord in answer to the petition of the Apostles, * lord, teach us how to pray.’ It was on the occasion of His preaching the ■ ■ ‘ Sermon on the Mount.' The prayer is divided into seven parts, the first three of which relate particularly to God, the others to ourselves and to our neighbours. 145. Q. Who made the Lord’s Prayer? A. Jesus Christ Himself made the Lord’s Prayer. 146. Q. Say the Lord's Prayer. A. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed bo Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us j and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil Amen. ‘Our Father who art in heaven. These words form, as it were, the introduction to the petitions which follow. 147. Q. In the Lord’s Prayer who is called 'Our Father ’ ? A. In the Lord’s Prayer God is called ' Our Father.’ 143. Q. Why is God called 'Our Father ’ ? A. God is called * Our Father ’ because He is the Father of all Christians, whom He has made His children by Holy Baptism. 149. Q. Is God also the Father of all mankind? A. God is also the Father of all mankind, because He made them all, and loves and preserves them all. Preserves. Keeps from harm, takes cars of us. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM * 2 150. Q. Why do we say ‘ Our ’ Father, and not ‘ My' Father? A. We say ‘Our’ Father, and not ‘My’ Father, because, being all brethren, we are to pray not for ourselves only, but also for all others. 151. Q. When we say ‘Hallowed be Thy name, * what do we pray for ? A. When we say, ‘ Hallowed be Thy name,’ we pray that God may be known, loved, and served by all His creatures. Hallmeed. Made or kept holy; praised, honoured, reverenced. 152. Q. When we say ‘ Thy kingdom come,’ what do we pray for? A. When we say, * Thy kingdom come,’ we pray that God may come and reign in the hearts of all by His grace in this world, and bring us all hereafter to His heavenly kingdom. Heigv. To have complete power over us, to rule. 153. Q. When we Bay, ‘ Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ what do we pray for? A. When we say, ‘ Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ we pray that God may enable us, by His grace, to do His will in all things, as the Blessed do in heaven. 154. Q. When we Bay, ‘ Give us this day our daily bread,’ what do we pray for ? A. When we say, ‘ Give us this day our daily bread,’ we pray that God may give us daily all that is necessary for soul and body. AU that is necessary. Whatever we stand in need of—the grace of God and the Holy Communion for our souls; and food and clothing, <fcc., for our bodies. 155. Q. When we say, ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us, what do we * pray for? A. When we say,‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,’ we pray that God may forgive us our sins, as we forgive others the injuries they do to us. Trespasses. Injuries, offences, doing what Is wrong. 156. Q. When we say,‘Lead us notinto temptation,’ what do we pray for ? A. When we say, ‘ Lead uc not �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM into temptation,’ we pray that God may give us grace not to yield to temptation. Yield. To give way, to be overcome. Temptation. Anything that may entice or provoke us to sin. 157. Q. When we say, ‘Deliver us from evil,’ what do we pray for? A. When we say, ‘Deliver us from evil,’ we pray that God may free us from all evil, both of soul and body. Deliver. To liberate or set tree. 158. Q. Should we ask the Angels and Saints to pray for us ? A. We should ask the Angels and Saints to pray for us because they are our friends and brethren, and because their prayers have great power with God. Saints, The souls of those who died in a state of grace, and are now with God in heaven. The word ‘ saint * means a holy person. Angels. Those pure spirits first created by God, and who have remained faithful. They have free-will, reason, and understanding; but no bodies. The holy Angels are divided into nine orders or choirs—Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominations, Principalities, and Powers; Virtues, Arcliangels, and Angels. The word ‘angel means a messenger. Brethren. Those belonging to the same family or society. 159. Q. How can we show that the Angels and Saints know what passes on earth ? A. We can show that the Angels and Saints know what passes on earth from the words of Christ: * There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.’ (Luke xv. 10.) Doing penance. for sin. Being sorry and trying to make satisfaction 160. Q. What is the chief prayer to the Blessed Virgin which the Church uses? A. The chief prayer to the Blessed Virgin which the Church uses is the Hail Mary. The Hail Mary. This prayer is divided into three parts— (1) the words used by the Angel Gabriel at the time of the A nnnn elation : ‘ Hail, full of grace, tbs T.ord is with tbea.' �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 5? (Lu&e I. 28); (2) the words used by 8t. Kiizabetu at the time of the Visitation: ‘ Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb’ {Luke i. 42); (3) the wordB added by the Church at the Council of Ephesus: * Holy Mary,' Ac. The term * Hall' is the same as ‘ Ave * or 'Salve,' and means 'Be well,'' Health to thee,’ or * salute 1 thee.’ 16L Q. Say the Hail Mary. A. Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. 162. Q. Who made the first part of the Hail Mary ? A. The Angel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost, made the first part of the Hail Mary. 163. Q. Who made the second part of the Hail Mary? A. The Church of God, guided by the Holy Ghost, made the second part of the Hail Mary. Guided. Directed, led, being shown the way. 164. Q. Why should we frequently say the Hall Mary ? A. We should frequently say the Hail Mary to put us in mind of the Incarnation of the Son of God; and to honour our Blessed Lady, the Mother of God. 165. Q. Have we another reason for often saying the Hail Mary ? A. We have another reason for often saying the Hail Mary,—to ask our Blessed Lady to pray for us sinners at all times, but especially at the hour of our death. 166. Q. Why does the Catholic Church show great devotion to the Blessed Virgin? A. The Catholic Church shows great devotion to the Blessed Virgin because she is the Immaculate Mother of God. Devotion. Honour, love, reverence, sjrc&t Immaculate. Free from the stain of original sin. By the 'Immaculate Conception' we mean that the Blessed Virgin, from the first moment of her existence, was, by a special privilege of God, preserved from original sin. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady waa defined as an article of faith by Pope Pius IX. in 1854. We keep ths �aS THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM festival on the 8th December, the dav of our Lady's Conception. The dogma was defined on this day. 167. Q. How is the Blessed Virgin Mother of God! A. The Blessed Virgin is Mother of God because Jesus Christ her Son, who was born of her as man, is not only man, but is also truly God. 168. Q, Is the Blessed Virgin our Mother also? A. The Blessed Virgin is our Mother also because, being the brethren of Jesus, we are the children of Mary. CHARITY. CHAPTER IV. THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. 16®. Q. What is charity? A. Charity is a super­ natural gift of God by which we love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves for God’s sake. 170. Q. Why must we love God? A. We must love God because He is infinitely good in Himself and infinitely good to us. 171. Q. How do we show that we love God? A. We show that we love God by keeping His Command­ ments ; for Christ says, ' If you love Me, keep My commandments.’ {John xiv. i5.) 172. Q. How many Commandments are there ? A. There are ten Commandments. 173. Q. Say the ten Commandments. A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of aD<i out of the house of bondage. 1. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor the likeness or anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 29 waters under the earth. Thon shalt not adore them nor serve them. 2. Thon shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. 4. Honour thy father and thy mother. 5. Thou shalt not kill. 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7. Thou shalt not steal. 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods. Ten Commandments. They are sometimes called the ‘ Deca­ logue,’ which means ten words or precepts. They were written on two stone tables: the first three, relating par­ ticularly to God, being on one ; and the remaining seven, which relate immediately to our neighbours and ourselveB, being on the other. These Commandments are of them­ selves always binding under pain of sin. They teach us our Morals, or what we must do to be saved. They can never be altered. Egypt. A country in the north-east of Africa, where the Jews were treated as Blaves until delivered by Moses. Bondage. Captivity, slavery, deprived of liberty. 174. Q. Who gave the ten Commandments 7 A. God gave the ten Commandments to Moses in the Old Law, and Christ confirmed them in the New. I. 175. Q. What is the first Commandment 7 A. The first Commandment is, ‘ I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is it heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them.' �30 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM Strange gods. False gods or idols. Graven. Carved or cut out, as an image. / / 176. Q. What are we commanded to do by the firA Commandment? A. By the first Commandment ye are commanded to worship the one, true, and livihgGod, by Faith, Hope, Charity, and Religion. ' AeZ gion. As long as we live we must exercise the virtue of Religion,’ which consists in giving to God the honbur and service due to Him. 177. Q. What are the sins against Faith ? A. The sins against Faith are all false religions, wilful doubt, disbelief, or denial of any article of Faith, and also culpable ignorance of the doctrines of the Church. Culpable. Blamable, through one’s own fault. False religions. Those religions which do not teach the truth. Disbelief. Not believing. There are three kinds of disbelief or infidelity—(1) Paganism, or the state of those who are altogether without faith, such as atheists, who deny the existence of God ; idolaters, who worship false gods'; deists, who believe in the existence of God, but deny His goodness and reject all revelation ; and Mahometans, or the disciples of Mahomet. (2) Judaism, or the religious system of the Jews. (3) Heresy, or the denial of one or more articles of faith by one who h»« been baptized and has professed the Christian religion. 178. Q. How do we expose ourselves to the danger of losing our Faith ? A. We expose ourselveB to the danger of losing our Faith by neglecting our spiritual duties, reading bad books, going to non-Catholic schools, and taking part in the services or prayers of a false religion. 179. Q. What are the sins against Hope ? A. The sins against Hope are despair and presumption. 180. Q. What are the chief sins against Religion? A. The chief sins against Religion are the worship of false gods or idols, and the giving to any creature whatso­ ever the honour which belongs to God alone. Worship. To adore, to honour, to respect There are three kinds of worship—(1) Latria, or supreme, paid to God only; (2) Hyper dulia, or superior, given to the Blessed Virgin; (8) Dalia, or ordinary, given to the 3ainte and Angela. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 31 181. $. Does the first Commandment forbid the making of images? A. The first Commandment does net forbid the making of images, but the making of idols; that is, it forbids us to make images to be adored or honoured as gods. Idols. Images of persons or things to which is given that worship which should be paid to God alone. Worshipping idols is called idolatry. 182. Q. Does the first Commandment forbid dealing with the devil and superstitious practices? A. The first Commandment forbids all dealing with the devil and superstitious practices, such as consulting spiri­ tualists and fortune-tellers, and trusting to charms, omens, dreams, and such-like fooleries. Dealing with the devil. Seeking after hidden or unknown things by the help of the devil. Superstitious practices are habits of giving to certain things a power which they do not or cannot possess. Fortune-tellers. Persons who pretend that they are able to tell us what will happen in the future. Charms. Things worn which are thought to have the power of keeping away evil or bringing good. Omens. Signs supposed to foretell what is to come. Dreams. Thoughts or fancies during sleep; visions. 183. Q. Are all sins of sacrilege and simony also forbidden by the first Commandment? A. All sins of sacrilege and simony are also forbidden by the first Commandment. Sacrilege. To treat with disrespect or Irreverence any person, place, or thing set apart or dedicated to the service of God. Sxrnony. Selling any sacred office or thing, for gain. Simon Magus offered money to the Apostles to give him the sacred powor which they possessed. (Acts viii.) 184. Q. Is it forbidden to give divine honour and worship to the Angels and Saints ? A. It is forbidden to give divine honour or worship to the Angels and Saints, for this belongs to God alone. 185. Q. What kind of honour or worship should we pay to the Angels and Saints ? A. We should pay to th© Angola feints inferior honour or worship * �33 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM for this ia due to them as the servants and special friends of God. Inferior honour. A lesser or lower kind of honour. 186. Q. What honour should we give to relics, cru­ cifixes, and holy pictures? A. We should give to relics, crucifixes, and holy pictures a relative honour,as they relate to Christ and His Saints, and are memorials of them. Belie. The bodioa of the Saints, or anything that has be­ longed to them. Crucifix. The representation of our Lord on the cross. Relative. Being connected with or belonging to anything. We honour holy pictures, images, <fcc., on account of those they represent. Memorial. That which serves to keep In the memory, a re­ membrancer. 187. Q. Do we pray to relics or images? A. We do not pray to relics or images, for they can neither see, nor hear, nor help us. II. 188. Q. What is thG second Commandment ? A. The second Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.’ In vain. Without necessity, uselessly, not respectfully. 189. Q. What are we commanded by the second Com­ mandment ? A. By the second Commandment we are commanded to speak with reverence of God and all holy persons and things, and to keep our lawful oaths and vows. Lawful. That which is according to the rule or law. Oath. To call God to witness the truth of what we say. An oath must have the qualities of truth, Judgment, and Justice. (Jer. iv 2.) Vowe. Deliberate promises made to God to do something supernatural, which we are not already bound to perform. 190. Q. What does the second Commandment forbid? �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 33 A. The second Commandment forbids all false, rash, unjust, and unnecessary oaths; as also blaspheming, cursing, and profane words. False oaths. Those which are not true. Taking a false oath is called perjury. Rash oaths. Those taken without sufficient judgment or reflection, Unjust oaths. Those taken with the intention of doing wrong. Unnecessary oaths. Those taken without sufficient reason. Blaspheming. Speaking in an evil or impious manner of God or His Saints, or any holy thing relating to God. Cursing. Calling down evil or harm on ourselves or our neighbour, or on any of God’s creatures. Profane words. Speaking in a light or joking manner, or making game of anything belonging to God or His service. 191. Q. Is it ever lawful to swear or to take an oath? A. It is lawful to swear, or to take an oath, only when God’s honour, or our own, or our neigh­ bour’s good requires it III. 192. Q. What is the third Commandment ? A. The third Commandment is * Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.’ Sabbath. The day of rest. The seventh day of the w’eek among the Jews—set apart for rest from work, and kept holy in memory of God having rested on that day, and of their deliverance out of Egypt. Among Christians the first <iay of the week Is kept holy, in memory of the Resurrec­ tion of our Lord, and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. 193. Q. What are we commanded by the third Commandment? A. By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep the Sunday holy. 194. Q. How- are we to keep the Sunday holy? A. We are to keep the Sunday holy by hearing Mass and resting from servile works. Hearing Mass. By this is meant that we must be bodily present in the place where Mass is being said, and in such a manner as to form part of the congregation, and pay great attention to all that is taking place upon the altar. The most important or solemn parts of the Mass are the C �34 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM Offertory, tlie Consecration, and the priest’s communion. We are excused from attending at Mass either by sick­ ness, very bad weather, great distance from church, great poverty, &c. Servile works. Such works as employ the body rather than the mind, and are usually done by servants and tradespeople. There are two other kinds of work—viz., liberal, or that work in which the mind is more engaged than the body, as drawing, music, writing, &c.; and common work, or such as is followed by all classes, as fishing, hunting, shooting, &c. 195. Q. Why are we commanded to rest from servile works ? A. We are commanded to rest from servile works that we may have time and opportunity for prayer, going to the Sacraments, hearing instruc­ tions, and reading good books. Hearing instructions. Sunday-school, &c. Attending at sermons, catechism, IV. 196. Q. What is the fourth Commandment ? A. The fourth Commandment is ‘Honour thy father and thy mother.’ 197. Q. What are we commanded by the fourth Commandment ? A. By the fourth Commandment we are commanded to love, reverence, and obey our parents in all that is not sinj To love our parents. To have a very great affection for them. .Reverence. To esteem, to respect or honour. Obey. To do what we are told. We must not only obey our parents, but also all those who are lawfully placed over us, provided that such obedience is not sinful. 198. Q. Are we commanded to obey our parents only? A. We are commanded to obey, not only our parents, but also our bishops and pastors, the civil authorities, and our lawful superiors. Civil authorities. Those who administer the law. 199. Q. Are we bound to assist our parents in their wants? A. We are bound to assist our parents in their wants, both spiritual and temporal. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 35 Temporal wants. The wants of the body, Buch as food, clothing^and lodging. Spiritual wants. The wants of the soul, such gs instruc­ tions, the Sacraments, <fcc. 500. Q. Are we bound injustice to contribute to the support of our pastors ? A. We are bound in justice to contribute to the support of our pastors; for St. Paul says, * The Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel.’ (1 Cor. ix. 14.) Contribute. To give something towards a person’s expenser Ordained. Ordered, commanded, made it a law. 201. Q- What is the duty of parents towards their children? A. The duty of parents towards their chil­ dren is to provide for them, to instruct and correct them, and to give them a good Catholic education. Duty. What one ought to do, one’s proper business. 202. Q. What is the duty of masters, mistresses, and other superiors? A. The duty of masters, mis­ tresses, and other superiors is to take proper care of those under their charge, and to enable them to prac­ tise their religious duties. 203. Q. What does the fouivh Commandment for­ bid? A. The fourth Commandment forbids all con­ tempt, stubbornness, and disobedience to our parents and lawful superiors. Contempt. To treat with disrespect, to despise, to slight. Stubbornness. Being obstinate or self-willed, hard to move. Disobedience. Neglecting or refusing to do as we are told. Lawful superiors. Those who have a right to our obedience. 204. Q. Is it sinful to belong to a Secret Society? A. It is sinful to belong to any Secret Society that plots against the Church or State, or to any Society that by reason of its secrecy is condemned by the Church ; for St. Paul says: ‘ Let every soul be subject to the higher powers ; he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist purchase to themselves damnation.’ (Hom. xiiL 1, 2.) ) �36 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 205. Q. What is the fifth Commandment ? A. The fifth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Kill. To take away life, to put to death. 206. Q. What does the fifth Commandment forbid 1 A. The fifth Commandment forbids all wilful murder, fighting, quarrelling, and injurious words; and also scandal and bad example. IT Iful murder. Taking away human life purposely through spite or malice. A person’s life may be lawfully taken away, either in self-defence, in a just war, or in a case of a criminal being executed. To kill a person accidentally would not break this Commandment. Injurious words. Words said to vex or injure others. Scandal. Willingly influencing or giving a person occasion to commit sin. The word ‘scandal’ means a snare or a stumbling-block. Bad example. Saying or doing what is wrong before others. 207. Q. Does the fifth Commandment forbid anger ? A. The fifth Commandment forbids anger, and, still more, hatred and revenge. Anger. A strong but passing feeling of resentment or dis­ pleasure against those whom we believe to have done us an injury. Hatred. A settled dislike of others, with the desire of in­ juring them. Revenge. Returning evil for evil. This is the result of anger or hatred. 208. Q. Why are scandal and bad example for­ bidden by the fifth Commandment ? A. Scandal and bad example are forbidden by the fifth Command­ ment, because they lead to the injury and spiritual death of our neighbour’s soul. VI. 209. Q. What is the sixth Commandment? A. The sixth Commandment is, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ 210. Q. What does the sixth Commandment forbid ? �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 37 A. The sixth Commandment forbids all sins of impurity with another’s wife or husband. 211. Q. Does the sixth Commandment forbid what­ ever is contrary to holy purity ? A. The sixth Commandment forbids whatever is contrary to holy purity in looks, words, or actions. 212. Q. Are immodest plays and dances forbidden by the sixth Commandment? A. Immodest plays and dances are forbidden by the sixth Commandment, and it is sinful to look at them. Immodest plays and dances. Any amusements by which we may commit sins against holy purity. 21S. Q. Does the sixth Commandment forbid im­ modest songs, books, and pictures? A. The sixth Commandment fcrbids immodest songs, books, and pictures, because they are most dangerous to the soul, and lead to mortal sin. Immodest books. Books which may lead us to commit sin, either in thought, word, or deed. The Commandment is broken by sins against the virtue of Purity. VII. 214. Q. What is the seventh Commandment? A. The seventh Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Steal. To take away unjustly anything belonging to another. 215. Q. What does the seventh Commandment for­ bid ? A. The seventh Commandment forbids all unjust taking away, or keeping what belongs to another. All unjust taking away. This may be done in several ways, viz., by theft or robbery ; or by fraud, which consists in all kinds of cheating in buying or selling, in passing an inferior article as one of good quality, as in the case of bad money. We may also take away unjustly, by neglecting or perform­ ing carelessly any duty for which we are paid ; by unjust lawsuits; by usury, which is demanding too high an in­ terest for one’s money; and by wilfully destroying another’s property. Keeping what belongs to a/nother. This may be done uy re­ fusing to give back what we have taken from another; by �3« THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM not restoring things left in our care; by refusing to pay our just debts; by not taking means to find out the owner of anything we may have found; by buying or receiving goods which we believe to have been stolen, viz., ill-gotten goods. 916. Q. Is all manner of cheating in buying and selling forbidden by the seventh Commandment? A. All manner of cheating in buying or selling is for­ bidden by the seventh Commandment, and also every other way of wronging our neighbour. Cheating. Deceiving or defrauding; being dishonest in one's actions ; imposing upon others. 217. Q. Are we bound to restore ill-gotten goods ? A. We are bound to restore ill-gotten goods if wo are able, or else the sin will not be forgiven ; we must also pay our debts. Restore. To give back again, to make satisfaction. Re­ storing things obtained unjustly, or the value of them, is called restitution, which we are bound to make, if in our power, under pain of sin. Debt. What one person owes to another. 218. Q. Is it dishonest in servants to waste their master’s time and property? A. It is dishonest in servants to waste their master’s time or property, because it is wasting what is not their own. VIII. 219. Q. What is the eighth Commandment? A. The eighth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ 220. Q. What does the eighth Commandment for­ bid? A. The eighth Commandment forbids all false testimony, rash judgment, and lies. False testimony. False Witness—to swear falsely in a court of justice. Rash judgment. Forming or expressing an evil opinion of others without sufficient reason dr cause. A lie. Saying anything which we believe to ha false, with �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 39 the intention of deceiving those to whom we are epeaking. There are tliree kinds of lies—(1) jocose, or those told in jest; (2) officious, or those told to escape some evil, to ob­ tain some benefit, or to excuse either ourselves or others; (3) malicious, or those told with the intention of injuring our neighbour. 221. Q. Are calumny and detraction forbidden by the eighth Commandment ? A. Calumny and detrac­ tion are forbidden by the eighth Commandment, and also tale-bearing, and any words which injure our neighbour’s character. Calumny. Saying what is not true of our neighbour, with the intention of injuring his character. Detraction. Making known the sins of our neighbour, with the intention of injuring his character. 222. Q. If you have injured your neighbour by speaking ill of him, what are you bound to do? A. If I have injured my neighbour by speaking ill of him, I am bound to make him satisfaction by restoring his good name as far as I can. Make him satisfaction. To do all in one’s power to bring back the good name of one’s neighbour—in the case of calumny, by contradicting the lie told ; in the case of detraction, by doing all we can to restore the good opinion .in which he had been held. IX. 223. Q. What is the ninth Commandment? A. The ninth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.’ 224. Q. What does the ninth Commandment for­ bid ? A. The ninth Commandment forbids all wilful consent to impure thoughts and desires, and all wilful pleasure in the irregular motions of the flesh. 225. Q. What sins commonly lead to the breaking of the sixth and ninth Commandments ? A. The sins that commonly lead to the breaking of the sixth and ninth Commandments are gluttony, drunkenness, and Intemperance, and also idleness, bad company, and the neglect of prayer. �40 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM X. 226. Q. What is the tenth Commandment ? A. The tenth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods.’ 227. Q. What does the tenth Commandment for­ bid? A. The tenth Commandment forbids all envious and covetous thoughts and unjust desires of our neighbour’s goods and profits. Covet.. Unlawfully and unjustly desiring, or wishing for, anything which belongs to another. CHAPTER V. THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 228. Q. Are we bound to obey the Church? A. We are bound to obey the Church, because Christ has said to the pastors of the Church, ‘ He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth vou despiseth Me.’ (Luke x. 16.) Be that heareth you, de. Every one who attends to what the bishops and priests of the Church say, and follows their teaching, pleases God. He that despiseth you, de. Those persons who have a con­ tempt for their pastors, or think little of their teaching, displease God. 229. Q. What are the chief Commandments of the Church? A. The chief Commandments of the Church are: 1. To keep the Sundays and Holydays of Obliga­ tion holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile works. i > 47 The chief Commandments. The six principal ones given in the Catechism. There are many other precepts of the Church besides. These Commandments may be altered to suit different circumstances or different places, as the Head of the Church may think fit. 2. To keep the days of fasting and abstinence ap­ pointed by the Church. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 41 To go to confession at least once a year. a year, and that at Easter di1 prist, once 5. To contribute to the support of our pastors. 6. Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to solemnise marriage at the forbidden times. 230. Q. What is the first Commandment of the Church? A. The first Commandment of the Church is * To keep the Sundays and Holydays of Obligation holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile works.’ 231. Q. Which are the Holydays of Obligation ob­ served in England? A. The Holydays of obligation observed in England are Christmas-day, the Cir­ cumcision, the Epiphany, the Ascension, Corpus Christi, SS. Peter and Paul, the Assumption of our Lady, and All Saints. 232. Q. Is it a mortal sin to neglect to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation ? A. It is a mortal sin to neglect to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation. 233. Q. Are parents, masters, and mistresses bound to provide that those under their charge shall hear Mass on Sundays and HolydayB of Obligation? A. Parents, masters, and mistresses are bound to provide that those under their charge shall hear Mass on Sun­ days and Holydays of Obligation. 234. Q. What is the second Commandment of the Church? The second Commandment of the Church is ‘To keep the days of fasting and abstinence ap­ pointed by the Church.’ Fasting. Eating only one full meal a day, which must not be taken before mid-day. No person is bound to fast be­ fore he has completed his 21st year, nor after he has entered his 60th year. Dispensations are granted by priests at Confession. We may be dispensed or freed from the obligation of fasting through siokness, great poverty, very hard work. Abstinence. To refrain or keep from a thing ; here Is meant flesh meat. All over seven years of age must abstain. �42 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 235. Q. What are fasting days? A. Fastis -11 ata rtav.« on wKwIi w« 236. Q. Which are the fasting days ? A. The fastdays are the weekdays of Lent, certain Vigils; and * the Ember-days. lent. A time of fasting and penance, beginning on Ash Wed­ nesday and ending at mid-day on Holy Saturday. It reminds us of the fast of our Lord for forty days in the desert, after his baptism. Vigil. A watching, the fast-day before a certain great feast Ember. The ember days occur four times a rear, viz the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday next after the’first Sun-lay in Lent; in Whitsun-week ; next after the 14th September ; and next after the third Sunday in Advent On these occasions we ask God’s blessing on the fruits of the earth ; and that He will grant good pastors to His Church, aB it is at those times they are usually ordained. 237. Q. What are days of abstinence ? A. Days of abstinence are days on which we are forbidden to take flesh-meat, and soups made from meat. 238. Q. Which are the days Of abstinence ? A. The days of abstinence are all Fridays! except any Friday on which a Holyday of Obligation falls; the Wednesdays of Lent (in England); the four Vigils (unless one falls on a Sunday) ; and the Ember-days. 239. Q. Why does the Church command us to fast and abstain? A. The Church commands us to fast and abstain that so we may mortify the flesh and satisfy God for our sins. ■Mortify the flesh. To punish our bodies and weaken tempta­ tion, and thus make us more fit for prayer and meditation. *Lent ends at mid-day on Holy Saturday. The Vigils are those of Pentecost, the Assumption, All Saints, and Christmas. tl. When December 26th falls on a Friday the abstinence is at present dispensed in England. !. When one day of abstinence immediately follows another leave is given to eat meat on the second, except tn Lent. �THS EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 43 ‘240. Q. What is the third Commandment of the Church ? A. The third Commandment of the Church is ‘ To go to confession at least once a year.’ At least once a year. We are bound to go once, but of course we ought to go several times. 241. Q. How soon are children bound to go to con­ fession? A. Children are bound to go to confession as soon as they have come to the use of reason, and are capable of mortal sin. Capable of mortal sin. Able to do it, and to know that it Is a mortal sin. 242. Q. When are children generally supposed to come to the use of reason ? A. Children are generally supposed to come to the use of reason about the age of seven years. 243. Q. What is the fourth Commandment of the Church? A. The fourth Commandment of the Church is ‘ To receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that at Easter or thereabouts.’ Thereabouts. The time appointed in each diocese for ful­ filling our Easter duties. This is usually between Passion Bunday and Low Sunday, but a Bishop may extend the time for his diocese. 244. <?. How soon are Christians bound to receive the Blessed Sacrament? A. Christians are bound to receive the Blessed Sacrament as soon as they are capable of distinguishing the Body of Christ from ordinary bread, and are judged to be sufficiently instructed. 245. Q. What is the fifth Commandment of the Church ? A. The fifth Commandment of the Church is ‘ To contribute to the support of our pastors.’ 246. Q. Is it a duty to contribute to the support of religion? A. It is a duty to contribute to the support of religion according to our means, so that God may be duly honoured and worshipped, and the kingdom of His Church extended- �44 THE explanatory catechism 247. Q. What is the sixth Commandment of the Church? A. The sixth Commandment of the Church is * Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to solemnise marriage at the forbidden times.’ Certain degrees, <kc. Certain states of relationship, as first or second cousins. In the Catholic Church none can contract matrimony whoare related by blood up to the third degree inclusive, unless they obtain a dispensation or leave to do so. Solemnise. To do anything in a religious or solemn manner, with all the ceremonies. 248. Q. Which arc the times in which it is for­ bidden to marry with solemnity? A. The times in which it is forbidden to marry with solemnity without special leave are from the First Sunday of Advent till after Christmas Day, and from Ash-Wednesday till after Easter Sunday. Ash Wednesday. So called because ashes are blessed and. distributed on this day, to remind us of our origin and of our end. THE SACRAMENTS. CHAPTER VL 249. Q. What is a Sacrament? A. A Sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace, ordained by Jesus Christ, by which grace is given to our souls. Sacrament. Something that is sacred or holy. Three things are required in order to make a Sacrament—(1) Outward sign, which consists of two parts, viz., the matter, or the outward sensible things used in giving the Sacrament; and the form, or the words said when applying the matter. (2) Inward grace, or the invisible effect of the Sacrament on the seul. (3) Instituted by Christ ; that is, it must have been ordained or appointed by our Lord as a means of giving grace to our souls. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 45 250. Q. Do the Sacraments always give grace ? A. The Sacraments always give grace to those who receive them worthily. Worthily. With the proper dispositions. 251. Q. Whence have the Sacraments the power of giving grace? A. The Sacraments have the power of giving grace from the merits of Christ’s Precious Blood, which they apply to our souls. 252. Q. Ought we to have a great desire to receive the Sacraments? A. We ought to have a great desire to receive the Sacraments, because they are the chief means of our salvation. 253. Q. Is a character given to the soul by any of the Sacraments ? A. A character is given to the soul by the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order. 254. Q. What is a character? A. A character is a mark or seal on the soul which cannot be effaced, and therefore the Sacrament conferring it may not be repeated. 255. Q. How many Sacraments are there ? A. There are seven Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, and Matrimony. There are seven. The Sacraments may be divided into two classes—(1) Sacraments of the dead, viz., Baptism and Pen­ ance. They are so called because they alone have the power of raising the soul from the death of sin to the life of grace. (2) Sacraments of the living, viz., Confirmation. Holy Eu­ charist, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, and Matrimony, In order to receive these five Sacraments worthily, the soul must be spiritually alive, that is, in a state of grace. There are some Sacraments which leave a special mark or charac­ ter on the soul, viz., Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order. These can only be received once; the others may be received more than once. All the Sacraments, when received worthily, either give or increase sanctifying grace. A Sacrament is said to be received validly when the matter and form ordained by Christ are properly applied by the minister to one who is capable and willing to receive it. �46 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM A Sacrament is received lawfully or fruitfully, when be­ sides what is wanted for its valid reception, there are in tire person receiving it the dispositions required to obtain the grace of the Sacrament. I. 256. Q. What is Baptism ? A. Baptism is a Sacra­ ment which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God,and members of the Church. Baptism. This word means a washing. Baptism is the most necessary of all the Sacraments, as without it we cannot be saved or receive any of the others; it is the beginning of our spiritual life. There are three kinds of Baptism—(1) Baptism of water, which is the Sacrament; (2) Baptism of desire; (3) Baptism of blood, or martyrdom. A person may be baptized when there is a aoubt about a former Baptism. The words, ‘ If thou art not already baptized, ’ are added to the usual form. This is called Conditional Baptism. Outwa. d eipn. Tho matter is wator blessed on Holy Saturday and on the eve oi Whtt-Sunday, and is applied in three wavs —(!) by immerston, or being dipped in the water; (2) . elusion, or having the water poured on the person; (3) aspersion, or being sprinkled with the water. Baptism by effusion is the mode chiefly in use. The form consists of the words, 11 baptize,’ &c. Effects. Cleanses the soul from original sin, andactual sin, if any; remits both the temporal and eternal punishment; gives habitual or sanctifying grace. Institution. When instituted, not quite certain; but became of obligation after the Resurrection, when our Lord said to His Apostles, ‘ Going therefore, teach ye all nations; bap­ tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ (Matt, xxviii. 19.) Minister. A priest; in a case of necessity, any other person. Christians. Followers of Christ. At Antioch, in Syria, the disciples were first named Christians. (Acts xi. 26.) 257. Q. Does Baptism also forgive actual sins ? A. Baptism also forgives actual sins, with all punishment due to them, when it is received in proper dispositions by those who have been guilty of actual sin. 258. Q. Who is the ordinary minister of Baptism ? 4- The ordinary minister of Baptism is a priest; but �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 47 any one may baptize in case of necessity, when a priest cannot be had. Case of necessity. When the person would most likely die before a priest could attend. 259. Q. How is Baptism given ? A. Baptism is given by pouring water on the head of the child, saying at the same time these words, ‘ I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ 260. Q. What do we promise in Baptism ? A. We promise in Baptism to renounce the devil and all his works and pomps. To renounce. To reject, to give up. Works and pomps.. The temptations of the devil to make us commit sin. 261. Q. la Baptism necessary for salvation? A. Baptism is necessary for salvation, because Christ has said, ‘ Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ (John iii. 5.) II. 262. Q. What is Confirmation ? A. Confirmation is a Sacrament by which we receive the Holy Ghost, in order to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. Confirmation. Being made firm or strong in our faith. Outward sign. The matter consists of the imposition of hands and the anointing of the forehead with chrism, which is made of olive-oil mixed with balm, and blessed by the Bishop on Holy Thursday. The form consists of the words ' I sign thee,' sc. JSfects. Gives the Holy Ghost and a special Bacnunental grace which strengthens and perfects the soul.' Institution. The exact time of institution is not given in the Gospels, but it is almost certain that it was after the Resur­ rection. Instances of its administration by the Apostles— (1)SS. Peter and John, being sent to confirm the Samari­ tans, laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 14-17); (2) St. Paul at Ephesus: ‘And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy �48 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues, and prophesied.’ (Acts xix. 6.) Minister. A Bishop. The Pope may confer the power upon a priest to administer Confirmation in a case where it is very difficult to obtain a Bishop ; but even then the chrism must have been blessed by a Bishop. 263. Q. Who is the ordinary minister of Confirma­ tion? A. The ordinary minister of Confirmation is a Bishop. Ordinary. Usual; the person who has the power in his own right. Minister. The person who administers or gives a Sacrament. 264. Q. How does the Bishop administer the Sacra­ ment of Confirmation ? A. The Bishop administers the Sacrament of Confirmation by praying that the Holy Ghost may come down upon those who are to be con­ firmed ; and by laying his hand on them, and making the sign of the cross with chrism on their foreheads, at the same time pronouncing certain words. 265. Q. What are the words used in Confirmation ? A. The words used in Confirmation are these : ‘ I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ III. 266. Q. What is the Sacrament of the Holy Eucha­ rist? A. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ together with His Soul and Divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine. Holy Eucharist. Holy thanksgiving. This Sacrament is so called because at its institution our lord gave thanks to His Father ; also, because it is the chief act by which we praise and thank Almighty God. It is also called the ‘ Holy Communion,’ the ‘Holy Host,’ the ‘Viaticum,’ Ac. The Holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the Sacraments, for it contains our lord Himself, from whom all graces come. Outward sign. The matter consists of wheaten bread and wine of the grape. The form consists of the words; • Thh; is 5£y Body ;’ ‘ This is the chalice,' &c. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 49 SJects. Gives us our Lord Himself; increases ea’ictifylng grace ; and gives a special grace which nourishes the soul. Institution. On Maundy Thursday, at the Last Supper, when Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it, and said, ’Take ye, and eat: this is My Body.’ And taking the ohalice, He said, ‘This is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.' (Matt. xxvi. 26-28.) Minister. A priest, or sometimes a deacon. I7hder tAe appearances, Ac. It looks, tastes, smells, and feels like bread and wine. These appearances are some­ times called the accidents ot the Sacrament. 267. Q. How are the bread and wine changed into the Body and Blood of Christ? A. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ by the power of God, to whom nothing is impossible or difficult. 268. Q. When are the bread and wine changed into the Body and Blood of Christ? A. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ when the words of consecration, ordained by Jesus Christ, are pronounced by the priest in the Holy Mass. Words of consecration. Over the bread : ‘ This is My body.’ Over the wine in the chalice : ‘ This is the chalice of My Blood of the new and eternal testament—the mystery of Faith—which shall be shed for you, and for many, to the remission of sins.' 269. Q. Why has Christ given Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist? A. Christ lias given Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist to be the life and the food of our souls. ‘He that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me ; ’ ‘ He that eateth this bread shall live for ever.’ (John vi. 58, 59.) 270. Q. Is Christ received whole and entire under either kind alone? A. Christ is received whole and entire under either kind alone. , 271. Q. In order to receive the Blessed Sacrament worthily what is required ? A. In order to receive the Blessed Sacrament worthily it is required that We be in a state of grace, and fasting from midnight. �50 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM Fasting from midnight. The person to receive Holy Com reunion must not partake of any food or drink whatever from twelve o’clock the previous night. Those who are in danger of death may receive Holy Communion without fasting. It is then called the Viaticum, because it strengthens those who receive it at the end of their jour­ ney through life. 272. Q. What is it to be in a state of grace ? A. To be in a state of grace is to be free front mortal sin, and pleasing to God. 273. Q. Is it a great sin to receive Holy Commu­ nion in mortal sin ? A. It is a great sin to receive Holy Communion in mortal sin, ‘for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judg­ ment to himself. (1 Cor. xi. 29.) 274. Q. Is the Blessed Eucharist a Sacrament only ? A. The Blessed Eucharist is not a Sacrament only; it is also a sacrifice. 275. Q. What is a sacrifice? A. A sacrifice is the offering of a victim by a priest to God alone, in testi­ mony of His being the Sovereign Lord of all things. 276. Q. What is the Sacrifice of the New Law? A. The Sacrifice of the New Law is the Holy Mass. The Mass. The oblation or offering made or sent to God by the ministry of the priest. As a sacrifice, the Holy Eucha­ rist is commonly called the ‘ Mass.’ In the Mass the Blood of our Lord is not visibly shed as it was on Mount Calvary. 277. Q. What is the Holy Mass? A. The Holy Mass is the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, really present on the altar under the appear­ ances of bread and wine, and offered to God for the living and the dead. 278. Q. Is the Holy Mass one and the same Sacri­ fice with that of the Cross? A. The Holy Mass is one and the same Sacrifice with that of the Cross, inasmuch as Christ, who offered Himself, a bleeding Victim, on the Cross, to His Heavenly Father, con­ tinues to offer Himself in an unbloody manner on the altar, through the ministry of His priests. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM , 51 279. Q. For what ends is the Sacrifice of the Mass offered ? A. The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for four ends: first, to give supreme honour and glory to God ; secondly, to thank Him for all His benefits ; thirdly, to obtain the grace of repentance; add fourthly, io obtain all other graces and blessings through Jesus Christ. The ends. The objects for which it is offered. Benefit. A favour, a good deed. 280. Q. Is the Mass also a memorial of the Passion and Death of our Lord ? A. The Mass is also a memo­ rial of the Passion and Death of our Lord, for Christ at His last Supper said, * Do this for a commemoration of Me.’ (Luke xxii. 19.) IV. 281. Q. What is the Sacrament of Penance? J. Penance is a Sacrament whereby the sins, whether mortal or venial, which we have committed after Bap­ tism are forgiven. Penance. This word is used in three different senses—(1) as a moral virtue which leads us to hate and avoid sin ; (2) as the penalty which we suffer for past sin ; (3) as the Sacra­ ment by which the sins committed after Baptism are for­ given. Outward sign. The matter consists of the acts of the penitent, viz., contrition, confession, and satisfaction. The form is the priest's absolution. Effects. Takes away actual sin and eternal punishment due to sin : it also restores habitual grace and the merits of good works done in a state of grace. Institution. ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ (John xx. 22, 23.) Minister. A priest approved by the Bishop. 282. (J. Does the Sacrament of Penance increase the grace of God in the soul ? A. The Sacrament of Penance increases the grace of God in the soul, besides forgiving sin ; we should, therefore, often go to confession. 283. Q. When did oar Lord institute the Sacrament �52 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM of Penance ? A. Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Penance when He breathed on His Apostles and gave them power to forgive sin, saying, ‘ Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven.’ (John xx. 23.) j 234. Q' How does the priest forgive sins ? A. The priest forgives sins by the power of God, when he pro­ nounces the words of absolution. Absolution. Pardon ; taking away of guilt, and at least in part, of punishment. 285. Q. What are the words of absolution ? A. The words of absolution are : ‘ I absolve thee from thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ 286. Q. Are any conditions for forgiveness required on the part of the penitent ? A. Three conditions for forgiveness are required on the part of the penitent: Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction. 287. Q. What is Contrition? A. Contrition is a hearty sorrow for our sins, because by them we have offended so good a God, together with a firm purpose of amendment. Contrition. A deep sorrowfor sin, with the determination of avoiding it in the future. There are two kinds of Contri­ tion—(1) perfect, or that felt for having offended God alone; (2) imperfect, or the sorrow we feel for our sins because by them we lose heaven and deserve hell: this is also called attrition. Sorrow for sin must be inward—that is, it must come from the heart; it must be supernatural—that is, it is not enough to be sorry from a human or natural motive; it must be universal—that is, it must extend to at least all mortal sins of which we are guilty. 388. Q. What is a firm purpose of amendment? A. A firm purpose of amendment is a resolution to avoid, by the grace of God, not only sin, but also the dangerous occasions of sin. Occasion of sin. Anything that may lead us into sin. 289. Q. How may we obtain a hearty sorrow for our sins? A. We may obtain a hearty sorrow for our sins by earnestly praying for it, and by making use of such ®©nsideratioixs an may lead us to it. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 53 Earnestly. Having a strong desire ; being fervent and sin­ cere, with intensity. Such considerations, <tc. Such thoughts as will help us to be truly sorry for our sins—such as thinking on the good­ ness of God, the sufferings of our Lord on account of our sins, the happiness of heaven, the misery of hell, &c. 290. Q. What consideration concerning God will lead us to sorrow for our sins ? A. This consideration concerning God will lead us to sorrow for our sins, that by our sins we have offended God, who is infinitely good in Himself and infinitely good to us. 291. Q. What consideration concerning our Saviour will lead us to sorrow for our sins ? A. This considera­ tion concerning our Saviour will lead us to sorrow for our sins, that our Saviour died for our sins, and that those who sin grievously ‘crucify again to themselves the Son of God, making Him a mockery.’ (Ilcb. vi. 8.) 292. Q. Is sorrow for our sins, because by them we have lost heaven and deserved hell, sufficient when we go to confession? A. Sorrow for our sins, because by them we have lost heaven and deserved hell, is sufficient when we go to confession. 293. Q. What is perfect contrition? A. Perfect contrition is sorrow for sin arising purely from the love of God. 294. Q. What special value has perfect contrition ? A. Perfect contrition has this special value—that by it our sins are forgiven immediately, even before we confess them ; but nevertheless, if they are mortal, we are strictly bound to confess them afterwards. 295. Q. What is confession? A. Confession is to accuse ourselves of our sins to a priest approved by the Bishop. Confession. To make known our sins. We are bound to confess all our mortal sins. To accuse ourselves. To lay the blame on ourselves; to tell our sins; to acknowledge, as from an inferior to a superior. We muBt make our confession humbly, truthfully, and briefly. 296. Q. What if a person wilfully conceal a mortal �54 the explanatory catechism em ji confession? A. If a person wilfully conceal a mortal sin in confession he is guilty of a great sacrilege, by telling a lie to the Holy Ghost in making a bad confession. Conceal. To keep secret; to hide completely. 297. Q. How many things have we to do in order to prepare for confession ? A. We have four things to do in order to prepare for confession: first, we must heartily pray for grace to make a good confession; eecondly, we must carefully examine our conscience ; thirdly, we must take time and care to malts a good act of contrition; and fourthly, we must resolve by the help of God to renounce our sins, and to begin a new life for the future. 298. Q. What is satisfaction? A. Satisfaction is doing the penance given us by the priest. Satisfaction Making atonement or payment for; repairing a wrong done. The penance given by the pripst in con­ fession usually consists in the saying of some particulal prayers or doing some good work. The guilt of sin and its eternal punishment are taken away by a good con­ fession ; the temporal punishment may be taken away by performing the penance given by the priest, by prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, and Indulgences. 299. Q. Does the penance given by the priest always make full satisfaction for our sins ? A. The penance given by the priest does not always make full satisfac­ tion for our sins. We should therefore add to it other good works and penances, and try to gain Indulgences. 300 Q. What is an Indulgence ? A. An Indulgence is a remission, granted by the Church, of the temporal punishment which often remains due to sin after its guilt has been forgiven. Zndu^cnce. A releasing or letting off from punishment. There are two kinds of Indulgences—(1) plenary, when the whole of the punishment is remitted or forgiven; Impartial, when only a part of the temporal punishment is taken away. Conditions for gaining an Indulgence are—(1) the person seeking it must be a Catholio; (2) he must have the intention of gaming it; (3) he must be in a state of grace: (A; He ni'ist perform the sweesary good woike ordered for .jieining it. �THE EXPLANATOHV CATEOH1SHI 5.5 V. 301. Q. What is the Sacrament of Extreme Unction? A. The Sacrament of Extreme Unction is the anointing of the sick with holy oil, accompanied with prayer. Airfrwne Unction. The last anointing, being given only in danger of death by sickness. Outward sign. The matterr consists of oil of olives blessed by a Bishop; the form consists of the words used by the priest whilst anointing the sick person : ‘By this holy anointing, and of His own most tender mercy, may the Lord forgive thee whatever thou hast committed by thy sight.’ The eyes,ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, and feet are each anointed, and the form of words repeated, except in cases of urgent necessity, when one form of words is sufficient for all. Effects. Cleanses the soul from venial sin ; takes away guilt of unknown mortal sins which have not been forgiven in any other way; increases habitual grace; restores health where God sees it to be desirable. Institution. Used in the time of the Apostles, according to James (v. 14,15): ‘Is any man sick among you,' <fcc. Minister. Each prieBt in his own parish. Anointing. Pouring or rubbing oil on anything. 802. Q. When is Extreme Unction given ? A. Ex­ treme Unction is given when we are in danger of death by sickness. 303. Q. What are the effects of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction? A. The effects of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction are to comfort and strengthen the soul, to remit sin, and even to restore health, when God sees it to be expedient. Expedient. When it is fit. 304. Q. What authority is there in Scripture for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction ? A. The authority in Scripture for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction is in the 5th chapter of St. James, where it is said: ‘ Is any one sick among you ? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man ; and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ (St. James v, 14. 15.) �56 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM VI. — 805. S’ *s Sacrament of Holy Order? A. “° Order is the Sacrament by which Bishops, priests, y * and other ministers of the Church are ordained, and receive power and grace to perform their sacred duties. “W P10 ministry, consisting of seven degrees, viz.. Po5t’?T>. ^^dsr, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-deacon, Deacon, and Priest. The first four are called the minor or lesser orders; the remaining three are called the holy or greater orders. The, Priesthood has two degrees ef power and dig­ nity—(1) that of the Bishop, whose office it is to govern the particular district given to him (called a diocese), to give Confirmation and Holy Order, inflict censures, pronounce excommunications, gTant Indulgences, <fcc.; (2) that of the rriest, whose office it is to offer sacrifice, preach to the people, administer the Sacraments, <fcc. Outward,signi. The matter consists of the imposition of the Bishop s hands. The form consists of the prayer said by the Bishop; m the case of a priest—1 Receive power to offer sacrifices for the living and the dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’ Effects. Increases habitual grace: gives power to exercise sacred functions. Tlio orders lower than the diaconate were probably instituted by the Church and therefore do not give grace. Institution. Time of institution not certain. Its sacramental' +h»^Ct-er ?£°Ved the following = ‘ Neglect not the grace tinn In tkee’/>whicJ was glven by Prophecy with imposi­ tion of thehands of the priesthood.’ (1 Tim. iv. 14.) And I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands.’ (2 Tim. 1.6 ) Minister. A Bishop only, in the case of the greater orders. VII. Sacrament of Matrimony ? A. Matrimony is the Sacrament which sanctifies the con­ tract of a Christian marriage, and gives a special grace to those who receive it worthily. Matrimony. The contract or agreement by which marriagb is blessed and made holy and pleasing to God. Outward sign. The matter consists of the mutual giving up of the contracting parties to each other. The form, consists of the words and outward signs by which the man and woman accept each other as husband and wife �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 5? Effects. Increases habitual graoe, and helps parents to bear the burdens and difficulties of the marriage state and bring up their children in a Christian manner. Institution. It is not known exactly when this Sacrament was instituted, but it is supposed by some to have been when, in speaking of marriage, our Lord said : 1 What God hath joined together, let no man put acunder.’ (Matt. six. 6.) Others say it was raised to the dignity of a Sacra­ ment at the marriage-feast at Cana. 307. Q. What special grace does the Sacrament of Matrimony give to those who receive it worthily ? A. The Sacrament of Matrimony gives to those who receive it worthily a special grace, to enable them to bear the difficulties of their state, to love and be faithful to one another, and to bring up their children in the fear of God. 308. Q. Is it a sacrilege to contract marriage in mortal sin, or in disobedience to the laws of the Church? A. It is a sacrilege to contract marriage in mortal sin, or in disobedience to the laws of the Church, and, instead of a blessing, the guilty parties draw down upon themselves the anger of God. * 309. Q. What is a ‘ mixed marriage ’ ? A. A ‘ mixed marriage ’ is a marriage between a Catholic and one who, though baptized, does not profess the Catholic faith, 310. Q. Has the Church always forbidden mixed marriages? A. The Church has always forbidden mixed marriages, and considered them unlawful and pernicious. Pernicious. Hurtful, very injurious. 311. Q. Does the Church sometimes permit mixed marriages? A. The Church sometimes permits mixed marriages, by granting a dispensation, for very grave reasons and under special conditions. v Dispensation. An exemption or freeing from some law or duty. 312. Q. Can any human power dissolve the bond of *For the marriage of a Catholic to be valid there must be present: (1) cither the Bishop or the Parish-Priest or another Priost duly delegated, and (2) two witnesses. �58 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM marriage ? A. No human power can dissolve the bond of marriage, because Christ has said, ‘What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.’ {Matt. xix. 6.) Human pouter. The power of man, like that used in a divorce court, which may be allowed by the law of the land, bulls certainly forbidden by the law of God. Dissolve. To undo; to separate; to loosen. Bona. Anything that binds or fastens together. CHAPTER VII. OF VIRTUES AND VICES. SIS. Q. Which are the Theological Virtues ? A. The Theological Virtues are ‘Faith, Hope, and Charity.’ (1 Cor. xiii. 13.) Theological. Belonging or relating to God. Faith, Hope, ana Chanty have God for their direct object and motive. The matter on which our faith is exercised is called the object; why we believe is termed the motive. virtue. Doing one's duty; the opposite to vice, which is a blemish or fault. 814 Q. Why are they called Theological Virtues ? A. They are called Theological Virtues because they relate immediately to God. 316. Q. What are the chief mysteries of Faith which every Christian is bound to know? A. The chief mysteries of laith which every Christian is bound to know are the Unity and Trinity of God, who will render to every man according to his works; and the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of our Saviour. 316. Q. Which are the Cardinal Virtues? A. The Cardinal Virtues are ‘Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.’ (Wisd. viii. 7.) Cardinal. Principal or chief, from Latin Cardo, a hinge. All other virtues either depend or spring from them. Prudence. This virtue enlightens our mind, and leads us to take proper and effectual means for securing our salvation, Jurffce. Giving what is d»e to God, our neighbours, and eursolves’ �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 59 Fortitude. Having courage to resist anything which may hinder our salvation, and to bear bravely all trials for the love of God. Temperance. Being moderate in all things. ' He that is abstinent, saith the wise man, shall increase in life.' (Ecd. xxxvii.) ®17- & WhY are they called Cardinal Virtues ? A. They are called Cardinal Virtues because they are, as it were, the hinges on which all other moral virtues turn. 818. Q. Which are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost? A. The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are: 1. Wisdom; 2. Understanding; 3. Counsel; 4. Fortitude; 5. Know­ ledge ; 6. Piety; 7. The fear of the Lord. (Isa. xi. 2, 3.> 319. Q. Which are the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost? . A. The twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost are ? 1. Charity; 2. Joy; 3. Peace; 4. Patience; 5. Be­ nignity ; 6. Goodness; 7. Longanimity ; 8. Mildness;; 9. Faith; 10. Modesty ; 11. Continency ; 12. Chastitv(Gal. v. 22.) 320. Q. Which are the two great precepts of Charity? A. The two great precepts of Charity are : 1. ‘ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength.’ 2. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Mark xii. 30, 31.) Precept. A commandment, a maxim. 321. Q. Which are the seven Corporal Works of Mercy? A. The seven Corporal Works of Mercy are: 1. To feed the hungry ; 2. To give drink to the thirsty; 3. To clothe the naked; 4. To harbour the harbourless; 5. To visit the sick; 6. To visit the imprisoned ; 7. To bury the dead. (Matt. xxv. ; Tobias xii.) Corporal works. Those done for the benefit of the body. 822. Q. Which are the soven Spiritual Works of Mercy? A. The seven Spiritual Works of Mercy are : 1. To convert the sinner ; 2. To instruct the ignorant; 3. To counsel the doubtful; 4. To comfort'‘the saz- �6o THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM rowful; 5. To bear wrongs patiently; 6. To forgive injuries ; 7. To pray for the living and the dead. Spiritual works. Those done for the benefit of the soul 323. Q. Which are the eight Beatitudes ? A. The eight Beatitudes are: 1. * Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 2. Blessed are the meek ; for they shall possess the land. 3. Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be comforted. 4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall have their fill. 5. Blessed are the merci­ ful ; for they shall obtain mercy. 6. Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God. 7. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. 8. Blessed are they that suffer per­ secution for justice’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ {Matt. v. 3-10.) Eight Beatitudes. Eight blessings. The virtues pronounced blessed by our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount. 324. Q. Which are the seven capital sins or vices and their contrary virtues ? A. The seven capital sins or vices and their contrary virtues are: 1. Pride; 2. Covetousness; 3. Lust; 4. Anger; 5. Gluttony; 6. Envy ; 7. Sloth. Contrary virtues : 1. Humility; 2. Liberality; 3. Chastity; 4. Meekness ; 5. Temper­ ance ; 6. Brotherly Love; 7. Diligence. Lust means impurity; sloth means idleness. 325. Q. Why are they called capital sins ? A. They are called capital sins because they are the source's from which all other sins take their rise. 326. Q. Which are the six sins against the Holy Ghost ? A. The six sins against the Holy Ghost are : 1. Presumption; 2. Despair; 3. Resisting the known truth ; 4. Envy of another’s spiritual good: 5. Ob­ stinacy in sin ; 6. Final impenitence. Obstinacy in sin. Being determined to go on living in sin final impenitence. Not repenting even at the horn- of death. �6i THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 327. Q. Which are the four Bins crying to heaven for vengeance ? A. The four sins crying to heaven for vengeance are : 1. Wilful murder (Gen. iv.); 2. The sin of Sodom (Gen. xviii.); 3. Oppression of the poor (Exod. ii.); 4. Defrauding labourers of their wages (James v.). Oppression. Being very unjust or cruel, harming a person. Defrauding. Taking away by deceit or by cheating. 328. Q. When are we answerable for the sins of others 1 A. We are answerable for the sins of others whenever we either cause them, or share in them, through our own fault. 329. (J. In how many ways may we either cause or share the guilt of another’s sin? A. We may either cause or share the guilt of another’s sin in nine ways •. 1. By counsel; 2. By command ; 3. By consent; 4. By provocation; 5. By praise or flattery; 6. By conceal­ ment ; 7. By being a partner in the sin; 8. By silence; 9. By defending the ill done. Counsel. To give advice or direction to a person. Provocation. To incite another to do something. Defence of the ill done. Taking the part of a bad person or of his wicked actions, and trying to justify them. 330. Q. Which are the three eminent Good Works ? A. The three eminent Good Works are Prayer, Fast­ ing, and Alms-deeds. Eminent. Remarkable, being above others. Alms-deeds. Works of charity. » 331. Q. Which are the Evangelical Counsels? A. The Evangelical Counsels are voluntary Poverty, per­ petual Chastity, and entire Obedience. Evangelical. Being in accordance with the doctrine of the Gospel. The writers of the Gospels are called Evangelists • they are S3. Matthew, Mark. Luke, and John. Voluntary. Of one’s own free will or choice. Perpetual. Going on without ceasing. Entire Obedience. Being obedient in everything that is not sin. 332. Q. What are the four last thingB to be ever �62 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM remembered? A. The four last things to be ever re­ membered are Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven. (Eccl. vii.) CHAPTER, VIII. THE OHBISTIAN’S BULE OF LIFE. 333. Q. What rule of life must we follow if we hope to be saved? A. If we hope to be saved, we must follow the rule of life taught by Jesus Christ. 334. Q. What are we bound to do by the rule of life taught by Jesus Christ? A. By the rule of life taught by Jesus Christ we are bound always to hate sin and to love God. 335. Q. How must we hate sin ? A. We must hate Bin above all other evils, so as to be resolved never to commit a wilful sin, for the love or fear of anything whatsoever. 336. Q. How must we love God ? A. We must love God above all things, and with our whole heart. 337. Q. How must we learn to love God ? A. We must learn to love God by begging of God to teach us to love Him : ‘ O my God, teach me to love Thee.’ 338. Q. What will the love of God load us to do ? A. The love of God will lead us often to think how good God is; often to speak to Him in our hearts; and always to seek to please Him. 839. (?. Does Jesus Christ also command us to love one another? A. Jesus Christ also commands us to love one another—that is, all persons without exception for His sake. Without exception. Not leaving out one. 840. Q. How are we to love one another ? A. We are „ to love one another by wishing well to one another, and praying for one another ; and by never allowing our­ selves any thought, word, or deed to the injury of anyone. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 63 841. Q. Are we also bound to love our enemies? A. We a,re also bound to love our enemies; not only by forgiving them from our hearts, but also by wishing them well, and praying for them. 342. Q. Has Jesus Christ given us another great rule ? A. Jesus Christ has given us another great rule in these words : * If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’ (Luke ix. 23.) 343. Q. How are we to deny ourselves? A. We are to deny ourselves by giving up our own will, and by going against our own humours, inclinations, and passions. Humours. Our own dispositions. Passions. The natural inclinations of the soul 344. Q. Why are we bound to deny ourselves ? A, We are bound to deny ourselves because our natural inclinations are prone to evil from our very childhood ; and if not corrected by self-denial, they will certainly carry us to hell. Prone. Inclined or disposed to do a thing. 345. Q. How are we to take up our cross daily? A. We are to take up our cross daily by submitting daily with patience to the labours and sufferings of this short life, and by bearing them willingly for the love of God. Submit. To resign or to yield, to give way. 346. Q. How are we to follow our Blessed Lord? A. We are to follow our Blessed Lord by walking in His footsteps and imitating His virtues. 347. Q. What are the principal virtues we are to learn of our Blessed Lord ? A. The principal virtues we are to learn of our Blessed Lord are "meekness, humility, and obedience. 348. Q. Which are the enemies we must fight against all the days of our life? A. The enemies �64 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM which we must fight against all the days of our life are the devil, the world, and the flesh. 349. Q. What do you mean by the devil? A. By the devil I mean Satan and all his wicked angels, who are ever seeking to draw us into sin, that we may be damned with them. 350. Q. What do you mean by the world? A. By the world I mean the false maxims of the world, and the society of those who love the vanities, riches, and pleasures of this world better than God. 351. Q. Why do you number the devil and the world amongst the enemies of the soul ? A. I number the devil and the world amongst the enemies of the soul because they are always seeking, by temptation and by word or example, to carry us along with them in the broad road that leads to damnation. 852. Q. What do you mean by the flesh ? A. By the flesh I mean our own corrupt inclinations and passions, which are the most dangerous of all our enemies. Host dangerous of all our enemies. Because we always carry them in our hearts, and can never get rid of them. The Sacraments cleanse our souls from sin itself, but the inclination to commit sin, or concupiscence, as it is called, always remains. 353. Q. What must we do to hinder the enemies of our soul from drawing us into sin ? A. To hinder the enemies of our soul from drawing us into sin, we must watch, pray, and fight against all their sugges­ tions and temptations. Suggestion. Something proposed or hinted. 354. Q. In the warfare against the devil, the world, and the flesh, on whom must we depend ? A. In the warfare against the devil, the world, and the flesh we must depend not on ourselves, but on God only : ‘ I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me.’ (Philip, iv. 13.) �HIE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 65 CHAPTER IX. THE CHRISTIAN’S DAILY EXERCISE. 355. Q. How should you begin the day? A. I should begin the day by making the sign of the cross as soon as I awake in the morning, and by saying some short prayer, such as ‘ O my God, I offer my heart and soul to Thee.’ 356. Q. How should you rise in the morning ? a. I should rise in the morning diligently, dress myself modestly, and then kneel down and say my morning prayers. Diligently. Attentively, industriously. Modestly. With decency. 357. Q. Should you also hear Mass if you have time and opportunity? A. I should also hear Mass if I have time and opportunity, for to hear Mass is by far the best and most profitable of all devotions. 358. Q. Is it useful to make daily meditation ? A. It is useful to make daily meditation, for such was the practice of all the Saints. Meditation. To consider thoughtfully. 359. Q. On what ought we to meditate? A. We ought to meditate especially on the four last things, and the Life and Passion of our Blessed Lord. 360. Q. Ought we frequently to read good books ? A. We ought frequently to read good books, such as the Holy Gospel, the Lives of the Saints, and othei spiritual works, which nourish our faith and piety, and arm us against the false maxims of the world. 861. Q. And what should you do as to your eating, drinking, sleeping, and amusements? A. As to my eating, drinking, sleeping, and amusements, I should use all these things with moderation, and with a desire to please God �66 THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 862. Q. Say the grace before meals. A. ‘Bless us, 0 Lord, and these Thy gilts, which we are going to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.’ 363. Q. Say the grace after meals. A. ‘We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.’ 364. Q. How should you sanctify your ordinary actions and employments of the day? A. I should sanctify my ordinary actions and employments of the day by often raising up my heart to God whilst I am about them, and saying some short prayer to Him. 365. Q. What should you do when you find yourself tempted to sin? A. When I find myself tempted to sin I should make the sign of the cross on my heart, and call on God as earnestly as I can, saying, ‘ Lord, save me, or I perish.’ 366. Q. If you have fallen into sin what should you do ? A. If I have fallen into sin I should cast myself in spirit at the feet of Christ, and humbly beg His pardon by a sincere act of contrition. 867. Q. When God sends you any cross, or sickness, or pain, what should you say? A. When God sends me any cross, or sickness, or pain, I should say, ‘ Lord, Thy will be done ; I take this for my sins.’ 368. Q. What little indulgenced prayers would you do well to say often to yourself during the day ? A. I should do well to 6ay often to myself during the day such little indulgenced prayers as— Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In all things may the most holy, the most just, and the most lovable Will of God be done, praised, and exalted above all for ever. �THE EXPLANATORY CATECHISM 6/ O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. Praised be Jesus Christ, praised for evermore. My Jesus, mercy ; Mary, help. 366. Q. How should you finish the day? A. I should finish the day by kneeling down and saying my night prayers. 870. Q. After your night prayers what should you do? A. After my night prayers I should observe due modesty in going to bed; occupy myself with the thoughts of death ; and endeavour to compose myself to rest at the foot of the cross, and give my last thoughts to my crucified Saviour. �APPENDIX. A SHORT FORM OF MORNING PRAYERS. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Blessed be the Holy and Undivided Trinity’ now and for ever. Amen. 0 my God, I believe in Thee; do Thou strengthen my Faith. All my hopes are in Thee; do Thou secure them. I love Thee with my whole heart; teach me to love Thee daily more and more. I am sorry that I have offended Thee ; do Thou increase my sorrow. O my God, how good hast Thou been to me, and how little have I done for Thee! Thou hast created me out of nothing, redeemed me by the death of Thy Son, and sanctified me by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit. Thou hast called me into Thy Church, and Thou givest me all the graces necessary for my salvation. Thou bast preserved me during the night past, and given me the present day, wherein 1 may serve Thee. What return can I make to Thee, 0 God, for all that Thou hast done for me ? I will bles3 Thy holy Name, and serve Thee all the days of my life. I offer to Thee, 0 my God, all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings; and I beseech Thee to give me Thy grace, that I may not offend Thee this day, but that I may faithfully serve Thee and do Thy holy will in all things. Our Father. Hail Mary. I believe in God. An Act of Faith.—I firmly believe that there is one God; and that in this one God there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that the Son took to Him­ self the nature of man, from the Virgin Mary’s womb, by 68 �APPENDIX <59 the power of the Holy Ghost; and that in this our human nature He was crucified and died for us; that afterwards He rose again and ascended into heaven ; from thence He shall come to repay the just with everlasting glory, and the. wicked with everlasting punishment. Moreover, I believe whatsoever else the Catholic Church proposes to be believed; and this because God, who is the sovereign Truth, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, has re­ vealed all these things to this His Church. An Act of Hope.—0 my God, relying on Thy almighty power and Thv infinite mercy and goodness, and because Thou art faithful to Thy promises, I trust in Thee that Thou wilt grant me forgiveness of my sins, through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son ; and that Thou wilt give me the. assistance of Thy grace, with which I may labour to continue to the end in the diligent exercise of all good works, and may deserve to obtain the glory which Thou hast promised in heaven. An Act of Charity.—0 Lord my God, I love Thee with my whole heart, and above all things, because Thou, 0 God, art the sovereign Good, and for Thine own infinite perfections art most worthy of all love; and for Thy sake I also love my neighbour as myself. An Act of Contrition.—0 my God, I am sorry, and beg pardon for all my sins, and detest them above all things, because they deserve Thy dreadful punishments, because they have crucified my loving Saviour Jesus Christ, and, most of all, because they offend Thine infinite goodness; and I firmly resolve, by the help of Thy grace, never to offend Thee again, and carefully to avoid the occasions of sin. Holy Mary, be a Mother to me. 0 my good. Angel, whom God has appointed to be my guardian, enlighten and protect me, direct and govern me during this day. All ye Angels and Saints of God, pray for me. May our Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil, and bring us to life everlasting ; and may the souls of the faith­ ful, departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. �7© APPENDIX A SHORT FORM OF NIGHT PRAYERS. In the name or the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary. I believe in God. I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever a Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary ever a Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, to pray to the Lord our God for me. 0 my God, I believe that Thou art here present; and that Thou observest all my actions, all my thoughts, and the most secret motions of my heart. I adore Thee and I love Thee with my whole heart. I return Thee thanks for all the benefits which I have ever received from Thee, and particularly this day. Give me light, 0 my God, to see what sins I have committed this day, and grant me grace to be truly sorry for them. Here examine whether you have offended God during the day, by any thought, word, or deed, or by neglect of any duty. 0 my God, who art infinitely good in Thyself, and in­ finitely good to me, 1 beg pardon from my heart for all my offences against Thee. I am sorry for all my sins, and detest them above all things, because they deserve Thy dreadful punishments, because they have crucified my loving Saviour Jesus Christ, and because they offend Thy infinite goodness ; and I am firmly resolved, by the help of Thy grace, never to offend Thee for the time to come, nd carefully to avoid the occasions of sin. Here put yourself in the disposition you desire to be found in at the hour of death. 0 my God, I accept of death as an act of homage and adoration which I owe to Thy Divine Majesty, as a punish- �APPENDIX 71 Blent justly due to my sine, in union with the death of mj dear Redeemer, and as the only means of coming to Thee, my beginning and last end. Into Thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit; Lord Jesus, receive my soul. O Holy Mary, be a mother to me. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and all th6 Saints pray for us to the Lord, that we may be preserved this night from sin and all evils. Amen. 0 my good Angel, whom God has appointed to be my guardian, watch over me during this night. All ye Angels and Saints of God, pray for me. May our Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil, and bring us to life everlasting; and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY. THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES. 1. 2. 3. 4. B. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, The Visitation. The Nativity of our Blessed Lord. The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, The Finding of our Lord in the Temple. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Agony of our Lord in the Garden. The Scourging of our Lord at the Pillar. The Crowning of our Lord with Thorns. The Carrying of the Cross by our Lord, The Crucifixion. THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES. THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Resurrection of our Lord. The Ascension of our Lord. The Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven The Coronation of our Blessed Mother in heaven. �72 APPENDIX SALVE REGINA. Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy; hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send forth our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, 0 pious, 0 sweet Virgin Mary. THE ANGELUS. To be said morning, noon, and night, in memory of God the Son becoming man for our Salvation. 1. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary: And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.— Hail Mary, &c. 2. Behold the handmaid of the Lord : Be it done unto me according to Thy word.—Hail Mary. 3. And the word was made Flesh : And dwelt amongst us.—Hail Mary. F. Pray for us, 0 Holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, Thy grace into our nearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may, by His Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His resurrec­ tion, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. May the Divine assistance remain always with us. And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. THE DIVINE PRAISES. Blessed be God. Blessed be His Holy Name. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man. �APPENDIX 73 Blessed be the Name of Jesus. Blessed be His most Sacred Heart. Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception. Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother. Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste Sponse. Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints. CHIEF HERESIES. 1. The Arians, founded by Arius, an ambitious cleric of Alexandria, who denied the divinity of our Lord, and said that He was not begotten of the Father, but made by Him ; that He was not equal to, but inferior to, the Father. These heretics were condemned at the Council of Nice, a town in Bithynia, a.d. 325, under Popo S. Sylvester I. The Nicene Creed was drawn up at this Council. 2. The Manicheans, who taught that our Lord did not take to Himself a real body, but only the appearanoe of a body, something similar to what the angels assumed when they visited holy persons, &c., as mentioned in Scripture. They also said that there were two gods, a good one and a bad one. These heresies were commenced about a.d. 326. 8. The Macedonians, founded by Macedonius, who had usurped the See of Constantinople. He denied the God­ head, of the Holy Ghost, and said that He was only a creation like the angels, but of a higher order. This heresy was condemned at the First Council of Constanti­ nople, A.D. 381, under Pope S. Damasus. 4. The Pelagians, founded by Pelagius, a native of Britain. He denied the existence of original sin in the soul of man, and taught that without the aid of grace man is perfectly able to fulfil the law of God. This heresy was con * demned at a council of African Bishops held at Carthage, a.d. 416; the decision of the council being confirmed by Pope S. Innocent. 5. The Nestorians, founded by Nestorius, Bishop of Con stantinople. He taught that there were two separate. �74 APPENDIX persons in our Lord, one the Son of God, and the other the son of man; and that the Blessed Virgin was not the Mother of God, but of the man Christ. This heresy was condemned at the Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, under Pope S. Celestine I. 6. The Eutychlans, founded by Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature, the divine, in our Lord. He said, .that at the moment of the Incarnation the human nature was absorbed by, or changed into, the divine. This heresy was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, under Pope S. Leo the Great. 7. The Semi-Pelagians taught that the beginning of Faith and first desire of virtue came from the powers of man alone, unassisted by divine grace. They also said that the grace of final perseverance can be merited by our own efforts, and is not a free gift of God. This heresy was first taught by some priests of Marseilles. It was condemned at the Second Council of Orange, A.D. 529; the decrees of the council being confirmed by Pope Boniface II. 8. The Monothelites said that Jesus Christ had no separate human will, but only a divine one. They were condemned at the Third Council of Constantinople, a.d. 680, under Pope S. Agatho. 9. The Iconoclasts, or breakers of holy images, rejected the use of holy images and pictures, and the practice of paying them due respect. They were condemned at the Second Council of Nice, a.d. 757, under Pope Adrian I. 10. The Greek Heresy and Schism was commenced by Photius, who, though not a priest, took unjust possession of the See of Constantinople. This schism was con­ summated in a.d. 1054, by Michael Cerularius, who broke entirely away from the supremacy of the Popes, and established what is called the ‘Greek Church.’ The Greeks say that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone, instead of from the Father and the Son, as taught by the Catholic Church from the beginning. Photius was deposed and condemned at the J’oiwfh Council of Con- �APPENDIX 75 ttantinople, a.d. 870, under Pope AdrianII., and S. Igna­ tius was restored to his See. 11. Heresy of Berangarlus, who was Archdeacon of Angers, He said that the Body and Blood of our Lord are not really present in the Holy Eucharist, but only in figure. He was condemned at Rome a.d. 1078. 12. The Aioigenses taught that there were two Gods and two Christs; they condemned marriage, denied all the Sacraments and the Resurrection of the Body. It was whilst preaching to these heretics that the devotion of the ‘ Rosary,’ was revealed by the Blessed Virgin to S. Dominic. 13. The Waldenses taught that it was a heinous sin for a magistrate to condemn to death for any crime; that it was a mortal sin to take an oath ; and that the clergy became reprobates by holding one farthing’s worth of property. The Albigenses and Waldenses were con­ demned at the Third Lateran Council, under Pope Alexander IIL, A.D. 1179. 14. Heresy of Wlckliff. This man taught that the Pope is not the Head of the Church; that Bishops have no pre-eminence over simple priests ; that all ecclesiastical powers are either forfeited or are in abeyance during mortal sin; that man is bound to sin; that God ap­ proves of sin ; that confession is quite useless ; and that temporal princes should cut off the head of any ecclesi­ astic who sinned, &c. These doctrines were, after the death of .Wickliff, preached by John Huss and his followers in the towns and villages of Bohemia. Con­ demned at the Council of Constance, a.d. 1414. 6. Heresy of Luther. Luther was a monk of the Order of 8. Augustine, and professor in the University of Witten­ berg. Pride and jealousy induced him to attack the Ancient Faith, and invent a new creed. Pope Leo X. having granted a plenary indulgence, Luther was an­ noyed that the commission to preach it was given to the Dominicans and not to his own Order. He then attacked the doctrine of indulgences itself. He also that �76 APPENDIX Faith alone will save mankind ; that the sacrifice of the Mass is an abomination • that there is no necessity for confession, abstinence, fasting, or any mortification what­ ever. He said that priests might marry ; he denied the supremacy of the Pope; be wrote against purgatory, free­ will, and almost every article of Christian belief. 16. Calvin, who is regarded as second only to Luther, was the founder of Presbyterianism. His chief stronghold was Geneva. He taught, among other things, that God created mankind on purpose to damn the greater number of them ; that God predetermined the Fall of Adam with its consequences; and that man has practically no free­ will. He renounced not only the Pope, but bishops and priests also. At the Council of Trent, held from 1545 to 1563 a.d., the heresies of Luther, Calvin, and others were con­ demned. The ‘Creed of Pope Pius IV.’ was drawn up at this council. 17. The Jansenists, so called after their leader Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, in Flanders. He maintained that man was not free; that it was impossible to keep some of God’s commandments; that all good works of un­ believers are but sins; that God will punish us for not practising virtues which are not in our power; that our Lord died to save only a few privileged souls, and not the whole human race. Two illustrious French Bishops, Bossuet and Ftnelon, defended the truth against these heretics. Christopher de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris (1746-1781), was also a great champion of the true faith, and by his virtues and exertions did much to put down this heresy, which bad already been condemned by the Holy See. 18. The Modernists, who attempted to explain the faith by rationalising it. Condemned by Pope Pius X. COUNCILS. A council is an assembly of the Prelates of the Church, called together by their lawful head, in order to decide questions concerning Faith, or Morals, or ecclesiastical dis­ cipline. The following are the chief kinds of Councils:— �APPENDIX 77 1. A General or (Ecumenical Council, being one to which the Bisho^js of the whole world are lawfully summoned by the Pope, or with his consent, and presided over by him or by his legates. Its decrees must also have the approval of the Sovereign Pontiff. General Councils are Infallible—that is, they cannot teach us anything wrong in Faith or in Morals. 2. A Provincial Council, which is a meeting of the Bishops of one province. 3. A National Council, which is a gathering of the Bishops of one country. 4. A Diocesan Council, which is a Council composed of the Bishop and clergy of a diocese, and is usually called a Synod. The following are the names of tbe General Councils which have been held up to the present time. The first eight were held in Asia, or the Eastern part of Christen­ dom ; and the remainder in Europe, or the Western part:— 1. First of Nice, a.d. 325, condemned heresy of Arius. 2. First of Constantinople, A.D. 381, condemned heresy of Macedonius. 3. Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, condemned heresy of Nestorius. 4. Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, condemned heresy of Eutyches. 5. Second of Constantinople, A.D. 553, condemned books of Theodorus favouring Nestorian heresy. 6. Third of Constantinople, a.d. 680, condemned heresy of Monothelites. 7. Second of Nice, a.d. 787, condemned heresy of Icono­ clasts, 8. Fourth of Constantinople, a.d. 870, condemned and deposed Photius, author of Greek Schism. 9. First Lateran, A.D. 1123, regulated rights of Church and Emperors in election of Bishops and Abbots. 10. Second Lateran, a.d. 1139, condemned heresies of Peter of Bruys and Arnold of Brescia. 11. Third Lateran, A.D. 1179, condemned heresies of Wal­ denses and Albigenses. 12. Fourth Lateran, a.d. 1215, for general legislation. 13. First of Lyons, a.d. 1245, decreed a general crusade. 14. Second of Lyons, A.D. 1274, decreed the double pro­ cession of the Holy Ghost. �78 APPENDIX 15. Council of Vienne, A.D. 1312, abolished order of Knights Templars. 16. Council of Florence, a.d. 1439-45, a reconciliation of the Greeks took place. 17. Fifth Lateran, a.d. 1512, for re-establishment of dis­ cipline in Church. 18. Council of Trent, a.d. 1545-63, heresies of Luther, Calvin, and others condemned. 19. Vatican Council, a.d. 1869-70, solemnly deoreed the infallibility of the Pope in the following words: ‘ We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: That the Pi.oman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedrd —that is, when, in the discharge of his office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals, to be held by the Universal Church —is, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that the Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that, therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiffs are of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, irreformable.’ PRINCIPAL FEASTS. 1. * he Nativity is a solemn feast kept on the 25th of T December, in honour of the birth of Christ. It is also called Chrtstmas from the Mass of the birth of Christ. On this day priests are allowed to say three Masses in honour of the three births of our Lord : (1) His eternal birth in the bosom of His Father ; (2) His temporal birth in the stable at Bethlehem; (3) His spiritual birth in the hearts of the just. 2. * he Circumcision is a feast in memory of the day T upon which our Lord received the adorable name of Jesus, brought down from heaven and made known to Note.—The FeastB marked with an asterisk * are the Holidays of Obligation in England. �APPENDIX 79 yhe Blessed Virgin by the angel Gabriel. This festival is kept on the eighth day after Christmas, and is a very ancient one. In the sixth century the Church made it a solemn feast, in order to atone in some way for the crimes committed by the Pagans on that day, which is the first in the year, and is consequently called New Year’s day. o. * he Epiphany is a feast kept on the 6th of January, T in honour and memory of Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles, represented by the three kings of the East, Gaspar, Melchior, and Baltassar, who, guided by a miraculous star, came to adore Him. This festival is also called Twelfth-day, because it is celebrated on the twelfth day after Christmas. 4. The Purification is a feast kept on the 2nd of February, in honour of (1) the Purification of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple at Jerusalem, and (2) the Presentation of our Lord on the same occasion, according to the law of Moses. This feast is also called Candlemas, because before the Mass of this day the Church blesses candles and makes a procession with blest candles, in the hands of the faithful, in memory of the divine light with which Christ illuminated the whole Church at His Presentation, when the aged and holy Simeon called Him, ‘A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel ’ (& Luke ii. 32). B. The Resurrection is a feast in honour of our Lord’s rising again from the dead by His own power on the third day after His Crucifixion. It is kept on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the 21st of March, and occurs sometimes a day and sometimes a few weeks after that date. It is called Easter, from ‘Oriens,’ which signifies the East or Rising, and is one of the titles of Christ: ‘ And His name shall be called Obeens ’ (Zach. iv. 12). 6. The Annunciation is a feast kept on the 25th of March, in memory of the angel Gabriel being sent to our Lady to announce to her that she should be the mother of God. At this time our Lady was living at Nasareth. �So APPENDIX 7. * he Ascension is a feast kept on the fortieth day T after Easter, in memory of our Lord’s Ascension into heaven from the top of Mount Olivet, in presence of His Blessed Mother and His Apostles and disciples. He took with Him the souls of the just who had died before His coming. 8. Pentecost is a solemn feast kept on the fiftieth day after Easter in honour of the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the heads of the Apostles, in the form of fiery tongues. The word ‘Pentecost’ means fiftieth. The time from Easter to Trinity Sunday is the Paschal time, which is a joyful preparation for this feast. It is also called Whitsunday, from the Catechumens, who were clothed in white, and were admitted on the eve of this feast to the Sacrament of Baptism. 9. Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Whitsunday, and is a day on which the Church honours in an especial manner one God in three persons. The * Gloria Patri ’ is a prayer in honour of the Blessed Trinity. This devo­ tion began about the end of the ninth century. 10. * he Feast of SS. Peter and Paul is kept on the T 29th of June, in honour of the prince of the Apostles and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who were both martyred on this day at Borne. S. Peter was crucified with his head downwards, as he felt himself unworthy to die in the same manner and posture as his divine Master. S. Paul, being a Boman citizen, was beheaded. 11. The Invention of the Holy Cross is a feast established in memory of the miraculous cross which appeared to Constantine, a.d. 312, and of the finding of the true cross by S. Helena, a.d. 326, after it had been hidden and buried by the infidels for 180 years. This feast is kept on the 3rd of May. 12. “Corpus Christi is a feast instituted by the Church in honour of the Body and Blood of Christ, really present in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. The festival is kept on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The observance of this feast became general �APPENDIX about the year 1312, after the Council at Vienne. 8l It was established tn order to assist in making reparation for the sins committed against our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; and to reanimate the devotion of Christians towards that adorable mystery. 13. .The Visitation is in memory of the Blessed Virgin’s visit to her cousin S. Elizabeth. This feast was estab­ lished by Pope Urban VI., and was afterwards extended to the whole Church, in the fourteenth century, by Pope Boniface IX. The 2nd of July is the day on which the feast is kept. 14. * he Assumption is kept on the 15th of August, and T is in memory of our Lady being assumed or taken up into Heaven, both soul and body, after her death. 15. The Nativity of our Lady is a feast in honour of her birth, and is kept on the 8th of September. It is of very ancient origin. 16. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a feast established in the seventh century in memory of the exaltation or setting up of the Cross by Heraclius the emperor, who regained it from the Persians. He carried it on his own shoulders to Mount Calvary. This feast is kept on the 14th of September. 17. The Feast of Michaelmas is kept on the 29th of September, and is in honour of S. Michael, prince of the heavenly host, who remained faithful to God, and de­ feated Lucifer and the apostate angels in a great battle fought in heaven in defence of God’s honour (Apoc. xii. 7). 18. * he Feast of All Saints is kept on the 1st of November, T and was established at Rome by Pope Boniface IV. On this day we honour all the Saints, especially those who have no fixed festivals during the year. j.9. Commemoration of All Souls is a day set apart by the Church in memory of all the faithful departed, and upon which special prayers are said that they may be freed from their suffering, and soon obtain everlasting rest in heaven. the dead. On this day priests may say three masses for �82 APPENDIX 20. The Presentation of our Lady is a feast kept on the 21st of November in honour of Mary, who was presented in the Temple of Jerusalem by her parents, S. Joachim and S. Anne. 21. Palm Sunday is the Sunday immediately preceding Easter Sunday, and is in honour of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It receives its name from the cir­ cumstances of palm branches having been thrown under the feet of our Lord, the people crying out, ‘ Hosanna to the Son of David’ (S'. Matt. xxi. 15). On this day palms are blessed and distributed to the faithful. 22. Maundy Thursday is a feast in memory of our Lord’s Last Supper, when He instituted the Holy Eucharist and washed His disciples’ feet. During Mass on this day the Bishop most solemnly blesses the holy oils used in the administration of the Sacraments. There is only ono Mass on this day in each church. The priest consecrates two Hosts, one of which he receives, and the other is placed in a chalice and carried in solemn procession to an altar prepared for its reception, called the ‘Altar of Repose’ or the ‘Sepulchre.’ Here it remains till Good Friday, when it is taken back to the High Altar, where the priest communicates. 23. Ash Wednesday is a day of public penance, and is so called from the ceremony of blessing ashes on that day, with which the priest signs the people with a cross on their foreheads, at the same time saying, ‘Remember, man, thou art but dust, and to dust thou shalt return.’ Lent begins with this day. 34. The Rogation Days are the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the fifth week after Easter. They are days on which special supplication is made for pardon of sins, peace, fruits of the earth, temperateness of the seasons, &c. 26. Holy Saturday is the day before Easter Sunday, On this day the new fire, the Paschal candle, and the baptismal font are blessed. �APPENDIX »3 VESTMENTS, &c. 1. The Amice is a white linen veil which the priest first passes over his head and then covers his shoulders with. It represents the veil with which the Jews covered the face of Christ when they buffeted Him in the house of Caiphas and bade Him prophesy who it was that struck Him (S. Luke xxii. 64). 2. The Alb is a large white tunic which descends to the feet. It represents the white garment that Herod put on our Lord. 3. The Girdle is a cord passed round the waist and used for holding up the Alb. 4. The Maniple is a vestment whioh the priest carries upon his left arm. 0. The Stole is a vestment which the priest passes around his neck and crosses over his breast. The girdle, maniple, and stole represent the cords and bands with which our Lord was bound during His Passion. 6. The Chasuble, or outward vestment, represents the purple garment with which Jesus was clothed in derision as a mock king in the house of Pilate. Upon this garment is a large cross to remind us of that which Christ bore to Calvary. In these vestments the Church makes use of five colours, viz. (1) White on the feasts of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, of the angels, and of saints that were not martyrs. (2) Red on the feasts of Pentecost, of the finding and exaltation of the cross, and of the apostles and martyrs. (3) Purple, which is the penitential colour, is used in the penitential times of Advent and Lent, and upon Vigils and Emberdays. (4) Green on most other Sundays and ordinary days throughout the year. (5) Black on Good Friday and in Masses for the Dead. 7. The Corporal is a square piece of linen upon which the Host rests from the Offertory to the priest’s Com­ munion. �84 APPENDIX 3. The Pall is a square piece of linen, by which the cup of the chalice is covered. The corporal, the pall, and the altar-cloths, of which there are three represent the linen in which the dead body of Christ was shrouded and buried. 9. The Chalice is the cup which the priest uses at the altar, in which to consecrate, and from which to receive, the precious Blood of .our Lord. 10. The Paten is a golden plate upon which the priest puts the Host, which he offers and consecrates in the Mass. 11. The Ciborium is a sacred vessel resembling a chalice, closed with a lid, in which the Holy Eucharist is kept for the use of Communicants. 12. The Monstrance is a kind of portable tabernacle made in such a manner that the Blessed Sacrament may be distinctly seen by the faithful. This vessel is sometimes called the ‘ Remonstrance.’ 13. Lighted Candles are always uHon the altar during Mass (1) to honour the victory and triumph of Jesus by these lights, which are tokens of our joy and of His glory; and (2) to denote the light of faith with which we are to approach Him, and to signify that Christ is ‘the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.’ 14. The Missal is the Mass-book wherein the holy service is contained. 15. A small bell is occasionally rung during Mass to give notice to such as cannot see the altar of the more solemn parts of the sacrifice. 16. Incense is symbolical of prayer, according to the words of David: * Let my prayer, 0 Lord, be directed as in­ cense in Thy sight.’ The priest is incensed because he is the representative of Jesus Christ. To offer incense to a person was a mark of great honour among the ancients. 17. The Tabernacle Veil is to remind us of the presence of our Ijord i-n the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. �APPENDIX 85 THE HIERARCHY. Thb Church on earth is composed of two great parts, viz., those who teach, and those who are taught. The former consists of— L The Pope, who is the visible head of the Church, the successor of St. Peter and Bishop of Rome. His chief advisers are the Cardinals or princes of the Church. They are seventy in number, and mostly reside in the neighbourhood of the Holy See. The Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. 2. The Bishops, who are the successors of the Apostles. Each bishop rules a district called a diocese. Several dioceses form a province, and the Bishop who governs the chief diocese in the province is called an Archbishop. A diocese is divided into parishes or missions, in which live one, or two, or more priests. 3 The Priests are men who have received Holy Orders. A priest chosen to be Bishop is raised to this high office by consecration. The faithful in each parish or mission are under their priests, who have to preach the Word, administer the Sacraments, offer sacrifice, and direct in the way of salvation those committed to their charge. The priests are under their Bishops, and all the Bishops are under the Pope. There are several Popes who have occupied the pontifical throne over twenty-three years each. PRINCIPAL DEVOTIONS. 1. The Stations of the Cross is a devotional exercise in­ stituted as a means of helping us to meditate on, and have sympathy for, the sufferings of our Divine Lord. The early Christians had the deepest love and venera­ tion for those piaces made sacred by the sufferings and presence of Jesus Christ. Devout pilgrims went to the Holy Land, from the farthest narts of the earth, to visit �86 APPENDIX Jerusalem, the Garden of Olives, and Mount Calvary, To enoourage the piety and devotion of her children, the Church granted many and great indulgences to those who with true sorrow visited the scenes of our Lord’s Passion. Now there were many who wished to share in this devotion, as well as the spiritual blessings attached to it, but who, through various causes, were unable to do so; therefore the Church sanctioned the establishment in ohurches of the ‘Stations of the Cross,’ whioh are fourteen in number. The same indulgences are granted to persons who practise this devotion as are granted to those who visit the Holy Places. 2. The Three Sours’ Agony is a devotion specially prac­ tised on Good Friday, in honour of the three last hours of the life of our Lord, We meditate upon His sufferings on. the Cross, and upon His seven last words. The devo­ tion usually begins at twelve o’clock, the hour our Lord was nailed to the Cross, and finishes about three o’clock, being the time He died. 3. The Sacred Heart. We owe to the Sacred Heart of our Lord the same worship of adoration that we owe to His Humanity, for it is personally united to the Divinity. By practising this devotion, we honour the infinite love of the Heart of Jesus for all mankind, and, in some measure, repair the outrages to which He is exposed in the Blessed Eucharist. This devotion was revealed to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, of the monastery of Paray-le-Monial, who lived in the seventeenth century. This festival is kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. 4. The Five Wounds. We honour the Five Sacred Wounds of our Lord, and have devotion to them, because they are the channels through which the Prebious Blood flowed for our redemption. 5. The Precious Blood. We honour the Precious Blood of our Lord, and have devotion to it, because it is the price of our redemption, and our salvation is due to its merits. This festival is kept on the 1st of July. �APPENDIX 87 6. The ‘O.uarant’ * or ' Forty Hours’ ’ Prayer is a most Ore solemn form of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. This devotion was first instituted in Milan in 1534, and received the formal sanction of Pope Clement VIII. in 1592. It begins and ends with a High Mass and proces­ sion, and accompanied with particular prayers. 7. The Benediction is a short and less solemn kind of Ex­ position, which takes place after Mass sometimes, but usually after Vespers, or as an evening service. After the * Tantum Ergo’ has been sung, the priest makes the sign of the cross with the Blessed Sacrament over the people. 8. Vespers and Compline form a part of what is called the * Divine Office,’ which all priests are bound to say every day, and which is divided into seven hours or portions to be said at certain hours. Of these the evening hours are ‘Vespers,’ which means ‘evening’; and ‘Compline,’ which means ‘ finishing,’ because it finishes the Office. The order of Vespers is as follows: (1) Five psalms, with antiphons; (2) the Capitulum, or Little Chapter ; (3) a hymn; (4) Versicle and Response; (5) the Magnificat, with its antiphon; (6) the Prayer; (7) Conclusion, after which comes an anthem to the Blessed Virgin. Of these there are four, which are taken in turn according to the S6&S0Q The order of Complin is as follows : fl) The Confiteor, etc.; (2) three psalms, with one antiphon; (3) a hymn; (4) a little Chapter; (5) the song of holy Simeon, the ’’Nunc Dimittis ’; (6) the prayer ; (7) one of the four anthems used at Vespers. 9. The Angelas is a devotion in honour of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It consists of three versicles or little verses, each followed by a ‘ Hail Mary.’ .This devotion reminds us how the mystery of our Lord’s coming into this world was made known to Mary ; and how, on her giving her assent to be the Mother of God, the Incarna­ tion actually took place. It receives its name from the first word with which it commences. 10. The Rosary is an easy form of vocal and mental prayer in honour of our Lady. It is divided into three greater �88 APPENDIX parts, called respectively the Joyful, Sorrowful, nnd Glorious Mysteries. Each of these la again divided into five smaller parts, which commemorate some event eithei in the life of our Lord or in that of the Blessed Virgin. Whilst meditating upon each of these mysteries we say one ‘ Our Father,’ ten * Hail Marys,’ and one ‘ Glory be to the Father.’ The devotion was revealed by our Lady to S. Dominic in the thirteenth century whilst be was preaching to the Albigenses in France. There are several indulgences attached to its recitation, and a special festival has been instituted in its honour, which is kept on October 7th. There is another form of this devotion, called the ‘Living Rosary,’ which has many indulgences attached to it. The fifteen mysteries are divided among fifteen people. Each person says one mystery every day for a month, when a new distribution takes place for the next month, and so on throughout the year. In saying the Rosary it is the practice to use a set of beads made specially for this devotion, which help us to say the right number of ‘Hail Marys,’&e., without being distracted by counting, or thinking of the number. Indulgences may be gained by using blessed beads. 11. The Scapular consists of two square pieces of woollen stuff, joined to each other by two strings, so that one piece may hang over the breast, and the other over the back, of the wearer. It represents the habit, or dress of a religious order. The scapular must be blessed, and put on each person in due form, by those who have the right of investing with it. If the scapular i3 worn out, or lost, you may make another for yourself, and wear it with the same advantages and privileges as at first without having it newly blessed. This does not apply to the soapular of the Blessed Trinity, which must be blessed every time it is renewed. The scapulars are each made of a different coloured material. The following are the chief scapulars: (1.) The Scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel, the colour of which is BROWN, and is the one mostly in use. It was revealed by our Lady to 9. Simon Stock, superior of th« �APPENDIX 89 Carmelites, in the beginning of the thirteenth century. On the 16th of July, the day the vision took place, the Church keeps the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel. (2.) The Scapular of the Seven Dolours, the colour of which is BLACK, was founded in the thirteenth century by seven gentlemen residing in Florence, whom the Blessed Virgin herself, in a vision, ordered to wear a black habit in memory of her dolours. (3.) The Scapular of the Immaculate Conception, the colour of which is blue, was instituted by S. Cajetan of Vicenza, and by John Peter Caraffa, Archbishop of Chieti, who was afterwards Pope Paul IV., and died in 1559. (4.) The Scapular of the Blessed Trinity, the colour of which is white, was instituted in France in the twelfth century by S. John of Matha and S. Felix of Valois. To the latter our Lady herself appeared wearing this scapular. (5.) The Scapular of the Passion and of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the colour of which is RED, was re­ vealed to a nun belonging to the Sisters of Charity of S. Vincent de Paul by our Lord on the 26th of July 1846. Each of the above Scapulars is connected with some particular religious order. The brown scapular is con­ nected with the Carmelites ; the black with the Order of Servites; the blue with the Order of Theatines, or Clerks Regulars; the white with the Order of Trinitarians for the redemption of captives; and the red with the community of the Sisters of Charity of S. Vincent de Paul. A Scapular medal may now be worn in place of a Scapular. 12. The ‘Agnus Dei’ is a tablet of wax on which the figure of our Lord, as the 1 Lamb of God,’ is stamped. These tablets are solemnly blessed by the Pope, on the Saturday after Easter, in the first and every seventh year of his Pontificate. SACRAMENTALS AND CEREMONIES. Sacbamentals are certain pious practices and things which are not in themselves Sacraments, but bear a �9° APPENDIX kind of relation or resemblance to them. The principal difference between them is, that the Sacraments were instituted by our Lord as the channels of grace, which they give to all who receive them worthily; whereas the Sacramentals were instituted by the Church, and do not of themselves give grace, but produce their effects by the prayers and blessings of the Church, and depend chiefly on the pious intentions of the persons who make use of them. Religious ceremonies are certain signs or actions established by the Church for the more solemn celebra­ tion of the Divine Service. They assist us in elevating our souls to God and to the contemplation of holy things. They represent in a visible manner mysteries invisible in themselves, and thereby make it easier for us to meditate on them. The following are some of the principal Sacra­ mentals and Ceremonies:— 1. Holy Oils, which are employed in administering several of the Sacraments. They are of three kinds, viz., Oil of the Sick, which is used for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, and with which the different senses are anointed; Oil of Catechumens, which is used at Baptism, the person to be baptized being anointed with it on the breast and between the shoulders ; and Chrism, which is used at Confirmation, at the consecration of a Bishop, and of some things specially set apart for the service of God. The Holy Oils are all olive oil; but the Chrism is oil mixed with balsam. 3. Holy Water is natural water mixed with a little salt and blessed by a priest. It reminds us of our Baptism, and strengthens us against the evil of wicked spirits. It is in constant use among Catholics. We use it in going in and coming out of church: in the morning when we rise, and at night when we retire to rest. When we go to High Mass the first thing is the * Asperges,’ or sprink­ ling of the people with holy water by the priest, to re­ mind us that we should be pure and holy when we appear in the presence of God, and assist at Mass with attention, innocence, and piety. At the entrance of every Catholio church is placed a ‘ holy-water etoup,’ and whenever any­ thing is blessed it is almost always sprinkled with holy �APPENDIX 91 -water. Ever since the time of the Apostles holy water has been in use. Pope Alexander I., who was out the seventh Pope from S. Peter, makes mention of it in one of his epistles. 3. Blessed Candles. On the feast of the Purification candles are blessed before the Mass of the day and distributed among the people, and lighted and oarried in procession. This is to remind us that our Saviour, who is the light of the world, appeared for the first time on that day in the Temple. It is customary for Catholics to keep blessed candles and palm-branches in their houses. 4. Blessed Ashes. On Ash Wednesday ashes are blessed and placed on the foreheads of the people to remind them that they are only dust and ashes, and that they ought to enter upon the holy season of Lent, of which this is the first day, with a lnsmble and mortified spirit. 5. Blessed Palma. On Palm Sunday, the first dav of Holy Week, which is the name given to the week of our Lord’s Passion, branches of palm and of other trees are blessed and carried in procession to remind us of the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Some of these are afterwards burned to make the Ashos for the Ash Wednesday of the following year. 6. The Paschal Candle is blessed and set up on Holy Saturday, and is the first symbol placed before us on that day of our Saviour risen from the grave. The five grains of incense which are inserted represent t)ie five wounds of our Lord and the ‘ sweet spices' which em­ balmed His Body. This candle is lighted, duringthe time of the high Mass and Vespers ou Sundays and Festivals in Paschal time, to remind us of the apparitions which Christ made to His disciples during that period. 7. The Altar is the place of sacrifice—as it were, another Calvary whereon is celebrated the memorial of Christ’s passion and death by the pure and unbloody sacrifice of the Mass. It also represents the table used for the Last 8upper. �92 APPENDIX 8. The Crucifix, or image of our Saviour on the cross, is placed upon the altar, that, as the Mass is said there in remembrance of our Lord’s passion and death both the priest and the people may have before their eyes during this sacrifice the image which puts them in mind of those mysteries. ^h® Tabernacle contains our Lord really present under the appearance of bread in the consecrated Host; there­ fore we bend the knoe in homage and adoration when wa enter or depart from the church. ^^®en Lights set on a triangular figure on ednesday, Thursday, and Friday in Holy Week, during the office of Tenebrae, correspond to certain parts of the office. The triangular figure signifies that all light of grace and glory comes from the Blessed Trinity. The light put under the altar at the end of the office is to signify the burial of our Lord and the darkness that over­ spread the earth at His death. The noise made is to remind us of the earthquake and the rending of the veil of the Temple, which happened at the same time, IL The Drop of Water put into the wine in the chalice by the priest signifies the union of. the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ. 12. The Consecrated Elements are elevated by the priest in the Mass, to represent the elevation of the cross after our Lord was nailed to it. 13. The Blessing at the end of Mass by the priest represents the benediction which our Saviour gave to His disciples before He ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives. 14. The Latin Language is used in the celebration of Mass and most of the other ceremonies of the Western Church, in order that the service of God may be everywhere the same; that the same words and prayers may be used, in order to avoid the changes to which all living languages are so subject; that the Pastors in all countries may understand one another; and that Catholics passing from one country to another may have no difficulty in joining in the public service, it being the same everywhere. �APPENDIX 93 THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST, 1. Wisdom, which teaches us to direct our whole lives and actions to the honour of God and the salvation of our souls. 2. Understanding, which enables us to comprehend more perfectly the great mysteries of our faith. 3. Counsel, which leads us to make a right choice in things relating to our salvation, and to avoid the deceits of the devil. A Fortitude, whereby we are enabled to undergo and despise all dangers for God s sake, and to be firm and constant in the performance of our Christian duties. 5. Knowledge, by which we know and understand the wil] of God, and learn the duties of religion, and distinguish good from evil. 6. Piety, which makes us devout and zealous in the service of God, and faithful to Him in all things, and put the duties of our religion in practice. 7. Fear of the Lord, which checks our rashness, keeps us from sin, and makes us obedient to the law of God, and dread ever offending him. THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST. L Charity, which enables us to love God above all things, and our neighbours as ourselves, for God 8 sake. 2. Joy, which enables us to serve God with cheerful hearts. 8. Peace, which keeps us unmoved in our minds, and helps us to enjoy a perpetual calmness of conscience, in the midst of the storms and tempests of the world. 4. Patience, which enables us to suffer willingly and with resignation all the trials of this life for the love of God. 5. Longanimity, by which we persevere steadfastly in our duty ; and never stop or grow weary whatever trials wa may have to endure. �94 APPENDIX 6. Goodness, by which we avoid injuring others, and are always ready to be of servioe to others. 7. Benignity, which causes us to conduct ourselves towards others with kindness and sweetness of temper, both in our manners and conversation. A Mildness, which keeps back all motions of passion and anger, and makes a person really amiable, and beloved both by God and man. 9. Fidelity, which enables us to keep to our engagements and fulfil our promises. ■ 10. Modesty, which enables us to observe a becoming deportment and reservation in all our outward actions, and avoid bestowing an undue amount of' praise upon ourselves. 11. Continence, which enables us to restrain and resist carnai inclinations, and become abstemious both in our meat and drink. 12. Chastity, by which we are enabled to keep a pure soul in a pure body, and have a great love ana esteem for angelic purity. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND TRADITION. The Holy Scripture, or Bible, is the written word of God. From the beginning the Church has considered the Holy Scriptures as a treasure entrusted to her keeping. The Bible is divided into the Old and the New Testaments. 1. The Old Testament, which consists of twenty-one Historical Books, relating to the history of the early ages of the world, or to that of the Jewish nation; seven Moral Books, consisting of prayers and holy maxims ; and seventeen Books of Prophecies. The Historical Books are: The Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, vis., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num­ bers, Deuteronomy; the Book of Josue; the Book of Judges ; th a Book of Ruth ; the four Books of Kings; th * �APPENDIX two Books of Chronicles or of Paralipomenon; the Book of Esdras ; the Book of Nehemias ; the Book of Tobias ; the Book of Judith; the Book of Esther; and the two Books of the Maccabees. TAe Moral Books are : The Book of Job; the Psalms; the Proverbs; Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher; the Canticle of Canticles; the Book of Wisdom ; and Ecclesiasticus. The Books of Prophecies are those of Isaias, Jeremias, Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, and Malachy. 2. The New Testament, which consists of the four Gospels, or histories of the life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, viz., the Gospel of S. Matthew, that of S. Mark, that of S. Luke, and that of S. John ; of the Acts of the Apostles, by S. Luke; of fourteen Epistles of S. Paul, viz., one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon, and one to the Hebrews ; of one Epistle of S. James, two Epistles of S. Peter, three Epistles of S. John, and one Epistle of S. Jude, and the Book of the Apocalypse. It belongs to the Church alone to explain to us the meaning of the Holy Scriptures. rradition consists of the truths of the Catholic Faith revealed by Jesus Christ to His Apostles, and handed down to us through the teaching of the Church and the writings of the holy Fathers and Doctors. The Fathers and the Doctors of the Church were men distinguished by their writings in explanation or in defence of Revela­ tion. Some of the chief ones among them were the following: 8. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, who endured from the Arians a long and severe persecution in defence of the true faith ; died A.D. 373. <8. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea; d. 379. S. Gregory Nazianzen; d. 389. 8. John Chrysostom; d. 407. S. Cyril of Alexandria; d. 444. S. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan; d. 397. S. Jerome; d. 420. 8. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa; d. 430. Pope 8. Leo the Great; �<;6 d. 461. (O.S.B.), Aquinas d. 1274. Liguori; APPENDIX S. Gregory the Great; d. 604. S Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux; d. 1153. <S. Thomas (O.P.); d. 1272. S. Bonaventure (O.S.F.); B. Francis of Sales; d. 1622. S. Alphonsut d. 1787. FORM OF CONFESSION. After you have prayed to God for His grace to help you (o make a good confession, and carefully examined your conscience, repeat the Act of Contrition; then enter the Confessional, and, kneeling down, make the sign of the Cross, and say: ‘ Pray, father, give me your blessing, for I have sinned.’ Then say the ‘ Confiteor ’ down to ‘ through my most grievous fault.’ After you have done this, tell the priest how long it is since your last confession, and accuse yourself of your sins, taking care to tell, to the best of your recollection, the number of times you have committed each, or any circumstance which may add to its guilt. When you have told all your sins, say : ‘ For these, and all my other sins which I cannot recollect, 1 most humbly ask pardon of God, and penance and absolution of you, my ghostly father.” The priest will give you a penance, which you must take care to perform in due time and in a penitential spirit. He will then pronounce over you the words of absolution, during which you will say the Act of Contrition, and afterward leave the confessional, and give God thanks for having allowed you to partake of the ^race of this great Sacrament. Made and printed in Great Britain. �O SALUTARIS. 1 O salutaris Hostla, Quw coeli pandis ostium ; Bella premunt hostiha, Da robur, for auxilium. 2. Uni trinoque Domino Sit sempiterna gloria, Qui vitam sine termino Nobis donet in patria. Amen. LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. I Bancta Dei Genitrix, I Sancta Virgo Virginum, I Mater Christi, I Mator divinte gratia, .Mater purissima, f Mater castissima, Mater inviolate, Mater in ternerata, Mater amabilis, Mater admirabilis, Mater boni coneilil, ! F® a Vas honorabile, Vas insigne devotionis, Rosa mystica, Tunis Davidica, Tunis eburnea, Domus aurca, Foederis area, Janua coeli, Stella matutina, Salus infirmorum. Refugium peccatorum, Consolatrix affllctorum, Auxilium Christianorum, Regina Angelorum, Regina Patriareliarum, Regina Prophetarum, Regina Apostolorum, Regina Martyrum, Regina Confessorum, Regina Virginum, Regina Sanctorum omnium, Regina sine labe originali concepts, Regina Sacratissimi Rosarli, Regina pacts, Agnus Del, qul tollls peccata mundi, Parce nobls Domine. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Exaudi nos Domine. Agnus Dei, qul tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis. V. Ora pro nobls, sancta Del Genitrix. R. Ut dignl efficlamur promissionibus Christi. Ora pro nobii. ■ Kyrie eloieon. ' Christe eleison. ■ Kyrie eleison. ; Christo audi nos. Christe exaudi nos. Pater de ca-lis Dene, Pill Redemptor mundi Deus, ■Spiritus Sancte Deus, I Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, J fiancta Marla, O 3 •d 3 SS o op Mater Oreatoris, TANTUM ERGO. Mater Balvatoris, 1. Tantum ergo Sacramentum 2. Genltori, Genltoque, VirgoVeneremur cernul: prudentissima, Laus et jubilatio, J Virgo veneranda,documentum Et antiquum Salus, honor, virtue quoquo I VirgoNovo cedat ritui: prredicanda, Sit et benedictio, I Virgo potens, supplementum Prwstet tides Precedent! ab utroque I VirgoSensuum defcctul. clemens. Compar sit laudatio. Amen. | Virgo Fanem de ccbIo prsestitistl < V, fidelis, B ■senium injustiti®, Speculum se habentem. [Alleluia,•Is. [Alleluia.] B. Omne deleota' Bedes sapien ti®, ■ Causa nostr® lastitia, I Vas spirituals, �PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS, AND COMPLETE CHURCH FURNISHERS COMMUNION & CONFIRMATION MEMORIALS. CRUCIFIXES. To Wear, to Hang, or to Stand. An unrivalled selection at all prices. FRAMED PICTURES. At 9d., Is. 9d , 2s., 4s., 8s., and upwards. Largest selection in Great Britain. GUILD BADGES. Large variety kept. Special Dies cut to order. HOLY WATER FONTS. China from Is. each ; White and Gilt, Is. Sd. upwards. MEDALS of every description and in all metals. Miraculous from l.Jd. per doz. Children of Mary from ljd. each. The New Scapular Medal from Id. upwards. PICTURES FOR DISTRIBUTION. Is. 6d., 28., 2s. 6d., per hundred. ROSARIES. Cocoa, Cocotine, and in Colours. At 3d., 4d., 6d., 13. each. Silver mounted, from 2s. upwards. ROSARY CASES. Ed, 6d., 8d., 9d., 10d., Is. to Is. 6d. each. SACRED HEART BADGES. Jd. and id. each. SCAPULARS. All kinds at Id., 2d., and 3d. each. STATUES. Plaster. At Is., Is. 6d., 2s., etc. Coloured Plaster, 3s. 6d.., 43. £d., 6s., and upwards. LONDON: 28 ORCHARD ST.. W. 8-io PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. BIRMINGHAM GLASGOW MANCHESTER 74 Bridge St. 39 John Bright St. 248 Buchanan St. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Victorian Blogging Description An account of the resource A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library &amp; Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Conway Hall Library & Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Conway Hall Ethical Society Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Pamphlet Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The explanatory catechism of Christian doctrine, chiefly intended for the use of children in Catholic schools, with an appendix Description An account of the resource Place of publication: London Collation: 96 p. ; 12 cm. Notes: Part of the NSS pamphlet collection. Publisher's series list on back page. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource [n.d.] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context N213 Subject The topic of the resource Catholic Church Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource [Unknown] Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The explanatory catechism of Christian doctrine, chiefly intended for the use of children in Catholic schools, with an appendix), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Catholic Church-Catechisms-English Catholic Church-Doctrines NSS Religious Education https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/f88e6bef2d7dcff3d14f3552a7d6ba66.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=u9XHAT9iX%7E8-ZXWyM76MJAUgCb-2B-rBE%7Eg%7EkGm1EImc%7ESPRRbn2svI2cT2Z5cfTtDOkKirjd5MqjNrSi2Qqspr1we%7ESEQCAsB4u8JAy4ZZlbEq7LIVd9TKpt0DmTJ3VhIuWgL5eWT1cxBOwNbIZVVAIvpDS%7EIWx-DGCEvzJYjQI4SYcJwOleQabSl%7EmQIrP4ecHhomB0V2tCxlGFYZeZ24VGwVi9xGC4R8wX51KO5gYq5wE2Kq8NTjll4R%7EsyPW6ZOuilGHGCxu5%7EVFYxAH207x5Jcs3mDaCGFVjKF4lm8hSBMcB7AFzIIc-fBqzHpMbSMx9YT4aIzBwn1JhCKzkA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 1ab8aaeeb79862238851f5873ec20850 PDF Text Text Z'K/V • VATICAN DECREES AND THE “EXPOSTULATION.” BY ROBERT RODOLPH SUFFIELD, Minister of the Free Christian Church, Wellesley Road, Croydon; formerly Apostolic Missionary and Prefect of the “Guard of Honour;" Author of several Pamphlets in this Series. PUBLISHED BY TEUBNER AND CO., 57 AND 59 LUDGATE HILL ; AND THOMAS SCOTT, 11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E. 1874. Price Sixpence. •’V �■t f LONDON: PRINTED BY C. W. REYNELL, 16 LITTLE PULTENEY STREB' HAYMARKET, W. �PREFACE. Since the appearance of Mr. Gladstone’s “ Expos­ tulation,” I have been repeatedly asked to express my opinions as to the political bearing of the Vatican decrees. The subject is of an extent and complication beyond the limits of a pamphlet; but as some friends are partial enough to urge me to make known, at least in a general way, something of the result of my thoughts and experience, I can no longer consistently maintain the silence which I should prefer. Though after the thoughtful and accurate statements which have emanated from Mr. Gladstone, Lord Acton, Lord Camoys, the Right Rev. Monsignore Capel, the Very Rev. Monsignore Patterson, and the able com­ ments upon the same in our leading periodicals, I have little to add beyond the expression of my per­ sonal experience ; the quotations, which at the request of the same parties are appended to this brochure, will explain to strangers my profound personal inte­ rest in a question which has so intimately affected my own life. ��THE VATICAN DEGREES AND THE “EXPOSTULATION.” EOPLE cannot be allowed the pleasure of at the same time affirming and denying a conviction. The Neo-Catholics, headed by the Pope, and in England by Archbishop Manning, declare the Vatican decrees to be an undoubted expression of the Divine will. The Old Catholics, represented by such men as Bishop Reinkins, Dr. Dollinger, and Lord Acton, declare them to be merely the utterances of what Dr. Newman designated “ an aggressive and insolent faction.” The Vatican Council is either ecumenic or schismatic. Skilful men can find reasons on either side, and consistent men may act out either conclu­ sion. The Old Catholics deny the infallibility of the Vatican Council. The Neo-Catholics affirm its infallibility. Learning has ranged itself on the side of the “ Old ” Catholics; diplomacy on the side of the “ New.” The Roman Catholic Church has disappeared; the Vatican Church has supplanted it. We have too much appreciation of the learning of the “ Old ” Catholics, and the diplomatic ambition of the ecclesi­ astical rulers of the “ New,” to be able to regard as a nonentity that momentous revolution. When men the wealth of whose virtues and learning had enriched the Papal cause could, in advanced years, sorrow­ fully permit the Pope and some millions of adherents to leave them, at once warning and anathematized— P �4 ^he Vatican Decrees warning those who leave, anathematized by those who have left;—when acute diplomatists like Dr. Man­ ning urge on a revolution with all the ardour inspired by ambition, and in presence of the sorrow­ ful laments and pathetic warnings of men who had grown old in the service of a cause then about to die,—surely a nonentity was just the last event contemplated by anyone. The Old Catholics and New Catholics alike beheld in that revolution the inauguration of a new era of individual absolutism, to be established as the embodiment of the Divine will; and in the name of religion, of liberty, of humanity, the Old Catholics raised their protest. In the name of Pius IX. and of possession, the New Catholics raised the war cry, which died off into a perpetual anathema. Those men who contended on the battle-field of thought, of history, of diplo­ macy, until the fatal victory of July, 1870, were not children contending for baubles : they were men who entered the lists. Some contended for truth, others fought for power. The triumphant faction being in possession of the Vatican, in possession of the Episcopal Sees, in the possession of the ecclesiastical edifices, retained easily power over the masses. What they sought, they have obtained. Whenever their chief ruler issues any declaration which he means to be infallible, it is infallible. Should any voice, retaining a ring of the accents of liberty, dare to say, “The subject on which you have decreed is out of - the range of faith and morals, so you only therein .decree as a man;” the Ruler replies, “You have ; accepted as Divine the Vatican decrees; you therein -declared that you will be accursed, and forfeit your eternal salvation, unless you inwardly believe and heartily accept, and outwardly in practice conform to that belief, that the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff is over all the Faithful individually and collectively; that his authority compels your entire and unreserved �and the “Expostulation.” 5 obedience, not only in matters appertaining to faith and morals, but also in all those that.appertain to the discipline and government of the Church. You have declared your internal assent to the Divine decree, whereby you learn that this power is from God, represents God, is full and supreme, and not merely of inspection and direction; that it is superior to all other power, extends everywhere, must never be controlled, must always enjoy free and immediate communication with its subjects wherever they may be; that its judgments may never be reviewed, appealed against, or disregarded; that to it alone it apper­ tains to declare what belongs to its jurisdiction and what domains of thought and of action (if any) are exempt from its infallible utterances.” Obviously the Vatican faction could not regard as meaningless and powerless such expressions, cau­ tiously worded and decreed after mature deliberation. Their promulgation was enjoined. The Vatican party must not be surprised if those who protested against their formation desire their promulgation. What can be done, what was meant to be done, what will be done, we want all men to know I Vatican diplomacy, having obtained the weapons, would rather that the Faithful alone, and they but gradually, should realise the weight of the sceptre which they have forged and feebly yielded to an Italian priest. But we would rather know and feel the metal of the weapon pre­ pared for us. A sword sheathed in velvet is still a sword. Chains concealed in the intentions of a pre­ late, still are chains. They are meant for us, and we should like to handle them. We have been recently somewhat naively told that they will be “ convenient.” Doubtless ; therefore the more that is known about them the better. In a docile school the boys collect the birch rods, and with wondering fear feel their substance, and speculate on their effects. If the scholars become too frightened, should panic threaten an in­ �6 Hhe Vatican Decrees convenient outbreak, the master and ushers will pru­ dently explain that the rods will be hardly ever used; that they are merely symbols of authority, quite harmless, almost pleasant; that obviously it can make no difference whether the rods are in the school-room or on the trees ; they were only gathered at the urgent request of the boys. All very good ; but still a boy might like to know that they are there, are meant to be used, and will be used. In former times we English people knew what the Popes could effect amongst those who revered in him a Divine primacy, but not a Divine individual, irre­ sponsible infallibility. What is prepared for ns now, when the Papal authority is declared to be absolute, immediate, personal—when his utterances must be believed as well as obeyed ? Now that a circle of hell­ fire is drawn around the Papal subject, he must either, like the Salamander, kill his mental liberty, or live for ever in the flames. People have said, Why in this country, at a time of profound peace, when all the Vatican Catholics are living in undoubted loyalty— why call attention to the Vatican decrees when they are consoling Roman prelates and harming no one ? We reply, It is just the time when we should examine the weapons forged for emergencies. If the English people were in times of excitement to realise the mag­ nitude of the triumphant revolution, we cannot tell to what excesses some amongst them might be driven. Those principles of religious equality which we have been slowly conquering by the patient energy of men whose passion is for justice might have been pushed back for generations into the dregs of a cowardly and insane persecution. All men, of whatever creed, Roman or the opposite, ought to rejoice that this sub­ ject should have been brought to the front and can­ vassed at a moment when it appeals to no triumphant bigotries. I am convinced that nothing can better secure our Roman countrymen in England than what �and the “Expostulation.” 7 is now taking place. Let all men realise what must and ought to be the line of action of a consistent sup­ porter of the Vatican Church, as contrasted with the position of the Old Catholics; let all men, having rea­ lised it, know what to expect; let all then renew within their minds the intense conviction that under no cir­ cumstances whatsoever must opinions be punished; that the State has only to deal with actions, and amongst actions only with those which obviously affect the commonwealth ; then we shall be strong to resist and to suppress that hurricane of anti-Roman indignation which will soener or later arise, and which might carry away many of our great principles of liberty, if we were not prepared to meet it by a recog­ nition of the causes exciting it. No controversialist could have caught the public ear and instructed the public mind. The foremost man in England alone could do it; the statesman, rich in scholarship and in thought, representing in his own person whatever is the highest in culture, the most illustrious in our national traditions, the most reverent, religious, and tolerant in character; he, the near relative of one Roman Catholic, the inti­ mate friend of many, was, above all others, the man to speak. Judging by the standard of expediency, his words may politically injure him; judging by the standard of rectitude, his Expostulation ” will be recorded amongst the most honourable deeds of an honourable career. Many will have cause to rejoice at it; but, above all, must we, the disciples of Reli­ gious Equality, rejoice that the people of England should have been instructed in the words and bearing of the Vatican Decrees when that instruction could be received quietly, take its place in the public mind harmlessly and prepare us against contingencies wisely. As to explanations, there are none to give. Some Roman Catholics, like Sir George Bowyer, �8 The Vatican Decrees may not as yet understand the Decrees, and may, in consequence of their known spirit of submission, be allowed to write condemned propositions publicly, trusting to their private repentance in the Con­ fessional. But the common sense of the people of England will easily perceive that the question is not whether now the Pope may be enforcing loyalty or not, but what all consistent subjects of the Vatican Church must do when the Pope may enforce another course. Regarding that, there can be no question. Catholics will divide between those who accept the Vatican Decrees and those* who reject them; the latter will practically be in the same position as all the Episcopal Churches, independent of Rome, e.g., the Greek, Russian, English, American, and German. In saying that, we can easily surmise the future action of Neo-Catholics as to Papal Decrees hostile to our national interests. I do not mean to state that their constant obedience to the Pope can be always depended upon by him. Men do not always act in accordance with their convictions, even under pain of certain eternal damnation. But we must not forget that no Neo-Catholic can approach the Sacraments if he be engaged in any line of action forbidden by the Pope; and all Catholics deem the Sacraments essen­ tial to salvation ; moreover, disobedience to the Pope in a grave matter would be understood to be invariably a mortal sin. A soldier dying in a forbidden service knows that he perishes for ever in Hell. It may be said, practically, the Pope will probably not frequently interfere—that will depend—one fact let us remem­ ber, the Pope does not show much interest in matters of merely personal or public virtue—he seldom thinks it worth his while to issue a Decree against drunk­ enness and such like faults. When dignified eccle­ siastics in this country have taken up such merely moral questions, it has been well known that it has been chiefly to prevent the cause falling into the �and the “Expostulation” 9 exclusive hands of Protestants. But the questions connected with Papal power have never been allowed to sleep. During the last years, Boman Catholics have felt as if all religion and morality depended upon the success of Papal political schemes. All the action of the Pope has been to concentrate power in himself, and to make it daily felt. His chief representatives in England and Ireland have been appointed by the Pope, in defiance of the wishes of the Faithful and their clergy, and without the concurrence of one single national vote. Regulations of a most arbitrary cha­ racter as to marriage and education have been insti­ tuted and enforced, in opposition to the wishes, in­ terests and customs of the Faithful concerned. It rends one’s memories to think of the noblehearted Roman Catholics of England, representatives of ancient traditions of religion and of loyalty, their lives as blameless and as beautiful as the poetic legends of their Faith—they truthfully, through their vicars apostolic, disowned all those Papal claims which though often advanced and often recognised, were not those “ Of Faith ”—on the strength of their honest disclaimer they were restored to rights which they ought never to have lost, and all the Liberals of England rejoiced on that day when, in the Palace of Westminster, the Roman Catholic nobles re-entered the ancient hall, on each side of which the peers arose to greet, them, the bearers of historic names, the re­ presentatives of great traditions,—a principle greater than all traditions arose and bade them welcome—it was the principle of Religious Equality 1 What have those men done, to use the eloquent plaint of Dr. Newman, that the hearts of the just should be made sad ? Rome, ever reckless of honour when power can be grasped 1 what was it to Rome, that these sons of crusaders and of martyrs had, on the strength of her silence, plighted a word higher than the word of any creed—the word of an English gentleman—and by �IO The Vatican Decrees that word disowned and denied all the usurped pre­ tensions of Rome. When the convenient time arrived, a power that has never kept its word, com­ pelled English gentlemen to violate theirs, to recant all that they had said—it was the very triumph of the Priest over the Man I—like the tyrant general who seduced the honour of a virgin, and then presented to her dishonoured gaze the corpse of the father she had fondly hoped to have saved. The Roman Catholic gentlemen yielded their honour to save their Church —the Pope has presented to them as a corpse the Church for which they interceded. It is idle to point to the deeds of English Roman Catholics in the days of old. In July, 1870, Italian Priests and their coadjutors slew the old Church, and intoned over it the Requiem. You find that Requiem in the Vatican Decrees. Formerly, in periods of discord, many Roman Catholics always sided with the Pope, because they revered the primacy of his dignity, the sacredness of his origin, and recognised him as the centre of the Church’s unity ; other Roman Catholics disobeyed him, resisted him, besieged his capital, and yet, approaching the Sacraments, lived and died in union with the Roman Church and its creed, but resisting as exaggerated, or criminal, or unpatriotic, actions and commands of the Roman Pontiff. All that is past. The Pope was not satisfied with the willing service of the free—some to obey, others to oppose—and yet all to be one with him in Faith and Sacraments. Those mystic rites, tokens of spiritual memories, must wait upon diplomacy, and be subject to his temporal ambitions. Have all, or none. No wonder that in many an English Roman Catholic home—many an old home of chivalry, faith,.and honour—a sorrowful choice presented itself; accustomed to regard visible unity with the Pope as essential to salvation, some accepted the Papal Sacraments and slavery, others �v^ppaF*' • .. A't^V^.’T*. - • <f ’ '*..- ' »/??, and the “Expostulation.” •’.*\;'/"r 7£ W 11 sought Free Sacraments and personality, and in so seeking they deemed the “ Free ” more Christian, more Catholic than the “ Papal.” The men on each side we honour, but let us not amidst our sentiments of homage to conscientiousness—nay, may I add, to memory and to affection—let us not forget that the Catholics, divided now into the Vatican and the Old, represent different principles, opposing positions. The Vatican faction has triumphed, and has suc­ ceeded in establishing all the principles the most fatal to the development of the human mind, of human society, of religion, -of morals, of science, of rational liberty. There is no explaining away what has been done—either embrace it or disown it. Mr. Gladstone’s “ Expostulation ” may display to view a few of those on either side. But the side taken is really to be easily discovered by a more obvious test. Who receives Sacraments from a Neo-Catholic priest ? Who refuses so to do ? The statements in Mr. Glad­ stone’s “ Expostulation ” are so cautiously accurate, that I need only refer to them; but we must remem­ ber that the Vatican Decree is retrospective. The “ Encyclical ” has become a compendium of articles of faith; and every cause dear to a patriot and a man of justice is cursed by its inhuman decrees. You mock us with Italian irony, when in the presence of the civilised world you first solemnly anathematise science, civilisation, progress, and equal rights, when you refuse your Sacraments and paternal fellowship to those who cannot mentally believe the truth or justice of your anathemas. When you declare that those who cannot worship with you have no right to worship anywhere; have, in fact, no rights outside the walls of a prison or the steps of a scaffold, to which you declare that your Church has divine power to commit them; and then, when we read your decrees and your admonition to civil governors to aid their execution, and we read your own solemn utterances �12 The Vatican Decrees and tremble for the liberties which may be subjected to your keeping—the liberty of the individual, the liberty of the family, the liberty of the State, the liberty of education, of science, of conscience—and deliberate how we can preserve our liberty and honour without violating yours, you assume the air of injured innocence and wonder that we should call attention to what really meant nothing at all, but that, as we seem annoyed, you will put your heads together, give us a nice explanation—a pill so care­ fully sugared that even a Cardinal could swallow it. But we say, we have had your explanations, you thought about them well enough, you have promul­ gated them to the world, we will learn your mind from the words which you say are inspired—the words of your Encyclicals and Vatican Decrees—not from words which you can repudiate as soon as they have succeeded in blinding. The indignant mind of Europe has caught you “in flagrante delicto,” and you turn round with a surprised smile and tell us you meant no harm; you have taken bigotry, and into­ lerance, and arrogance into your counsels, and com­ bined together in a conspiracy against humanity—we detect you, and you say, “ be quiet—what have we done ? ” You send over your prelates to this England of ours, and they talk glibly about liberty of worship, and liberty of conscience, and liberty of speech, and liberty of the press, and liberty of education, and liberty of investigation, when they know—and now we know—that they mean liberty for their own worship, conscience, speech, education and press, but ana­ themas against any one who dares even to think that such liberty ought to belong to others. You forget that our passionate devotion to the liberties you anathematise are alone the cause why the Liberals of England, headed by their great Statesman, declare —“ Your equal liberties shall remain inviolate, by virtue of the very principles you declare to be �and the “Expostulation? 13 accursed.” Having said that, and meaning to act upon it, and determined not to be driven from it by any foreign or domestic influence, we have surely proclaimed all that the very chivalry of principle can demand. But you can expect no more. If a body of Puritans had existed in Rome in the days of the Papal sovereignty; if they had in solemn conclave declared that they regarded the Pope as anti-Christ, and all his followers accursed by God and to be repudiated by man, that no Roman Catholic ought to be allowed any religious educational liberty— that the Puritan conclave had a Divine right to extir­ pate all such liberties—that it was the duty of the civil power to enforce whatever action the aforesaid conclave deemed prudent to enact, with the view of forcibly destroying the existence of the Roman Catholic religion—that Roman Catholics possess no rights, but may be tolerated when toleration becomes a regretable necessity. Suppose these Puritans to have received civil rights because the Pope imagined their principles of hostility to have merged into merely religious and theoretical difference, the Puritans de­ claring such to be the case, and repudiating the state­ ments attributed to them which had been subversive of civil loyalty; supposing that a few years afterwards these Roman Puritans met together, and declare that all the opinions ever taught by their wildest divines were part of the Gospel message; that they now solemnly proclaim them as absolutely true, and held firmly by all who join them ; that they have placed themselves, for the protection of their principles, under the control of the Emperor of Germany; that at present they are perfectly satisfied with their posi­ tion, and perfectly loyal. What would have been the attitude of the Pope ? Prisons and scaffolds would reply. But suppose the Pope to have been a secret heretic, and, therefore, at liberty to follow the nobler inspirations of conscience—suppose him to have an unbounded confidence in the strength of his position �14 ’The Vatican Decrees and the final, though often remote, triumph of the Right; but suppose him also to be a man capable of appreciating what is demanded by self-respect and by regard to the feelings of the loyal. What then would have been his policy ? Would he have invited to his more secret counsels Puritans known to maintain the entire and universal supremacy of the German Emperor ? Would he have recognised the Puritan emissaries appointed by the Emperor for the super­ vision of his Roman subjects, especially if the Em­ peror had publicly claimed him as his own subject ? Would he invariably have taken the dictation of the German emissary as to the chaplains for the Roman army and Roman prisons P Would the citizens of Rome have felt anxious to show special social con­ sideration to the German emissary, whose chief func­ tion it would be to keep the Puritans thoroughly loyal to the Emperor, and ready to obey him when­ ever occasion might demand ? If the Pope had so acted in moments of weakness and romance, he would have retraced his steps as soon as he recovered his selfrespect ; if a secret heretic, and so able to act nobly, he would not begin to persecute the Puritans; he would permit the Emperor to appoint his own emis­ saries over the Puritan schools, Puritan institutions, Puritan chapels, Puritan conclaves ; but he would not permit the Emperor to appoint his own nominees to public institutions, and then undertake to pay them ; such refusal would not necessarily be the result of fear, but of consistency and self-respect, and from a conscientious desire not to encourage by favouritism the further encroachments and pretensions of the German Emperor. He would feel it due to his own subjects, not to go out of his way to place in office of power and of public trust those who continued obviously to treat him as inferior to the Emperor. But if he perceived other Puritans who maintained their inde­ pendence of the decrees of the conclave, and though �and the “Expostulation.” 15 sympathising with the Emperor on account of simi­ larity of creed, yet obviously regretting his claims to supremacy in all causes over the Emperor, the Pope would treat such Puritans like any other of his subjects, without adverting in public action to their difference of creed. Such, I presume, ought to be our line of action , as to the foreign potentate who has recently claimed. Supremacy over all the baptised amongst our country­ men. We ought to ignore utterly and entirely all the Papal claims, and Papal emissaries, as such. A Papal Archbishop should be to us simply an English citizen, or, if a foreigner, a foreign visitor, and nothing more; we ought not, on the ground of his being a Papal prelate, to confer with him, and to arrange appoint­ ments, or accept his appointments, and ask the wishes of his foreign sovereign. To do so is contrary to self-respect—to the national honour. If we had been as anxious to consult the feelings and wishes of the Irish people, and of the labouring classes of England, as we have been anxious to defer to the wishes of an Italian prelate, we should have but little discontent in either country. Statesmen of large sympathies have thought that they would be above all things pleasing the English Roman Catholics and the Irish people by finding out what would please the Pope, and doing it. Oh, marvellous simplicity! Do not the Irish remember full well that a Pope gave Ireland to an English conqueror. That a Pope sent over a Cardinal to help the English Government to suppress national aspifations which were regarded with apprehension at Rome ? Cardinal Cullen does not enjoy the confidence of the Irish people; the prelate they adore is the one who voted against the Papal infallibility, an Archbishop whom the Pope would depose if he dared. When he dies, he will probably be succeeded by some docile canonist forawhom no Irishman has voted. Dr. Cullen was appointed’by �i6 The Vatican Decrees Rome without the concurrence of the Irish clergy. His objects are of a very matron-like character, and not at all representative of the wishes of the Irish people. If we want to legislate with a view to the wishes and feelings and real living interests of the Irish people, we must not ask the guidance of any Roman Cardinal. The Irish ask for national equality, and we offer them a “ concession ” about the normal schools, or invite a Papal prelate to meet a Princess, and give him precedence over whatever might have represented the national aspirations. The Irish people ask for liberty, and you give them chaplains. The Irish ask for extension of the franchise, repeal of penal enactments, a national militia, and a local Parliament, and you say we cannot do those things for you, but we will pay your chaplains, and confer with your venerated Bishops as to any other conces­ sion they may deem desirable. I do not venture on this occasion an opinion whether or not the real wishes of the Irish people can be accepted or not; I merely, for my present purpose say, if you want to ' conciliate the Irish people you will not do so by fawn­ ing upon the Pope and the clergy: they have their objects; the Irish people have other objects. When shall we give to nations the equal rights which we more than give to the emissaries of a foreign power ? Surely the loyalty of a nation is of more consequence than the purchased conventional loyalty of a priest­ hood. But it may be said, anyhow in England, the way to conciliate the gentry is to make much of the Papal prelates. First of all I would say the English Roman Catholic gentlemen needed no conciliation ; they were loyal to the backbone; they had everything to lose and nothing to gain by any change—any possible change. When the Vatican Decrees were issued, about two dozen men, distinguished by intellect, character, and culture, refused submission, and thus virtually �and the “Expostulation.” *7 assumed the position of “ Old Catholics,” like, for instance, Lord Acton, the best-read Catholic in Eng­ land. But most of the Catholics adopted the new dogma. Thus the Roman Catholics recognised by Catholic emancipation are now represented by only a few honoured names, but very small in number, probably such as Lord Camoys, Lord Acton, Petre, Trevelyan, Simeon, Riddell, Oxenham, Thynne, Wetherall, Hernans, Blenherhasset, Maskell, Charlton, and some others. The Catholics who have embraced the new Catholicism are numerous and submissive; they deserve our high personal admiration, for their change, along with all their prelates, was most natural to expect, and undoubtedly as conscientious on their part as the action of the more learned of the laity who remained “ Old Catholics.” But it must not be sup­ posed that the New Catholics are, generally speaking, grateful to Dr. Manning and the Papal faction for the revolution brought, numerically, to so successful an issue by their ecclesiastical tactics. English Catholics have undoubtedly been more interested in ecclesiastical matters than in political or national, and thus they have been easily led over into the Papal camp which their fathers renounced at the emancipa­ tion ; but they inherit, along with all the old English virtues, the old English contempt for Italian domina­ tion. Our Government would have pleased English Catholics better if there had been less courting of ecclesiastics appointed by Rome, less seeking to carry out mere ecclesiastical polity. Any one intimate with the English Roman Catholic tone of thought must be full well aware how bitterly English gentlemen have bent beneath the yoke. It is worthy of note that Dr. Manning was nominated Archbishop by the Pope against the wish of the whole of the Diocesan Chapter. Not one vote was given for him. The English Roman Catholic families, grieved at his appointment, knew what it meant, feared the results, �i8 'Dhe Vatican Decrees dreaded the priestly yoke and the papal absolutism ; but, taught to submit, they did submit. It does not follow that we need submit likewise. Truthfulness, dignity, consistency, demand from us that we ignore a Neo-Catholicism which we have never nationally recognised. I am aware that for a time we may be hampered by the grave political difficulty of being bound to show special favour to the Episcopal Church of England, and that the Neo-Catholics may justly say, as you devote large sums of money to promote worship and education, according to the principles of Protestant or Ritualistic Anglicanism, as the case may be, why should you not continue to pay the Vicars Apostolic appointed by the Pope in some of our colonies ? Why not continue the payment of Neo-Catholic chaplains throughout India, in the Army, and elsewhere ?—why not'perpetuatefor the promulga­ tion of Neo-Catholicism the favour and the funds you devoted for the Roman Catholicism which your Par­ liament recognised ? Doubtless it is always difficult to rise out of a false position; but unless these anoma­ lies are rectified, dangers await us far more serious than the transient unpopularity obtained by touching existing abuses. Protestants have not yet realised the momentous character of the Revolution crowned at the Vatican. No wonder; how could it be expected when intelli­ gent Roman Catholics of lofty character and integrity, like Lord Herries and Sir George Bowyer, do not understand it ? I understand it, because as a Dominican and theologian I studied the whole question during the period of restless thought preceding the close of the conflict in July, 1870. It was that study which opened my eyes to the fallacy of the entire dogma of infallibility. Heretofore, Roman Catholics were only bound to bejieve in the infallibility of the Church in union with the Pope and speaking through the Pope. It was quite another question as to what �and the 11Expostulation.” 19 was needed to constitute an ex cathedra decree. Some affirmed that no decree was infallible unless issued in presence of a general council and with its concurrence; others affirmed that a decree was proved to be ex cathedra when accepted by the council dispersed; others affirmed that a decree was ex cathedra if issued with great solemnity after conferring with, and in union with, all the consul­ tive congregations of the Roman Church. A Roman Catholic vacillated amongst these views according to the exigencies of history, conscience, common sense, or controversy. The most opposing opinions could be and were maintained by Bishops, scholars, and laymen. But now the Vatican Decrees have declared the Pope to be infallible whenever he intends to be so, and on whatever subject he declares to fall within the province of infallibility. Heretofore, the exercise of the Papal power was limited in action as well as in theory. National Churches and their Episcopate disputed his decisions and refused to obey his mandates. Those mandates could be only imposed under peculiar circumstances, but the present Pope has, during his long Pontificate, been concentrating power in himself. He commenced by utilising the prestige of his acknowledged position, and the affection inspired by the kindness of his disposition : but having attained an unprecedented power over all National Churches through such means, he culminated the strategy by first committing Bishops and the Faithful everywhere to bombastic declarations as to his divine and supreme prerogatives, and then taking them at their word, and requiring the exaggerated utterances of affectionate reverence to be formularised into articles of faith. They were caught in the trap they themselves had guilelessly fashioned. The Pope’s well-known smile, half artful, half cheery, must have welcomed the accomplishment of his long cherished scheme. During the period of twenty years I was �20 The Vatican Decrees Apostolic Missioner throughout England and Ireland I saw this power growing; we all dreaded it, for we saw what an agency would be lodged in the hands of a Pope abler than Pio Nono and less good, yet what could we do ? The growing power was not generally being used for criminal objects, it was being exercised in England through eccle­ siastics for the most part amiable and good. Thus there was nothing suddenly done of a nature to arouse and combine opposition; like the walls of the Temple, the chains were forged amidst a silence only disturbed by the reception of countless adulatory addresses, and blessings, and indulgences prodigally bestowed upon herds of people who listened to the Holy Father as he repeated again and again the story of his wrongs, his sufferings, his prerogatives, and his similarity to Jesus Christ, after a fashion which would have aroused the ludicrous in any minds not sunk too low to be capable of appreciating the ridiculous. But the result is far from being ludicrous. The Pope has established over the millions of adhe­ rents of the Vatican Church a two-fold tyranny— over every man, woman, and child, within his Church— the absolutism of a teaching which may never be even interiorly doubted; the absolutism of a rule which may never be with impunity disobeyed. This two-edged weapon hangs like the sword of Damocles over every one who dares to think, to write, to act, to rule, or to serve. At present, the Pope has only one great object of anxiety—the recovery of his former provinces—but hereafter other objects may arise. But more than the political and national consequences I do acutely mourn over the crushing mental and moral effect of such an absolutism over all conscience, all lifp, all energy, all thought. My intimate acquaint­ ance with the personal excellence of English and Irish Boman Catholics, lay, cleric, and conventual, makes me deplore the more bitterly a despotism, �ana the “Expostulation. which must gradually destroy all the higher develop­ ments of character, and turn the descendants of the fine old English Catholic families into abject Jesuit­ ical serfs. In the name of God, may such never be. Anyhow, may the people of England not expedite that fall by the imprudence and injustice of a per­ secution which would speedily unite those who may otherwise partially dissolve; or, on the other hand, by the misleading encouragement of patronage and compromise. We have no right to help minds and consciences into a bondage which, when embraced, separates the bondsman from humanity—the Church with its theocracy on one side : Humanity with the devil on the other side: such is the Papal concep­ tion. And, alas ! the separation between the Papal subject and Humanity is complete: the outward tokens of courtesy or affection may be observed ; but what love worth anything can exist between the blessed and the accursed; what even are the ministra­ tions of mercy, if they are so designed, as out of men’s affections and afflictions to forge the rivets of their servitude ? When we cease the legislation of religious favourit­ ism, and commence the legislation of religious equality —when we treat all sects and institutions with justice, and the members of all sects and institutions with courtesy as well as justice—then shall we be in a position to apply the principles of common sense to conventual institutions. If the friends of conventual institutions realised the wide-spread dislike engen­ dered by the multiplication of institutions where a two-fold absolutism is veiled in entire secresy, they would be the first to seek a safeguard. The odious system of direction which during the last few years has been pervading the Roman Catholic laity, we are powerless to touch. But the friends of religious equality should warn any persons if they are carrying on a secresy which could be remedied, but which if �22 ’The Vatican Decrees continued will ere long lead to an outburst of indigna­ tion, a panic, and a persecution. Why should not gentlemen who have relations in convents and com­ munities of men—why should not the superiors of such institutions propose a plan calculated to meet real and known inconveniences, and thus, moreover, to calm the just susceptibilities of the public mind ? There ought to be a register preserved in the guest­ room of every religious house, in which the real names of all inmates should be entered; inaccuracy of entry should be punishable by a fine; any person who could assign a rational reason should, under suitable restric­ tions, be enabled to examine such register. All this might be arranged so as not to cause any inconvenience to a conventual institution, but, above all, so as not to affix any stigma of dishonour or apparent suspicion. Nearly all the unpleasant rumours against convents would have been suppressed at once had a precaution so simple and inoffensive been adopted ; and, without dragging into print allusions to excellent communi­ ties of innocent and good people, I may be allowed to remark that occasionally there have been incidents, such as imbecile inmates kept in durance and also sometimes persons secreting themselves in conventual houses, and so evading the law, which easily give countenance to those countless suspicions which keep aggregating till they descend like an avalanche. The true friends of lasting religious equality must combine, along with the maintenance of these great principles, to abolish favouritism, and to adopt in a spirit of fair­ ness and consideration, remedies demanded, not by bigotry, but by good sesne. Let me remark, in conclusion, that all my state­ ments as to the Papal doctrines imposed on NeoCatholics are founded, as may be easily verified, on direct quotations from the Decrees and the Encyclical. Much more remains behind—unsaid. �and the “Expostulation” 23' NOTE. The book formerly deemed the best for the diffusion of Roman Catholic doctrines was Keenan’s ‘ Controver­ sial Catechism.’ It was based on a French Catechism, and very widely circulated in Great Britain, bearing the imprimatur of all the Vicars Apostolic of Scot­ land. In it appeared the following, until withdrawn in the year 1869 :— Q.—Must not Catholics believe the Pope himself to be infallible ? A.—This is a Protestant invention : it is no Article of the Catholic Faith ; no decision of his can oblige, under pain of heresy, unless it be received and enforced by the teaching body—that is by the Bishops of the Church. ADDRESS. The following is a quotation from an address delivered by the Rev. James Martineau at Liverpool, September 25th, 1871, fourteen months after my secession from the Roman Catholic Church. In gratefully mentioning that ever-honoured and beloved name, may I be permitted to record that, trained as I had been to lean on the authority of others, my know­ ledge of the existence of such a spiritual character as his, developed in the ranks of Christian Theism, pre­ sented to my hopes an encouragement and a stimulus which the gentle diffidence of his genius would neither have desired or imagined - �24 The Vatican Decrees “ Another event has taken place recently with which I have had in some degree the privilege of a personal connection. A very eminent and remarkable man has given up his adherence to the Catholic religion, and has thrown himself among us as a preacher of pure and spiritual religion. I allude to the Rev. Robert Rodolph Suffield. Now, before Mr. Suffield’s name was heard amongst us, at his own request I early paid him a visit at his retreat in the country. I had inti­ mate intercourse with him, and learned precisely his state of thought before he had made up his mind to the step he has now taken, and I was equally struck with the problem which was presented to his religious sense — what is the real essence and nature of Catholicism ? Now, I found that the view Mr. Suffield took of Catholicism was this. He said, ‘ I see in the Catholic religion the only example in the world’s history in which the great and fundamental principles of all natural piety and of all natural conscience are made the actuating principles of the life of multitudes and of nations. The great doctrine of the moral government of God, the great truth of the absolute supremacy of conscience, the great hope of a future and better life—these things have imbued the Catholic mind, the mind even of the youngest children of the Catholic Church that have any intelligence at all. They are realities to the Catholic people. They speak of them with the same simplicity and openness with which they would speak of the work of their plough, of their spade, of their shuttle; with which they would speak of the concerns of their houses and their homes. There is no shyness concerning them. They are ab­ solute realities to them, and rule their lives. We know that they control the passions of young people, and, if they go astray, by appealing to these images in their hearts we can recover them again. They are truly a power in life. And now,’ said Mr. Suffield, ‘ what I want to know is, whether outside the Catholic �and the “Expostulation” 25 Church those truths have the same power and reality, whether they take their places among the facts of life with the same certainty and with the same efficacy.’ He looked upon the Catholic religion simply as an instrumentality for bringing home to men the simple natural convictions of the human heart, and making them live in their consciences and lives. Catholicism thus was to him nothing but a great system of natural religion supported by the most artificial and unnatural of authorities and supports. That is the view he took of it, and he said, ‘ What I want to know is, if I dare to throw away these artificial supports, shall I find it possible to administer this spiritual theism to man­ kind, and get hold of the hearts of men ? Or am I to believe that it is impossible for the weak mind of humanity to grapple those truths, unless you have a false mythology, and all sorts of pictures and images connected with them ? Does the religion enter by means of the false imagination, or may we fling away the false imagination and trust to the spiritual power of religion ?’ That was the problem he had to solve for himself, and he said, ‘I fear if I were to profess myself a Protestant I should be propping up these eternal truths with just as false and entangled a ma­ chinery as if I were to remain in the Catholic Church, Por, if there is no infallibility in the Catholic Church, neither is there in the Protestant Scriptures, and whether I take the one or the other, I throw away natural truths, and fling myself instead on an artificial and unnatural support.’ Well, I believe myself that Mr. Suffield here expressed a great truth ; and I think the changes which are now taking place in the Pro­ testant Churches are all of this kind. The tendency is to fling away the false dependence upon artificial authority, and to go back to the primitive rights of religion in human nature and in human life. I said to him I should feel it an impiety and infidelity—the only thing I should venture to call infidelity at all— �i6 The Vatican Decrees to doubt that what God had made true could vindicate and justify itself to the human heart without any human lies to back it up and support it. If we once found that a thing was a lie, and was false, or even if it was precarious, it was at the peril of all veracity and of all fidelity that we dared to place that as a means of underpinning, as it were, and supporting an eternal and all-important truth.” RESULTS OF INFALLIBILITY. Meanwhile there are already signs of a coming conflict in quarters where they might hardly have been looked for. There is probably no section of the Church, beyond the walls of Rome itself, where the dominant spirit is so fiercely and fervently Ultramontane as among the Roman Catholics of England. Nor is the phenomenon difficult to account for. They form a small body in the midst of an unfriendly popu­ lation, and the old Catholic families are at once united toge­ ther and inspired with zeal by the long tradition of privations and persecutions patiently endured for their faith. And then, at the moment when legal disabilities and social ostracism were beginning to be relaxed, came the irruption of converts who had sacrificed most of them all the associations, inte­ rests, and affections of half a lifetime for their adopted creed, and whose leaders, as one of themselves has observed, were withone illustrious exception, “ Ultramontanes before they were Catholics.” The late Cardinal Wiseman, whose earlier policy was of a very different kind, was completely carried away by the current; his successor has been throughout the guiding spirit of the infallibilist bishops at the Council, and all the younger generation of priests have been trained on the convert model. One of them insisted not long ago, from the pulpit of a well-known Roman Catholic church in the metropolis, that it is not to believe the infallibility of the Pope’s official judgments ; every opinion on whatever subject he expresses in conversation is infallible. Yet a reso­ lute opposition is beginning to manifest itself among both the clergy and laity of the Roman Catholic Church in Eng­ land. We have given several examples of this before now, and we mentioned the other day that the infallibilist address presented under strong pressure for the adoption of the Eng­ lish clergy had been by no means unanimously signed. Dr. �and the “Expostulation.” 2"] Rymer, President of the diocesan Seminary of St. Edmund’s, Ware, scandalised the Tablet by writing to express his em­ phatic disapproval of it. But the tone and language of the letter of refusal addressed to its promoters by Father Suf­ field, and published apparently by his ^request in the West­ minster Gazette, is so remarkable that it deserves record here. The writer is the best known and one of the ablest and most active of the English Dominicans—a Cambridge man, though not, we believe, a convert; and it is hardly likely, considering the stringent discipline of religious com­ munities, that he would venture on so bold a protest unless he felt, assured of the moral support of his Order; and such an inference is strongly confirmed by the attitude of the Dominican Cardinal Guidi. Father Suffield says :— “Knowing with what earnest desire the enemies of our religion, with taunting speech, at once urge us and defy us to proclaim, after 1,800 years, the foundation of our Christianity; knowing the deep repugnance with which, under the pressure of ecclesiastical opinion and ecclesiastical prospects, canons, priests, and bishops, have signed declarations pleasing to ecclesiastical superiors, and repugnant to their private opinions ; knowing with an intimate and sad knowledge that the moot­ ing of this question has led to investigations, and then to inquiries, which have paralysed the faith in the minds of numbers of the clergy and of the intellectual laity, and with not a few destroyed it, I must respectfully decline to sign a document in which petitioners ask for a definition, the animus and consequence of which few can be so thoughtless as not to perceive. “If we get a Pope vain, obstinate, and in his dotage, shall we ask him to be confirmed in his powers of mischief ? “Do we wish, by exalting the lessons of the encyclical, to render political life impossible to every honest and consistent Catholic, and to render the possession of political and religious equality impracticable to any except those sort of Catholics who would use the language of liberty when they beg, and the precepts of the Pope when they refuse ? ” x It is scarcely possible to misapprehend the pointed allusion to the case of “ a Pope vain, obstinate, and in his dotage,” and the majority of the Vatican Council has certainly done what it can to “confirm him in his powers of mischief.” Father Suffield must be presumed to speak from his own knowledge when he refers to the numbers of clergy and educated laity whose faith has been already paralysed or destroyed by inquiries into Papal infallibility, and his testi­ mony is borne out by others ; it is hardly wonderful that he should look with serious alarm at the further consequences �28 The Vatican Decrees that may ensue. The wonder is that those who wish faith to be maintained and strengthened should be so “ thoughtless ” as to exult over the “mischief” they have helped to perpe­ trate. It is rather late to remind them now of the homely proverb that the last straw will break the camel’s back, and this straw is a tolerably weighty one.—Saturday Review, of July 30th, 1870. FATHER SUFFIELD AND THE NEW DOGMA. The newspapers inform us that Father Suffield, late of the Dominican Order, has joined the Unitarian community; he has not only renounced his obedience to the Church of Rome, but has apparently renounced also his obedience to the Catholic Faith. This is very sad, yet not unexpected after reading his last published letters. The case is one that arrests our attention, not only on account of the learning and abilities of Father Suffield, but because it will form, we fear, only a type of many such cases ; nor is this difficult to understand. Brought up with the principle, instilled from earliest child­ hood, that the Church of Rome is alone the Catholic Church, excluding the Orthodox and the Anglican; that the supre­ macy of the Pope over the whole Catholic world is the normal idea of the Church, so completely that those who do not acknowledge that supremacy are cut off from the promises and privileges of the Church, even though, like Greeks and Anglicans, they retain all else necessary to their continuing portions of the Body of Christ; with these opinions so strongly impressed on the mind, it is inevitable that there must be a most violent reaction when the dogma of Infallibility is made an article of Faith by what claims to be a General Council. For this dogma is not only a new article of Faith, but it is one which contradicts much that had been previously held as true ; it virtually rejects the authority of General Councils as the voice of the Church, and thus places the Church herself in a new position. By removing the supreme authority from the Body, and placing it in one man, who is supposed to be the head, the original Charter as granted by her Divine Head is abrogated, and a new one substituted for it. It is no longer, “Tell it to the Church,” it is “Tell it to the Pope;” it is no longer,” “If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican; ” but, “ If he neglect to hear the Pope ”—very naturally the Faith of those who have been educated, as Father Suffield has been, by Do­ minicans, will be violently shaken, and their minds thrown off their balance, when they are called upon by the authority �and the “ Expostulation.” nt) of the Church to accept the decree of the personal Infallibility of the Pope. And this reaction is very liable to go to further lengths than we at first anticipate ; we are apt to expect that those who, like Father Suffield, repudiate the dogma, and con­ sequently find their position as Priests in the Roman Church untenable, will turn to the Anglican. We should rejoice to think that the Anglican would form a safe home for those who reject the dogma, but we fear it will not be so; we are far more afraid that Father Suffield’s example will be followed by larger numbers than those who seek refuge with us. We do not sufficiently consider the habits of thought and mind which are formed by Roman teaching. In that community the whole Catholic Faith is wrapped up in, and becomes a part of, the belief in the Papal Supremacy ; the very rudiments of the Faith, the Incarnation, the Holy Trinity, the Sacraments, are all tied up in the idea of the sole supremacy of the Church of Rome, and the Pope at the head of it; the idea of the Catholic Church or any part existing, except under the Roman obedience, is entirely excluded as impossible. When, there­ fore, a rude shock comes like this, which destroys all faith in the Pope and the Roman Church, it destroys all faith in other dogmas too.—Church Herald. The dogma of Infallibility is producing its necessary fruit. Not even Rome can altogether stop inquiry or fetter thought, and spiritual absolutism finds its own subjects ready to ques­ tion its decrees. Already there is a movement in Germany which bears striking resemblance to that of the fifteenth cen­ tury. A meeting of Roman Catholic professors at Nuremberg has already agreed upon a protest against the spiritual despot­ ism of the Pope, and the Cologne Gazette states that the Bishop of Rothenberg, Dr. Hefele, has resolved not to accept the Infallibility Dogma, and that his Chapter and the theo­ logical faculty of the city of Tubingen support him in it. Even in this country, where Roman Catholicism is more Roman than Rome, the dogma is producing confusion and distress in the minds of the faithful. As the immediate result of the Council’s work, the secession of Father Suffield from the Church of Rome is worthy of more notice than is due to merely individual change of opinion. Father Suffield is a man to whom the Roman Catholics of England are willing to confess large obligations. He is said to have revived the establishment of Peter’s Pence in this country, to have done much in recruiting the regiment of Papal Zouaves, and to have held the first public meeting of sympathy for the Pope ever held in modern England. A �3° The Vatican Decrees correspondent of the Westminster Gazette says, “it has been impossible to have been much under Father Sumeld’s influence without becoming intensely devoted to everything Catholic,” and that “the Prayer-book connected with his name has pro­ bably been more instrumental than any other popular manual in spreading faith wherever English-speaking Catholics are to be found. ” The Prior of the Dominican House in London, of which order Father Suffield is a prominent member, speaks of him as “ a brother of the same order, Whose personal friend­ ship I enjoyed before either of us became Dominicans, and whose zeal and apostolic spirit I have ever held in the greatest admiration.” But Father Suffield seems to have felt somewhat as Father Newman felt, that though the Infallibility was a dogma to be received as an act of devotion, it was not to be defended as an article of the faith. “It becomes essential,” he says, “that unless failure of reason be impossible to an aged Pope, there should be some means at least of recognising when his decrees are to be regarded as the acts of man, when as those of God.” The shock of disagreement and difference which has been caused by the proclamation of the Infallibility dogma has, however, shaken the whole fabric of the eloquent Dominican’s creed. “An incident, not regretted by me,” he says, “has revealed, almost by accident, the hidden struggle of years.” Of this struggle he says, “it has been the agony of years.” His doubts have not risen from within, but have been forced upon him from without. He “ sought solitude first in the cloister, then solitude greater in a country village amidst simple people and the children of his flock, that he might dispel difficulties and doubts. If those difficulties and doubts have been wrong, none but the highest rulers of the Church have been responsible for them; they have not been a pleasure, but an agony; not a pride, but a humiliation.” Father Suffield has, therefore, been driven out of the Church by the declaration of the Papal Infallibility. His case is simply one of thousands, and is only rendered remarkable by his own previous services to the Church. The Pope and his Council have raised more doubts than they will solve, and in grasping at the shadow of Infallibility they will miss the substance of authority.—Daily News. Father Suffield, the eloquent Dominican, whose protest against the most memorable act of the Vatican Council has excited some attention in this country, has gone a step beyond the rejection of the dogma of Papal Infallibility. He has quitted the Roman Communion. It would seem that as soon �and the “Expostulation” 31 as the fact became known overtures were made to him with the view of his joining the Anglican Church. He has declined to do so. The Articles and the Athanasian Creed block the way; indeed he “ questions alike the Infallibility of the Pope and of the Scriptures.” He throws in his lot with “those who are commonly called Unitarians, Free Christians or Christian Theists,” and states, in effect, that he intends to accept the office of a minister in a Free Christian Congrega­ tion.—Manchester Guardian. A. due following out of opinions curiously led Dr. Newman to the Roman Church, and his brother, Professor Newman, to pure Theism. In like manner the two Herberts—the one the free-thinking Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the other the sainted poet of the English Church : these men felt the philo­ sophical impossibility of a middle position. We shall watch Mr. Suffield’s career with high interest. He will not go in with the company of Exeter Hall, but sets forth alone in his quest of truth. There is something very touching, and very manly too, in his statement of the sufferings of mind and heart, “which his secession has involved.” Father Suffield has taken the great leap from authority to freedom.—Dispatch. FATHER SUFFIELD AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. August 22, 1870. My Dear Sir,—Private communications are so very numer­ ous at present, that I cannot conveniently add to my occupa­ tions by contributing the literary help you do me the favour of offering. Moreover that able periodical partakes somewhat of a controversial character, and is regarded as anti-Catholic in its position. I am peculiarly circumstanced, have resigned all offices in the Catholic Church, and ceased the exercise of priestly and Catholic rites : from the intimate manner in which I have been interwoven in the Catholic body in England, this act causes great pain to those whom the least I should like to wound ; and I am anxious to do nothing but what is demanded by the exigencies of circumstances or the require­ ments of conscience, which could in the slightest degree grieve those who have so many claims upon my affection, gratitude, and reverence. After long and deep thought, study, prayer, and counsel, I decided that it would be impossible for me honestly to continue to act as a priest. The infallibility of the Pope, and, �32 The Vatican Decrees of the Scriptures, alike, I question, and the dogmas resting solely on either of those authorities, I am not able on that account to admit. It is my desire to unite with others, and to assist them in the worship of God, and in the practice of the two-fold precepts of charity, unfettered by adhesion on either side, to anything, beyond those great fundamental principles as presented to us by Jesus Christ. Though relieved from all the obligations of my order, I do not wish to consider myself as alienated from the Catholic Church or from other Christian communities, by any personal hostile act. I assume a position hostile to none—if one man hurls an anathema, another man is not compelled either to accept it, or to retaliate it. Having understood that those who are commonly called Uni­ tarians, Free Christians, or Christian Theists, thus agree in the liberty inspired by self-diffidence, humility, and charity, to carry on the worship of God, without sectarian requirements or sectarian opposition; that they possess a simple but not vulgar worship, a high standard of virtue, intelligence, and integrity; and these after the Christian type, moulded by the Christian traditions, and edified by the sacred Scriptures; holding the spirit taught by Jesus Christ, and the great thoughts by virtue of which he built up the ruins of the moral world; and. yet not enforcing the reception of complicated dogmas as a necessity, or accounting their rejection a crime : a communion of Christian worshippers, bound loosely together, and yet by the force of great principles enabled quietly to maintain their position, to exercise an influence elevating and not unimportant, and to present religion under an aspect which thoughtful men can accept without latent scepticism, and earnest men without the aberrations of superstition, or the abjectness of mental servitude to another—such approved itself to my judgment, and commended itself to my sympathy. I intend adhering to the pursuits of the clergyman and of the Christian teacher, and communications are in progress in another part of England which may terminate in my accepting thus a duty conformable to the habits of my life, and which will not throw me into a position of hostility, or embarrassment as to those honoured and loved Catholic friends with whom so greatly I should prize, if it were possible to maintain kindly intercourse, inasmuch as I am only externally severed from them by my being unable to believe certain dogmas which a Catholic is bound to regard as essential. Thus I hope I have not only thanked you for your obliging offer, but adequately explained my position, and showed that the future you were commissioned to hold out to me in the Established Church �and the “Expostulation.” 33 would not be deemed possible by the authorities who have done me the honour and kindness to communicate in my regard, as soon as they are made aware that the Articles and the Athanasian creed would be amongst the insuperable barriers to my entertaining such a proposal. Many write to me evidently under a grievous misapprehen­ sion. They anticipate from me reckless denunciations of that vision of beauty which I have left, simply because, like a vision, it had everything but reality. Allied as I am by relationship with some of our ancient Catholic families, allied by the ties of friendship with many more of them, I feel it is a shame to myself that any stranger could suppose one word of my lips, one thought of my mind, could cast moral reproach on those beautiful and honoured homes where old traditions received a lustre greater even than antiquity and suffering can bestow—crowned with the aureola of charity, nobleness, purity, and devotedness. Such memories print on my heart their everlasting record. To cease to believe and to worship with them was a martyrdom, which none but the Catholic can understand. I have ascended now to another stage of my life ; to rise to it needed sufferings of the mind and of the heart, the sacrifice of everything in the world I cared for;—but I perceive a work to do, and, by the blessing of God, I shall strive to perform it. Youth, strength, vigour, and hope return to me with the expectation. Truth obtained by suffering is doubly dear to the possessor.—Very sincerely yours, Robert Rodolph Sutfield. To the Rev.----- &c., &c. N.B.—All the above paragraphs, from different periodicals, are extracted from Church Opinion. �ALSO, By the Bev. B. B. SUFFIELD, FIVE LETTERS ON CONVERSION TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM......................................................... 3d. IS JESUS GOD ?........................................................ 3d. TRUBNER and CO., LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E.C. PRINTED BY C. W. BBYNBLL, LITTLE PULTENBY STREET, HAYMARKET. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Victorian Blogging Description An account of the resource A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library &amp; Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Conway Hall Library & Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Conway Hall Ethical Society Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Pamphlet Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Vatican decrees and the "Expostulation" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Suffield, Robert Rodolph Description An account of the resource Place of publication: London Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm. Notes: Part of Morris Misc. Tracts 4. Other titles published by Trubner and Co. by the same author listed on back page. Includes a long quotation from an address delivered by the Rev. James Martineau at Liverpool, September 25th,1871. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Trubner and Co. ; Thomas Scott Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1874 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context G4868 Subject The topic of the resource Catholic Church Papacy Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Vatican decrees and the "Expostulation"), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Catholic Church-Doctrines Popes-Infallibility https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/0963b0fcbb638626aa63877a089148cc.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=Lc7IMU5zRSZL8lFgUQkxNrkgfJ-jlkXJ6VxiX2RZwPtTBajb0CmeM1M1qgs-mT6R3ganRyTgtuOWMqO9TQMm%7EdnHxilh0MCJL4O0zzCQW-fdPECULI53C0nVK4TtSrq6IGZDNyTnyeylqS3dQEUkjZuAnM9-kFe7iIa9TVvWp44RRLPVXnJYwO8WrXYRcgkU8KRb-vbUyjNZv%7EVbDUEiAjXWUM-ddgG8Ee68ppcKOKUyT92tJ47pO0kc3EsgTWdjZ8ub5GdjrotLQg5rItYy3ljUybbOrgu%7EZ05FylCV8AIa-DsqWZAGRBiayB4sFSy3qeFb2k0td0GTMKkMnrpcPA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3309bc782b40461b8019390fa4d7c3e9 PDF Text Text VATICAN DECREES AND THE “EXPOSTULATION.” BY ROBERT RODOLPH SUFFIELD, Minister of the Free Christian Church, Wellesley Road, Croydon; formerly Apostolic Missionary and Prefect of the "Guard of Honour," Author of several Pamphlets in this Series. PUBLISHED BY TRUBNER AND 57 AND 59 LUDGATE HILL ; AND CO., THOMAS SCOTT, 11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, $.E. 1874. Price Sixpence. �LONDON: PRINTED BY C. W. BEYNELL, 16 LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET, W. �PREFACE. Since the appearance of Mr. Gladstone’s “ Expos­ tulation,” I have been repeatedly asked to express my opinions as to the political bearing of the Vatican decrees. The subject is of an extent and complication beyond the limits of a pamphlet; but as some friends are partial enough to urge me to make known, at least in a general way, something of the result of my thoughts and experience, I can no longer consistently maintain the silence which I should prefer. Though after the thoughtful and accurate statements which have emanated from Mr. Gladstone, Lord Acton, Lord Camoys, the Right Rev. Monsignore Capel, the Very Rev. Monsignore Patterson, and the able com­ ments upon the same in our leading periodicals, I have little to add beyond the expression of my per­ sonal experience ; the quotations, which at the request of the same parties are appended to this brochure, will explain to strangers my profound personal inte­ rest in a question which has so intimately affected my own life. ��THE VATICAN DECREES AND THE “EXPOSTULATION.” EOPLE cannot be allowed the pleasure of at the same time affirming and denying a conviction. The Neo-Catholics, headed by the Pope, and in England by Archbishop Manning, declare the Vatican decrees to be an undoubted expression of the Divine will. The Old Catholics, represented by such men as Bishop Reinkins, Dr. Dollinger, and Lord Acton, declare them to be merely the utterances of what Dr. Newman designated “ au aggressive and insolent faction.” The Vatican Council is either ecumenic or schismatic. Skilful men can find reasons on either side, and consistent men may act out either conclu­ sion. The Old Catholics deny the infallibility of the Vatican Council. The Neo-Catholics affirm its infallibility. Learning has ranged itself on the side of the “ Old ” Catholics; diplomacy on the side of the “ New.” The Roman Catholic Church has disappeared; the Vatican Church has supplanted it. We have too much appreciation of the learning of the “ Old ” Catholics, and the diplomatic ambition of the ecclesi­ astical rulers of the “ New,” to be able to regard as a nonentity that momentous revolution. When men the wealth of whose virtues and learning had enriched the Papal cause could, in advanced years, sorrow­ fully permit the Pope and some millions of adherents to leave them, at once warning and anathematized— P �4 The Vatican Decrees warning those who leave, anathematized by those who have left;—when acute diplomatists like Dr. Man­ ning urge on a revolution with all the ardour inspired by ambition, and in presence of the sorrow­ ful laments and pathetic warnings of men who had grown old in the service of a cause then about to die,—surely a nonentity was just the last event contemplated by anyone. The Old Catholics and New Catholics alike beheld in that revolution the inauguration of a new era of individual absolutism, to be established as the embodiment of the Divine will; and in the name of religion, of liberty, of humanity, the Old Catholics raised their protest. In the name of Pius IX. and of possession, the New Catholics raised the war cry, which died off into a perpetual anathema. Those men who contended on the battle-field of thought, of history, of diplo­ macy, until the fatal victory of July, 1870, were not children contending for baubles : they were men who entered the lists. Some contended for truth, others fought for power. The triumphant faction being in possession of the Vatican, in possession of the Episcopal Sees, in the possession of the ecclesiastical edifices, retained easily power over the masses. What they sought, they have obtained. Whenever their chief ruler issues any declaration which he means to be infallible, it is infallible. Should any voice, retaining a ring of the accents of liberty, dare to say, “ The subject on which you have decreed is out of the range of faith and morals, so you only therein decree as a man;” the Ruler replies, “You have accepted as Divine the Vatican decrees; you therein declared that you will be accursed, and forfeit your ■eternal salvation, unless you inwardly believe ai;d heartily accept, and outwardly in practice conform to that belief, that the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff is over all the Faithful individually and collectively; that his authority compels your entire and unreserved �and the “Expostulation.” 5 obedience, not only in matters appertaining to faith and morals, but also in all those that appertain to the discipline and government of the Church. You. have declared your internal assent to the Divine decree, whereby you learn that this power is from God, represents God, is full and supreme, and not merely of inspection and direction ; that it is superior to all other power, extends everywhere, must never be controlled, must always enjoy free and immediate communication with its subjects wherever they may be; that its judgments may never be reviewed, appealed against, or disregarded; that to it alone it apper­ tains to declare what belongs to its jurisdiction and what domains of thought and of action (if any) are exempt from its infallible utterances.” Obviously the Vatican faction could not regard as meaningless and powerless such expressions, cau­ tiously worded and decreed after mature deliberation. Their promulgation was enjoined. The Vatican party must not be surprised if those who protested against their formation desire their promulgation. What can be done, what was meant to be done, what will be done, we want all men to know ! Vatican diplomacy, having obtained the weapons, would rather that the Faithful alone, and they but gradually, should realise the weight of the sceptre which they have forged and feebly yielded to an Italian priest. But we would rather know and feel the metal of the weapon pre­ pared for us. A sword sheathed in velvet is still a sword. Chains concealed in the intentions of a pre­ late, still are chains. They are meant for us, and we should like to handle them. We have been recently somewhat naively told that they will be “ convenient.” Doubtless ; therefore the more that is known about them the better. In a docile school the boys collect the birch rods, and with wondering fear feel their substance, and speculate on their effects. If the scholars become too frightened, should panic threaten an in­ �6 'The Vatican Decrees convenient outbreak, the master and ushers will pru­ dently explain that the rods will be hardly ever used; that they are merely symbols of authority, quite harmless, almost pleasant; that obviously it can make no difference whether the rods are in the school-room or on the trees ; they were only gathered at the urgent request of the boys. All very good ; but still a boy might like to know that they are there, are meant to be u-ed, and will be used. In former times we English people knew what the Popes could effect amongst those who revered in him a Divine primacy, but not a Divine individual, irre­ sponsible infallibility. What is prepared for us now, when the Papal authority is declared to be absolute, immediate, personal—when his utterances must be believed as well as obeyed ? Now that a circle of hell­ fire is drawn around the Papal subject, he must either, like the Salamander, kill his mental liberty, or live for ever in the flames. People have said, Why in this country, at a time of profound peace, when all the Vatican Catholics are living in undoubted loyalty— why call attention to the Vatican decrees when they are consoling Roman prelates and harming no one ? We reply, It is just the time when we should examine the weapons forged for emergencies. If the English people were in times of excitement to realise the mag­ nitude of the triumphant revolution, we cannot tell to what excesses some amongst them might be driven. Those principles of religious equality which we have been slowly conquering by the patient energy of men whose passion is for justice might have been pushed back for generations into the dregs of a cowardly and insane persecution. All men, of whatever creed, Roman or the opposite, ought to rejoice that this sub­ ject should have been brought to the front and can­ vassed at a moment when it appeals to no triumphant bigotries. I am convinced that nothing can better secure our Roman countrymen in England than what �and the 11 Expostulation 7 is now taking place. Let all men realise what must and ought to be the line of action of a consistent sup­ porter of tlie Vatican Church, as contrasted with the position of the Old Catholics; let all men, having rea­ lised it, know what to expect; let all then renew within their minds the intense conviction that under no cir­ cumstances whatsoever must opinions be punished; that the State has only to deal with actions, and amongst actions only with those which obviously affect the commonwealth ; then we shall be strong to resist and to suppress that hurricane of anti-Roman indignation which will sooner or later arise, and which might carry away many of our great principles of liberty, if we were not prepared to meet it by a recog­ nition of the causes exciting it. No controversialist could have caught the public ear and instructed the public mind. The foremost man in England alone could do it; the statesman, rich in scholarship and in thought, representing in his own person whatever is the highest in culture, the most illustrious in our national traditions, the most reverent, religious, and tolerant in character; he, the near relative of one Roman Catholic, the inti­ mate friend of many, was, above all others, the man to speak. Judging by the standard of expediency, his words may politically injure him; judging by the standard of rectitude, his Expostulation ” will be recorded amongst the most honourable deeds of an honourable career. Many will have cause to rejoice at it; but, above all, must we, the disciples of Reli­ gious Equality, rejoice that the people of England should have been instructed in the words and bearing of the Vatican Decrees when that instruction could be received quietly, take its place in the public mind harmlessly and prepare us against contingencies wisely. As to explanations, there are none to give. Some Roman Catholics, like Sir George Bowyer, �8 The Vatican Decrees may not as yet understand the Decrees, and may, in consequence of their known spirit of submission, be allowed to write condemned propositions publicly, trusting to their private repentance in the Con­ fessional. But the common sense of the people of England will easily perceive that the question is not whether now the Pope may be enforcing loyalty or not, but what all consistent subjects of the Vatican Church must do when the Pope may enforce another course. Regarding that, there can be no question. Catholics will divide between those who accept the Vatican Decrees and those who reject them; the latter will practically be in the same position as all the Episcopal Churches, independent of Rome, e.g., the Greek, Russian, English, American, and German. In saying that, we can easily surmise the future action of Neo-Catholics as to Papal Decrees hostile to our national interests. I do not mean to state that their constant obedience to the Pope can be always depended upon by him. Men do not always act in accordance with their convictions, even under pain of certain eternal damnation. But we must not forget that no Neo-Catholic can approach the Sacraments if he be engaged in any line of action forbidden by the Pope ; and all Catholics deem the Sacraments essen­ tial to salvation ; moreover, disobedience to the Pope in a grave matter would be understood to be invariably a mortal sin. A soldier dying in a forbidden service knows that he perishes for ever in Hell. It may be said, practically, the Pope will probably not frequently interfere—that will depend—one fact let us remem­ ber, the Pope does not show much interest in matters of merely personal or public virtue—he seldom thinks it worth his while to issue a Decree against drunk­ enness and such like faults. When dignified eccle­ siastics in this country have taken up such merely moral questions, it has been well known that it has been chiefly to prevent the cause falling into the �and the “ Expostulation ” 9 exclusive hands of Protestants. But the questions connected with Papal power have never been allowed to sleep. During the last years, Roman Catholics have felt as if all religion and morality depended upon the success of Papal political schemes. All the action of the Pope has been to concentrate power in himself, and to make it daily felt. His chief representatives in England and Ireland have been appointed by the Pope, in defiance of the wishes of the Paithful and their clergy, and without the concurrence of one single national vote. Regulations of a most arbitrary cha­ racter as to marriage and education have been insti­ tuted and enforced, in opposition to the wishes, in­ terests and customs of the Faithful concerned. It rends one’s memories to think of the noblehearted Roman Catholics of England, representatives of ancient traditions of religion and of loyalty, their lives as blameless and as beautiful as the poetic legends of their Faith—they truthfully, through their vicars apostolic, disowned all those Papal claims which though often advanced and often recognised, were not those “ Of Faith ”—on the strength of their honest disclaimer they were restored to rights which they ought never to have lost, and all the Liberals of England rejoiced on that day when, in the Palace of Westminster, the Roman Catholic nobles re-entered the ancient hall, on each side of which the peers arose to greet, them, the bearers of historic names, the re­ presentatives of great traditions,—a principle greater than all traditions arose and bade them welcome—it was the principle of Religious Equality ! What have those men done, to use the eloquent plaint of Dr. Newman, that the hearts of the just should be made sad ? Rome, ever reckless of honour when power can be grasped ! what was it to Rome, that these sons of crusaders and of martyrs had, on the strength of her silence, plighted a word higher than the word of any creed—the word of an English gentleman—and by �IO The Vatican Decrees that word disowned and denied all the usurped pre­ tensions of Rome. When the convenient time arrived, a power that has never kept its word, com­ pelled English gentlemen to violate theirs, to recant all that they had said—it was the very triumph of the Priest over the Man!—like the tyrant general who seduced the honour of a virgin, and then presented to her dishonoured gaze the corpse of the father she had fondly hoped to have saved. The Roman Catholic gentlemen yielded their honour to save their Church —the Pope has presented to them as a corpse the Church for which they interceded. It is idle to point to the deeds of English Roman Catholics in the days of old. In July, 1870, Italian Priests and their coadjutors slew the old Church, and intoned over it the Requiem. You find that Requiem in the Vatican Decrees. Formerly, in periods of discord, many Roman Catholics always sided with the Pope, because they revered the primacy of his dignity, the sacredness of his origin, and recognised him as the centre of the Church’s unity ; other Roman Catholics disobeyed him, resisted him, besieged his capital, and yet, approaching the Sacraments, lived and died in union with the Roman Church and its creed, but resisting as exaggerated, or criminal, or unpatriotic, actions and commands of the Roman Pontiff. All that is past. The Pope was not satisfied with the willing service of the free—some to obey, others to oppose—and yet all to be one with him in Faith and Sacraments. Those mystic rites, tokens of spiritual memories, must wait upon diplomacy, and be subject to his temporal ambitions. Have all, or none. No wonder that in many an English Roman Catholic home—many an old Lome of chivalry, faith, and honour—a sorrowful choice presented itself; accustomed to regard visible unity with the Pope as essential to salvation, some accepted the Papal Sacraments and slavery, others �and the “Expostulation.” 11 sought Free Sacraments and personality, and in so seeking they deemed the “ Free ” more Christian, more Catholic than the “ Papal.” The men on each side we honour, but let us not amidst our sentiments of homage to conscientiousness—nay, may I add, to memory and to affection—let us not forget that the Catholics, divided now into the Vatican and the Old, represent different principles, opposing positions. The Vatican faction has triumphed, and has suc­ ceeded in establishing all the principles the most fatal to the development of the human mind, of human society, of religion, of morals, of science, of rational liberty. There is no explaining away what has been done—either embrace it or disown it. Mr. Gladstone’s “Expostulation ” may display to view a few of those on either side. But the side taken is really to be easily discovered by a more obvious test. Who receives Sacraments from a Neo-Catholic priest ? Who refuses so to do ? The statements in Mr. Glad­ stone’s “ Expostulation ” are so cautiously accurate, that I need only refer to them; but we must remem­ ber that the Vatican Decree is retrospective. The “ Encyclical ” has become a compendium of articles of faith ; and every cause dear to a patriot and a man of justice is cursed by its inhuman decrees. You mock us with Italian irony, when in the presence of the civilised world you first solemnly anathematise science, civilisation, progress, and equal rights, when you refuse your Sacraments and paternal fellowship to those who cannot mentally believe the truth or justice of your anathemas. When you declare that those who cannot worship with you have no right to worship anywhere; have, in fact, no rights outside the walls of a prison or the steps of a scaffold, to which you declare that your Church has divine power to commit them; and then, when we read your decrees and your admonition to civil governors to aid their execution, and we read your own solemn utterances �12 The Vatican Decrees and tremble for the liberties which may be subjected to your keeping—the liberty of the individual, the liberty of the family, the liberty of the State, the liberty of education, of science, of conscience—and deliberate how we can preserve our liberty and honour without violating yours, you assume the air of injured innocence and wonder that we should call attention to what really meant nothing at all, but that, as we seem annoyed, you will put your heads together, give us a nice explanation—a pill so care­ fully sugared that even a Cardinal could swallow it. But we say, we have had your explanations, you thought about them well enough, you have promul­ gated them to the world, we will learn your mind from the words which you say are inspired—the words of your Encyclicals and Vatican Decrees—not from words which you can repudiate as soon as they have succeeded in blinding. The indignant mind of Europe has caught you “in flagrante delicto,” and you turn round with a surprised smile and tell us you meant no harm; you have taken bigotry, and into­ lerance, and arrogance into your counsels, and com­ bined together in a conspiracy against humanity—we detect you, and you say, “ be quiet—what have we done ? ” You send over your prelates to this England of ours, and they talk glibly about liberty of worship, and liberty of conscience, and liberty of speech, and liberty of the press, and liberty of education, and liberty of investigation, when they know—and now we know—that they mean liberty for their own worship, conscience, speech, education and press, but ana­ themas against any one who dares even to think that such liberty ought to belong to others. You forget that our passionate devotion to the liberties you anathematise are alone the cause why the Liberals of England, headed by their great Statesman, declare —“ Your equal liberties shall remain inviolate, by virtue of the very principles you declare to be �and the “Expostulation ” 13 accursed.” Having said that, and meaning to act upon it, and determined not to be driven from it by any foreign or domestic influence, we have surely proclaimed all that the very chivalry of principle can demand. But you can expect no more. If a body of Puritans had existed in Rome in the days of the Papal sovereignty; if they had in solemn conclave declared that they regarded the Pope as anti-Christ, and all his followers accursed by God and to be repudiated by man, that no Roman Catholic ought to be allowed any religious educational liberty— that the Puritan conclave had a Divine right to extir­ pate all such liberties—that it was the duty of the civil power to enforce whatever action the aforesaid conclave deemed prudent to enact, with the view of forcibly destroying the existence of the Roman Catholic religion—that Roman Catholics possess no rights, but may be tolerated when toleration becomes a regretable necessity. Suppose these Puritans to have received civil rights because the Pope imagined their principles of hostility to have merged into merely religious and theoretical difference, the Puritans de­ claring such to be the case, and repudiating the state­ ments attributed to them which had been subversive of civil loyalty ; supposing that a few years afterwards these Roman Puritans met together, and declare that all the opinions ever taught by their wildest divines were part of the Gospel message; that they now solemnly proclaim them as absolutely true, and held firmly by all who join them ; that they have placed themselves, for the protection of their principles, under the control of the Emperor of Germany; that at present they are perfectly satisfied with their posi­ tion, and perfectly loyal. What would have been the attitude of the Pope ? Prisons and scaffolds would reply. But suppose the Pope to have been a secret heretic, and, therefore, at liberty to follow the nobler inspirations of conscience—suppose him to have an unbounded confidence in the strength of his position �14 The Vatican Decrees and the final, though often remote, triumph of the Right; but suppose him also to be a man capable of appreciating what is demanded by self-respect and by regard to the feelings of the loyal. What then would have been his policy ? Would he have invited to his more secret counsels Puritans known to maintain the entire and universal supremacy of the German Emperor ? Would he have recognised the Puritan emissaries appointed by the Emperor for the super­ vision of his Roman subjects, especially if the Em­ peror had publicly claimed him as his own subject ? Would he invariably have taken the dictation of the German emissary as to the chaplains for the Roman army and Roman prisons? Wbuld the citizens of Rome have felt anxious to show special social con­ sideration to the German emissary, whose chief func­ tion it would be to keep the Puritans thoroughly loyal to the Emperor, and ready to obey him when­ ever occasion might demand ? If the Pope had so acted in moments of weakness and romance, he would have retraced his steps as soon as he recovered his selfrespect ; if a secret heretic, and so able to act nobly, he would not begin to persecute the Puritans; he would permit the Emperor to appoint his own emis­ saries over the Puritan schools, Puritan institutions, Puritan chapels, Puritan conclaves ; but he would not permit the Emperor to appoint his own nominees to public institutions, and then undertake to pay them ; such refusal would not necessarily be the result of fear, but of consistency and self-respect, and from a conscientious desire not to encourage by favouritism the further encroachments and pretensions of the German Emperor. He would feel it due to his own subjects, not to go out of his way to place in office of power and of public trust those who continued obviously to treat him as inferior to the Emperor. But if he perceived other Puritans who maintained their inde­ pendence of the decrees of the conclave, and though �and the “Expostulation.” T5 sympathising with the Emperor on account of simi­ larity of creed, yet obviously regretting his claims to supremacy in all causes over the Emperor, the Pope would treat such Puritans like any other of his subjects, without adverting in public action to their difference of creed. Such, I presume, ought to be our line of action as to the foreign potentate who has recently claimed supremacy over all the baptised amongst our country­ men. We ought to ignore utterly and entirely all the Papal claims, and Papal emissaries, as such. A Papal Archbishop should be to us simply an English citizen, or, if a foreigner, a f oreign visitor, and nothing more; we ought not, on the ground of his being a Papal prelate, to confer with him, and to arrange appoint­ ments, or accept his appointments, and ask the wishes of his foreign sovereign. To do so is contrary to self-respect—to the national honour. If we had been as anxious to consult the feelings and wishes of the Irish people, and of the labouring classes of England, as we have been anxious to defer to the wishes of an Italian prelate, we should have but little discontent in either country. Statesmen of large sympathies have thought that they would be above all things pleasing the English Roman Catholics and the Irish people by finding out what would please the Pope, and doing it. Oh, marvellous simplicity! Do not the Irish remember full well that a Pope gave Ireland to an English conqueror. That a Pope sent over a Cardinal to help the English Government to suppress national aspirations which were regarded with apprehension at Rome ? Cardinal Cullen does not enjoy the confidence of the Irish people; the prelate they adore is the one who voted against the Papal infallibility, an Archbishop whom the Pope would depose if he dared. When he dies, he will probably be succeeded by some docile canonist for^whom no Irishman has voted. Dr. Cullen was appointed^by �16 The Vatican Decrees Rome without the concurrence of the Irish clergy. His objects are of a very matron-like character, and not at all representative of the wishes of the Irish people. If we want to legislate with a view to the wishes and feelings and real living interests of the Irish people, we must not ask the guidance of any Roman Cardinal. The Irish ask for national equality, and we offer them a “concession” about the normal schools, or invite a Papal prelate to meet a Princess, and give him precedence over whatever might have represented the national aspirations. The Irish people ask for liberty, and you give them chaplains. The Irish ask for extension of the franchise, repeal of penal enactments, a national militia, and a local Parliament, and you say we cannot do those things for you, but we will pay your chaplains, and confer with your venerated Bishops as to any other conces­ sion they may deem desirable. I do not venture on this occasion an opinion whether or not the real wishes of the Irish people can be accepted or not; I merely, for my present purpose say, if you want to conciliate the Irish people you will not do so by fawn­ ing upon the Pope and the clergy: they have their objects; the Irish people have other objects. When shall we give to nations the equal rights which we more than give to the emissaries of a foreign power ? Surely the loyalty of a nation is of more consequence than the purchased conventional loyalty of a priest­ hood. But it may be said, anyhow in England, the way to conciliate the gentry is to make much of the Papal prelates. First of all I would say the English Roman Catholic gentlemen needed no conciliation ; they were loyal to the backbone; they had everything to lose and nothing to gain by any change — any possible change. When the Vatican Decrees were issued, about two dozen men, distinguished by intellect, character, and culture, refused submission, and thus virtually �and the “Expostulation” *7 assumed the position of “ Old Catholics,” like, for instance, Lord Acton, the best-read Catholic in Eng­ land. But most of the Catholics adopted the new dogma. Thus the Roman Catholics recognised by Catholic emancipation are now represented by only a few honoured names, but very small in number, probably such as Lord Camoys, Lord Acton, Petre, Trevelyan, Simeon, Riddell, Oxenham, Thynne, Wetherall, Hernans, Blenherhasset, Maskell, Charlton, and some others. The Catholics who have embraced the new Catholicism are numerous and submissive ; they deserve our high personal admiration, for their change, along with all their prelates, was most natural to expect, and undoubtedly as conscientious on their part as the action of the more learned of the laity who remained “ Old Catholics.” But it must not be sup­ posed that the New Catholics are, generally speaking, grateful to Dr. Manning and the Papal faction for the revolution brought, numerically, to so successful an issue by their ecclesiastical tactics. English Catholics have undoubtedly been more interested in ecclesiastical matters than in political or national, and thus they have been easily led over into the Papal camp which their fathers renounced at the emancipa­ tion ; but they inherit, along with all the old English virtues, the old English contempt for Italian domina­ tion. Our Government would have pleased English Catholics better if there had been less courting of ecclesiastics appointed by Rome, less seeking to carry out mere ecclesiastical polity. Any one intimate with the English Roman Catholic tone of thought must be full well aware how bitterly English gentlemen have bent beneath the yoke. It is worthy of note that Dr. Manning was nominated Archbishop by the Pope against the wish of the whole of the Diocesan Chapter. Not one vote was given for him. The English Roman Catholic families, grieved at his appointment, knew what it meant, feared the results, �i8 The Vatican Decrees dreaded the priestly yoke and the papal absolutism ; but, taught to submit, they did submit. It does not follow that we need submit likewise. Truthfulness, dignity, consistency, demand from us that we ignore a Neo-Catholicism which we have never nationally recognised. I am aware that for a time we may be hampered by the grave political difficulty of being bound to show special favour to the Episcopal Church of England, and that the Neo-Catholics may justly say, as you devote large sums of money to promote worship and education, according to the principles of Protestant or Ritualistic Anglicanism, as the case may be, why should you not continue to pay the Vicars Apostolic appointed by the Pope in some of our colonies ? Why not continue the payment of Neo-Catholic chaplains throughout India, in the Army, and elsewhere ?—why not perpetuate for the promulga­ tion of Neo-Catholicism the favour and the funds you devoted for the Roman Catholicism which your Par­ liament recognised ? Doubtless it is always difficult to rise out of a false position ; but unless these anoma­ lies are rectified, dangers await us far more serious than the transient unpopularity obtained by touching ■existing abuses. Protestants have not yet realised the momentous character of the Revolution crowned at the Vatican. No wonder; how could it be expected when intelli­ gent Roman Catholics of lofty character and integrity, like Lord Herries and Sir George Bowyer, do not understand it ? I understand it, because as a Dominican and theologian I studied the whole question during the period of restless thought preceding the close of the conflict in July, 1870. It was that study which opened my eyes to the fallacy of the entire dogma of infallibility. Heretofore, Roman Catholics were only bound to believe in the infallibility of the Church in union with the Pope and speaking through the Pope. It was quite another question as to what �and the 11 Expostulation.” *9 •was needed to constitute an ex cathedra decree. Some affirmed that no decree was infallible unless issued in presence of a general council and with its concurrence ; others affirmed that a decree was proved to be ex cathedra when accepted by the council dispersed; others affirmed that a decree was ex cathedra if issued with great solemnity after conferring with, and in union with, all the consul­ tive congregations of the Roman Church. A Roman Catholic vacillated amongst these views according to the exigencies of history, conscience, common sense, or controversy. The most opposing opinions could be and were maintained by Bishops, scholars, and laymen. But now the Vatican Decrees have declared the Pope to be infallible whenever he intends to be so, and on whatever subject he declares to fall within the province of infallibility. Heretofore, the exercise of the Papal power was limited in action as well as in theory. National Churches and their Episcopate disputed his decisions and refused to obey his mandates. Those mandates could be only imposed under peculiar circumstances, but the present Pope has, during his long Pontificate, been concentrating power in himself. He commenced by utilising the prestige of his acknowledged position, and the affection inspired by the kindness of his disposition : but having attained an unprecedented power over all National Churches through such means, he culminated the strategy by first committing Bishops and the Faithful everywhere to bombastic declarations as to his divine and supreme prerogatives, and then taking them at their word, and requiring the exaggerated utterances of affectionate reverence to be formularised into articles of faith. They were caught in the trap they themselves had guilelessly fashioned. The Pope’s well-known smile, half artful, half cheery, must have welcomed the accomplishment of his long cherished scheme. During the period of twenty years I was �20 The Vatican Decrees Apostolic Missioner throughout England and Ireland I saw this power growing; we all dreaded it, for we saw what an agency would be lodged in the hands of a Pope abler than Pio Nono and less good, yet what could we do ? The growing power was not generally being used for criminal objects, it was being exercised in England through eccle­ siastics for the most part amiable and good. Thus there was nothing suddenly done of a nature to arouse and combine opposition; like the walls of the Temple, the chains were forged amidst a silence only disturbed by the reception of countless adulatory addresses, and blessings, and indulgences prodigally bestowed upon herds of people who listened to the Holy Father as he repeated again and again the story of his wrongs, his sufferings, his prerogatives, and his similarity to Jesus Christ, after a fashion which would have aroused the ludicrous in any minds not sunk too low to be capable of appreciating the ridiculous. But the result is far from being ludicrous. The Pope has established over the millions of adhe­ rents of the Vatican Church a two-fold tyranny-r­ over every man, woman, and child, within his Church— the absolutism of a teaching which may never be even interiorly doubted; the absolutism of a rule which may never be with impunity disobeyed. This two-edged weapon hangs like the sword of Damocles over every one who dares to think, to write, to act, to rule, or to serve. At present, the Pope has only one great object of anxiety—the recovery of his former provinces—but hereafter other objects may arise. But more than the political and national consequences I do acutely mourn over the crushing mental and moral effect of such an absolutism over all conscience, all life, all energy, all thought. My intimate acquaint­ ance with the personal excellence of English and Irish Roman Catholics, lay, cleric, and conventual, makes me deplore the more bitterly a despotism, �and the 11 Expostulation." 21 which must gradually destroy all the higher develop­ ments of character, and turn the descendants of the fine old English Catholic families into abject Jesuit­ ical serfs. In the name of God, may such never be. Anyhow, may the people of England not expedite that fall by the imprudence and injustice of a per­ secution which would speedily unite those who may otherwise partially dissolve ; or, on the other hand, by the misleading encouragement of patronage and compromise. We have no right to help minds and consciences into a bondage which, when embraced, separates the bondsman from humanity—the Church with its theocracy on one side : Humanity with the devil on the other side: such is the Papal concep­ tion. And, alas ! the separation between the Papal subject and Humanity is complete: the outward tokens of courtesy or affection may be observed ; but what love worth anything can exist between the blessed and the accursed; what even are the ministra­ tions of mercy, if they are so designed, as out of men’s affections and afflictions to forge the rivets of their servitude ? When we cease the legislation of religious favourit­ ism, and commence the legislation of religious equality —when we treat all sects and institutions with justice, and the members of all sects and institutions with courtesy as well as justice—then shall we be in a position to apply the principles of common sense to conventual institutions. If the friends of conventual institutions realised the wide-spread dislike engen­ dered by the multiplication of institutions where a two-fold absolutism is veiled in entire secresy, they would be the first to seek a safeguard. The odious system of direction which during the last few years has been pervading the Roman Catholic laity, we are powerless to touch. But the friends of religious equality should warn any persons if they are carrying on a secresy which could be remedied, but which if �22 Vhe Vatican Decrees continued will ere long lead to an outburst of indigna­ tion, a panic, and a persecution. Why should not gentlemen who have relations in convents and com­ munities of men—why should not the superiors of such institutions propose a plan calculated to meet real and known inconveniences, and thus, moreover, to calm the just susceptibilities of the public mind? There ought to be a register preserved in the guest­ room of every religious house, in which the real names of all inmates should be entered ; inaccuracy of entry should be punishable by a fine; any person who could assign a rational reason should, under suitable restric­ tions, be enabled to examine such register. All this might be arranged so as not to cause any inconvenience to a conventual institution, but, above all, so as not to affix any stigma of dishonour or apparent suspicion. Nearly all the unpleasant rumours against convents would have been suppressed at once had a precaution so simple and inoffensive been adopted ; and, without dragging into print allusions to excellent communi­ ties of innocent and good people, I may be allowed to remark that occasionally there have been incidents, such as imbecile inmates kept in durance and also sometimes persons secreting themselves in conventual houses, and so evading the law, which easily give countenance to those countless suspicions which keep aggregating till they descend like an avalanche. The true friends of lasting religious equality must combine, along with the maintenance of these great principles, to abolish favouritism, and to adopt in a spirit of fair­ ness and consideration, remedies demanded, not by b'gotry, but by good sesne. Let me remark, in conclusion, that all my state­ ments as to the Papal doctrines imposed on Neo­ Catholics are founded, as may be easily verified, on direct quotations from the Decrees and the Encyclical. Much more remains behind—unsaid. �and the “Expostulation” 23 NOTE. The book formerly deemed the best for the diffusion of Roman Catholic doctrines was Keenan’s ‘ Controver­ sial Catechism.’ It was based on a French Catechism, and very widely circulated in Great Britain, bearing the imprimatur of all the Vicars Apostolic of Scot­ land. In it appeared the following, until withdrawn in the year 1869 :— Q.—Must not Catholics believe the Pope himself to be infallible ? A.—This is a Protestant invention : it is no Article of the Catholic Faith ; no decision of his can oblige,, under pain of heresy, unless it be received and enforced by the teaching body—that is by the Bishops, of the Church. ADDRESS. The following is a quotation from an address delivered by the Rev. James Martineau at Liverpool, September 25th, 1871, fourteen months after my secession from the Roman Catholic Church. In gratefully mentioning that ever-honoured and beloved name, may I be permitted to record that, trained as I had been to lean on the authority of others, my know­ ledge of the existence of such a spiritual character as his, developed in the ranks of Christian Theism, pre­ sented to my hopes an encouragement and a stimulus which the gentle diffidence of his genius would neither have desired or imagined :— �24 The Vatican Decrees “ Another event has taken place recently with which I have had in some degree the privilege of a personal connection. A very eminent and remarkable man has given up his adherence to the Catholic religion, and has thrown himself among us as a preacher of pure and spiritual religion. I allude to the Rev. Robert Rodolph Suffield. Now, before Mr. Suffield’s name was heard amongst us, at his own request I early paid him a visit at his retreat in the country. I had inti­ mate intercourse with him, and learned precisely his state of thought before he had made up his mind to the step he has now taken, and I was equally struck with the problem which was presented to his religious sense—what is the real essence and nature of Catholicism ? Now, I found that the view Mr. Suffield took of Catholicism was this. He said, 4 I see in the Catholic religion the only example in the world’s history in which the great and fundamental principles of all natural piety and of all natural conscience are made the actuating principles of the life of multitudes and of nations. The great doctrine of the moral government of God, the great truth of the absolute supremacy of conscience, the great hope of a future and better life—these things have imbued the Catholic mind, the mind even of the youngest children of the Catholic Church that have any intelligence at all. They are realities to the Catholic people. They speak of them with the same simplicity and openness with which they would speak of the work of their plough, of their spade, of their shuttle ; with which they would speak of the concerns of their houses and their homes. There is no shyness concerning them. They are ab­ solute realities to them, and rule their lives. We know that they control the passions of young people, and, if they go astray, by appealing to these images in their hearts we can recover them again. They are truly a powei’ in life. And now,’ said Mr. Suffield, 4 what I want to know is, whether outside the Catholic �and the “Expostulation.” *5 Church those truths have the same power and reality, whether they take their places among the facts of life with the same certainty and with the same efficacy.’ He looked upon the Catholic religion simply as an instrumentality for bringing home to men the simple natural convictions of the human heart, and making them live in their consciences and lives. Catholicism thus was to him nothing but a great system of natural religion supported by the most artificial and unnatural of authorities and supports. That is the view he took of it, and he said, ‘ What I want to know is, if I dare to throw away these artificial supports, shall I find it possible to administer this spiritual theism to man­ kind, and get hold of the hearts of men ? Or am I to believe that it is impossible for the weak mind of humanity to grapple those truths, unless you have a false mythology, and all sorts of pictures and images connected with them ? Does the religion enter by means of the false imagination, or may we fling away the false imagination and trust to the spiritual power of religion ?’ That was the problem he had to solve for himself, and he said, ‘ I fear if I were to profess myself a Protestant I should be propping up these eternal truths with just as false and entangled a ma­ chinery as if I were to remain in the Catholic Church. For, if there is no infallibility in the Catholic Church, neither is there in the Protestant Scriptures, and whether I take the one or the other, I throw away natural truths, and fling myself instead on an artificial and unnatural support.’ Well, I believe myself that Mr. Suffield here expressed a great truth ; and I think the changes which are now taking place in the Pro­ testant Churches are all of this kind. The tendency is to fling away the false dependence upon artificial authority, and to go back to the primitive rights of religion in human nature and in human life. I said to him I should feel it an impiety and infidelity—the only thing I should venture to call infidelity at all— �o6 The Vatican Decrees -to doubt that what God had made true could vindicate and justify itself to the human heart without any human lies to back it up and support it. If we once found that a thing was a lie, and was false, or even if it was precarious, it was at the peril of all veracity and of all fidelity that we dared to place that as a means of underpinning, as it were, and supporting an eternal and all-important truth.” RESULTS OF INFALLIBILITY. Meanwhile there are already signs of a coining conflict in quarters where they might hardly have been looked for. There is probably no section of the Church, beyond the walls of Rome itself, where the dominant spirit is so fiercely and fervently Ultramontane as among the Roman Catholics of England. Nor is the phenomenon difficult to account for. They form a small body in the midst of an unfriendly popu­ lation, and the old Catholic families are at once united toge­ ther and inspired with zeal by the long tradition of privations and persecutions patiently endured for their faith. And then, at the moment when legal disabilities and social ostracism were beginning to be relaxed, came the irruption of converts who had sacrificed most of them all the associations, inte­ rests, and affections of half a lifetime for their adopted creed, ,and whose leaders, as one of themselves has observed, were with x>ne illustrious exception, ‘ ‘ Ultramontanes before they were Catholics.” The late Cardinal Wiseman, whose earlier policy was of a very different kind, was completely carried away by the current; his successor has been throughout the guiding spirit of the infallibilist bishops at the Council, and all the younger generation of priests have been trained on the convert model. One of them insisted not long ago, from the pulpit of a well-known Roman Catholic church in the metropolis, that it is not to believe the infallibility of the Pope’s official judgments ; every opinion on whatever subject he expresses in conversation is infallible. Yet a reso­ lute opposition is beginning to manifest itself among both the clergy and laity of the Roman Catholic Church in Eng­ land. We have given several examples of this before now, and we mentioned the other day that the infallibilist address presented under strong pressure for the adoption of the Eng­ lish clergy had been by no means unanimously signed. Dr. �and the “Expostulation.” 27 Rymer, President of the diocesan Seminary of St. Edmund’s, Ware, scandalised the Tablet by writing to express his em­ phatic disapproval of it. But the tone and language of the letter of refusal addressed to its promoters by Father Suf­ field, and published apparently by his request in the B estminster Gazette, is so remarkable that it deserves record here. The writer is the best known and one of the ablest and most active of the English Dominicans- -a Cambridge man, though not, we believe, a convert; and it is hardly likely, considering the stringent discipline of religious com­ munities, that he would venture on so bold a protest unless he felt assured of the moral support of his Order ; and such an inference is strongly confirmed by the attitude of the Dominican Cardinal Guidi. Father Suffield says :— ‘ ‘ Knowing with what earnest desire the enemies of our religion, with taunting speech, at once urge us and defy us to proclaim, after 1,800 years, the foundation of our Christianity ; knowing the deep repugnance with which, under the pressure of ecclesiastical opinion and ecclesiastical prospects, canons, priests, and bishops, have signed declarations pleasing to ecclesiastical superiors, and repugnant to their private opinions ; knowing with an intimate and sad knowledge that the moot­ ing of this question has led to investigations, and then to inquiries, which have paralysed the faith in the minds of numbers of the clergy and of the intellectual laity, and with not a few destroyed it, I must respectfully decline to sign a document in which petitioners ask for a definition, the animus and consequence of which few can be so thoughtless as not to perceive. ‘ ‘ If we get a Pope vain, obstinate, and in his dotage, shall we ask him to be confirmed in his powers of mischief ? ‘ ‘ Do we wish, by exalting the lessons of the encyclical, to render political life impossible to every honest and consistent Catholic, and to render the possession of political and religious equality impracticable to any except those sort of Catholics who would use the language of liberty when they beg, and the precepts of the Pope when they refuse ? ” It is scarcely possible to misapprehend the pointed allusion to the case of “ a Pope vain, obstinate, and in his dotage,” and the majority of the Vatican Council has certainly done what it can to “confirm him in his powers of mischief.” Father Suffield must be presumed to speak from his own knowledge when he refers to the numbers of clergy and educated laity whose faith has been already paralysed or destroyed by inquiries into Papal infallibility, and his testi­ mony is borne out by others ; it is hardly wonderful that he should look with serious alarm at the further consequences �28 The Vatican Decrees that may ensue. The wonder is that those who wish faith to be maintained and strengthened should be so “ thoughtless ” as to exult over the “mischief” they have helped to perpe­ trate. It is rather late to remind them now of the homely proverb that the last straw will break the camel’s back, and this straw is a tolerably weighty one.—Saturday Review, of July 30th, 1870. FATHER SUFFIELD AND THE NEW DOGMA. The newspapers inform us that Father Suffield, late of the Dominican Order, has joined the Unitarian community ; he has not only renounced his obedience to the Church of Rome, but lias apparently renounced also his obedience to the Catholic Faith. This is very sad, yet not unexpected after reading his last published letters. The case is one that arrests our attention, not only on account of the learning and abilities of Father Suffield, but because it will form, we fear, only a type of many such cases ; nor is this difficult to understand. Brought up with the principle, instilled from earliest child­ hood, that the Church of Rome is alone the Catholic Church, excluding the Orthodox and the Anglican ; that the supre­ macy of the Pope over the whole Catholic world is the normal idea of the Church, so completely that those who do not acknowledge that supremacy are cut off from the promises and privileges of the Church, even though, like Greeks and Anglicans, they retain all else necessary to their continuing portions of the Body of Christ; with these opinions so strongly impressed on the mind, it is inevitable that there must be a most violent reaction when the dogma of Infallibility is made an article of Faith by what claims to be a General Council. For this dogma is not only a new article of Faith, but it is one which contradicts much that had been previously held as true ; it virtually rejects the authority of General Councils as the voice of the Church, and thus places the Church herself in a new position. By removing the supreme authority from the Body, and placing it in one man, who is supposed to be the head, the original Charter as granted by her Divine Head is abrogated, and a new one substituted for it. It is no longer, “Tell it to the Church,” it is “Tell it to the Pope ; ” it is no longer,” “If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican; ” but, “If he neglect to hear the Pope”—very naturally the Faith of those who have been educated, as Father Suffield has been, by Do­ minicans, will be violently shaken, and their minds thrown off their balance, when they are called upon by the authority �and the “Expostulation.” 29 of the Church to accept the decree of the personal Infallibility of the Pope. And this reaction is very liable to go to further lengths than we at first anticipate ; we are apt to expect that those who, like Father Suffield, repudiate the dogma, and con­ sequently find their position as Priests in the Roman Church untenable, will turn to the Anglican. We should rejoice to think that the Anglican would form a safe home for those who reject the dogma, but we fear it will not be so; we are far more afraid that Father Suffield’s example will be followed by larger numbers than those who seek refuge with us. We do not sufficiently consider the habits of thought and mind which are formed by Roman teaching. In that community the whole Catholic Faith is wrapped up in, and becomes a part of, the belief in the Papal Supremacy ; the very rudiments of the Faith, the Incarnation, the Holy Trinity, the Sacraments, are all tied up in the idea of the sole supremacy of the Church of Rome, and the Pope at the head of it ; the idea of the Catholic Church or any part existing, except under the Roman obedience, is entirely excluded as impossible. When, there­ fore, a rude shock comes like this, which destroys all faith in the Pope and the Roman Church, it destroys all faith in other dogmas too.—Church Herald. The dogma of Infallibility is producing its necessary fruit. Not even Rome can altogether stop inquiry or fetter thought, and spiritual absolutism finds its own subjects ready to ques­ tion its decrees. Already there is a movement in Germany which bears striking resemblance to that of the fifteenth cen­ tury. A meeting of Roman Catholic professors at Nuremberg has already agreed upon a protest against the spiritual despot­ ism of the Pope, and the Cologne Gazette states that the Bishop of Rothenberg, Dr. Hefele, has resolved not to accept the Infallibility Dogma, and that his Chapter and the theo­ logical faculty of the city of Tubingen support him in it. Even in this country, where Roman Catholicism is more Roman than Rome, the dogma is producing confusion and distress in the minds of the faithful. As the immediate result of the Council’s work, the secession of Father Suffield from the Church of Rome is worthy of more notice than is due to merely individual change of opinion. Father Suffield is a man to whom the Roman Catholics of England are willing to confess large obligations. He is said to have revived the establishment of Peter’s Pence in this country, to have done much in recruiting the regiment of Papal Zouaves, and to have held the first public meeting of sympathy for the Pope ever held in modern England. A �3° The Vatican Decrees correspondent of the Westminster Gazette says, “it has been impossible to have been much under Father Suffield’s influence without becoming intensely devoted to everything Catholic,” and that “the Prayer-book connected with his name has pro­ bably been more instrumental than any other popular manual in spreading faith wherever English speaking Catholics are to be found. ” The Prior of the Dominican House in London, of which order Father Suffield is a prominent member, speaks of him as “ a brother of the same order, whose personal friend­ ship I enjoyed before either of us became Dominicans, and whose zeal and apostolic spirit I have ever held in the greatest admiration.” But Father Suffield seems to have felt somewhat as Father Newman felt, that though the Infallibility was a dogma to be received as an act of devotion, it was not to be defended as an article of the faith. “It becomes essential,” he says, “that unless failure of reason be impossible to an aged Pope, there should be some means at least of recognising when his decrees are to be regarded as the acts of man, when as those of God.” The shock of disagreement and difference which has been caused by the proclamation of the Infallibility dogma has, however, shaken the whole fabric of the eloquent Dominican’s creed. “An incident, not regretted by me,” he says, “has revealed, almost by accident, the hidden struggle of years.” Of this struggle he says, ‘ ‘ it has been the agony of years.” His doubts have not risen from within, but have been forced upon him from without. He ‘ ‘ sought solitude first in the cloister, then solitude greater in a country village amidst simple people and the children of his flock, that he might dispel difficulties and doubts. If those difficulties and doubts have been wrong, none but the highest rulers of the Church have been responsible for them ; they have not been a pleasure, but an agony; not a pride, but a humiliation.” Father Suffield has, therefore, been driven out of the Church by the declaration of the Papal Infallibility. His case is simply one of thousands, and is only rendered remarkable by his own previous services to the Church. The Pope and his Council have raised more doubts than they will solve, and in grasping at the shadow of Infallibility they will miss the substance of authority.—Daily News. Father Suffield, the eloquent Dominican, whose protest against the most memorable act of the Vatican Council has excited some attention in this country, has gone a step beyond the rejection of the dogma of Papal Infallibility. He has quitted the Roman Communion. It would seem that as soon �and the “Expostulation” 3i as the fact became known overtures were made to him with the view of his joining the Anglican Church. He has declined to do so. The Articles and the Athanasian Creed block the way ; indeed he ‘ ‘ questions alike the Infallibility of the Pope and of the Scriptures.” He throws in his lot with “those who are commonly called Unitarians, Free Christians or Christian Theists,” and states, in effect, that he intends to accept’ the office of a minister in a Free Christian Congrega­ tion.—Manchester Guardian. A due following out of opinions curiously led Dr. Newman to the Roman Church, and his brother, Professor Newman, to pure Theism. In like manner the two Herberts—the one the free-thinking Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the other the sainted poet of the English Church : these men felt the philo­ sophical impossibility of a middle position. We shall watch Mr. Suffield’s career with high interest. He will not go in with the company of Exeter Hall, but sets forth alone in his quest of truth. There is something very touching, and very manly too, in his statement of the sufferings of mind and heart, “which his secession has involved.” Father Suffield has taken the great leap from authority to freedom.—Dispatch. FATHER SUFFIELD AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. August 22, 1870. My Dear Sir,—Private communications are so very numer­ ous at present, that 1 cannot conveniently add to my occupa­ tions by contributing the literary help you do me the favour of offering. Moreover that able periodical partakes somewhat of a controversial character, and is regarded as anti-Catholic in its position. I am peculiarly circumstanced, have resigned all offices in the Catholic Church, and ceased the exercise of priestly and Catholic rites : from the intimate manner in which I have been interwoven in the Catholic body in England, this act causes great pain to those whom the least I should like to wound ; and I am anxious to do nothing but what is demanded by the exigencies of circumstances or the require­ ments of conscience, which could in the slightest degree grieve those who have so many claims upon my affection gratitude, and reverence. ’ After long and deep thought, study, prayer, and counsel, I decided that it would be impossible for me honestly to continue to act as a priest. The infallibility of the Pope, and, �32 The Vatican Decrees of the Scriptures, alike, I question, and the dogmas resting solely on either of those authorities, I am not able on that account to admit. It is my desire to unite with others, and to assist them in the worship of God, and in the practice of the two-fold precepts of charity, unfettered by adhesion on either side, to anything, beyond those great fundamental principles’ as presented to us by Jesus Christ. Though relieved from all the obligations of my order, I do not wish to consider myself as alienated from the Catholic Church or from other Christian communities, by any personal hostile act. I assume a position hostile to none—if one man hurls an anathema, another man is not compelled either to accept it, or to retaliate it. H aving understood that those who are commonly called Uni­ tarians, Free Christians, or Christian Theists, thus agree in the liberty inspired by self-diffidence, humility, and charity, to carry on the worship of God, without sectarian requirements or sectarian opposition ; that they possess a simple but not vulgar worship, a high standard of virtue, intelligence, and integrity ; and these after the Christian type, moulded by the Christian traditions, and edified by the sacred Scriptures ; holding the spirit taught by Jesus Christ, and the great thoughts by virtue of which he built up the ruins of the moral world; and yet not enforcing the reception of complicated dogmas as a necessity, or accounting their rejection a crime : a communion of Christian worshippers, bound loosely together, and yet by the force of great principles enabled quietly to maintain their position, to exercise an influence elevating and not unimportant, and to present religion under an aspect which thoughtful men can accept without latent scepticism, and earnest men without the aberrations of superstition, or the abjectness of mental servitude to another—such approved itself to my judgment, and commended itself to my sympathy. I intend adhering to the pursuits of the clergyman and of the Christian teacher, and communications are in progress in another part of England which may terminate in my accepting thus a duty conformable to the habits of my life, and which will not throw me into a position of hostility, or embarrassment as to those honoured and loved Catholic friends with whom so greatly I should prize, if it were possible to maintain kindly intercourse, inasmuch as I am only externally severed from them by my being unable to believe certain dogmas which a Catholic is bound to regard as essential. Thus I hope I have not only thanked you for your obliging offer, but adequately explained my position, and showed that the future you were commissioned to hold out to me in the Established Church �and the “Expostulation 33 would not be deemed possible by the authorities who have done me the honour and kindness to communicate in my regard, as soon as they are made aware that the Articles and the Athanasian creed would be amongst the insuperable barriers to my entertaining such a proposal. Many write to me evidently under a grievous misapprehen­ sion. They anticipate from me reckless denunciations of that vision of beauty which I have left, simply because, like a vision, it had everything but reality. Allied as I am by relationship with some of our ancient Catholic families, allied by the ties of friendship with many more of them, I feel it is a shame to myself that any stranger could suppose one word of my lips, one thought of my mind, could cast moral reproach on those beautiful and honoured homes where old traditions received a lustre greater even than antiquity and suffering can bestow—crowned with the aureola of charity, nobleness, purity, and devotedness. Such memories print on my heart their everlasting record. To cease to believe and to worship with them was a martyrdom, which none but the Catholic can understand. I have ascended now to another stage of my life ; to rise to it needed sufferings of the mind and of the heart, the sacrifice of everything in the world I cared for;—but I perceive a work to do, and, by the blessing of God, I shall strive to perform it. Youth, strength, vigour, and hope return to me with the expectation. Truth obtained by suffering is doubly dear to the possessor. —Very sincerely yours, Robert Rodolph Suffield. To the Rev. ----- &c., &c. N.B.—All the above paragraphs, from different periodicals, are extracted from Church Opinion. �ALSO, By the Rev. R. R. SUFFIELD, FIVE LETTERS ON CONVERSION TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM -................................................ 3d. IS JESUS GOD ?........................................................ 3d. TRUBNER and CO., LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E.C. PRINTED BY C. W. REYNELL, LITTLE PtTLTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET, � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Victorian Blogging Description An account of the resource A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library &amp; Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Conway Hall Library & Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Conway Hall Ethical Society Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Pamphlet Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Vatican decrees and the "Expostulation" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Suffield, Robert Rodolph Description An account of the resource Place of publication: London Collation: 33 p. ; 19 cm. Notes: Inscription in pencil on title page : With the author's kind regards. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by C.W. Reynell. Includes extracts from comments and letters published in Church Opinion and a quotation from an address delivered by Rev. James Martineau at Liverpool, September 25th, 1871. Two other works by Suffield published by Trubner on last page. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Trubner and Co. ; Thomas Scott Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1874 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CT8 Subject The topic of the resource Catholic Church Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Vatican decrees and the "Expostulation"), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource English Catholic Church Catholic Church-Doctrines Conway Tracts