Author of lectures on moral principles and medical practice, and text-books on logic and metaphysics, moral philosophy, oratory, rhetoric.

“Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. xvi, 18.

That the true religion made by honored and loved by all men, the first requisite is that it be made clearly known to all. Many persons are aliens to Catholicity because they do not understand it as it is; many members of the Church do not love it as they should, and do not live up to its laws, because their knowledge of it is very imperfect. The conviction is general among educated Catholics, that a more thorough study of our holy religion is, just now, a special desideratum in this country. This study must be promoted chiefly among the young, on whose proper education the future of religion principally depends.

To accomplish this object, it is the received practice in many Catholic colleges and academies to teach religion to the more advanced students by series of lectures, rather than by recitations from text-books. This practice has much to recommend it. In particular, it enables the teacher to adapt himself to the capacity and the stage of mental development of his pupils, to address by the living voice their hearts as well as their intellects, to throw his whole soul into his subject, adding charm of style and elocution, which this study so richly deserves.

But there is one serious inconvenience in this system, which outbalances many of its advantages, namely that most students find it beyond their power to remember the explanations with such accuracy as the importance and the  difficulty of the matter require. If attempts are made to take notes during the lectures, it is usually found to be impossible by such jottings to do justice to the subjects treated. A set of printed syllabi, put at the disposal of the hearers for reference and preservation, would certainly be of the highest value. By this means many details may also be supplied for the information of the students which the lecturer might judiciously have omitted in his discourse.

To furnish such an abridgement of a full course of Catholic doctrine is the direct purpose of these pages. In preparing them, the author has found it difficult to combine the necessary brevity of such syllabi with the clearness and fulness of doctrine desired in them. But instead of being induced by this difficulty to abandon his design, he has been the more convinced by it of the need of just such a volume as this for the systematic study of religion. If an old professor finds it a hard task to compose such a compendium of Catholic doctrine as is evidently needed, the notes taken in class by the average pupil must certainly be most unsatisfactory.

While thus providing a compendium of lectures supposed to be delivered orally to students, the author has taken care to make his work so clear, full, and explicit throughout, that even those pupils who have not the advantage of assisting at such lectures can use this volume with profit, either as a text-book to prepare for class recitations, or for private perusal without the aid of any teacher.

He takes pleasure in acknowledging his very great indebtedness, in the preparation of this work, to the excellent volumes of the late Rev. Sylvester Joseph Hunter, S. J., entitled “Outlines of Dogmatic Theology”. With  the kind permission of the Jesuit Fathers in England, for which he is deeply grateful, he has followed the general plan of that able work, and availed himself of much information contained in it which is not usually found in Latin works on Theology. He has also reproduced, usually in a much abridged form, many of its judicious explanations, finding them peculiarly well adapted to the habits of thoughts of English-speaking students. By way of supplying for the various shortcomings of this brief text-book, the author would respectfully suggest that those who explain it should ever have at hand a copy of Father Hunter's learned work.

Creighton University, Omaha, Neb.

The present edition has been brought into conformity with the new Code of Canon Law.

1. By the word religion we may signify the virtue which disposes us to worship God; or we may signify a system of truths, laws, and practices by which this virtue is regulated or exercised. In this latter meaning, the Christian religion is that system of truths, laws, and practices for the worship of God which was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is taught in its fulness by the Catholic Church, and by the Catholic Church alone; that is by that conspicuous body of Christians which, while existing in all nations, and comprising as many members as all the other Christian bodies taken together, is yet perfectly united in doctrine and worship by submission to one Supreme Pontiff the Pope of Rome. For the word Catholic (κατα through, 'ολος whole) means “universal”; and therefore this name cannot be claimed without self-contradiction by any very limited body of men. The term “Roman” is often prefixed to the name of the Catholic Church, not to distinguish it from other Catholic church,--for there is evidently only one universal Church,--but to emphasize that this vast body of believers is united in obedience to the one Bishop of Rome.

2. The study of the Catholic religion is begun by the children of the Church from the first dawn of reason; and such is its importance, such also are its beneficial results, that it should be continued by them through life.  We are now entering on a systematic study of this religion; and we shall make this study as scientific as the brevity of the present work allows. Science examines into the reason of things; it considers, not only what an object is, but why it is such, and how it came to be such. The scientific study of the Catholic religion therefore examines, not only what this religion is, and in particular what doctrines it teaches, but also how it came to be what it is, and why it teaches every one of these doctrines. If accounts for every point, so far as this is possible, from the principles of reason and of revelation.

3. The attitude of mind on the part of Catholics to the Church is one of deep reverence, of love, and of perfect docility, such as every dutiful child cherishes in regard to its parents. Well instructed Catholics can see no reason why they should distrust her guidance; and they would consider it as unwarrantable in them to question her authority, as it would be for sons and daughters of a respectable family to ask their parents for proof of their right to govern the home. Catholics, therefore, do not study the claims and the doctrines of the Church in a doubting spirit, but only as scientific students, that they may understand them distinctly and know how to explain and prove them to others.

4. But non-Catholics approach the Church as inquirers, looking, in a matter which is of the highest importance, for reliable guidance, such as they have not in their sects. For their sects do not profess to be infallible; they require that every man shall judge for himself. It is therefore the duty, as well as the interest, of all non-Catholics to search most carefully for the true religion. To do so successfully, they should rid themselves of all prejudices, and examine with earnestness and perfect  impartiality the claims of so remarkable an institution as the Catholic Church evidently is. They should accompany their inquiries with humble prayer, that God may enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills. For it requires grace to know and follow the guide divinely appointed to lead men to Heaven; and grace is to be obtained by prayer.

5. The systematic study of the Catholic religion is usually divided into three parts. The first examines the reasons why all men should accept the claim to infallible teaching on the part of the Catholic Church; the second considers all her doctrines in detail; the third explains the duties imposed upon her members. We shall treat these parts respectively under the titles of, 1. The teaching authority, 2. The doctrines of the Catholic Church, 3. The duties of Catholics.

The first part of our work will embrace the study: 1. Of the Christian revelation, and of the credentials by which it is known to be from God; 2. Of the Catholic Church, as the Heaven-appointed teacher of the Christian revelation.

Under this head we are to consider: 1. The nature of revelation; 2. The credentials of revelation; 3. Pre-Christian revelations; 4. The Christian revelation; 5. The records of the Christian revelation; 6. The credentials of the Christian revelation; 7. The miraculous spread of the Christian revelation.

7. Revelation is the removal of a veil. When the discovery of truth is made by our natural powers, it is called natural revelation. By it man can easily know the existence of God as the First Cause and Master of all things, the Rewarder of good and evil; the survival of the soul in another life of happiness or misery; the principles of the moral law, in particular the duty of worshipping and serving God; etc. These truths have been known in all ages by all men who had the full use of reason. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, speaking of the ungodly, writes: “The invisible things of Him (of God), from the creation of the word, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and Divinity: so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, nor given Him thanks” (I, 20, 21). And of the moral law he says that even the gentiles have the law “written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them” (II, 15). Many other truths concerning God can be known by reason; as is proved in Natural Theology, a division of Metaphysics.

8. The word “revelation” is however more commonly used in another meaning; and it is in this latter sense that we shall take it throughout this book; namely, to  designate a manifestation of truth by God to man by a light superior to reason. In this meaning it is properly called “supernatural revelation”. It is supernatural, because such light is not part of our nature, nor due to it, nor attainable by its unaided power. It supposes a special action of God announcing the truth to man. He has made this announcement through Prophets, Apostles, and other sacred writers, but especially through His Divine Son. He has thus taught us that we are destined to a supernatural happiness to which our nature cannot possibly give us a claim, and which is to consist of seeing God face to face. A supernatural end cannot be reached but by supernatural means which our nature by its own powers can neither discover nor employ (n. 172).

9. To make known to us our supernatural end and the means of attaining thereto, a supernatural revelation was, therefore, absolutely necessary. Though it is not thus necessary for the knowledge of natural truths, even of such as regard religion and morality, still many difficulties impeded the acquisition of such knowledge by unaided reason. In particular, very few men have the talent and the opportunity to study such subjects deeply; and, even under the most favorable circumstances, owing to the depravity of the human heart, there always have been doubts and errors on many important points of morality and religion. This is abundantly proved by the history of past ages; and it is seen even to-day in the teachings of various philosophic systems which deny, or at least question, our most important duties to God. Therefore, a supernatural revelation is, not indeed absolutely, but yet relatively necessary for the proper understanding even of the natural law; it is necessary considering the condition of mankind. It may also be  called morally necessary, the necessity arising from the fact that, while there is no physical impossibility, yet there is such a great difficulty in acquiring such knowledge as a man needs to lead a life worthy of himself and of his Creator. Those who reject revelation are fond of calling themselves “rationalists”, as if they were more rational than other men, while they are so irrational as to refuse additional light when it is offered them; and thus they act most rashly in matters in which the highest interests of man are concerned.

10. When we know a fact or truth, whether by our own powers or by revelation, we may still fail to see how the matter can be explained. It is then called a mystery: a natural mystery, if we arrive at the knowledge of its existence by our natural powers; a supernatural mystery, if by revelation only. That the scenes which we have formerly witnessed are recorded in our memory, we know; but how they are there recorded, is a natural mystery; how the three Divine Persons are one God, is a supernatural one. It is absurd for any man to deny that there are natural mysteries; a fortiori, we cannot deny that there are supernatural ones: for the things of God must necessarily be more incomprehensible to us than the sensible things around us. “The things that are of God,” says St. Paul, “no man knoweth but the Spirit of God”; and he adds that we have received this Spirit, “that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Cor II, 11, 12). We have then no right to refuse acceptance of a revelation, on the plea that it contains mysteries.

11. While we should not be so irrational as to refuse credence to a revelation when we know that it comes from God, we should, on the other hand, not be so imprudent as to accept every thing that pretends to be a revelation, without thorough scrutiny of its claims to our acceptance. This caution applies both to private revelations, such namely as are intended for the recipient,--or at most for a limited number of persons,--and to public revelations, which are given to one person but are designed to command the submissive acceptance of all. With the latter alone we are here concerned. This submission cannot reasonably be demanded of us, unless the Divine messenger produce reliable proof that he has a warrant for his claim to our submission. Belief without proof may easily be a sin of imprudence. Now it is hard to conceive a mode in which such a messenger could be accredited except through miracles and prophecies; these are called the credentials of revelation, and the Christian religion is ready to produce them.

12. A miracle may be defined as “a marvellous event, out of the ordinary course of nature, and produced by Almighty God.” A marvellous event is one that make men wonder. But nature is full of wonders, and yet we do not call them miracles; a miracle is out of the ordinary course of nature. It must besides come from God, either directly, or--which would be the same as far as  our purpose is concerned--through His messengers, the good Angels. If the wonderful effect may, for all we know, have been produced by a man or by an evil spirit, or by some law of material nature, then we have no right to call the fact a miracle. We may distinguish two kinds of true miracles. If God interferes with the laws of material nature, we have a physical miracle, as when He restores the dead to life; if with the laws of moral nature, it is a moral miracle, as when a whole people, at the words of a preacher, suddenly abandons inveterate habits of vice and enters on a life of heroic virtue. A moral miracle, therefore, is an event depending upon the free-will of man, but which is inconsistent with the principles that ordinarily regulate human conduct, and which can only come from God.

13. If true miracles are known for certain to have been wrought at the word of a man who claims to have a mission from God, he must then be received as an accredited messenger of the Most High, and his message as a true revelation. That real miracles are thus credentials from God is evident, since God alone can perform them. They are like His signature or His seal; and He certainly cannot put His seal upon the claims of an impostor.

Since however miracles, if they really happen, are convincing proofs of God's approbation of a doctrine, rationalists have brought all manner of objections against their occurrence and their very possibility; and they have striven hard to prove that, even if a miracle were worked, we could never know it to be genuine, really proceeding from God. It will suffice to answer them thus: 1. The testimony of science cannot be invoked against the possibility of miracles, since even the leading Agnostic scientist  Huxley writes: “No one is entitled to say a priori that any given so-called miraculous event is impossible” (Science and the Bishops, XIX Cent., Nov. 1887). 2. The occasional working of miracles does not interfere with scientific knowledge; thus the fact that Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, does not affect the science of medicine, nor throw doubt upon the truths of any other science. 3. The famous argument of Hume against the cognoscibility of miracles, when it is logically examined, is seen to be a wretched fallacy. He claims that we have physical certainty that the dead do not rise, and only moral certainty that Lazarus rose from the dead; but physical, he says, is stronger than moral certainty. Now we have no physical, nor any other certainty that the dead can never rise, but only that the dead do not rise by the powers or laws of nature; and we have metaphysical certainty that God is powerful enough to raise them to life, if he chooses to do so. The witnesses on the occasion had physical certainty that Lazarus did rise from the dead, and we have moral certainty that their testimony is reliable, for they testified what was against their own wish in the matter.

14. Yet the extraordinary importance of the claim to be a messenger from God, makes it necessary, whenever this claim is presented, that the credentials, and whatever regards the person and the circumstances of the claimant, and his very message itself, be most carefully examined. The tests, or criteria, to be applied are chiefly these: 1. Does the message contain anything contrary to truths which are already known by reason or by a former well-ascertained revelation? If so, the new message cannot be true, for one truth cannot contradict another. Such are the pretended revelations of Spiritists; for they  deny the existence of eternal punishment, the Divinity of Christ, etc. 2. Is the pretended messenger known to be actuated in his claim by unworthy motives, such as vain-glory, greed of money, etc.? If so, we have reason to suspect his mission. 3. Is there any circumstance connected with the pretended miracles which is dishonorable to God or injurious to morality? If so, the works cannot be Divine. For instance, if they are intended for mere gratification of curiosity; as in the exhibitions of public showmen, who produce astonishing effects by what they call mesmerism, hypnotism, clairvoyance, second-sight, mind-reading, etc. All this is generally rank imposture, sometimes worse; while Spiritism, Christian-science cures, Theosophy, and other such sensational exhibitions, are directly anti-Christian in the doctrines which they inculcate. Besides, no virtuous man can have recourse to any practices in which there are good reasons to think that evil spirits are concerned; yet they may easily be concerned in the performances of false pretenders in matters of religion.

15. Prophecy is another of the credentials by which a messenger of God may be accredited to man. It consists of foretelling with certainty,--not as a mere guess or calculation--events which cannot be known at the time by any one but God; as, when the Prophet Micheas, more than seven centuries before the birth of Christ, foretold that the Messias would be born in Bethlehem (Mich. V, 2).

16. If it be objected that it is not always easy to discern true from pretended miracles and prophecies, we grant the assertion; and we conclude from it that no one should be hasty to pronounce an event miraculous, or a prediction a true prophecy. But it is not by doubtful  miracles and prophecies that Divine revelation is proved to the careful student of the Catholic religion. We appeal only to such facts as are above all reasonable suspicion. Such, for instance, were the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and especially the Resurrection of Christ, and His prediction of it in His lifetime; such too was the sudden cure of the lame man by Saints Peter and John, which is related with copious details in the Acts of the Apostles (III). From the Old Testament we may select, as a good example of a true miracle and prophecy combined, the event narrated in the eighteenth chapter of the third book of Kings; namely, when Elias brought down fire from Heaven to consume his sacrifice and confound the priests of Baal. (See further nn. 27-31.)

17. We learn from the first chapters of the Book of Genesis that a Divine revelation was granted to our first parents. They were instructed by God Himself about the creation, their destiny to immortality, their dominion over all the earth with its plants and animals, the indissolubility of matrimony, their dependence on Almighty God, the prohibition to eat of the forbidden fruit, the consequences of their disobedience, the promise of a Redeemer, who was to spring from their race, the acceptability to God of the sacrifice of material objects, etc. All this is called the Primitive revelation. The knowledge of it was transmitted through subsequent generations; and it was easy to preserve the traditions in their integrity, owing to the long lives of men in those early ages, when Adam lived for over sixty years with Lamech, the father of Noe.

18. Noe was a new messenger from God to men, sent to warn sinners of impending punishment, and to restore the observance of the moral law. After the Deluge, he predicted the future lot of his sons and of their descendants, and declared in particular that the Messias should be born of the race of Sem. He transmitted the Primitive Revelation in its purity to his descendants; and, although idolatry seems to have begun with some of these during his lifetime, still many of the great truths regarding God  and morality were remembered through many generations. Students of antiquity have discovered in the earliest writings and traditions of various peoples a much purer religion than that which was prevalent in the classic ages of Greece and Rome. They have thus strikingly refuted the theory of evolutionists which pretends that religion was evolved from the grossest fetishism, by constant improvements, to the gradual recognition of one only God. The opposite is known to be the truth. “It cannot be denied,” writes Frederick von Schlegel, “that the early Indians possessed a knowledge of the true God; all their writings are replete with sentiments and expressions noble, clear, and serenely grand, as deeply conceived and reverentially expressed as in any human language in which men have spoken of their God” (Aest. and Misc. Works, Let. VIII.--See also Thebaud's Gentilism, pp. 30 etc., where the same is shown to be true of other ancient races.) Prophets were also sent from time to time as special messengers from God to keep the Primitive revelation from corruption, and to prepare mankind for the coming of the Saviour.

19. When the nations generally were falling into idolatry, God selected Abraham to be the father of a Chosen People, from which the Messias was to be born, and in which the Primitive revelation was to be preserved in all its purity: “The Lord said to Abraham: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee--and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed” (Gen. XII, 1-3). The Old Testament portion of the Holy Scriptures is almost entirely taken up with the history of that Chosen People,  whose one great expectation was the coming of the Messias. Successive prophecies limited the ancestors of the Messias to the descendants of Isaac, Jacob, Juda, and later on, of David and Solomon, and determined the time of His appearance on earth. There were also meanwhile other revelations of God to other nations; at least to individuals who, like Job, lived among the Gentiles. We are expressly told in the New Testament that at no time God left Himself without testimony in the world; and that in every nation He accepts those who fear and obey Him (Acts XIV, 16.--See, for an apt explanation of this matter, Cardinal Newman's “Arians of the IV. Century,” p. 81).

20. Moses was the great Prophet sent by the Almighty to lead His Chosen People forth from Egypt, the land of bondage, to the promised land; and thus he was the most conspicuous type, or figure of the Saviour, who was to free all men from the bondage of Satan and open to them the Kingdom of Heaven. After Moses, by numerous miracles and prophecies, which are circumstantially narrated in the Book of Exodus, had proved his mission to be Divine, he communicated to the Israelites the law of God, and regulated their government, their dealings with one another and with the nations around them; also their religious observances, and most especially their public worship. This was to be a type of the perfect worship that would be instituted by Christ; for, as St. Paul writes: “All these things happened to them in figure” (1. Cor. X, 11). Moses foretold the coming of Christ in God's own words: “I will raise them up a Prophet out of the midst of their brethren like unto thee--and he that will not hear His word, which He will speak in My name, I will be the avenger” (Deut. XVIII, 18, 19). 

21. The Book of Psalms is full of prophecies in regard to Christ, giving details concerning His birth, His life, His doctrines, His sufferings, His death, His resurrection and His everlasting Kingdom. After Moses, Prophets were sent from time to time, to keep constantly before the minds of the Chosen People the worship of the one God, the observance of the Mosaic Law, the expectation of the Messias, the time, place, and manner of His coming, etc.

It will be noticed that the words “Messias”and “Christ” are used promiscuously for each other; both mean the “Anointed”; of this term “Messias” is the Hebrew, “Christ” the Greek equivalent. Thus, during the Passion of Christ, when the High-Priest abjured Jesus to tell if He were “the Christ the Son of God,” he evidently asked whether he were the expected “Messias” (Matt. XXVI, 63); and St. John writes: “The Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ” (I, 41).

22. No more important fact is recorded in history than the establishment of the Christian religion, and its acceptance by all the most enlightened nations of the world. From Christ's birth we count the years forward to our own days, and backward to the days of Adam. Born with the Child Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem, then seemingly crushed by His ignominious death upon the Cross, yet rising with Him victoriously from the tomb, and informed with a supernatural life by the descent of the Spirit of God, the Christian religion entered upon a divinely appointed career of extending the Kingdom of Christ, and propagating His doctrines and religious observances to the uttermost bounds of the earth. After struggling for three centuries against all the persecuting power of the Roman empire, the once despised religion triumphed over the vices of an effete civilization, by establishing the reign of Christian morality and becoming the true civilizer of the nations. In the forward march of Christianity idols have disappeared and the true God has been preached and worshipped everywhere.

23. This origin of the Christian religion and the transformation it has effected in the morals of men must be accounted for from the pages of history. If they can be explained in no other way than by admitting that miracles were wrought in its behalf, then it is accredited  as the messenger of God, and therefore we must acknowledge its Heavenly mission. We are therefore going to examine the early history of Christianity. We will go back to the time when its followers were still universally persecuted, when no earthly power could be suspected of having promoted its success.

About the year 112, the Younger Pliny wrote to the Emperor Trajan that the Christians existed in great numbers in the province of Bithynia, that they assembled on a particular day for religious worship, when they sang a hymn to Christ as God, and bound themselves by a sacred sanction not to be guilty of theft or other sins. This “contagion” prevailed in the cities, villages, and open country; the temples were deserted, the regular sacrifices discontinued. Some had been Christians for twenty years; all declared there was no evil in their practices, and large numbers persevered in defiance of torture and death. He asked what course he must follow in trying them. (Epist. 96, 97.)

Tacitus speaks of their origin. He relates that the Emperor Nero came under suspicion of having purposely caused the great fire in Rome in the year 64, that he threw the blame on person “whom the populace hated for their crimes and called by the name of Christians. This name is derived from Christus, who was punished by the procurator Pontius Pilate, during the reign of Tiberius. The execrable superstition was suppressed for a time, but broke out again, and overran, not Judea alone, the country of its birth, but Rome itself.” Thus, in thirty or forty years after Christ's death, the religion had spread so as to count an immense number of followers in Rome (Lib. XV, C. 44).

24. To account for this rapid spread in spite of  governmental power and mob prejudice, we have the Christian story, which has been received by millions of men throughout a long succession of centuries. Other explanations, in vogue for a while, have been abandoned as unsatisfactory. Now the Christian story is narrated in the four Gospels and other portions of the New Testament, whose reliability we shall prove below. It is briefly as follows:--

At the time pointed out by the Jewish Prophets, there was born miraculously, of the Virgin Mary, in the place designated by prophecy, a Child of the race of David, who by command of Heaven was called Jesus, that is Saviour, because, as was predicted, he would save his people from their sin. After giving for thirty years the example of all the virtues that adorn private life, He preached for three years in Judea and Galilee a doctrine of marvellous perfection, vastly superior to any that men had ever conceived; and he gained a number of disciples, plain, unlearned men, many of whom left all things to follow Him, though He held out no inducements but rewards in the future life. He preached a doctrine directly opposed to the human passions, and required its observance, claiming to be a messenger from God His Father, to be one with His Father, to be the expected Christ, or Messias, which name became His own by universal consent. Meanwhile He worked most numerous and most astounding miracles, and appealed to them as credentials of His Divine mission. For when asked by the disciples of St. John the Baptist whether He was the expected Messias, He pointed to His miracles, saying: “Go and relate to John what you have seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again” (Matt. XI  5). Later he said: “I have a greater testimony than that of John. For the works which the Father hath given Me to perfect, the works themselves which I do, give testimony of Me that the Father hath sent Me” (Jo. V. 36). He made many prophecies concerning His passion and His death, the future destruction of Jerusalem, etc. He appealed chiefly, in testimony of His mission, to the great miracle of His resurrection from the dead. This prediction was known to His enemies, who declared to Pilate: “Sir, we have remember that that seducer said when He was yet alive, after three days I will rise again” (Matt. XXVII, 63). And on the very day thus publicly predicted Christ rose victoriously from the dead; He appeared repeatedly to His disciples, on one occasion as many as five hundred together.

25. All the details of this history are clearly stated in the four Gospels and some of the Epistles of St. Paul. Four of his Epistles are practically admitted on all hands to be authentic and genuine: namely, his Epistle to the Romans, that to the Galatians, and the two to the Corinthians. Viewing these Gospels and Epistles only as historical documents, we find in them the clear statement of many of the facts just referred to. For instance, the main fact, that of Christ's Resurrection, is most emphatically appealed to by the Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (XV), in which he says that Christ died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day, and was seen by the Apostles, and by more than five hundred brethren at once, some of whom still survived when he wrote the Letter. His preaching, he says, is vain if Christ be not risen; and he claims to have himself seen the risen Christ, and to have received instructions directly from Him. The Letters show St. Paul to have been a man of conspicuous ability; he had been a persecutor, he was now persecuted; his sincerity is undoubted.

26. We will next consider the reliability of the Gospels. The word “Gospel” means “good tidings;” from the Anglo-Saxon “god,” good, and “spell”, tidings. The exact equivalent of Greek origin is “Evangel”. Each gospel is a biography of Christ; the “good news”  narrated is the Redemption of the world by our Blessed Saviour, together with His saving doctrine, and the establishment of His Church, which is to last until the end of time. The first Gospel was written by the Apostle St. Matthew, probably about thirteen years after Christ's Ascension, and for the evident purpose of showing that Jesus was the expected Messias. It was first written in Hebrew, or Aramaic, and later translated in Greek, perhaps by St. Matthew himself. The second Gospel is by St. Mark, the companion of St. Peter, and is therefore often called the Gospel of St. Peter. The third is by St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul. These three are styled the Synoptic Gospels (συνοπτικς, that can be seen together), because they can easily be arranged in parallel columns. St. John, the Apostle, wrote the fourth Gospel to supplement the others, and in particular to prove the Divinity of Christ. St. Mark and St. Luke are simply styled “Evangelists,” as they were not Apostles.

Now the four Gospels, viewed as historical documents,--we are not yet viewing them as inspired,--are more fully reliable than any profane writings of the ancients. What writings, argues St. Augustine, will have the weight of authority if those of the Apostles have not? “No assertion seems to me more foolish,” he writes, “than that the Sacred Scriptures have been falsified (esse corruptas)” (De Util. Cred. 3). A book is reliable if it has these three qualities: 1. If it is genuine, written by the person to whom it is attributed, or at least one of equal authority. 2. If its text is incorrupt, that is not falsified by changes or interpolations. 3. If it is a trustworthy narrative, composed by well informed and sincere men. Now the four Gospels have these three qualities.

 1. They are genuine. For their authorship was never questioned until the latter part of the nineteenth century; and it is not now questioned on historical grounds, but only on account of the miraculous events related in them. Not only was their authorship never questioned, but it was openly acknowledged in all ages, even the earliest, by both Catholics and heretics, and accepted by pagan adversaries, such as Celsus, Lucian, and Julian the Apostate. St. Irenaeus wrote: “Such is the certainty regarding the Gospels that the heretics themselves render testimony to them.” His contemporary Tertullian, in the second century, names the four Evangelists, while Saints Ignatius, Polycarp, and Clement, disciples of the Apostles, quote from the Gospels in their letters and other writings. St. Irenaeus in his work “Against Heresies” quotes from them about four hundred times.

2. That the text of the Gospels has remained incorrupt, free from changes of importance, is evident from the fact that there existed from the earliest times manuscript copies, not only of the Greek text, in which three of the Gospels were originally composed, but also of numerous versions made into various languages in Apostolic or subapostolic times. These copies were in the hands of reverend friends and vigilant foes, so that falsification of the sacred books was impossible. Besides, quotations made by early writers agree with the present copies of the Gospels.

3. That the four Evangelists had full knowledge of the facts narrated is not disputed. Besides, all Jerusalem knew of the events; and so did all the nations from which the Jews flocked to Jerusalem every year; converts accepted the facts as unquestioned truth, for which they willing gave their lives. Of the writers' sincerity there  can be no doubt, since they had nothing to gain by their labors but persecutions and death. Their very style shows the uprightness of their characters; for they tell with perfect simplicity of their low birth, their dulness of apprehension, their timidity and childish vanity. No one familiar with their style can suspect them of being cunning impostors. Beside, the religious doctrines they teach are superior to the speculations of the greatest philosophers, and could not have originated with themselves. Lastly, the Evangelists all agree with one another in substance and in a multitude of details; and yet they differ from one another sufficiently to show that they are independent witnesses.

27. We have now prepared the way for the main proof of the Christian Revelation, which may be logically stated as follows: If Christ's mission was supported by miracles and prophecies, then it was Divine (n. 13), and it ought to be accepted by all men; but it was so supported; therefore it was Divine, and it ought to be accepted by all men. We will first prove that it was supported by miracles. We have seen that a miracle is a marvellous event, out of the ordinary course of nature and produced by Almighty God (n. 12). Now such were many of Christ's works; and He appealed to them as proofs that God His Father had sent Him (n. 24). Of His countless miracles we will select two for special examination: the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the Resurrection of Christ. The raising of Lazarus is related with all its striking details by St. John (XI), who adds: “A great multitude, therefore, of the Jews ... came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. But the Chief priests sought to kill Lazarus also, because many of the Jews by reason of him went away and believed in Jesus” (XII, 9-11). This fact evidently fulfils all the conditions of a true miracle. It was not denied by the chief priests: “The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered together a council and said: ‘What do we do? For this Man does many miracles. If we let  Him alone so, all will believe in Him’--From that day therefore they devised to put Him to death” (Jo. XI, 47-53).

28. As to the Resurrection of Christ, the fact is (a) related by all four Evangelists, and, as we have seen, (b) appealed to by St. Paul (n. 25) as an unanswerable proof of Christ's mission. (c) Jesus Himself had predicted it while He was still alive. For, when the Scribes and Pharisees asked Him for a sign, He gave them this as the one great sign of His mission, saying: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, and a sign will not be given it but the sign of Jonas the Prophet. For, as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matt. XII, 39, 40). The Death of Christ cannot be doubted. It had taken place in public, in the sight of a vast concourse of people. He had been put to death by Roman officials, in the presence of the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief priests, and the Body had not been taken down from the Cross till “one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water” (Jo. XIX, 34), and St. John adds emphatically that he saw it himself. At the burial, Christ's enemies sealed the sepulchre and placed guards, because He had foretold His Resurrection, and they said they feared lest His disciples might steal the Body (Matt. XXVII, 66). All these precautions served only to make the Resurrection, when it occurred, absolutely certain. The Jews did not deny that on the third day Christ had disappeared from the tomb; but they gave out that the disciples had stolen the Body while the guards were asleep. “What credit can be given to sleeping witnesses?”  asks St. Augustine. And why were the guards not punished for neglect of duty? St. Matthew boldly charges the chief priests with giving them, instead, a great sum of money, promising them security from prosecution (XXVIII, 12, 13). Besides, the timidity exhibited by the Apostles during the Passion of Christ clearly showed that they were not the men to do so daring a deed. The only explanation which is not absurd is that which St. Peter publicly gave to the assembled Jews: “This Jesus God raised again, whereof we are witnesses” (Acts II, 32). His disciples saw Him repeatedly alive in their midst, touched Him, ate with Him, beheld His sacred wounds; and Thomas, because still incredulous, was invited by Christ to lay his finger in the wounds of the nails and his hand into the side; and, overcome by the evidence, he adored Christ as his Lord and God (Jo. XX, 28).

If Christ was not risen, then we must say that all the Apostles had conspired to practise this huge and wicked deceit on the world. What had they to gain by it in this life or in the next? Would they have given their blood in testimony of this false pretence? Men never act that way. Nor could they have deceived the world, even had they wished to do so. And the five hundred disciples who saw the risen Christ, were they all impostors? Did they deceive the many thousands of converts, some from among the Pharisees, and to such an extent that their imposture has never been detected? No fact in history is more certain than Christ's Resurrection: he who refuses to accept it will accept no historic proof whatever.

29. Another class of credentials that prove a messenger to be from God consists of prophecies, either verified in his person, or uttered by him and afterwards accomplished.  Both classes of prophecies testify to the Divine mission of Christ. As we remarked before (19-21), the Old Testament Scriptures are full of prophecies concerning the expected Messias. Now Jesus Christ, and He alone, has evidently fulfilled these predictions, and exhibited in His Life, Death, and Resurrection the marks by which the expected Saviour was to be recognized. Here are a few of these prophecies. He was to be of the family of David (Ps. 109): St. Matthew gives us the line of descent from David to “Jesus, who is called the Christ” (I). He was to be born in Bethlehem of Juda, as the Prophet Michaeas had predicted seven hundred and forty years before (V, 2), and as the priests declared to Herod when the Wise Men had come to adore the Child: “In Bethlehem of Juda; for so it is written by the Prophet: And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come forth the Captain that shall rule my people Israel” (Matt. II, 5, 6). Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as St. Luke narrates (II). He was also to be born of a virgin, as Isaias had foretold (VII, 14): “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel.” Christ alone in all history was born of a virgin, and He is “God with us,” which is the meaning of the word “Emmanuel”. The Messias was to perform many miracles (Is. XXXV, 4-6), and to die for our sins (LIII, 5); His hands and feet were to be pierced, His bones to be numbered, His garments to be divided among His executioners, who should cast lots for His vesture. All this is predicted in the 21st Psalm, which proceeds to describe the fruits of His suffering: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and shall be converted to the Lord; and all the kindred of the Gentiles shall adore in His sight,” etc.

 The time of His coming was fixed by Jacob's prophecy: “The scepter shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent, and He shall be the expectation of the nations” (Gen. XLIX, 10). Now the Holy Land became a Roman province shortly before Christ's birth, and the Jews soon after were scattered over the whole earth. Lastly, Daniel had determined the period of seventy weeks of years, at the end of which the Redemption was to be accomplished: “Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people and upon thy holy city that ... everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Saint of Saints may be anointed. Know, therefore, and take notice that, from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again unto Christ the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks ... and after sixty-two weeks the Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny Him shall not be His. And a people with their leader that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (IX, 24-26). All this was fulfilled in Christ and in the destruction of Jerusalem.

30. When the Jews, His own people, had rejected the Christ, because His was not an earthly, but a Heavenly Kingdom, they strove hard to put a new interpretation on Jacob's and Daniel's prophecies. But it was too late: their own interpreters had applied the words of the prophecies to the expected Messias. In fact, the world, owing to these predictions, was in expectation of His coming at the time of His birth, as even pagan authors have recorded.

Thus Tacitus, writing of the year 70, a time within his own recollection, says: “There was a wide spread persuasion that, according to the ancient books of priests, the time had come when the East should regain its strength,  and those should come from Judea that should master the world” (Hist. V, 13). Suetonius, also a contemporary, writes: “A steady conviction had long been ripe in the East, that at this very time those should come from Judea who were destined to master the world” (Vit. Vesp. 4). Josephus the Jew testifies that this prophecy was found in the sacred writings of his nation (Bell. VI, 5).

31. Christ Himself made many prophecies, which were strikingly fulfilled. In particular He foretold the details of His Passion, and the fact and the time of His Resurrection: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed to the Chief-Priests and the Scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day He shall rise again” (Matt. XX, 18, 19). He foretold also the treason of Judas, the fall and conversion of St. Peter, and in a most striking manner the destruction of Jerusalem: “As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him: Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answering said to him: Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down” (Mark XIII, 2). This was manifestly verified when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed under Titus; and more signally still when Julian the Apostate undertook to rebuild the temple with the view to falsify the prophecy, and the attempt led only to its more complete verification. Christ also foretold the future fortunes of His Church, the miracles to be worked by those who should believe in Him, the persecution and death to which they should be subjected, the spreading of the Church throughout all nations, and its perseverance till the end of time.

32. We have seen that God's evident interference with the laws of moral nature is called a moral miracle (n. 12). When masses of men are led to act in a manner nobler, more heroic, and more constant, in the midst of lasting opposition, than can be expected from unaided human nature, then we know that a supernatural power is assisting them, which can be no other than the power of God. When this effect is produced in behalf of a doctrine which claims to be Divine, it must then be such, else God would lend His aid to an imposture. Now such effects have accompanied the preaching of Christianity; therefore it is Divine.

33. For the change that marked the progress of Christianity is such as human nature by itself could never have produced, such as has never been produced by any other agency in the world. First, the Apostles themselves, on receiving the Holy Ghost, were suddenly transformed into new men,--from cowards into heroes, from dull and ignorant men into sages more enlightened than any philosophers. By their preaching, similar changes were effected in countless men and women and mere children, who abandoned idolatry and immorality to embrace a pure worship and lead lives of superhuman chastity and heroism, enduring loss of property, ignominy, torture, and death, rejoicing that they were found worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Pliny's letter (n. 23)   shows how in Bithynia a large part of the population was Christian as early as the year 112, though no Apostle is recorded to have preached there. Tertullian, about the year 200, thus addressed the Emperor: “We are but of yesterday, and we fill all that is yours; your cities, your islands, your military posts; your boroughs, your council chambers, and your camps; the palace, the senate, the forum: your temples alone we leave you” (Apol. C. 37). He testifies in his book against the Jews that the tribes of Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain; Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, Scythians; all the peoples of the Latin world in short, had admitted Christ to reign, etc. The same movement in the propagation of Christianity has been going on ever since. All the nations of Europe have thus been converted, and brought to produce the same marvellous fruits of holiness. The work is still going on in America, Africa, Oceanica, Japan, China, Indo-China, Corea, Hindostan, etc. (See “New Glories of the Catholic Church,” “Marshall's Christian Missions,” etc.) If these supernatural results were produced without the aid of miracles, this, as St. Augustine argues, would be the greatest miracle.

34. It must besides be remarked that conversion to Christianity involved the acceptance of the strictest and naturally most unbearable restraints on all the passions of the human heart: in particular the practice of fasting and humiliation; respect for the sanctity of marriage at times when women were treated as mere slaves, when polygamy, divorce, and public immorality were almost universal, and when all these vices were sanctioned by the example of the great. It is difficult for us to realize the depth of degradation to which morals had sunk just before the spread of Christianity, and that in the very  centres of pagan civilization, in the golden age of Roman literature. For instance, Cato the Elder advises the householder to “get rid of old harness and old slaves, sickly slaves, and sickly sheep,” while Christianity taught the equality of slave and master. Heathen morality allowed infanticide; and even Aristotle had laid down rules under which it ought to be practised. The records of pagan antiquity will be searched in vain for institutions in behalf of the needy, till Christianity came to preach the commandment of Christ, “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jo. XV, 12).

35. But were not Mahometanism and Protestantism propagated with similar rapidity, and yet without the aid of miracles? They were, indeed, but by unholy means. Mahometanism was forced on one nation after another by the bloody scymitar: “Conversion or death” was the Evangel of Islam; indulgence of lust here and hereafter, the allurement held out. It was not, like Christianity, a building up, but a pulling down of a pure worship and morality. Protestantism was a triumph of the natural over the supernatural; it removed those restraints of which fallen nature is most impatient: authority in doctrine; fasts, penance, and humiliation in practice; obligation of religious vows, the counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. By teaching that “free-will is a vain title: God works the evil in us as well as the good” (De Servo Arbitrio, n. 181), Luther implicitly denied all human responsibility, and consequently the need of restraint upon evil passions; thus he opened the way for the wide-spread depravity which followed quickly upon his revolt, and which he deplored and denounced in vain. Besides, princes were set free from all Papal checks to absolute power; while they and their courtiers were  enriched by the plunder of churches and monasteries, once the patrimony of the poor. Nor was violence spared to promote conversion: Protestantism was established by main force in Iceland, Sweden and Norway, Denmark, and large portions of Germany. Of England the Protestant historian Hallam writes: “This is a somewhat humiliating admission that the Protestant faith was imposed upon our ancestors by a foreign army” (Const. 4 Hist. I, p. 93). Is it wonderful that, with such aids to diffusion, Protestantism should have spread like a forest fire?

36. The conversion of the pagan nations to Christianity, on the contrary, exhibits just the opposite features. That it cannot be accounted for by natural means becomes the more evident, if we consider the weak arguments to explain its progress which were invented by so able an advocate of paganism as the historian Gibbon in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” He can find no more plausible explanation of the rapid growth of Christianity than by attributing it to these five causes: 1. The inflexible, intolerant zeal of the Christians;--but this could only offend and alienate the proud Romans. 2. The doctrine of a future life;--but this was no new doctrine at all. 3. The miracles ascribed to the Church;--but these were not natural means. 4. The pure and austere morals of the Christians;--but the question is, what made them so supernaturally pure and austere? 5. Their spirit of union and discipline;--but what natural power made them submit to that discipline? Gibbon also mentions the wealth of the Church;--but whence came this wealth, except from the converts, who gave up their fortunes for the benefit of their needy brethren? (For a thorough discussion of these pretended causes see Newman's Grammar of Assent, Ch. X, § 2.)

 37. What has been proved so far renders it certain that the Christian revelation is from God; therefore every man is obliged to accept it as the expression of the will of his sovereign Lord. The certainty here spoken of does not arise from such evidence of the truth as compels the assent of an unwilling mind, as does the evidence of first principles, which no one can doubt. But yet it is true certainty, which consists in this, that when the matter is fairly presented to a sensible man's consideration, he can see no reason for prudently refusing his assent. He can turn away his attention from the arguments presented in favor of the Christian revelation, and attend instead to objections to it, or difficulties connected with it. And therefore he remains free to assent or not; his free assent is asked by his sovereign Master. To such a man are applicable the words of Christ which He spoke when giving their mission to His Apostles: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark XVI, 16, nn. 117-120).

38. We have seen (n. 17) that the Primitive revelation was at first protected against adulteration by the long lives of the Patriarchs. But after the Deluge, when the span of human life was shortened, God set aside His Chosen People to guard and transmit His revelation. Besides, He established amongst them a perpetual body of teachers, called the Synagogue, to spread the knowledge of that revelation, and He sent them from time to time the inspired Prophets to be its infallible interpreters. Thus the pre-Christian revelation, Primitive, Patriarchal, and Mosaic, was preserved substantially intact till the coming of the Messias. It is true that the leaders of the Synagogue had by that time become unworthy of their Divine mission; but they had not ceased to teach substantially the true doctrine, so that Jesus could say to the multitudes and to His disciples: “The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do, but according to their works do ye not” (Matt. XXIII, 3). Amid all their vices, the High-Priests had not yet lost the supernatural light peculiar to their office; for St. John relates how Caiphas said in the council of the Jews, “It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people”; and he adds: “This he spoke not of himself; but being the High-Priest of that year, he  prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not only for the nation, but to gather together the children of God that were dispersed” (XI, 50-52). We see thereby that God had made an adequate provision for the preservation of the pre-Christian revelations.

39. We are now to examine what provision the wisdom of God has made for the preservation of the final revelation, that of Jesus Christ, to keep it incorrupt till the end of time. For this purpose we are to consider: i. The formation of the Church; 2. The doctrinal treasures of the Church, in particular Holy Scripture and Tradition; 3. The work to be done by the Church; 4. The marks of the Church; 5. The constitution and the functions of the Church; 6. The Head of the Church; 7. The Bishops and the Councils of the Church; 8. The relations of the Church to the civil power.

40. In this chapter we shall have frequent occasions to quote from the Acts of the Apostles. Their reliability is acknowledged by all Christian denominations; it had not been questioned by any scholars before the recent rise of an infidel school of criticism, that of Tübingen, which has assumed the pretentious name of “higher criticism”. Still these critics have not found any objections to the Acts on historical grounds, or from extrinsic sources; they only question the intrinsic probability of the narrative. It purports to be from the same pen as the third Gospel, but some of them pretend that its style is different from that of the Gospel; others, that its author must have purposely misrepresented the facts, since these upset their theories. Now even the infidel Renan acknowledges that “one thing is certain, namely, that the Acts have had the same author as the third Gospel, and are a continuation of it.” He adds: “I will not pause to prove this proposition, for it has never been contested” (Cornely, Curs. Script. Introd. Vol. III, p. 316). That the Acts are worthy of all credit is evident from the fact that the learned early historian of the Church Eusebius classed them among those sacred Books whose Divine inspiration had never been disputed in the Church. And Tertullian, as early as the second century, reproaches Marcion with having rejected the Acts, and with having done so precisely because of their opposition to his heretical  tenets. The Book is quoted from by St. Ignatius the Martyr, St. Polycarp, St. Clement of Rome, St. Justin, and was read in churches on Pentecost, as St. Chrysostom testifies (ib. p. 319).

41. The Acts begin their narrative with the Ascension of Christ into Heaven. All his work on earth had been done in a small country, among a people of no political importance, which exercised but little influence upon the world at large, and which was as much despised by the Romans, as itself looked down contemptuously upon all gentiles. The teachings of Christ had been accepted by little more than five hundred disciples, none of them conspicuous for learning, or power, or riches. The leaders among them were chiefly poor fishermen, ignorant and timid men by character and education, though after the descent of the Holy Ghost they became divinely enlightened and supernaturally heroic. Was this all the provision that God had made for the propagation of His revelation, the establishment of His religion in every land, and the preservation of it for all time till the consummation of the world? There must be another provision.

42. It should be noticed that Christ had not written a single line for the guidance of future ages. Nor do we read that He had instructed His disciples to record His teachings or their own, so as to leave written treasures as the repertory from which each man and woman was to draw the doctrines of salvation. He evidently had given no sign that He intended the enlightenment of the world to be procured chiefly by written documents. Besides, as only the very few in those and many subsequent ages knew how to read at all, such provision would have been little suited for the work to be done; nor do we find, in  all the productions of the Apostles and Evangelists, or of other early Christians, any exhortations to scatter the written word among the masses, or to establish reading-schools, as is done to-day by Protestant missionaries among pagan nations. On the contrary, St. Irenaeus, a disciple of St. Polycarp, who was himself taught by St. John, has left written that the barbarians in his day believed in Christ without ink and paper (Adv. Haer. L. III, C. IV). Religion then was not designed to be learned from the Scriptures chiefly.

43. But Christ had made another provision to convert the world, and to secure both the extension of His religion into all lands, and its permanence in its integrity till the end of time, namely, by the establishment of His Church. (See n. 67.) He had formed a special body of select teachers, whom He had carefully prepared during His whole public career to continue the work after Him, and whom in due time He solemnly commissioned for this purpose, furnishing them supernaturally with such aids as eventually made their mission a success. Various stages in the formation and mission of this teaching body are clearly described in the New Testament.

1. St. Luke narrates how Christ prepared for the choice of His Apostles by a night spent in prayer: “He went out into a mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in the prayer of God. But when day was come, He called unto Him His disciples, and He chose twelve of them, whom also He called Apostles: Simon whom He surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon who is called Zelotes, and Jude the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot who was the traitor” (VI, 12-16). These had  attended the teachings of Christ from the Baptism of John, and they remained with Him till the end, as St. Peter states in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts, I). And they had a ministry entrusted to them; for Judas “had obtained a part of this ministry,” says St. Peter on the same occasion. This body of twelve Apostles was the nucleus of the teaching Church, to which the following text refers.

2. St. Matthew relates how Simon Peter was made the rock on which the Church was to be built; that is, he was to be the chief prop of its strength and permanence, he was to be to the Church what the foundation is to a building. He also intimates in what was to consist the ministry intrusted to it, and that it was to be in a special manner intrusted to St. Peter as its head. Jesus said: “I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven” (XVI, 18, 19).

3. In Chapter XVIII, the same Evangelist records the promise of Christ made to the Twelve: “Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in Heaven.”

4. St. Luke narrates how the same Twelve disciples, and they alone, were present when, at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, and commissioned them, saying, “Do this for a commemoration of Me” (XX, 14-19).

5. St. John narrates how, after, the Last Supper,  Jesus promised the same Apostles the Holy Spirit to teach them all truth (XVI, 13), and to abide with them forever. (XIV, 16).

6. St. Matthew, in the concluding verses of his Gospel, describes the important event of their mission in words which leave no doubt as to its character: “And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.... And Jesus, coming, spoke to them, saying, ‘all power is given Me in Heaven and in earth: going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world’.” As the Apostles were not destined to live to the end of time, this assurance, like the promise cited in n. 5, was not limited to them personally, but was meant for the indefectible teaching organization of which they were the beginning.

7. St. Mark, in his concluding verses, narrates briefly the facts of the same mission of the eleven, and adds the promise of miraculous power; he then exhibits them entering on their mission: “But they going forth preached everywhere, the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed.”

44. After the Ascension of Christ into Heaven, we find the same eleven disciples mentioned again by name in the Acts (I, 13) as forming a select band, which is to be completed, before the descent of the Holy Ghost, by the choice of a substitute for Judas. They appoint two, but leave the choice to God, saying: “Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two Thou hast chosen to take the place of this ministry  and Apostleship, from which Judas has by transgression fallen” (I, 23-25). When the Holy Ghost had come, the three thousand converts “were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles” (II, 42). This collection of believers was the Church of Christ, which had miraculously sprung into existence on the day of Pentecost, at the preaching of St. Peter and the other Apostles. (See nn. 97, 98.) It was these twelve who continued to govern the Church, who bade the faithful select seven deacons, saying, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables” (VI, 2), thus showing that preaching was their special mission. When St. Paul was miraculously converted, “Barnabas took him and brought him to the Apostles ... and he (Paul) was with them, coming in and going out in Jerusalem” (IX, 27, 28).

45. From all these facts, and numberless others that might be gathered from the history of the early Church, it is evident that the provision made by Christ for the propagation and preservation of His religion consists in the mission of His Apostles. But the twelve were not able to accomplish the work by themselves alone. While remaining a distinct body,--to which only Saints Paul and Barnabas were aggregated by special command of the Holy Ghost (Acts, XIII, 2),--they sent many others to preach the good tidings of salvation. In the course of time they established permanent Bishops in all the new centres of Christian communities, directing them in their turn to ordain others. Thus the Acts inform us SS. Paul and Barnabas appointed priests in every Church (XIV, 22). St. Paul chose and ordained St. Timothy as his assistant, then placed him at Ephesus; and instructed him what kind of men he in turn was to select for the episcopal office (1 Tim. III). He also wrote to St. Titus:  “For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldst ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee” (I, 5). Those appointed were commissioned to hand down the Apostolic doctrine to future ages. St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy: “The things that thou hast heard of me, the same commend to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also” (2 Tim. II, 2).

46. St. Clement of Rome wrote about the year 97: “The Apostles made these appointments, and arranged a succession, that when they had fallen asleep other tried men should carry on the ministry” (Ep. I ad Cor., 44). We find the same method in full vigor in the second century, when St. Irenaeus wrote: “All that have the will to know the truth may find in every Church the Tradition of the Apostles, which is known to all the world” (Adv. Haer. L. III, C. 3). About the same time Tertullian wrote a work on “Prescription”, in which he lays down these rules to ascertain the true doctrine: The prescription of novelty is against any doctrine which can be shown to have originated after the time of the Apostles; the prescription of antiquity is in favor of a doctrine which can be shown to have been held at any time as part of the faith by all Christians. He refuses to argue with heretics on the basis of the Scripture, and appeals to the possessors of Tradition, that is, to the Churches founded by the Apostles or their successors.

47. Christ then had committed His teachings to the custody of the Apostles and their successors, and had promised to “be with them all days even to the consummation of the world” (nn. 43-45). This promise He fulfilled by sending them the Holy Spirit, who was not only to sanctify them personally, but also to teach them all truth (Jo. XVI, 13), and to abide with them in their appointed work, and therefore in their successors, forever (Jo. XIV, 16). How did the Holy Ghost accomplish His mission? In various ways. He is the Love of God, and therefore to Him is attributed the giving of all good things. In particular He has given to the Church two rich treasures, from which she is ever to draw her sacred doctrines, namely, the Holy Scriptures and the Apostolic Tradition. These we are to explain in detail. (Other workings of the Holy Spirit are explained in nn. 68, 87-89, 99, 108.)

48. We mean by the Holy Scriptures, or the Bible, that is, the Book (βιβλιον, book), those works which were written by men under the inspiration of God Himself. Therefore they are truly “the Word of God”. In consequence of this unique dignity, which distinguishes them from all other books, they were written without the slightest taint of error. These sacred Books form two  sets: those written before Christ constitute the Old Testament; those after Him, the New. The Pentateuch, which consists of the first five Books of Scripture, we calculate to date from 1400 years before Christ; the latest Book of Scripture is commonly reckoned the Gospel of St. John, written perhaps A. D. 100. By far the greater part of the Old Testament was composed in Hebrew, which was the proper language of the Israelites; but certain portions were in Chaldee, or Syriac, a kindred language used East of the Euphrates, to which region the Jews, about 600 years before our era, were carried as captives by King Nabuchonosor. A large part of the Old Testament is still extant in Hebrew or Chaldaic, and this part constitutes the whole of what is recognized by the Jews, whom the Protestants follow. Besides these writings, the Catholic Church recognizes as parts of the Old Testament two Books of Greek origin, and five which seem to have been originally composed in Hebrew, but are now found in Greek only; the same is also the case with parts of the Books of Daniel and Esther. With the exception of St. Matthew's Gospel, which was written originally in Hebrew, the whole of the New Testament was composed in Greek.

49. It is pertinent here to inquire, how it has come about that the Protestant list, or canon (κανων, a rule), of sacred Books differs from the Catholic canon. To explain this matter, we must consider the way in which the Catholic Church first received the Books of the Old Testament; for in regard to these alone do the two canons differ. Of course the early Christians received their whole religion, the Scriptures included, on the authority of Christ and the Apostles, not on the authority of the Jewish Synagogue. Now there existed in the time of  Christ two collections of the Old Testament, one in Hebrew and one in Greek. The Greek translation had been made, at least 250 years before Christ, at Alexandria, in Egypt; it is called the Septuagint. The inspired Books written after that date were associated with the rest. This collection was used by all Jews who understood Greek, and therefore it was more widely read than the original Hebrew. It was used by the write of the New Testament, who quote from it 300 times, and only 50 times from the Hebrew. They evidently regarded the Septuagint as the standard version. The canon of the Septuagint is the Catholic Canon. In the third century the question was discussed by some Catholic writers, whether the seven Books not contained in the Hebrew canon were inspired. Origen, then the greatest living authority on such matters, being consulted on the subject, said they were, and proved it by the testimony of the Church in his own day (about A. D. 240); he ridicules the idea that a Christian should humbly bow to the decision of the Jews, who accepted only the Hebrew collection. Still the discussion continued, till the Council of Carthage, in 397, confirmed the original Catholic canon, and its decision was accepted by the Church at large. The list was published by Pope Innocent I. in 410; finally it was confirmed, and its acceptance enjoined on all by the Council of Trent.

50. The Protestant canon, that is, the canon received by almost all the sects, is that found in the sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Established Church of England; “In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books, of the Old and New Testament of whose authority these never was any doubt in the Church.” Then follows the Hebrew, or Jewish  canon. Further on: “All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them canonical.” No list is given. It will be observed that some of the Books of the New Testament were also a subject of doubt at one time in the Church, as well as the seven of the Old Testament; and yet the latter are rejected on account of the doubt, the former admitted notwithstanding the doubt. The same sixth Article also insists on the sufficiency of Scripture as the rule of faith; and yet it appeals to Tradition to know what is Scripture.

51. The Sacred Books rejected by most, if not by all, of the Protestant sects are those called Judith, Tobias, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Baruch, and the two Books of Machabees. These are called deuterocanonical, that is, of the second, or Greek canon; in opposition to the proto-canonical, of the first, or Hebrew canon. Protestants however admit that these Books had a respectable origin, and that they may be read “for example of life and instruction of manners.”

52. On the Protestant theory that every one must learn his religion from the Bible, it is absolutely necessary to provide faithful translations, which, if they are to answer their purpose, should be as reliable as the original writings. But only the ignorant can imagine that it is all-sufficient to translate literally, “word for word”, as it is called. The first verse of Genesis, on this theory, would read thus: “In heading created Gods with the heavens and with the earth.” A sensible translation is an interpretation or commentary; and every translator reads his own dogmatic views into the passages interpreted. This is as it should be when these dogmatic views are supported by an infallible authority. But  heretics thus make the Bible teach heresy. Protestants have often done so unconsciously, and not seldom on purpose. Besides, Bible societies have very frequently used very incompetent men for the task; as Marshal proves in his “Christian Missions”, they have published absurd parodies on the Sacred Scriptures (Ch. I).

Of Protestant translations into English, King James's Bible, first published A. D. 1611, is generally preferred to all others. And yet the Revision of 1870 made as many as twenty thousand corrections in its New Testament alone, some of which are very important. One of its editors, Dr. Ellicott, says: “It is vain to cheat our souls with the thought that these errors are insignificant.” For instance, in 1. Cor. XI, 27, the former translators had through “theological fear or partiality”, as Dean Stanley expresses it, substituted “and” for “or”; and had thus deliberately deceived ten generations, falsely inculcating the obligation of receiving Holy Communion under both kinds. The late translators have corrected this. They have also done away with the Protestant addition to the Our Father, and in many texts they have adopted or drawn nearer to the Catholic version, but not in all.

53. The Catholic Church watches carefully over new versions; she is mindful of St. Peter's warning about St. Paul's Epistles, “in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2. Pet. III, 16). The only version which she has formally approved is that called the Latin Vulgate, of which she says: “The sacred Council of Trent, believing that it would be of great advantage to the Church of God, to have it known which of the various Latin  editions of the Bible is to be held authentic, hereby declares that the ancient edition commonly known as the Vulgate, which has been approved by the long-standing use of ages in the Church, is to be considered as the authentic Bible for official uses of teaching” (VI, 12). The same Council anathematizes those who refuse to receive as holy and canonical all Books of the Vulgate with all their parts.

All translations into modern languages must conform to the text of the Vulgate, and must contain notes for the explanation of such passages as are liable to be misunderstood by the unlearned; they should also have the approbation of the Ordinary. The English version in ordinary use among Catholics was first published partly at Reims in 1582, and partly at Douay in 1609; it was revised and annotated in 1750 by Bishop Challoner.

54. No Catholic is at liberty to put novel interpretations upon the texts of Holy Scripture not in accord with the true Catholic sense. Hence the Council of Trent forbids all interpretations at variance with the unanimous consent of the Fathers, when these speak as witnesses to the Tradition of the Church. But when the Fathers give their judgment as mere critics, or men of science, their authority is not at all decisive. Science has made great progress since their times, and criticism should keep step with it. Still we should not mistake for science the many rash theories which usurp its name. Prof. H. L. Hastings, in his “Higher Criticism”, states that since 1850 there have been published 747 theories, known to him, about the origin and authenticity of the Bible. Of these he counted some years ago 608 as then defunct; most of the other 139 are probably defunct by this time. Regarding the first chapter of Genesis, too, theories of  interpretation are countless: The Fathers were not at all unanimous on the meaning of this chapter; and even if they had been, they were not handing down a doctrine of Tradition. In such cases we welcome all the light that Geology and kindred sciences may furnish (n. 153). (See also n. 57.)

55. The inspiration of the Scripture signifies God's speaking through its writers, so that it is truly the Word of God. The Church, in an early age, when she opposed the Manicheans, defined that the same God was Author of both the Old and the New Testament. In 1439, Pope Eugenius IV., in the Council of Florence, taught that the Saints of both Testaments spoke under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit. St. Peter himself designated the Scriptures as the Word of God when he said: “Men, brethren, the Scripture must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spoke by the mouth of David” (Acts I, 16). St. Chrysostom calls the Scriptures “letters written by God and brought to us by Moses”; and St. Augustine said: “What God wishes us to know concerning His doings, He bade be written by men as by His own hand”. (De Cons. Evan. L. c. 35.)

56. In the various Books of Scripture there is the greatest variety of style observable: each author wrote in his own style, which depended upon his race, his time, his education, his personal character, etc. The manner in which God inspired the writers has been the subject of much discussion. The following is the most natural account, and is conformable to the teachings of Pope Leo XIII. in his Encyclical of 1893, “Providentissimus Deus”. God influences the writer in three ways: 1. He stirs him up to compose the Book; the technical phrase is, “God inflames his will.” 2. He furnishes him the  required knowledge, either directly by revelation, or indirectly by guiding him to consult the proper documents; thus the author may have to use much diligence, as St. Luke says he did (I, 3); technically, “God illumines the intellect”. 3. He guards the author against all error: “He supervises the work”. In a similar manner a magistrate bids his secretary write a document, furnishes him with the data or with references to books and papers, and looks over the draft before he sends it out as his own message.

57. Since God is the Author of the Scripture, whatever is contained in its genuine text is true; there can be no misstatements. This does not mean that an inspired passage may not contain an error, marking it as an error; as in Ps. 52: “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘there is no God’.” In many cases there may be a doubt whether the prima facie meaning of a passage is its true meaning. There is a school of writers who think they are at liberty to judge whether a given passage is of doctrinal or moral importance; if they think it to be neither, they reject its authority. But the Fathers were far from admitting any such speculations. “In dealing with these Books,” says St. Augustine, “you must not say that the author made a mistake; but either the reading is corrupt, or the translation faulty, or you fail to catch the meaning” (Ep. 82 ad Hier.). St. Justin Martyr, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory of Nazianzum are not less emphatic on this subject.

58. The sacred Books being thus absolutely free from error, any text quoted in its true sense must be decisive on any point in debate. Among the early Christians they were constantly read in the assemblies, and made the basis of argument and exhortation. The writings of  the Fathers consist, to a great extent, of such commentaries on the Books of Scripture. On no other books have so many commentaries been written by men of the greatest intellectual ability; and these have sought out the meaning of every phrase. The result has been that in all Catholic countries the minds of men are filled with the phraseology of Holy Writ; they were saturated with it in the Ages of Faith. The Jews have preserved the text with the greatest care; they have counted the verses in each Book, and noted which verse holds the middle place. It is certain that they did not tamper with the text: there is no trace of any attempt of the kind, though the Old Testament contains matter which redounds to the discredit of their nation; in the New Testament they are never accused of such tampering. Besides, they could not have changed the Scriptures secretly; for during eight centuries before Christ the Jews were divided from the Ten Tribes, both parties having the Scriptures and jealously guarding them. After Christ, the Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions were in the hands of the Christians, and any attempt at falsification on the part of the Jews would have been exposed by their opponents. In particular the great prophecies regarding the Messias are still found in the Hebrew as well as in the versions.

59. Together with the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon the Church a copious supply of sacred doctrine, which is contained in the Ecclesiastical Tradition. The term “Tradition” is not used here to denote some unreliable account, of which the source cannot be traced with certainty; but it means all the doctrines which Christ and His Apostles delivered orally to their  disciples, and which were not written in the sacred pages. It thus includes the canon itself of the Scriptures, and the proper interpretation of all their contents. Without this Tradition, we should not know what is, and what is not, part of the Holy Scriptures, and whether they are inspired or not, nor what is meant by inspiration. Therefore, St. Augustine said that he would not believe the Scriptures if it were not for the authority of the Church; that is, he might accept them as valuable historical documents, but not as the Word of God, if the Tradition of the Church did not teach that they are such.

60. Protestants reject this Tradition entirely. Most of them maintain the doctrine found in the 6th of the Thirty-nine Articles, which says: “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite necessary to salvation”. As Chillingworth puts it, the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants. And yet this very doctrine, that the Bible contains all that is “requisite necessary to salvation”, is not found in the Bible (n. 50). The few passages in it which recommend the reading of the Scriptures refer to the Old Testament as pointing to the expected Messias (2. Tim. III, 15; Jo. V, 39); or to the Gospel of St. Luke and an Epistle of St. Peter, as recording certain events and instructions formerly taught by word of mouth (Luke I, 1-4; 2. Pet. I, 15). The text of St. John (V, 39) may mean equally, “Search the Scriptures”, as an advice; or, “Ye search the Scriptures”, as a statement of a fact. In the original Greek (ερευνατε) we do not know which of the two meanings is intended; all depends on the translator, who may  read his own dogmas into the words. If it was a command, it was addressed to the Jews, bidding them look in their Writings for prophecies of the Messias. A system resting on such a foundation as these texts supply, is like a house built upon the sand.

In opposition to the Protestant system, which makes the Scriptures alone the rule of faith, as if they contained clearly all the teachings of Christ, we have seen (nn. 43-46) what provision Christ had really made for the propagation and preservation of His saving doctrine. He commissioned His Apostles, not to sit down and write a book, but to go and preach to all nations; and this they did, and they appointed others to continue this manner of teaching after them. If the Scriptures had been intended to be the sole guide of faith, the Apostles would necessarily have composed a systematic, full, and clear exposition of the faith. They did nothing of the kind. Only two of them wrote anything except letters; these letters were called for by special occasions, and they are partly unintelligible to the general reader who does not know the circumstances under which they were written. St. Peter cautions his readers against the difficulties found in St. Paul's Epistles (2. Pet. III, 16). St. John expressly states that he omits many things that Christ did (XXI, 24), and St. Paul bids the Thessalonians: “Hold the Traditions which you have learned whether by word or by our Epistle” (2. Thes. II, 14). The argument of Prescription too is against the Protestant plan (n. 46). For instance, St. Athanasius tells us that, in the first General Council, the Arians wished to use none but Scripture language in the definition of the faith; but the assembled Bishops refused to admit the principle, and chose the word “consubstantial”, which, though old,  was not scriptural; they evidently did not believe that the Scripture is the only rule of faith.

61. The ecclesiastical Tradition has gradually become embodied in monuments of various kinds: The chief are:

1. The sacred Liturgy and Ritual which are common to the universal Church. Pope St. Celestine, about 431, calls these “the sacraments, or mysteries, of the prayers of the priests, handed down from the Apostles, as in constant use throughout the world and in every orthodox Church, so that the law guiding our supplications affords a rule for our belief”.

2. The history of the Church, and in particular the Acts of the Martyrs, many of which are of undoubted antiquity. St. Clement is recorded to have assigned the seven districts of Rome to as many notaries, or short-hand writers, to set down the records of the early martyrdoms.

3. Archaeology, which studies the relics of ancient art, in order to learn what was the belief of the Church in former ages. For instance we find an early representation of the Prophet Habakuk caught by the hair of the head as he carries a basket of provisions. The artist evidently accepted this part of the Book of Daniel, which is not in the Protestant canon.

4. Definitions of doctrines, and anathemas pronounced on errors. Both may proceed from the living Church through the Roman Pontiff acting alone, as when in 1854 Pius IX. defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; or through the Pope confirming the decrees of a General Council, as when in 1870 the same Pontiff confirmed the decrees of the Vatican Council (n. 99).

62. 5. The writings of the “Fathers of the Church;”  that is, of Christian theologians who are later than the first and earlier than the twelfth century. Many of them were distinguished for their deep and varied learning, their ability, and their sanctity, which fact adds weight to their authority as witnesses of Divine Truth. It is an important consideration that they witnessed on very many points before any question was raised on those points. When they testify unanimously to a tradition, their evidence proves what was the belief of the Church in their age. But sometimes they speak only as critics, and give the conclusion to which they have personally come. Often the voice of a few authors expresses with certainty the mind of all, namely when they make important statements and the others do not contradict. For error in the early Church was sure to be contradicted, because it was so greatly abhorred. Thus St. John, the Apostle of love, writes of one who errs in doctrine: “Receive him not into your house, nor say to him, God speed you” (2 Jo. 10); and he feared