The Faith Of Our Fathers: Being A Plain Exposition And Vindication Of The Church Founded By Our Lord Jesus Christ, 110th Carefully Revised And Enlarged Edition

Front matter

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Preface To The Eleventh Edition

The first edition of "The Faith of Our Fathers" was issued in December, 1876. From that time to the present fifty thousand copies of the work have been disposed of in the United States^ Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, and in the British Colonies of Oceanica.

This gratifying result has surpassed the author's most sanguine expectations, and is a consoUng evidence that the investigation of religious truths Is not wholly neglected even in this iron age, so engrossed by material considerations.

Besides carefully revising the book, the author has profited by the kind suggestion of some friends, and inserted a chapter on the prerogatives and sanctity of the Blessed Virgin, which, it is hoped^ will be not less acceptable to his readers than the other portions of the work.

He is also happy to announce that German editions have been published both in this country and in Germany.

He takes this occasion to return his hearty thanks to the editors of the Catholic periodicals, as well as of the secular press, for their favorable notices, which have no doubt contributed much to the large circulation of the book.

1 Baltimore,

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1879.

I

Preface To The Forty^eventh Edition

It is very gratifying to the author to note the large increase in the sale of "The Faith of Our Fathers." Apart from personal considerations, it is pleasing to know that the popular interest in the Catholic Church and whatever pertains to her doctrines and discipline, is growing more widespread and earnest.

Since 1879, when the eleventh revised edition was given to the public, there have been thirty-five editions, and the number dE copies sold reaches nearly a quarter of a million.

This desire to understand die teachings of the Church of our Fathers is not confined to our own country. It is manifest in other lands, as shown by the translations that have been made of this exposition of Catholic belief into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.

In the hope that they will add to the usefulness of the book, several passages upon doctrinal subjects have been inserted.

With these few remarks, the forty-seventh edition of "The Faith of Our Fathers" is presented to the sincere and earnest seeker after religious truth by

The Author

Veaa of St. Anselm, 1895.

Preface

The object of this little volume is to present in a plain and practical form an exposition and vindication of the principal tenets of the Catholic Church. It was thought sufficient to devote but a brief space to such Catholic doctrines and practices as are happily admitted by Protestants, while those that are controverted by them are more elaborately elucidated.

The work was compiled by the author during the uncertain hours which he could spare from the more active duties of the ministry. It substantially embodies the instructions and discourses delivered by him before mixed congregations in Virginia and North Carolina.

He has often felt that the salutary influence of such instructions, especially on the occasion of a mission in the rural districts, would be much augmented if they were supplemented by books or tracts circulated among the people, and which could be read and pondered at leisure.

As his chief aim has been to bring home the truths of the Catholic faith to our separated brethren, who generally accept the Scripture as the only source of authority in religious matters, he has endeavored to fortify his statements by abundant reference to the sacred text. He has thought proper, however, to add frequent quotations from the early Fathers, whose testimony, at least as witnesses of the faith of their times, must be accepted even by those who call in question their personal authority.

Though the writer has sought to be exact in all his assertions, an occasional inaccuracy may have inadvertently crept in. Any emendations which the venerated Prelates or Clergy may deign to propose will be gratefully attended to in a subsequent edition.

RicmfOND,

Nopember aist, 1876.

Preface To Eighty-third Revised Edition

The new edition of "The Faith of Our Fathers" has been carefully revised, and enriched with several pages of important matter.

It is gratifying to note that since the first edition appeared, in 1876, up to the present time, fourteen hundred thousand copies have been published, and the circulation of the book is constantly increasing.

The work has also been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe.

Baltimore,

^gitized by Google

Contents

PAGE

Introduction, xi

Chapter I. The Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, etc^ . i

11. Unity of the Church, 4

III. Holiness of the Church, 13

IV. Catholicity, 24

V. Apostolicity, 32

VI. Perpetuity of the Church, 43

VII. InfaUible Authority of the Church, .... 54

VIII. The Church and the Bible, 63

IX. The Primacy of Peter, 78

X. The Supremacy of the Popes, 89

XI. InfallibiUty of the Popes, 99

XII. Temporal Power of the Popes — How they acquired Temporal Power—Validity and Justice of their Title — What the Popes

have done for Rome, iii

XIII. Invocation of Saints, 124

XrV. Is it Lawful to Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as a Saint, to Invoke her as an Intercessor,

and to Imitate her as a Model? . . . 134

XV. Sacred Images, 162

XVI. Purgatory, and Prayers for the Dead, ... 173

XVII. Civil and Religious Liberty, 186

IX Digitized by GooqIc

CONTEhfTS

PAGE

XVIII. Charges of Religious Persecution, .... 204

XIX. Grace — ^The Sacraments— Original Sin — Baptism—Its Necessity— Its Effects— Manner

of Baptizing, 218

XX. The Sacrament of Confirmation, .... 230

XXI. The Holy Eucharist, 235

XXII. Communion under One Kind, 245

XXIII. The Sacrifice of the Mass, 251

XXIV. The Use of Religious Ceremonies Dictated by

Right Reason— Approved by Almighty God in the Old Law— Sanctioned by Jesus

Christ in the New, 262

XXV. Ceremonies of the Mass— The Missal— Latin Language — Lights — Flowers — Incense —

Vestments, 268

XXVI. The Sacrament of Penance, 277

XXVII. Indulgences, 3^7

XXVIII. Extreme Unction, 3^4

XXIX. The Priesthood, 317

XXX. Celibacy of the Clergy, 3^7

XXXI. Matrimony, 334

Mt Dear Reader: — ^Perhaps this is the first time in your life that you have handled a book in which the doctrines of the Catholic Church are expounded by one of her own sons. You have, no doubt, heard and read many things regarding our Church; but has not your information come from teachers justly liable to suspicion? You asked for bread, and they gave you a stone. You asked for fish, and they reached you a serpent. Instead of the bread of truth, they extended to you the serpent of falsehood. Hence, without intending to be unjust, is not your mind biased against us because you listened to false witnesses? This, at least, is the case with thousands of my countrymen whom I have met in the brief course of my missionary career. The Catholic Church is persistently misrepresented by the most powerful vehicles of information.

She is assailed in romances of the stamp of Maria Monk, and in pictorial papers. It is true that the falsehood of those illustrated periodicals has been fully exposed. But the antidote often comes too late to counteract the poison. I have seen a picture representing Columbus trying to demonstrate the practicabiUty of his design to discover a new Continent before certain monks who are shaking their fists and gnashing their teeth at him. It matters not to the artist that Columbus could probably never have undertaken his voyage and discovery, as the explorer himself avows, were it not for the benevolent zeal of the monks, Antonio de Marchena and Juan Perez, and other ecclesiastics, as well as for the munificence of Queen Isabella and the Spanish Court.

The Church is misrepresented in so-called Histories like Foxe*s Book of Martyrs. It is true that he has been successfully refuted by Lingard and Gairdner. But, how many have read the fictitious xii narratives of Foxe, who have never perused a page of Lingard or Gairdner? In a large portion of the press, and in pamphlets, and especially in the pulpit, which should be consecrated to truth and charity, she is the victim of the foulest slanders. Upon her fair and heavenly brow her enemies put a hideous mask, and in that guise they exhibit her to the insults and mockery of the public; just as Jesus, her Spouse, was treated when, clothed with a scarlet cloak and crowned with thorns. He was mocked by a thoughdess rabble.

They are afraid to tell the truth of her, for

"Truth has such a face and such a mien, As to be loved needs only to be seen." *

It is not uncommon for a dialogue like the following to take place between a Protestant Minister and a convert to the Catholic Church:

Minister.— You cannot deny that the Roman Catholic Church teaches gross errors — ^the worship of images, for instance.

Convert.— I admit no such charge, for I have been taught no such doctrines.

Minister. — But the Priest who instructed you did not teach you all. He held back some points which he knew would be objectionable to you.

Convert. — He withheld nothing; for I am in possession of books treating fully of all Catholic doctrines.

Minister.— Deluded soul! Don't you know that in Europe they arc taught differently?

Convert. — That cannot be, for, the Church teaches the same creed all over the world, and most of the doctrinal books which I read, were originally published in Europe.

Yet ministers who make these slanderous statements arc surprised if we feel indignant, and accuse us of being too sensitive. We have been vilified so long, that they think we have no right to complain.

We cannot exaggerate the offense of those who thus wilfully p malign the Church. There is a commandment which says: "Thou ^ shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." I If it is a sin to bear false testimony against one individual, how ? can we characterize the crime of those who calumniate three hundred miUions of human beings, by attributing to them doctrines and practices which they repudiate and abhor. I do not wonder that the Church is hated by those who learn what she is » from her enemies. It is natural for an honest man to loathe an institution whose history he believes to be marked by bloodshed, crime and fraud.

Had I been educated as they were, and surrounded by an atmosphere hostile to the Church, perhaps I should be unfortunate enough to be breathing vengeance against her today, in- ^ stead of consecrating my life to her defence. ^ It is not of their hostility that I complain, but because the judgment they have formed of her is based upon the reckless assertions of her enemies, and not upon those of impartial witnesses.

Suppose that I wanted to obtain a correct estimate of the * Southern people, would it be fair in me to select, as my only sources of information, certain Northern and Eastern periodicals which, during our Civil War, were bitterly opposed to the race and institutions of the South? Those papers have represented you as men who always appeal to the sword and pistol, instead of the law, to vindicate your private grievances. They heaped accusations ^ against you which I will not here repeat. Instead of taking these > publications as the basis of my information, it was my duty to come among you; to live with you; to read your Ufe by studying ^ your public and private character. This I have done, and I here cheerfully bear witness to your many excellent traits of mind and heart.

I Now I ask you to give to the Catholic Church the same measure of fairness which you reasonably demand of me when judging of Southern character. Ask not her enemies what she is, for they arc blinded by passion; ask not her ungrateful, renegade children.

xiv for you never heard a son speaking well of the mother whom he had abandoned and despised.

Study her history in the pages of truth. Exanwne her creed. Read her authorized catechisms and doctrinal books. You will find them everywhere on the shelves of booksellers, in the libraries of her clergy, on the tables of CathoUc families.

There is no Freemasonry in the Catholic Church; she has no secrets to keep back. She has not one set of doctrines for Bishops and Priests, and another for the laity. She has not one creed for the initiated and another for outsiders. Everything in the Catholic Church is open and above board. She has the same doctrines for all— for the Pope and the peasant.

Should not I be better qualified to present to you the Church's creed than the unfriendly witnesses whom I have mentioned?

I have imbibed her doctrine with my mother's milk. I have made her history and theology the study of my life. What motive can I have in misleading you? Not temporal reward, since I seek not your money, but your soul, for which Jesus Christ died. I could not hope for an eternal reward by deceiving you, for I would thereby purchase for myself eternal condemnation by gaining proselytes at the expense of truth.

This, friendly reader, is my only motive. I feel in the depth of my heart that, in possessing Catholic faith, I hold a treasure compared with which all things earthly are but dross. Instead of wishing to bury this treasure in my breast, I long to share it with you, especially as I lose no part of my spiritual riches by communicating them to others.

It is to me a duty and a labor of love to speak the truth concerning my venerable Mother, so much maligned in our days. Were a tithe of the accusations which are brought against her true, I would not be attached to her ministry, nor even to her communion, for a single day. I know these charges to be false. The longer I know her, the more I admire and venerate her. Every day she develops before me new spiritual charms.

Ah! my dear friend, if you saw her as her children see her, she would no longer appear to you as typified by the woman of

XV

Babylon. She would be revealed to you, "Bright as the sun, fair as the moon;" with the beauty of Heaven stamped upon her hrow, glorious "as an army in battle array." You would love her, you would cling to her and embrace her. With her children, you would rise up in reverence "and call her blessed."

I Consider what you lose and what you gain in embracing the

J Catholic religion.

Your loss is nothing in comparison with your gain* You do not

* sunrcnder your manhood or your dignity or independence or

; reasoning powers. You give up none of those revealed truths which you may possess already. The only restraint imposed upon you is the restraint of the Gospel, and to this you will not reason-

, ably object.

You gain everything that is worth having. You acquire a full and connected knowledge of God's revelation. You get possession ) of the whole truth as it is in Jesus. You no longer see it in fragments, but reflected before you in all its beauty, as in a polished mirror. While others are outside criticising the architecture of the temple, you are inside worshiping the divine Architect and saying devoutly with the Psalmist: "I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth." While others from without find in the stained-glass windows only blurred and confused figures without symmetry or attraction or meaning, you from within, are gazing with silent rapture on God's glorified saints, with their outUnes clearly defined on the windows, and all illuminated with the sunlight of heaven. Your knowledge of the truth is not only complete and harmonious, but it becomes fixed and steady. You exchange opinion for certainty. You are no longer "tossed about by every wind of doctrine," but you are firmly grounded on the rock of truth. Then you enjoy that profound peace which springs from the conscious possession of the truth.

In coming to the Church, you are not entering a strange place, but you are returning to your Father's home. The house and furniture may look odd to you, but it is just the same as your forefather's left it three hundred years ago. In coming back to the Church, you worship where your fathers worshiped before you, you kneel before the altar at which they knelt, you receive the Sacraments which they received, and respect the authority of the clergy whom they venerated. You come back Uke the Prodigal Son to the home of your father and mother. The garment of joy is placed upon you, the banquet of love is set before you, and you receive the kiss of peace as a pledge of your filiation and adoption. One hearty embrace of your tender Mother will compensate you for all the sacrifices you may have made, and you will exclaim with the penitent Augustine: "Too late have I known thee, O Beauty, ever ancient and ever new, too late have I loved thee." Should the perusal of this book bring one soul to the knowledge of the Church, my labor will be amply rewarded.

Remember that nothing is so essential as the salvation of your immortal soul, "for what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"^ Let not, therefore, the fear of offending friends and relatives, the persecution of men, the loss of earthly possessions, nor any other temporal calamity, deter you from investigating and embracing the true religion. "For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." ^

May God give you light to see the truth, and, having seen it, may He give you courage and strength to follow it!

*Matt xvi. 26. "H. Cor. iv. 17.

THE FAITH OF

OUR FATHERS

CHAPTER I

TEiE BLESSED TRINITY, THE INCARNATION, ETC

THE Catholic Church teaches that there is but one God, who is infinite in knowledge, in power, in goodness, and in every other perfection; who created all things by His omnipotence, and governs them by His Providence.

In this one God there are three distinct Persons,-^e Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are perfectly equal to each other.

We believe that Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is perfect God and perfect Man. He is God, for He "is over all things, God blessed forever." ^ "He is God of the substance of the Father, begotten before time; and He is Man of the substance of His Mother, born in time." ^ Out of love for us, and in order to rescue us from the miseries entailed upon us by the disobedience of our first parents, the Divine Word descended from heaven, and became Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. He was born on Christmas day, in a stable at Bethlehem.

After having led a life of obscurity for about thirty years, chiefly at Nazareth, He conunenced His public career. He associated with Him a number of men who are named Apostles, whom He instructed in the doctrines of the religion which He established.

For three years He went about doing good, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, healing all kinds of diseases, raising the dead to life, and preaching throughout Judea the new Gospel of peace.'

^ Rom. ix. 5. ' Athanasian Creed. * Matt zi.

I

On Good Friday He was crucified on Mount Calvary, and thus purchased for us redemption by His death. Hence Jesus exclusively bears the titles of Savior and Redeemer, because "there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved."* "He was wounded for our iniquities; He was bruised for our sins, . . . and by His bruises we are healed." ^

We are commanded by Jesus, suffering and dying for us, to imitate Him by the crucifixion of our flesh, and by acts of daily mortification. "If anyone," He says, "will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."*

Hence we abstain from the use of flesh meat on Friday—the day consecrated to our Savior's sufferings — not because the eating of flesh meat is sinful in itself, but as an act of salutary mortification. Loving children would be prompted by fiUal tenderness to commemorate the anniversary of their father's death rather by prayer and fasting than by feasting. Even so we abstain on Fridays from flesh meat that we may in a small measure testify our practical sympathy for our dear Lord by the mortification of our body, endeavoring, like St. Paul, "to bear about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies."''

The Cross is held in the highest reverence by Catholics, because it was the instrument of our Savior's crucifixion. It surmoimts our churches and adorns our sanctuaries. We venerate it as the emblem of our salvation. "Far be it from me," says the Apostle, "to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." ^ We do not, of course, attach any intrinsic virtue to the Cross; this would be sinful and idolatrous. Our veneration is referred to Him who died upon it.

It is also a very ancient and pious practice for the faithful to make on their person the sign of the Cross, saying at the same time: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Tertullian, who lived in the second century of the Christian era, says: "In all our actions, when we come in or go

^Acts iv. la. 'Isaiah liiL 5. *Lukc ix. 23.

'II. Cor. iv. 10. "Gal. vL 14.

THE TRINITY out, when wc dress, when we wash, at our meals, before retiring to sleep, ... we form on our foreheads the sign of the cross. These practices are not commanded by a formal law of Scripture; but tradition teaches them, custom confirms them, faith observes them." • By the sign of the cross we make a profession of our faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation, and perform a most salutary aa of reUgion.

We beUeve that on Easter Sunday Jesus Christ manifested His divine power by raising Himself to life, and that having spent forty days on earth, after His resurrection, instructing His disciples. He ascended to heaven from the Mount of OUves.

On the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, ten days after His Ascension, our Savior sent, as He had promised. His Holy Spirit to His disciples, while they were assembled together in prayer. The Holy Ghost purified their hearts from sin, and imparted to them a full knowledge of those doctrines of salvation which they were instructed to preach. On the same Feast of Pentecost the Apostles commenced their subUme mission, from which day, accordingly, we date the active life of the Catholic Church.

Our Redeemer gave the most ample authority to the Apostles to teach in His name; commanding them to "preach the Gospel to every creature," and directing all, under the most severe penalties, to hear and obey them: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me. And He that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me."

And lest we should be mistaken in distinguishing between the true Church and false sects, which our Lord predicted would arise. He was pleased to stamp upon His Church certain shining marks, by which every sincere inquirer could easily recognize her as His only Spouse. The principal marks or characteristics of the true Church are, her Unity, Sanctity, CathoUcity, and Apostolicity,^ to which may be added the Infallibility of her teaching and the Perpetuity of her existence.

I shall treat successively of these marks.

•Dc Corona, C. iiL *^M>rk xvi. 15.

*^Lukc X. 16. *"Synab. Constandnop.

Chapter II The Unity Of The Church

BY unity is meant that the members of the true Church must be united in the belief of the same doctrines of revelation and in the acknowledgment of the authority of the same pastors. Heresy and schism are opposed to Christian unity. By heresy, a man rejects one or more articles of the Christian faith. By schism, he spurns the authority of his spiritual superiors. That our Savior requires this unity of faith and government in His members is evident from various passages of Holy Writ. In His admirable prayer immediately before His passion He says: "I pray for them also who through their word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me," ^ because the unity of the Church is the most luminous evidence of the Divine mission of Christ. Jesus prayed that His followers may be united in the bond of a common faith, as He and His Father are united in essence, and certainly the prayer of Jesus is always heard.

St. Paul ranks schism and heresy with the crimes of murder and idolatry, and he declares that the authors of sects shall not possess the Kingdom of God.^ He also addresses a letter to the Ephesians from his prison in Rome, and if the words of the Apostle should always command our homage, with how much reverence arc they to be received when he writes in chains from the Imperial City! In this Epistle he insists upon unity of faith in the following;

^ John zvii. ao, 21. ' GaL t. ao, ai.

UNITY OF THE CHURCH emphatic language: ''Be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in die bond of peace; one body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." • As you all, he says, worship one God, and not many gods; as you acknowledge the same Divine Mediator of redemption, and not many mediators; as you are sanctified by the same Divine Spirit, and not by many spirits; as you all hope for the same heaven, and not different heavens, so must you all profess the same faith.

Unity of government is not less essential to the Church of Christ than unity of doctrine. Our Divine Saviour never speaks of His Churches, but of His Church. He does not say: "Upon this rock I will build My Churches," but "upon this rock I will build My Church," * from which words we must conclude that it never was His intention to establish or to sanction various conflicting denominations, but one corporate body, with all the members united under one visible Head; for as the Church is a visible body, it must have a visible head.

The Church is called a kingdom: "He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no cnd."*^ Now in every well-regulated kingdom there is but one l(ing, one form of government, one uniform body of laws, which all arc obliged to observe. In Uke manner, in Christ's spiritual kingdom, there must be one Chief to whom all owe spiritual allegiance; one form of ecclesiastical government; one uniform body of laws which all Christians are bound to observe; for, "every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate." •

Our Savior calls His Church a shcepfold. "And there shall be one fold and one shepherd."'^ What more beautiful or fitting illustration of unity can we have than that which is suggested by a sheepfold? All the sheep of a flock cling together. If dicy are momentarily separated, they are impatient till reunited. They follow in the same path. They feed on the same pastures.

•Eph. iv. 3-6. *Matt zvL i8. *Luke L 3a, 33.

They obey the same shepherd, and fly from the voice of strangers. So did our Lord intend that all the sheep of His fold should be nourished by the same sacraments and the same bread of life; that they should follow the same rule of faith as their guide to heaven; that they should Usten to the voice of one Chief Pastor, and that they should carefully shun false teachers.

His Church is compared to a human body. "As in one body wc have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."® In one body there are many members, all inseparably connected with the head. The head commands and the foot instantly moves, the hand is raised and the lips open. Even so our Lord ordained that His Church, composed of many members, should be all united to one supreme visible Head, whom they are bound to obey.