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Translated for the U. S. Catholic Magazine. HISTORY OF THE PAPACY.

Continued from page 367.

T. URBAN I, a Roman, was elected on the 21st of October, 224. He had occupied a rank near the Pope's person engaged in the ministry of the Church, which he governed eight years, seven months and four days. Urban authorised the use of silver vases for the service of the altar; it is also said that he accepted lands which were of fered him by the Christians, and that he appropriated them to the service of ecclesiastics.

This is supposed to be the origin of

the temporalities of the clergy, so necessary to insure them an independent support, and to supply them with the means of exercising their charity. The zealous pontiff, emboldened by the good dispositions of Alexander, sought to make converts in the imperial court. But he was persecuted by the prefect of Rome, who insisted that Urban should sacrifice to idols; upon his refusal to do so, the prefect sent him into prison, and he was beheaded the 25th of May, 231.

The reign of St. Pontian, a Roman, who was elected about the end of the month of June, was not a prosperous one; for the Emperor Alexander, on a false accusation, exiled him to the island of Sardinia. Before his departure, Pontian wished to abdicate that a successor might be immediately elected, but he had inspired so much respect and attachment that the faithful were unwilling to proceed to another election before his death, which happened on the 19th of November, 235, after four years and nearly five months' reign. Maximin excited the sixth persecution against the Christians, through hatred of Alexander, his predecessor, who had favored them. Pontian during this persecution was severely scourged, though not to such a degree as to deprive him of life. Yet he was not the less a martyr for the faith, dying in misery and abandonment in the country of his exile. His body was removed to the cemetery of Calixtus at Rome, and it is commonly believed that the translation of his remains took place under the pontificate of St. Fabian.

St. Pontian was succeeded by St. Antherus, a Greek by birth, who governed the Church only one month and a day, having suffered martyrdom on the 5th of January, 236. He is regarded by some writers as the author of the Martyrology; it is certain that he occupied himself in collecting the acts of the martyrs, and placed them in the churches for preservation.

His successor, St. Fabian, a Roman, had a longer reign; it lasted five years and five days. According to Eusebius, the election of this pontiff was miraculous; the uncertainty in which the people and clergy were with regard to the choice of a Pope being suddenly dispelled by the presence of a dove, which alighted on Fabian's head, and thus inspired them with a great veneration for him. He justified the respect in which he was held by his zeal for the interests of religion. It is said that he built several churches in the cemeteries where the bodies of the martyrs reposed. He himself was destined to join their band, terminating his life on the 20th of January, 250, in the defence of the faith, at the commencement of the furious persecution excited by Decius, and

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which was the seventh under the emperors. This persecution, one of the most cruel that the Church had suffered, was a just punishment of the relaxation which had been introduced among the Christians during the short intervals of repose which were allowed them by the pagans. Every one," says St. Cyprian, "labored to acquire worldly goods; and forgetful of the voluntary poverty which the Christians had practised in the time of the apostles, and of the disinterested conduct they ought always to pursue, they were insatiable in their desire of riches, and were wholly engrossed in their acquisition. Piety no longer reigned among the priests; fidelity and integrity seemed to be extinct among the ministers; charity was little discernible in the lives of Christians, and their morals were unrestrained by a proper discipline. Led away by vanity, the men combed their beard, and the women adorned their faces; violating the purity of the eye by sullying the work of God's hands, and that of the hair, by giving it an unnatural color.* They deceived the simple by their cunning and artifices, they surprised their brethren by infidelities and impostures. Members of Jesus Christ, they united themselves with pagans. They swore, not only without cause, but even perjured themselves. They contemned their prelates and defamed one another with envenomed tongues, and made war with a mortal hatred. They despised the simplicity which the faith requires of us, to seek all that could satisfy their vanity; they renounced the world with their lips only, and not by their actions, and each one loved himself so much that he was disregarded by all others." The persecution which was permitted as a punishment of this immorality, put to flight a great number of the faithful, and it was at that time, that St. Paul, having retired into Lower Thebais, gave rise to the eremitical life. Many martyrs sealed their faith with their blood, but alas! many apostates betrayed it. It was principally for these that the different degrees of public penance were instituted. The persecution of Decius was princi

*What would St. Cyprian have said of the modern toilet and fashion?

+ Histoire des ordres religieux, tom. i, p. 11.

pally directed against the bishops, particularly the bishop of Rome. Consequently after the death of Fabian a long vacancy occurred in the holy see. During this interval which lasted sixteen months, St. Cyprian and the clergy of Carthage wrote many letters to those of Rome, and they at length elected St. Cornelius, a Roman, son of Castin. Gallus having inherited the aversion which his predecessor Decius had cherished against the Christians, Cornelius sustained by his example and his exhortations the courage of those who were persecuted by that prince; he fortified the weak, and encouraged those to rise again who had had the misfortune to fall. He himself having generously confessed Jesus Christ, was exiled to Centumcelles, now Civita Vecchia ; but some time after, Gallus recalled him to Rome, and commanded him to sacrifice to idols; Cornelius, having courageously refused, was beheaded the 19th of September, 253, after two years and five months' pontificate. A letter of St. Cyprian would permit us to suppose that he died at Centumcelles, but that he should nevertheless be regarded as a martyr; "because," says St. Cyprian," should we not reckon among the most illustrious confessors and martyrs, him who was constantly exposed to the fury of the ministers of a barbarous tyrant, who was always in danger of being beheaded, burnt, crucified, of being put to the most cruel and unheard of tortures, who acted in defiance of the most fearful edicts, and who by the powerful influence of the faith, despised the punishments with which he was incessantly menaced? Although the goodness of God had preserved him from these sufferings, he gave sufficient proofs of his love and fidelity, by being always ready to suffer every variety of torment, and triumphing over the tyrant by his zeal."

The persecution of Gallus was not the only storm which the Church of Rome endured under the pontificate of Cornelius. Novatus, bishop of Africa, an immoral and irreligious man, excited a deplorable schism by the instrumentality of Novatian, a priest of the Roman Church, who, at the instigation of Novatus, abusing the reputation

which he had acquired for eloquence and philosophy, greatly opposed the election of St. Cornelius, misled many of the faithful and many confessors by his calumnies, and even carried his hardihood so far as to cause himself to be ordained by three bishops, simple, ignorant and unknown, who imposed hands upon him at the conclusion of a great repast, at which he had made them eat and drink to excess. Such was the ordination of Novatian, author of the first schism in the Church, and the first antipope. He joined heresy to schism by deny. ing the power of the Church to remit mortal sin committed after baptism; he also rejected second marriages, and treated as adul terous those widows who married again. He considered it unlawful for those who had renounced the faith during the persecution, to be admitted to penance when they requested it; a proof that innovators in order to give credit to their crimes, always as sume a mask of severity which deceives their proselytes. This dangerous schism. passed from Rome to Africa, and the east, where it existed a long time; there were Novatians in Egypt even in the seventh century. St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian his friend omitted nothing to extinguish this heresy in its infancy; notwithstanding their solicitude, the schism was propagated under the name of Cathari, that is, pure and free from error, a truly ridiculous denomination.

The calumnies which Novatian had invented against St. Cornelius, obliged St. Lucian I, a Roman, who succeeded him on the 20th of October, to ordain, by a decree, that a bishop should always be accompanied by two priests and three deacons who should bear witness to his life and morals in the Church. Lucian was at once Pope and confessor, for he was banished as soon as elected, on which occasion St. Cyprian wrote a letter on his promotion and exile; but this pontiff was very soon recalled. After five months' reign, he died a martyr, the 4th of March, 255. About this time, God revenged the innocent blood of his servants by a frightful pestilence which extended throughout the empire, and lasted at intervals for twelve years.

TO BE CONTINUED.

NIGH

From the London Catholic Magazine.

THE SISTER OF CHARITY.

"Oh, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for me, who have recourse to thee."

[IGHT was fast closing on the town of Angers, as two of the Sisters of Charity rapidly threaded their way through its crowded streets. They were already close to their convent gate when the sound of lamentation attracted the well-accustomed ear of one of these gentle sisters: and turning round, she accosted a little girl who had followed them, weeping bitterly.

"My grandfather," sobbed the child, "he is dying, holy sisters. Mother is out, and there is no one near him."

The heart of the good sister melted at these words of wo, and she looked at her companion, who was the elder by some years.

"It is not far," said the little girl, in a pleading voice;" and he is dying," she added, still addressing her whose soft voice and gentle mien had won her childish affections in a moment.

The good sisters had walked far that daythey had wandered alternately from the bed of sickness to the house of sorrow,-and they were returning home, wearied alike in body and mind;-but not for a moment did it occur to them to reject the prayer of the child, in whom they beheld but an image of their Saviour in distress.

"We will follow thee, my child," said the gentle nun. She took the little girl by the hand, and addressed a few questions to her; but the child sobbed so violently, that her answers were inaudible. She led them through a narrow street, and paused before an open door. It was evidently the abode of wretched poverty; but poverty in all its forms was too familiar to the Sisters to create any observation; and without a remark, they followed her up the narrow stairs, and into a room where a man was lying, evidently within a few hours of his decease. After a few minutes' consulta

tion, the elder of the nuns proposed returning to the convent, to procure spiritual assistance for the unhappy man; and when she had departed on this mission, the other advanced to the bed on which he lay. At first he seemed unconscious of her presence; but when his eye fell upon her black dress, and the white cross she wore on her bosom, he exhibited the utmost loathing and abhorrence; and raising himself up in the bed by a wonderful effort of strength, he poured forth a torrent of abuse and blasphemy.

The good nun was grieved, but not surprised. Alas! it was but too often her lot to stand by the death bed of the despairing sinner. She remained for a time in silent prayer, but when, rather shrieking than speaking, he bade her "begone, and leave him to his master, the Devil," she fell upon her knees, and cried out in a voice of holy energy, which for a moment awed the sinner into silence, "Man, I will not begone, until you have ceased to blaspheme your God. Oh! creature of Christ Jesus crucified," she continued, in a voice so sweet and soft, it was music only to sit and hear it; and rising, she held up the crucifix before his eyes, "can you behold Him, as He thus hung upon the cross, his sacred body torn, his spirit wounded because of your transgressions; can you see Him thus, and still offend Him by the sin of despair?"

Even as the rod of Moses brought water from the living rock, so did the sight of that holy image soften the hardness of the sinner's heart. He sunk back upon his pillow, and gazed wistfully upon the crucifix; but then again he closed his eyes, and muttered between his teeth, "Judas, Judas."

"Judas," resumed the nun, "betrayed his Master; yet had he repented, he had

even then found mercy. It was the sin of despair which made it better for him that he had never been born. One there was," she added, and her voice grew softer and sweeter as if the deep love in her soul had found a voice and spoken, "one there was who anointed his feet at the pharisee's supper, who followed him step by step on his way to Mount Calvary, who knelt at the foot of his cross, during the three long hours of his agony, who shared the favor of his last looks on earth with his sinless mother and his virgin disciple. Magdalen was her name. She had betrayed her Master many times; but many sins were forgiven her, because she loved much."

There was silence in the room broken only by the sinner's sobs. Sister Agnes placed the crucifix on his bosom. "Wear it round your neck and in your heart," she said, "and take also the image of Mary." She placed a medal in his hands. "She is the refuge and hope of sinners: entreat her to pray for you, and think not that Jesus will be deaf to his Mother's voice, when she asks Him to pardon the creature for whom He once deigned to die."

The priest who had been sent for from the convent, now entered the room. Agnes was preparing to depart, when the door once more opened, and a young woman entered, who, on beholding the sacred character of those surrounding the sick man, paused in a mixture of shame and fear. She was young, but the freshness of youth was no longer on her cheek. She had been handsome, and the sad remains of beauty yet lingered round her face and form. Her countenance might once have been full of innocent goodness; for even now it was not an expression of boldness, but of most reckless despair which betrayed the degraded sinfulness of the poor outcast's life. The sick man saw her, and the keenest remorse was on his face as he said:

"Stay, holy sister! and reverend father, say what hope of pardon can you give the wretch who sold his child to a life of crime?":

Anunearthly shriek interrupted his words. The girl had remained standing in the middle of the room; but on hearing these words

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why did you not let me be a nun, like my sister? What had I done, that you should use me thus ?"

"Spouse of Christ," said the sick man, turning solemnly towards Agnes, “the sins of this unhappy child are upon my soul as my own. By the mercy for which you have taught me to hope, save her from the guilt into which I alone have plunged her."

The nun was weeping bitterly. A light had broken on her soul.

"Father," she whispered, "do you not know your child?"

The man gazed earnestly upon her; sickness had dimmed his eyes; but at last he recognized his child, and fell back fainting on his pillow. With some difficulty he was restored, and then pressing gently the hand of Agnes, he pointed to his youngest daughter, who still remained kneeling with her face buried in her hands, and whispered, "Be a mother to poor Isabel."

Agnes bowed her head, and taking her sister's arm, she led her from the room. The priest closed the door after them, and then Agnes folded her sister in her arms. The poor girl neither returned nor rejected these caresses. She did not sob or scream: but the tears fell in torrents from her eyes, and she looked the very picture of shame and sorrow. Then struck by another impulse, she fell upon her knees, as if wholly unworthy to stand in the presence of one so pure as her sister.

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