From Kent the light of the gospel spread over the rest of England, for Almighty God blessed the labours of the devoted missioners and confirmed their preaching by numerous miracles. St. Augustine, by the advice of St. Gregory, fixed his see in the city of Canterbury, of which he became the first Archbishop. He is called the Apostle of England, because he brought us the light of the true faith; but while we love and reverence him as such, let us never forget that we owe both him and his devoted band of companions to the zeal and fatherly love of that holy Pontiff St. Gregory the Great.

ST. LEO THE GREAT AND ATTILA.

About the middle of the fifth century, a horde of fierce barbarians, named Huns, led by the terrible Attila, surnamed the scourge of God, swept over the Roman Empire, destroying everything before them, and covering the whole country with smoking ruins and the dead bodies of the slaughtered inhabitants. Flushed with victory, the savage conquerors at length advanced towards Rome, which the Roman emperors, whose armies had been everywhere defeated, had left without garrison or means of defence. In the midst of the general consternation, the holy Pontiff Pope Leo the Great, alone ventured to go to meet the conqueror. Having arrived at the camp of the Huns on the banks of the river Mincio, Leo was admitted into the presence of Attila, and spoke to him with such courage and firmness of the account which he must one day give to Almighty God of his actions, that the savage barbarian at once granted St. Leo all that he asked, promising to withdraw his army and leave Rome unmolested.

It is related that the followers of Attila, astonished at the respect which their terrible chieftain had paid to a Christian Priest, asked him, after St. Leo's departure, what was the reason of his unusual conduct. "It was not," said he, "the person of my visitor alone which made such an impression upon me. I saw near the Pontiff a figure far more august, venerable by his white hair, and clad in priestly robes, who held a drawn sword in his hand, and seemed to threaten me by his looks and gestures of terrible meaning if I had not undertaken faithfully to execute all that had been demanded by his envoy."-Butler's Lives of the Saints.

SIXTEENTH INSTRUCTION.

The Ninth Article-Continued. The Church. Her four Marks.

Q. Has the Church of Christ any marks by which we may know her?

A. Yes; she has these four marks: she is One-she is Holy-she is Catholic-she is Apostolic.

The Church of Christ is, my dear children, as our Blessed Lord said, like a city seated on a mountain, which cannot be hid.* In other words, she is plain and visible to all; none can possibly mistake her, who are not wilfully blind to the truth. And with reason has our loving Saviour made it so, since he wishes all to be saved. He would not, therefore, have any one to be ignorant of the one only way which leads to eternal life.

It is for this reason that our Blessed Lord has given his Church four plain marks, by which any one may know that she is the Church which he has established to teach mankind the way to heaven. And what are these marks? They are these four: she is One-she Holy-she is Catholic-she is Apostolic. These four marks are frequently spoken of in the Holy Scriptures, and no one who believes in the sacred writings can possibly deny that the religion or Church founded by Jesus Christ must have these four marks. It follows, therefore, that

*Matt. v. 14.

any religion which has not got these four marks, is a false religion, the work of man, and not the Church established by our Blessed Lord.

The Catechism now goes on to explain these marks one by one. Listen attentively, and you will very easily see how it is the Catholic Church alone, among all religions, which possesses these four marks; and how there is not a single one of these marks to which any of the sects or false religions, which you see about you, can establish a claim. If you are well instructed on this important point, my dear children, you may perhaps, one day or other, be, under God, the happy means of pointing out to some poor wandering soul the one only road which leads to the kingdom of heaven.

Q. How is the Church One?

A. Because all her members agree in one faith, have all the same sacraments and sacrifice, and are all under one head.

The Church is One. This is the first mark or sign whereby all men may know which is the Church founded by Jesus Christ. For our Blessed Lord did not make two religions, but one; he did not teach two faiths, but one; he did not say that there are two roads to heaven, but expressly declared that there is only one; "Narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leadeth to life.”* And on another occasion our Lord said, "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them, also, I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."+ For the same reason, the Apostle St. Paul said, "One Lord, one faith, one Baptism."

Now look at the Catholic Church, to which you, my dear children, have the happiness to belong, and see how perfectly she possesses this mark. She is Eph. iv. 5.

*Matt. vii. 14.

† John x. 16.

One in doctrine, for all her members agree in one faith;

One in worship, for they have all the same sacraments and sacrifice;

One in her head, for they all are subject to and acknowledge one head.

First of all, she is One in doctrine, that is to say, in her faith or belief. For there is no difference or disagreement among Catholics about matters of faith, no disputing or wrangling about what is God's truth; every Catholic in the world believes the same, because every one believes whatever the Church teaches. The simplest child believes exactly the same as the most learned Bishop, the king or emperor the same as the poorest of his subjects, the converted negro the same as the civilized European. But how different is it with the false religions which we see around us, and which, though they all join with one another in attacking the Catholic Church, differ most widely from each other in what they profess to believe; and not only so, but hardly two of their ministers can be found to agree with one another on doctrines of the utmost importance. Thus, in the Protestant church of England, for example, there have been disputes of late years as to whether Baptism is necessary for Salvation; whether Communion, or the Lord's Supper, as it is called by Protestants, really contains the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; and even as to whether the whole of the Sacred Scripture is the inspired word of God. In these and other disputes of equal importance, the most learned of the Protestant clergy, and their very Bishops, have been found to take opposite sides. *

Secondly, the Catholic Church is One in her worship. For, go where you will, you will find among

* See the Gorham Discussion, the Tracts for the Times, the Colenso Dispute, &c.

Catholics the same seven Sacraments and the same Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which are the most sacred and necessary parts of religious worship. Hence it is that a Catholic is at home in whatever part of the world he may be. Whether he be in England or in Italy, in America or in China, in Africa or in Australia, it is all the same. Let him enter into a Catholic church or chapel and he there beholds the same ceremonies, the same sacred rites, to which he has been accustomed from his infancy in his own land. The Priest is at the altar, clad in the sacred vestments, offering up the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass, and the words that he utters fall familiarly on the stranger's ear, for they are the selfsame which he has so often heard, and perhaps answered to, when, as a child, he learnt to serve Mass and minister at the altar of God. Or perhaps he sees the Priest sitting in the confessional hearing the confessions of the crowds who flock about him, or administering the Holy Communion at the altar rails. Yes, my dear children, it makes a thrill run through your heart when, in a distant land, amid strangers speaking an unknown tongue, you discover, on entering the Catholic Church, that you have brothers even there, children, like yourselves, of the Holy Catholic Church, worshippers at the same altar, frequenters of the same Sacraments, partakers of the same Lifegiving Food, the Bread of Angels, the Holy Communion. How different from the empty forms of Protestant worship, which differ in every country according to the particular sect which happens to prevail !

The third way in which the Church is One is in her head. All the members of the Church acknowledge one head, Jesus Christ, and his Vicar or representative upon earth, the Bishop of Rome. What beautiful order and harmony reign in the Catholic