lamp-post. The Christian era was annulled, the celebration of the Sundays and Festivals was abolished, the churches were profaned and devastated. Everything that reminded them of Christianity was destroyed. Finally, the madness of these men arrived at such a pitch, that they proclaimed Reason to be the Supreme Being, and conducted a vile woman as an emblem of the Deity, on a triumphal car, into the Cathedral of Paris, where they placed her on the high altar, in the place of the figure of our Crucified Redeemer, and sang hymns in her honor. Order, prosperity, and public safety disappeared together with Religion; even the throne was overturned and shattered to pieces. France was for two years the scene of such horrible atrocities as are unequalled in the annals of history. Human blood flowed in torrents. Neither age nor sex was safe from the fury of those monsters. The total number of the people slaughtered in this Reign of Terror was, according to some, two millions. And all this was done under the pretence of promoting the happiness of mankind. Enlightenment was their word when they abolished Religion; Liberty and Equality, when they murdered their fellow-men. At last, in order to stop the complete anarchy that prevailed, the leaders solemnly proclaimed that the nation should once more believe in God and the immortality of the soul. In the year 1799, Napoleon, in quality of First Consul, seized upon the sovereign power; but he did not venture to govern a people without Religion. He therefore restored the Catholic Religion in France, and made a solemn Concordat with the Pope (A.D. 1801). However, the Church did not long enjoy this peace. Napoleon, blinded by fortune, attempted to extort from the Supreme Head of the Church certain concessions which he could not grant. The French troops invaded Rome, and carried away Pius VII. prisoner in 1809. But as God had visibly protected His Church ten years before, when Pope Pius VI.

had died a captive at Valence in France, so now He did not abandon her to her enemies. Napoleon was vanquished by the Confederate Powers of Europe, and dispossessed of his crown, and the Pope reëntered triumphant into Rome (A.D. 1814).

48. With the establishment of peace, after the Napoleonic wars, in 1815, a more favorable era opened for the Church. In France she recovered some of her old prosperity. What has been called the Catholic Revival, began, first in Germany, to the great progress of religion, and afterwards in England. In 1829 the disabilities under which Irish and British Catholics had so long labored were removed. A few years after, in England, the hierarchy, which had been suppressed at the time of the Reformation, was restored; numerous and notable conversions from Protestantism took place; and the number of Catholics and Catholic institutions has since grown very rapidly. The infidel doctrines, however, of the French philosophers and subsequent free-thinkers have continued to spread unbelief, so that the Church has to contend everywhere with a spirit of irreligion.

In 1848 Pius IX. was obliged to quit Rome through the machinations of Italian revolutionists. During his short exile he received the respectful sympathy of the Catholic world; and, in 1850, amid the rejoicings of the Eternal City, he returned to his See.

In 1869 Pope Pius IX. convoked the General Council of the Vatican, which defined the dogma of the Pope's

48. When did a more favorable era open for the Church? When did the Catholic Revival occur? What changes took place in Ireland and England? Relate the flight of Pius IX. from Rome, and his return. Give an account of the Council of the Vatican. When and by whom was the Pope unjustly despoiled of his temporal power? Did this change ruin the Church? What happened during the reign of Leo XIII.? When did he die and by whom was he succeeded? What has happened in France since the opening of the reign of Pius X.?

infallibility. Before the Council could finish its labors. it was obliged to suspend its sittings because of the war which, in 1870, broke out between France and Germany. The Italian army took possession of Rome, and the Pope was unjustly deprived of the temporal power and sovereignty enjoyed by his predecessors for ages, and necessary to the complete independence of the Holy See. Pius IX. lived eight years longer, as a prisoner in the Vatican palace, protesting against the iniquitous spoliation of the Church. The next pope, Leo XIII., passed his long pontificate in the same way. Yet from his prison walls. his power reached to the ends of the earth. The enemies of the Church had predicted that the fall of the temporal power would prove the end of the Papacy. But never has the moral and spiritual authority of the Holy See been more powerful throughout the world than it is to-day.

During the pontificate of Leo XIII., the German government, at the instigation of the powerful minister, Bismark, instituted a campaign of legislative persecution against the Church. But, after some years of struggle, the courage and fidelity of German Catholics proved victorious; and the obnoxious laws were repealed.

In 1903, Leo XIII. died and was succeeded by the present Pontiff, His Holiness, Pius X., the two hundred and sixty-fourth successor of St. Peter. This reign has been already marked in France by the culmination of a violent anti-Christian movement which began during the reign of his predecessor. Laws have been enacted to suppress all religious orders, Catholic schools, and religious instruction in the government schools. The Concordat established with the Holy See had been most unjustly abolished, and the Church has been robbed of all her property throughout the country. Many other measures have been taken for the suppression of religion. But French Catholics await with confidence the hour when, once more, the Church will triumph over her enemies.

49. The most wonderful and most consoling fact in recent history has been the Church's unexampled growth in the United States during the past century. From a mere handful a hundred years ago, her children have increased to fourteen millions or more. This growth, too, is as sound and vigorous as it is extensive. Among the external indications of its strength enumerated with admiration by Leo XIII. (Longinqua Oceani, Jan., 1895) are, our unnumbered religious and useful institutions, sacred edifices, schools for elementary instruction, colleges for the higher branches, homes for the poor, hospitals for the sick, convents and monasteries. Besides, as he observed, there are still surer signs of the faith of the people; for the numbers of the clergy are steadily increasing, pious sodalities and confraternities are held in esteem, schools for religious teaching are in a flourishing condition; the strength of popular piety is further manifested by associations for mutual aid, for the relief of the indigent, and for the promotion of temperance. Truly the judgment of the secular historian was well grounded who said that the Church's gains in the New World have compensated her for what she has lost in the Old.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

ON THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF OUR DIVINE RELIGION.

1. We have now, in a small compass, surveyed the history of our Holy Religion, and considered the blessings

49. What is the most consoling fact in the recent history of the Church? What are the external signs of this growth? Are there other signs indicating the strength of the people's faith? What have we now surveyed? What have we chiefly considered in the history or our Religion?

1. Whence does our Religion come? By whom has God revealed it to us? How did Jesus Christ confirm His Divine Doctrine? Is it indifferent which religion we profess?

it has conferred upon mankind from Adam, our first parent, to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and from Him, the Divine Head and Founder of our Church, to His present Vicegerent, Pius X. How sublime and beautiful is the Religion we profess! Everything connected with it calls out to us: God alone could have given such a Religion to mankind. Man has not invented it; God Himself has taught it to us, and has commanded us to observe it. He revealed it by holy men in the Old Testament (6, 11, 7); and in the New, precisely as the Prophecies of the Old Testament had foretold. His Only-Begotten, Eternal Son appeared on earth, and most convincingly confirmed His Divine Doctrine by numerous miracles, especially by His Resurrection from the dead (21, 22, 23, 26, 27). God has spoken, and no one has a right to be indifferent to His word; to despise or reject it would be to condemn one's self to everlasting hell fire.

2. The Religion to which we belong did not take rise only a few centuries ago; properly speaking, it dates from the creation of man. For its first seeds were laid in Paradise when God promised a Redeemer to our First Parents after their fall; and the whole of the Old Law, with its sacrifices and wonderful events, was but a figure of the New Law, which contains the fulfilment and accomplishment of the Old (2, 7, 9, 12, and others). The Old Law believed in the Redeemer to come, and the New believes in Him already come. But it is the same belief in the same Redeemer, and therefore it is essentially the same Religion.

3. Although our Holy Religion is coeval with the beginning of mankind, yet its beginning is not lost in ob

2. How old is our Religion? How do you explain and prove its great age?

3. Is the history of our Religion perhaps uncertain, because it dates from the creation of man, and embraces so long a period? Why not?