Roman

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Roman

those countries, and by degrees endeavored to
use them for the embellishment of the im-
perial city. Rome under the empire was the
capital of the world, and attracted artists
from every country. The result was that the
architecture of Rome became a mixed style.

Roman Catholic Church, or the Holy,
Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church,
the largest of three great divisions of Chris-
tendom, namely Roman, Greek, and Protest-
ant, denned by its own theologians as 'a body
of men united by the profession of the same
Christian faith, and by participation in the
same sacraments, under the governance of
lawful pastors, more especially of the Roman
Pontiff, the sole vicar of Christ on earth.'

According to this definition the church is
essentially a visible body. Roman Catholic
theologians, however, distinguished between
the body of the church and the soul of the
church, the former being the visible organiza-
tion established by Christ as the divinely ap-
pointed means of salvation, the latter em-
bracing all Christians who are in good faith,
and who have thus the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost without which no man can be
saved.

The Attributes of the Church, as taught by
its leaders, are three: Authority, or the right
and power of the Pope and the bishops, as
successors of the apostles, to teach and to
govern the faithful; infallibility, or the im-
possibility of error on the part of the Church
in matters of faith and morals; and inde-
fectibility or the power of the Church to en-
dure to the end of the ages.

The principle of the authority of the church
is based upon the divine commission to the
apostles to 'teach all nations/ to offer sacri-
fice, and to govern the flock of God, as well
as upon other explicit statements of Christ.
The infallibility of the Church is likewise
supported by Christ's own statement, CI will
ask the Father and he shall give you another
Paraclete, that he may abide with you for-
ever, the Spirit of Truth.' The third attribute
of the church—indefectibility, includes not
only its persistence to the end of time but
also its preservation from corruption in the
sphere of faith and morals and assurance
against loss of the hierarchy or the sacra-
ments. In its support is cited Christ's prom-
ise: 'The gates of Hell shall not prevail
against it.' Those external signs by which
the church may be distinguished from all
heretical or schismatic bodies, are four, and
are summed up in its claim to be the 'one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic church.*

The chief laws which the Church of Rome
has made binding on all her members are:
i. The observance of Sundays and holy days
of obligation by hearing Mass and resting
from servile works; 2. fasting at prescribed
seasons and on certain days, also abstinence
from flesh meat on Fridays; 3. annual con-
fession and communion, the latter at Easte*
time; 4. the prohibition of marriage within
certain degrees of kindred and at forbidden
times; 5. an absolute fast from midnight be-
fore reception of communion, except in dan-
ger of death, when the sacrament is admin-
istered as a 'viaticum.' Besides these general
laws, there are others binding on the clergy,
the principal of which are: The obligation
of celibacy, commencing with subdeaconship;
and the daily recitation of the canonical
hours contained in the breviary.

The form of worship is highly ritualistic.
It is embodied in the Missal, or Book of the
Mass, and the Breviary containing the Divine
Office or prayer which all priests are obliged
to recite daily in the name of the church on
behalf of her children. The sacraments of the
church are seven: Baptism, which is per-
formed as soon after birth as possible, by
sprinkling, and which is held to be necessary
to salvation; confirmation; penance, entailing
confession of sin on the part of the penitent
and the granting of absolution by the priest;
the Eucharist or Holy Communion; extreme
unction or the last anointing administered to
persons in danger of death; Holy Orders, by
which ministers of the church are ordained
for their sacred duties; and matrimony.

The principal sacramentals are the sign oi
the cross, expressing the mysteries of the
unity and trinity of God; holy water blessed
with the prayers of the church; holy oils;
blessed candles; blessed ashes placed on the
forehead on Ash Wednesday to bring to mind
the spirit of penance appropriate to the Len-
ten season; blessed palms; images of the
Virgin and the saints; rosaries, and scapu-
lars.

At the head of the governing body of the
Roman Catholic church, usually known as
the hierarchy, is the Pope, in whom is vested
'the wh,ole fulness of supreme power, ordinary
and immediate, over all and each of the
pastors and the faithful.* He is assisted by
the Sacred College of Cardinals, and by sev-
eral Sacred Congregations or permanent ec-
clesiastical committees, of which cardinals arc
the chief members; by archbishops, and bish-
ops; by the apostolic delegates and vicars,
and by certain abbots and other prelates.