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 PERSECUTION

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PERSECUTION

and lasted with interruptions till 960, when the Chris- tians were strong enough to intimidate their persecu- tors. The number of martyrs was small, Eulofjius, Archbishop of Toledo (11 Marrh, SM). who has left us an account of the persecution, being himself the most famous (see Mohammed and Mohammedanism).

Pargoire, L'Eglise byzanline (Paris, lOO.'i), 153-6, 275-9; Leclebcu, L'Afriquc chritiennc, II (Paris, 1904); Idem, Lea Marlurs, IV (Paris, 1905). For Spaiu: see EuLooius and Bibli- ography; Vila S. Eulogii, by Alvahus in P. L., CXV, 705 sq.; EuLOOlus. Mfmoriale Sanctorum sen libri III de marlyribus cor- dubensibus: MiONE, P. L., CXV, 731; Dozy, Ilistoire des Mussul- mans d'Espagne, II (Leyden, 1S61); Gams. Kirchetigesch. Spa- niens. II (Ratisbon. 18G4); Haines, Chrisliaiiily and Islam in Spain, 756-1031 (Loudon, 1S.S9); Leclercq, L'Espagnt chri- tiennc (Paris, 1906).

Under the Iconoclasts. — The troubles brought on the Church of the East by the Iconoclastic emperors cover a period of one hundred and twenty years. Leo III (the Isaurian) pubhshed two edicts "against images about 726 and 730. The execution of the edicts was strenuously resisted. Popes Gregory II and III pro- tested in vigorous language against the autocratic reformer, and the people resorted to open violence. But Constantine V (Copronymus, 741-75) continued his father's policy, summoning a council at Constanti- nople in 7.54 and then persecuting the orthodox party. The monks formed the especial object of his attack. Monasteries were demolished, and the monks them- selves shamefully maltreated and put to death. Under Constantine VI (7SO-97), through the influence of his mother, the regent Irene, the Seventh (Ecumenical Council was summoned in 787, and rescinded the de- crees of Copronymus's Council. But there was a revi- val of the persecution under Leo V (813-20), the bishops who stood firm, as well as the monks, being the special objects of his attack, while many others were directly done to death or died as a result of cruel treatment in pri.son. This persecution, which was con- tinued under Michael II (820-29), reached its most fierce phase under Theophilus (829-42). Great num- bers of monks were put to death by this monarch; but at his decease the persecutions ended (842) (see Icon- oclasm).

Theodori Studitre Epislola, P. G., XCIX; Tougard, La Perse- cution iconoclaste d'apres la corrcspondance de S. Thfodore Studite in Rerue des Questions hisloriques, L (1891), 80, 118; Hehqen- BOTHER, Pkotius, I, 226 sqq. (Ratisbon, 1867); Lombard, Cojislan- tin V, Empereur des Romains (Paris, 1902); Pargoire, VEglise byzanline de SS7-S47 (Paris, 1905), contains abundant references to lives and acts of martjTs.

Modern Period. — We have reviewed the persecu- tions undergone by the Church during the first millen- nium of her existence. During her second millennium she has continued to suffer persecution in her mission of spreading the Gospel, and especially in Japan and China (see Martyrs, Japanese; Martyrs in China). She has also had to face the attacks of her own cliil- dren, culminating in the excesses and religious wars of the Reformation.

For an account of the persecutions of Irish, English, and Scotch Cathohcs, see England; Ireland; Scot- land; Penal Laws; and the numerous articles on individual martyrs, e. g. Edmund Campion, Blessed; Plunkett, Oliver, Venerable.

Poland. — Within the last century, Poland has suf- fered what is perhaps the most notable of recent per- secutions. Catholicism had continued to be the estab- lished religion of the country until the intervention of Catherine II of Russia (1762-96). By means of politi- cal intrigues and open liostility, she first of all secured a position of political suzerainty over the country, and then effected the separation of the Ruthenians from the Holy See, and incorporated them with the Ortho- dox Church of Rus.sia. Nicholas I (182.5-55), and Alexander II (18.5.5-81), resumed her policy of intimi- dation and forcible suppression. The latter monarch especially showed himself a violent persecutor of the Catholics, the barbarities that were committed in 1863 being so savage as to call forth a joint protest from the

Governments of France, Austria, and Great Britain. After his death the C:itholirs were granlcd a certain mea.sure of toleration.:iiid in liior) Mchohis 11 granted them full hberty of worship (sec Poland; Rij.sma).

For the persecution of Catholics in the Ottoman Empire sec Tdrkey.

In modern times, however, a new element has been added to the forces opposing the Church. There have indeed been occasional recrudescences of the "Re- formers", violence dictated by a frenzied fear of Cath- olic progress. Such were for inst.'uice the Charleston and Philadelphia disturbances in ls:i4 and 1x44, and the "No Popery" cries against the estublisliiuent of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Holland in 1850 and 1853. But this was no more than the spirit of the Reformation. For the attitude of the South American republics during the nineteenth century, see the articles on those countries.

Liberalism. — A new spirit of opposition appears in the so-called "Liberalism" and in Free Thought, whose influence has been felt in Catholic as well as Protestant countries. Its origin is to be traced back to the infidel philosophy of the eighteenth century. At the end of that century it had gromi so strong that it could menace the Church with armed violence. In France six hundred priests were murdered by Jourdan, "the Beheader", in 1791, and in the next year three hundred ecclesiastics, including an archbishop and two bishops, were cruelly massacred in the prisons of Paris. The Reign of Terror ended in 1795. But the spirit of infidelity which triumphed then has ever since sought and found opportunities for persecution. And it has been assisted by the endeavours of even so-called Catholic governments to subordinate the Church to the State, or to separate the two powers altogether. In Switzerland the Catholics were so incensed by the attacks of the Liberal party on their religious freedom that they resolved on an appeal to arms. Their Sonderbund (q. v.) or "Separate League" was at first successful in the war of 1843, and in spite of its final defeat by the forces of the Diet in 1847 the result has been to secure religious hberty throughout Switzer- land. Since that time the excitement caused by the decree on Papal Infallibihty found vent in another period of hostile legislation; but the Catholics have been strong enough to maintain and reinforce their position in the country.

In other countries Liberalism has not issued in such direct warfare against the Church; though the de- fenders of the Church have often been ranged against revolutionaries who were attacking the altar along with the throne. But the history of the nineteenth century reveals a constant opposition to the Church. Her influence has been straitened by adverse legisla- tion, the monastic orders have been expelled and their property confiscated, and, what is perhaps most char- acteristic of modern persecution, religion has been excluded from the schools and universities. The un- derlying principle is always the same, though the form it assumes and the occasion of its development are peculiar to the different times and places. Galli- canism in France, Josephinism in Austria, and the May Laws of the German Empire have all the same principle of subordinating the Church to the Govern- ment, or .separating the two powers by a secuhirist and unnatural divorce. But the solidarity of Catholics and the energetic protests of the Holy See succeeded often in establishing Concordats to safeguard the independent rights of the Church. The terms of these concessions have not always been observed by Liberal or Absolutist Governments. Still they saved the Church in her time of peril. And the enforced separation of Church from State which followed the renunciation of the Concordats has taught the Catholics in Latin countries the dangers of Secuhirism (q. v.) and how they must defend their rights as members of a Church which transcends the limits of states and nations, and