Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/155

 and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." Now although some Greek and Latin doctors have understood that by these two folds the Redeemer meant, firstly, that of the Jews, who were to be brought into the Church, and who, from the commencement of the preaching of the gospel, would continue to be converted; and secondly, that of the gentiles, which He pointed out thus distinctly because it was to be the principal fold; yet the said passage is not well explained in this manner, as time and the progress of gospel preaching have since shown; and inasmuch as it would follow from the said interpretation that, in some sense, the Redeemer had committed to the Apostles the preaching to the Jews only, and, as by original intention, reserved to Himself the preaching to the gentiles; that was not the case, since the preaching to all the principal of the gentiles of the northern hemisphere was divided among the Apostles, and, in fact, they continued carrying out the injunction. The subsequent election also of the Apostle who was the chosen vessel for preaching to the gentiles, must be understood in the same manner. Thus our Lord and Redeemer made a distinction in this passage between the two principal folds which were to be brought into the pale of the Church. The first, that of all the gentiles of the northern hemisphere, the immediate preaching to whom was enjoined upon the Apostles; the other, that of the southern hemisphere, whose conversion to our holy faith He appears to have reserved to Himself when He says, that they should take care to bring within the pale of the Church the sheep of the northern hemisphere, and that He would take upon Himself the charge of bringing in the others as in His own person. And it is a very certain fact that that injunction is now in course of being carried out, from the Franciscan order having gone forth and undertaken the extension of this great enterprise. For its seraphic and sovereign chief, the most glorious patriarch St. Francis, possessed in his own person so express