Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/138



132 CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTION OF STATES.

a halo of sanctity; they strove to be helpful to their brethren, and to attract others to the wisdom of Jesus Christ, yet were bravely ready to withdraw from public life, nay, even to lay down their life, if they could not without loss of virtue retain honors, dignities, and offices. For this reason Christian ways and manners speedily found their way not only into private houses but into the camp, the senate, and even into the imperial palaces. " We are but of yesterday," wrote Tertulhan, "yet we swarm in all your institutions, we crowd your cities, islands, villages, towns, assemblies, the army itself, your wards and corporations, the palace, the senate, and the law courts." So that the Christian faith, when once it be- came lawful to make public profession of the Gospel, appeared in most of the cities of Europe, not Kke an infant crying in its cradle, but already grown up and full o\ vigor.

In these our days it is well to revive these examples ot our forefathers. First and foremost it is the duty of aii Catholics worthy of the name and wishful to be knowix as most loving children of the Church, to reject without swerving whatever is inconsistent with so fair a title; to make use of popular institutions, so far as can honestly be done, for the advancement of truth and righteousness; to strive that liberty of action shall not transgress the bounds marked out by nature and the law of God; to endeavor to bring back all civil society to the paitern and form of Christianity which We have described. It is barely possible to lay down any fixed method by which such purposes are to be attained, because the means adopted must suit places and times widely differing from one another. Nevertheless, above all things, unity of aim must be preserved, and similarity must be sought after in all plans of action. Both these objects will be carried into effect v/ithout fail if all will follow the guid- ance of the Apostolic See as their rule of life and obey the bishops whom the Holy Ghost has placed to rule the