Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/262

* ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 238 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. •■ras a marked and progressive change of attitude on the part of English-speaking people toward the Church — a gradual disappearance of the bit- ter prejudices which had been entertained, and, thanks, in the Jirst instance, to Sir Walter Scott's novels especially, a growth of sympathetic appre- ciation of the misunderstood centuries before the Reformation. In Germany the Catholic revival lias been very marked, and the attempt at repres- sion by the' Prussian Government in the so- called May Laws (see Kulturkampf ) brought about a political union of friends of the Church ■which gave them, under the name of the Centre Party, the balance of power and a prominent position before the world. While governments have frequently attempted a hostile or oppressive attitude, the work of the Church has continued to grow; especially where absolute religious free- dom prevails, as "in the English-speaking coun- tries, its development ha's been most marked. Not only in England and the United States, but in Australia, Canada. India, and South Africa, the Church is becoming one of the most prominent factors in modern life. Side by side with the gradual drifting away of most non-Catliolic re- ligious bodies from their older dogmatic strict- ness has come an increasing appreciation of the value of an unchanged and an unchangeable defi- niteness of religious belief such as is furnished by the Roman Catholic Church. While in many indifferent or purely administra- tive matters she has adapted herself to the chang- ing conditions of modern life, in regard to the great fundamental verities the Church admits no possibility of change. Pius IX., for a time de- throned and driven" into exile by the revolution- ary forces which swept over Europe in 1848, onlj' six years later defined as a dogma of the faith the "belief of centuries in the immaculate concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin JIary; in 1864 he promulgated a condemnation of what were con- sidered, from the point of view of the Church, the false doctrines held throughout European so- ciety, in a document of no uncertain sound, the Syllabus of Errors (see Syll-^bus Errorum) ; and in 1869 convoked a general council to delib- erate on matters of internal discipline. Hardly had the sessions begun when all predetermined matters of discussion were set aside to consider fully and eventually to define the doctrine of Pap'al infallibility. ' (See Ixfallibilitt ; V.Ti- CAN. Council of the.) . This doctrine, carefully limited as it is. crystallizes in practical form the belief in a living voice which shall speak with authority on what men need to know for the gen- eral guidance' of their life here and hereafter. On the burning question of the inspiration of the Bible, the Roman Catholic Church, while always declaring the Scriptures to be in a special and particular sense the word of God, yet has never committed herself to any precise theory of the manner of inspiration, and is therefore able to meet without alarm the questions raised by the so-called higher criticism. A special commission ■was appointed by Leo XIII. in 1903 to promote advanced biblical studies, taking into account all the material provided by modern scientific criticism. The hierarchy of the Church, with the Pope at its head, includes as his closest advisers the College of Cardinals (q.v.), seventy' in number ■when its ranks are full. There are eight patri- archates of the Latin rite and six of the Oriental ; these are nearly all practically titular digni- ties. There are 178 archbishops of the Latin rite and 19 of the Oriental. The Latin arch- bishops have 648 bishops in their provinces be- sides 84 who are immediately subject to the Holy See; and there are 52 bishops of the Oriental rite. These figures do not include over three hundred titular bishops (q.v.), who are employed as eoadjutors or in missionary work. The jirac- tical administration in detail is largely carried on by the Roman congregations (q.v.), especially that' of the Propaganda. (See JI1SSI0N.S.) It is obviously difficult to give any precise figures for the total number of adherents of this Church. The excellent authority. Jlulhall. at the end of 1898, estimated the Catholic population of Europe at 148.900.000: of America at 44,100.000: of Asia and Africa at 6.600.000: and of Australia at 850.000— making a grand total of 200,4.50.000. or almost one-seventh of the total population of the world. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The continuous and authentic history of the Roman Catholic Church in the Xew World opens with the year 1494. when twelve priests accom- panied Columbus on his second voyage. They were subject to the Spanish See of Seville until 1512. when the first American episcopal see of San Domingo was created. In 15'22 another see was established at Santiago in Cuba, and the See of Mexico was added in 1530. From these latter sees were evangelized the Indians of the north- eastern and sovithwestern territories of the pres- ent United States. The traces of their work may yet be studied in Florida, New Mexico, and Cali- fornia, where during the period from the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century Spanish missionaries, chiefiy Francis- cans, Dominicans, and .Jesuits, established nu- merous Christian communities, dependent, how- ever, on the authorities in Cuba and Mexico. In the same period Fi'ench missionaries evangelized the savages of the Saint Lawrence. Maine, north- ern Mew York, and the Mississippi. As early as 1034 .Jesuit fathers were established in the originally Roman Catholic colony of Maryland, and after 1681 Roman Catholics were tolerated by Penn and the Quakers in their colony of Penn- sylvania. From these latter centres derive the actual Roman Catholics of the United States. I'ntil 1784 they were under the spiritual juris- diction of the Vicar Apostolic of London, and their religious needs were ministered to by such rare missionaries as could be induced to cross the ocean. The Revolution brought a change for the bet- ter. Religious and civil liberty, the civil dis- orders of Europe, the economical reverses of the Old World, the attractiveness of a new and un- tranuneled society, set in movement a huge im- migration, of which a great percentage was Roman Catholic, mostly from Ireland. In 1790 the See of Baltimore was created, and .John Car- roll, a near relative of the signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, was made its first bishop. There were then about 30.000 Catholics in the thirteen colonies, more than one-half being in IMaryland. and some 7000 in Pennsylvania. By the year 1820 the Catholics had reached the figure of a quarter of a million, and in 1840 their number was calculated at about I.OOO.OOO. The increase of immigration trebled that number in