ature of the time played the same ignoble part, it was of the same unworthy character, and became the more acceptable because of its greater obscenity. The public games and amusements were of a like nature. I do not speak of the infamous Lupercalia and Floral celebrations in honor of Pan, where every sense of honor and modesty was publicly outraged; but I refer to those ordinary celebrations. in which the people spent their hours in what might be regarded as legitimate recreation. And what is especially noteworthy in this, is the fact that the ribaldry and obscenity indulged in, on these occasions, were for the most part leveled against the objects of divine worship themselves, thereby doubly degrading and debauching the minds of the people. Of this the rhetorician Arnobius gives us the most undoubted assurance when he says in his argument against the religion of the Gentiles: "The gods alone are so vile, contemptible and dishonored, that you grant any one leave to cover them with all the ribaldry the filthiest fancy can bring forth. This your poets perform to your entire satisfaction, and, therefore, you admire and praise them for their divine genius. Your pantomimes, comedians and mimics, and a whole tribe of most dissolute actors, give you life-like embodiments of these miserable fables, and perform in your presence those very feats of guilt which the poets attribute to your gods."

How, under such circumstances, could society be moral, when the worst and most reprehensible immodesty was not only constantly represented before the eyes of the community, but even inculcated and enforced by the conduct and action of the gods. And what is true of this vice of impurity in regard to the people of that age, is equally true of the other excesses into which the world then plunged. Hence the free application of the words of Lactantius declaring the impossibility of the existence of virtue amongst men who

suffered themselves to be guided by such rules; "It is easy to see that the worshippers of the false gods could not be good or upright men. For how could they be expected to keep from shedding human blood, who worshipped gods that shed blood as did Mars and Bellona? How could they spare even their own parents, who adored Jupiter who drove away his own father? How could they be merciful to their own infant children, who venerated Saturn, the devourer of his children? How could purity have any value in the eyes of those who paid divine honors to a naked adulteress who had been nothing more than the common victim of the lusts of all the gods? How could rapine and fraud be avoided by men who knew the thefts committed by their god Mercury? He moreover taught them that cheating was not fraud but smartness. How could they restrain their passions, who venerated Jove, Hercules, Bacchus and Apollo as gods, while their lusts and frightful lasciviousness of every blackest dye were not only known to the learned, but brought upon the stage of the theatres and made the choice material of songs, that every one might the more surely know them? Could men, however good naturally, be good under such training; be upright while taught injustice by the gods? To appease the god you adore, you must do the things you know to be pleasing and agreeable to him. The most devout worshippers are those who seek to imitate their god; and thus truly did the worship of the gods destroy the morals of the heathens."

In short the civilization of that time was, as we have affirmed, wholly material and as such lacked the first elements of true civilization. It was hard hearted and cruel: it had no sympathy for the aged, no compassion for the young; both alike became its victims. The former when past their time of usefulness were cast forth and allowed to perish

miserably of want,* while the latter were abandoned by their unnatural mothers and suffered to be devoured by birds and beasts. But was there no provision made by the State for such objects of charity? None. Paganism was not conscious of the meaning of the word charity, it knew not in what benevolence consisted. Hands there were, indeed, to gather up the little abandoned outcasts, but for what purpose? The soul sickens at the recollection of what they were destined for. It was to swell the ranks of the slaves and of the prostitutes! From such civilization, from such degradation and unhallowed influences, the Church of God rescued men, and delivered the world, and this she did while combating for her own existence.

Triumph of the Catholic Church, by Ambrose Monahan, D. D., p. 134-135.

CHAPTER III.

PERSECUTION A PROMINENT FEATURE OF CHRISTIANITY-THE LIGHT IN WHICH IT REPRESENTS MAN ΤΟ US-WHO THE MARTYR IS-HIS SERVICES TO THE CHURCH-HOW HE CONQUERS-WHENCE HE OBTAINS HIS FORTITUDE-HE IS A WITNESS-THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DESTROYING THE CHURCH BY MARTYRING THE FAITHFUL-HOW THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRS HAVE BEEN OBTAINED-GREAT HEROISM OF THE MARTYRS-CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE MARTYRS DIE.

The persecution of the Catholic Church by her enemies is a prominent feature in the history of Christendom. It is a historic fact which earnestly solicits the attention of every serious mind. As a record it puts before us an account of unparalleled patient endurance and most unreflecting intolerant zeal. It represents man to us in his best and worst capacity, in the most favorable and unfavorable light. It holds him up to our admiration as a champion of virtue, a hero in the cause of divine truth, defending at the cost of his blood, the most sacred principles of religion. And on the other hand it exhibits him to us as a creature of passion, blinded by rage and hurried on by the violence of his passions to the commission of the most reprehensible crimes. On the same page, and side by side, we accordingly encounter in this narrative, great virtue and great vice-most patient endurance and most impetuous unrelenting rage. In the former we behold the power of truth and in the latter the weakness of error.

As a characteristic, the persecution of the Church establishes more satisfactorily than anything else, the sincerity of man's belief, and the truth of his religious profession;

for what men die for they believe in, while what 1800 years of combined, unceasing effort on the part of the world has been unable to destroy, must be more than human-it must be divine. Other organizations have indeed been opposed, and in consequence have disappeared from amongst men. But the Church is as powerful to-day as it was in the beginning. It has never yielded to violence, nor been driven from the path of duty by oppression. Its destiny, like its divine founder, has been to suffer and to conquer, for suffering in its case means triumph. Of this the countless martyrs now in heaven, who constitute the Church triumphant, are an irrefragable proof. The history of the persecution of the Church, then, is not a record of sorrow from which the mind would readily turn. It is not a page of heartless inhumanity, unrelieved by any of the nobler and finer instincts of our nature. On the contrary it is a chapter of the brightest and most ennobling virtues, wherein fidelity of purpose, and heroism in the most sacred of causes is everywhere to be encountered. Thus, what might seem unattractive at first, will be found, when seriously considered, to be worthy of our highest regard and special attention.

The martyr is, indeed, the highest type of the Christian man. He is the most perfect of the followers of the Son of God, for his state is one of absolute perfection: "perfecta sanctificatio in martyribus," says St. Augustine. In no other is charity found in so excellent a degree. "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."-John, ch. xv., v. 13. And the same beloved apostle says in his first epistle: "God is charity, and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him,"St. John, 1st epis., ch. iv., v. 16. Hence, the declaration of St. Paul, when he asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword?