4. THE PLYMOUTH BRETHREN IV. This branch is due to a difference arising quite recently among those formerly constituting the third division. Some held that a second impartation of divine power must be received before a believer could be said to be in full possession of eternal life. This view gave rise to various complications respecting the person of Christ and the condition of the Old Testament saints. Those who refused to accept this teaching formed new assemblies or congregations, and constitute the fourth division. They have 31 organizations, with 718 members. They are found in fifteen States, principally in California, Ohio, and Massachusetts. CHAPTER V. THE CATHOLICS. As this term is commonly used, it applies to the Church of Rome, to the Eastern or Orthodox Churches, and to the Old and Reformed Catholic bodies, which have lately arisen. As the result of a controversy beginning in the ninth century the Christian Church was divided into the Roman and Greek Churches. The Church of Rome, which is the more numerous division, is officially called the "Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church," and claims to be the only church founded by Christ. It has a hierarchy, including a pope, who is supreme pontiff, a college of cardinals, and numerous archbishops and bishops. Its doctrine is expressed in the œcumenical creeds-the Apostles', the Nicene (with the Filioque), and the Athanasian-and in the decrees of twenty œcumenical councils, the latest of which was that of the Vatican, in 1870. The Greek Church, whose full title is "Holy, Orthodox, Catholic, Apostolic, Oriental Church," includes the Church of Russia, the Church of Greece, the Armenians, and various other divisions. The Orthodox or Eastern Church holds to the decrees and canons of the first seven oecumenical councils, accepting the Nicene Creed without the Latin Filioque. This creed is its chief doctrinal expression. Its highest officials are patriarchs. It has besides, metropolitans or archbishops, and bishops. The Uniates are Greek Christians who have acknowledged the supremacy of the pope. The Old and Reformed Catholics are bodies originating in this country in withdrawals from the Roman Church. 1. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The first Christian congregations organized in the territory now constituting the United States were those of the Roman Catholic faith. The oldest was established in St. Augustine, Fla., shortly after that settlement was founded in 1565. But Catholic services were held on Florida soil long before that date. Missionaries accompanied the Spanish expeditions of discovery and settlement in the first halfcentury after Columbus made his first voyage to America, and these raised the cross and conducted divine worship. John Juarez, who had been appointed by the pope Bishop of Florida, landed with the expedition of Narvaez in 1528, but is supposed to have been slain or to have perished from hunger the same year. After St. Augustine was established many companies of missionaries went out into Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Carolina to labor among the Indians. The second oldest town, Santa Fé, was founded by Spaniards in 1582. Missionaries in connection with Coronado's exploring expedition preached among the Indians of New Mexico forty years earlier, but they soon perished. After the founding of Santa Fé missionary work was more successful, and many tribes of Indians accepted the Catholic faith. Franciscans established missions in California in 1601, and French priests held worship on Neutral Island, on the coast of Maine, in 1609, and three years later on Mount Desert Island. Jesuit missions, begun on the upper Kennebec in 1646, were more successful 68 RELIGIO and permanent, many Indian converts being among their fruits. In 1665 Catholics sought to convert the Onondagas and other tribes in New York. Similar attempts among the Great Lakes were made as early as 1641. The history of the Catholic Church among the English colonists began with the immigration of English and Irish Catholics to Maryland in 1634. They founded the town of St. Mary's the first year. Ten years later, as the result of a conflict with Protestant colonists, their privileges of worship were curtailed, but restored in 1646. A toleration act was passed by the legislature of Maryland in 1649, but it was repealed in 1654. The Catholics received their rights again in 1660, to be restricted once more in 1704, and these restrictions were not entirely removed until the period of the War of Independence. In Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and New England severe laws were enforced against Catholics for many years. In New York, which is now the stronghold of Catholicism, there were, it is said, no more than seven Catholic families in 1696, and the few Catholics found on Manhattan Island eighty years later had to go to Philadelphia to receive the sacraments. In 1784, at the close of the Revolutionary War, the pope appointed the Rev. John Carroll prefect apostolic. Before this date the Catholics in this country had been under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of London, England. Six years later Dr. Carroll was consecrated bishop in London, and Baltimore became the first Catholic diocese. The new bishop estimated the number of Catholics in the United States at that time at about 30,000, of whom 16,000 were in Maryland, and 7000 in Pennsylvania. The rest were scattered over a broad territory stretching into the west as far as Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. The church |