dustrialism and the lamentable condition of the congested quarters of our cities.

The social work of the Church in its missions is well known, and abundant literature both from Catholic and other sources will supply information about its activity in Europe. An illustration of its achievements in the United States might be taken from the Catholic Directory of 1924, which gives the number of orphanages as 316, and of homes for the aged as 121. The number of other agencies serving the cause of charity in the United States was given as 1,054 for the year 1908, and they care for all sufferers, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the crippled, the insane and feeble-minded, the wayward and the fallen. Supplementary to this elaborate system of institutional relief work, are the various national and diocesan societies, such as the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, and the agencies created by the local churches in behalf of the parochial poor.

But what was the influence of the Catholic Church upon those not of its fold? As the tree is known by its fruits, the given data might serve as a partial answer. That the definiteness and certainty of the Church's teaching has favorably impressed many earnest inquirers may be inferred from the story of the Oxford Movement and from the many conversions which took place after that event. But if an inquiry were made about the relations of the modern State to the Church the answer would be less concise though not entirely unsatisfactory. The fact is that these relations are of too varied a character to be briefly described, ranging from hostility and absolute separation to cooperation and intimate union. Suffice it to say that in English-speaking countries the question is of little moment because of the religious neutrality professed by the countries in question, but whatever contacts have arisen have been peaceable and mutually helpful.

Worthy of special mention is the respect that was voluntarily tendered to Pope Leo XIII not only by many individual nonCatholics but also by non-Catholic governments, a respect which found expression in the invitation of Germany and Spain to arbitrate between them about the Caroline Islands in 1885. This

universal prestige attained by the nineteenth century Papacy, and by Leo XIII in particular, was won in part by important expositions of the principles governing statecraft, democracy, capital and labor. The encyclicals of Leo XIII determined and expressed the Catholic attitude on the vexed questions of the day, but they have also produced other results. It is partly due to these encyclicals and to the better knowledge gradually gained by non-Catholics about their Catholic fellow-citizens, that the distinction between civil allegiance and religious belief is being gradually recognized.

On the whole, the relations of the Church to the secular powers were constantly improving during the pontificate of Leo XIII, a result partly of the waning antagonism of governments, though attributable also in part to the spread of religious indifferentism. We now smile at the fantastic fears inspired by the Vatican Decrees; Bedini's coming to the United States would not now cause the commotion which it caused in 1852, and an English judge has publicly declared that, though the law excluding Jesuits from England is still unrepealed, they can with effect claim the protection of English laws. There is therefore every prospect that time and broadening knowledge will continue to dispel the misunderstandings which at times still thrust themselves between Catholics and their non-Catholic fellow-citizens.

But of all the exterior signs of Catholic progress there is none perhaps more convincing than the Catholic missions. These exhibit a noteworthy record of achievement, for whereas the eighteenth century had well-nigh proved fatal to the splendid work of the sixteenth and seventeenth, the nineteenth not only repaired the loss but also advanced far beyond the results then attained. The situation at the beginning of the nineteenth century was sad. Only three hundred missionaries, we are told, were still at their post in 1800. However, within the following century the recovery and development of the missions were truly marvellous. The three hundred missionaries of 1800 had increased by 1912 to 12,377 Priests, 3,200 Brothers, and 19,373 Sisters. The mission work is carried on for the most part by

religious orders and missionary societies, though not exclusively, and ample provision has been made to insure its maintenance and growth. The World War dealt severely with the missions, but also proved the fitness and effectiveness of the means employed. Among these we should mention especially the central board of control, called the Congregation of the Propaganda, the missionary seminaries and apostolic schools, the missionary aid societies and periodicals, and above all the interest and unstinted support of the faithful.

The educated Catholic considers his Church an organism, small as a seed and sapling in the days of its beginnings, but growing quickly into a mighty tree. He holds that it was planted by Christ himself and that it will endure until Christ returns. He is not surprised, therefore, that in the intervening centuries it should manifest a continuous growth; that it should spread its branches and mature its fruits; that it should gain strength when lashed by the winds or drenched by the rains. Such also has been the Church in modern times.. In the sixteenth century the terrible storms of the Reformation threatened to uproot it, but the Reformation was followed by the Revival. Then the blight of political absolutism endangered it during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though not to lasting harm. The Revolution followed, but served to arouse a new vitality. But even during the nineteenth century, a century of brilliant progress, storms did not spare it. Weathering them all, Gallicanism, rationalism, modernism, it is today armed against the dangers of the future, whether they spring from man's excessive indulgence of self, from his ungoverned greed of wealth and power, or from the pride of intellect which will not recognize the Unseen God.

CHAPTER X

ROMAN CATHOLICISM: ITS RELATION TO

SOCIAL PROGRESS

No other society has the prestige of the Roman Catholic Church; it has therefore an unequalled opportunity of exerting a social influence.

HE Roman Catholic Church embodies and projects the

conservative and centralizing genius of the Roman Empire. It does not regard the use of the word "Roman" as a qualification of the word "Catholic", yet properly recognizes the fact that historically it has developed not only within the area of the Roman Empire, but has also taken over many of the principles, laws, and administrative institutions of the empire. The Roman Catholic Church was in fact almost the only means by which the pitifully few elements of culture which survived the débâcle of the barbarian invasion of western Europe were preserved to become the mould and the inspiration of a new civilization. The men who shaped the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages were the same as those who laid the foundations for Western civilization. Whatever the relative truth of various religions of the world, one fact stands out in the history of the last two thousand years: only within the area originally occupied by Latin Christianity did modern science, industry, and democracy originate.

The identification of the Roman Catholic Church with imperialism determined its policy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Holy Roman Empire which had fallen into the hands of the Hapsburgs was the natural ally of the Church. Despite the medieval struggle between the popes and the Hohenstauffen, the interests of the Papacy lay with the central rather than with the more independent political movements.

The struggle of Catholics and Protestants involved political quite as truly as religious elements. When once ecclesiastical and political regularity came to oppose political and religious revolt, the religious wars of the seventeenth century became inevitable. The entire past confronted new forces which springing from life never became Latinized.

It would, however, be untrue to history to overlook the response made by the Roman Catholic Church to the new life of the sixteenth century in quite other ways than its attempt at selfpreservation through political struggle. Luther in his first moments of protest was only one of many members of the Roman Catholic Church who desired to correct the abuses which had come over from the turbulent days when the Papacy had become the prize for rival Italian houses and parties. Circumstances forced Luther into political as well as ecclesiastical revolt; these others remained loyal to the Church.

The true nature of the reform within the Church is not very clear to Protestants. It is as difficult for them as for Roman Catholics to forget the period when religious differences ran along the line of political hatreds. But any fair estimate of the Roman Catholic Church since the Council of Trent, when reforms were actually set up and the Papacy cleared of most of its entangling alliances with its past, will include many significant facts.

The symmetry of its theological system has been emphasized in the modern dogmas of the immaculate conception of Mary, and the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra. As a result of the latter dogma Catholicism and the primacy of the pope are identified.

The medieval alliance between the Church and the State has disappeared in Europe and the Americas, though the Papacy is still unreconciled to its loss of political power in Italy. Roman Catholic opinion in democracies is now prevailingly insistent upon the separation of Church and State. That it has political influence goes without saying, but though it still claims divine authority, the Papacy would not if it could