CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE

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Q. What happened about the close of the fourth century?
A. About the close of the fourth century schism and heresy caused a number of disorders. Great saints retired into the desert, there to do penance for the sins of the world, and obtain a victory for the church; of this number was St. Hilarion.

Q. Who was St. Hilarion?
A. St. Hilarion was born in Palestine, of idolatrous and rich parents. At the age of fifteen he retired into the desert, where he lived to the age of eighty-four, practising the most incredible austerities. Perceiving that his death was near, he said : " What dost thou fear, my soul ; it is now seventy years that thou servest Jesus Christ, why shouldst thou fear ?"

Q. What new heresy arose at this time?
A. At this time arose the heresy of Macedonius, who denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord came to the aid of his church, by means of the council of Constantinople, which condemned the heretic, and added some words to the symbol of Nice, the better to explain the faith touching the Holy Ghost. This is the symbol sung at Mass.

Q. Was the church in peace after the condemnation of Macedonius?
A. She was not. The followers of this heretic, as well as the Arians, troubled the church by spreading their errors. But God raised up, to oppose them, a great doctor named St. Ambrose. St. Ambrose was the son of the prefect of Gaul, and was made bishop of Milan, notwithstanding his tears and his opposition. He extinguished the heresy of the Arians in his diocess, and showed himself always firm in defending the cause of God.

Q. On what occasion did his firmness show itself in a special manner?
A. His firmness was specially shown in his conduct towards Theodosius the Great. This emperor, having massacred seven thousand in habitants of the city of Thessalonica, dared immediately after to enter the church. St. Ambrose stopped him at the door, and made him do penance. The emperor submitted with humility.

Q. Who was St. Augustin?
A. St. Augustin was born at Tagaste, in Africa. His mother was St. Monica, and his father Patrick, a pagan, but he was converted by the prayers and patience of his virtuous wife. In his youth, St Augustin fell into every disorder, from which he was withdrawn by St. Ambrose, and St. Monica his mother.

Q. What did he do after his conversion?
A. After his conversion, he retired into the country ; became the bishop of Hippo, and confounded the heretics, schismatics, and pagans, who united their attacks against the church. Like St. Ambrose, he sold the sacred vessels to redeem captives, and died so poor as to render it unnecessary for him to make a will.

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CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE - COURSE THIRD - CHAPTER 23 - Christianity preserved and propagated - St. Hilarion, St. Ambrose, St. Augustin -2nd General Council - 4th and 5th Centuries - AN HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL,MORAL, AND LITURGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION Translated from the French of Mgr Gaume by REV. F. B. JAMISON

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COURSE THIRD - CHAPTER 28 - Christianity preserved and propagated - St. Sophronius - 6th General Council - St.Willibrod - 7th and eight Centuries - AN HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL,MORAL, AND LITURGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION Translated from the French of Mgr Gaume by REV. F. B. JAMISON

Q. Who gave the last blow to the empire of the Persians ?
A. Mahomet gave the finishing blow to the empire of the Persians. He was born at Mecca, a small town in Arabia, of obscure parents. Crime cost him nothing, if by it he could attain his wishes. In order to hold a more sure and unlimited sway over the Arabs, a great number of whom were still idolaters, he determined to form a religion for them.

Q. What was his religion ?
A. The religion of Mahomet was an absurd mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and idolatry. He admits the existence of one God, but denies the free will of man ; he prescribes different acts of religion, but sanctions the most shameful sins, and promises his followers sensual pleasures in eternity as their reward.

Q. What were the effects of this religion ?
A. It produced debasement, corruption, slavery, and barbarism ; whereas Christianity has purified morals, abolished slavery, and civilized nations.

Q. Did Mahomet succeed in establishing his religion?
A. He succeeded by means of the sword. His law was : Believe or die ! The Mahometans owe their success to force and the love of pleasures ; whereas the apostles established the Christian religion by placing a restraint upon all the passions of man, and by suffering martyrdom themselves.

Q. Is the religion of Mahomet one ?
A. Whilst the Christian religion is one and undivided, Mahometanism is divided into a multitude of sects. There are more than sixty of these sects.

Q. What was the end of Mahomet ?
A. A Jewish woman, wishing to ascertain if Mahomet was really a prophet, as he pretended, poisoned a shoulder of mutton, and gave it to him to eat.. The pretended prophet did not discover it until after he had eaten of it, and died miserably.

Q. How did the empire of the Persians terminate?
A. Omar, one of the lieutenants of Mahomet, was appointed by Providence to punish the Persians. He declared war against them, killed their last king, and destroyed their empire. The Mahometans, called by God to chastize the guilty nations, reduced to servitude all the provinces of the east which embraced heresy.

Q. What other calamity afflicted the church ?
A. The heresy of the Monothelites. These heretics pretended that there was but one will, although there were two natures in our Lord They were condemned in the sixth general council, held at Constantinople in 680.

Q. How did God console the church ?
A. God consoled the church by the evangelical life of a great number of saints, who repaired the scandals and crimes caused by heresy. Of this number was St. Anastasius, a solitary of Mount Sinai.

Q. How did God repair the losses sustained by the church ?
A. God repaired the losses which the church had sustained from heresy and Mahometanism by the conversion of new nations. These were the Frisons, the Hollanders, and a portion of the Danes. The missionary who carried the gospel to them was St. Willibrod, a Benedictine religious of England. He was sent by Pope Sergius.

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CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE - COURSE THIRD - CHAPTER 29 - Christianity preserved and propagated - St.Boniface - Martyrdom of the Religious of Lerins and of St. Stephen, a solitary - 8th Century - AN HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL,MORAL, AND LITURGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION Translated from the French of Mgr Gaume by REV. F. B. JAMISON


Q. Did the church make other conquests ?
A. The church made other conquests still more extensive : all Germany was converted by the preaching of St. Boniface, an English Benedictine, whom the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory II, sent to preach the gospel to all the north of Europe.

Q. What did St. Boniface do after receiving his mission?
A. After receiving his mission, the saint departed for the scene of his future labours, converted the Bavarians, the rest of the Frisons, and of Saxony. In order to secure the fruit of his labours, he founded the celebrated abbey of Fulde, which became a nursery of saints and great men, who civilized the Germans, after having made them Christians.

Q. How did St. Boniface die ?
A. St. Boniface, having been consecrated archbishop of Mayence, pushed his apostolic labours to the most distant portions of Friseland on the seaboard. He had already converted a great number of idolaters, when he was set upon by the barbarians, who procured for him the crown of martyrdom, which he had long desired.

Q. From whom had the church to suffer.
A. The church, whilst rejoicing in the conversion of Germany, had much to suffer from the Saracens or Mahometans. They crossed from Africa into Spain, and thence passed into France, burning and slaughtering all in their way.

Q. By whom was their course arrested ?
A. Their course was arrested by Charles Martel, a French prince, who defeated them in a bloody battle near Poitiers. Before and during this invasion great disorders had taken place ; the sins of Christians were great, and victims were required to expiate them.

Q. Who were these victims ?
A. These victims were a great many holy bishops and religious living at that time, and especially the glorious martyrs whose blood was shed in torrents by the sword of the Saracens, particularly the religious of Luxeuil in French Compte, and the religious of Lerins.

Q. What else had the church to suffer during this century ?
A. The church had also to suffer during this century from the impieties of the Iconoclasts or image-breakers. They were heretics ; and regarding as idolatrous the honour paid to the images of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints, went about destroying them.

Q. Who was the author of this heresy ?
A. The author of this heresy was Leo the Isaurian, who sustained it by the sword. His son Constantine endeavoured to support it also, by argument, but he was confounded in a public disputation, by a holy solitary named Stephen. This prince, a persecutor of the church, died miserably, stricken by the hand of God.

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CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE - COURSE THIRD - CHAPTER 30 - Christianity preserved and propagated - St.John Damascen -7th General Council - St. Anscarius, St.Eulogius, St. Methodius - 8th and 9th Centuries - AN HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL,MORAL, AND LITURGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION Translated from the French of Mgr Gaume by REV. F. B. JAMISON


Q. Who was the principal defender of holy images ?
A. The principal defender of holy images was St. John, surnamed Damascen, from Damascus, the place of his birth. His father had him instructed with great care by a holy religious, whom he had redeemed from the slavery of the Saracens.

Q. What did St. John do after the death of his father ?
A. After the death of his father, he was appointed governor of Damascus; but fearing lest he should lose his soul, a midst the honours and riches of his station, he quit it, and retired to seek solitude in the laura of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem. By his writings he gave the death blow to the heresy of the Iconoclasts, which was condemned by the seventh general council, held at Nice in 787.

Q. In what manner did God punish the emperors of Constantinople ?
A. To punish the emperors of Constantinople, God took from them the empire of the west, and gave it to a prince more worthy. This prince was Charlemagne, under whose auspices religion and the sciences flourished again, and the conversion of the Saxons was effected.

Q. What other people were afterwards converted ?
A. The conversion of the Saxons was followed by that of the Danes and Swedes. The church thus repaired the losses she had sustained by the Mahometans and heretics.

Q. Who was the apostle of these nations ?
A. The apostle of the Danes and Swedes was St. Anscarius, a Benedictine religious, of the abbey of Corbie.

Q. Were there no martyrs during this period?
A. During this period there were martyrs in Spain, where the Saracens had resolved to extinguish the faith. Abderam, their king, commenced a violent persecution, in which many victims were sacrificed, and amongst them St. Eulogius.

Q. Who was St. Eulogius ?
A. St. Eulogius was a holy priest, full of faith and well versed in science. He had advised a Christian, whose father and mother were Mahometans, to quit the parental roof, fearing lest she should lose her faith. This so exasperated the Saracens, that they seized the saint and put him to death. The young Christian suffered martyrdom four days after.

Q. Was the blood of these martyrs the seed of Christians ?
A. The blood of these martyrs was the seed of Christians ; for shortly after their death the Bulgarians embraced Christianity. The sight of a painting, representing the last judgment, struck the king with such terror, that he demanded baptism and became a fervent Christian.


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