ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



5053 



ROMANCE 



dom by the edict of Constantine and Licinius 

 ( Milan, 313) it acquired an immense influence. 

 Bishoprics were established in various parts of 

 the Empire, but the one at Rome remained 

 supreme, and in time the title of Pope, or 

 father, originally borne by all the bishops in- 

 discriminately, began to be restricted to the 

 bishop of Rome. In 1073 its use by any other 

 bishop was formally forbidden. 



During the Middle Ages the Church wielded 

 secular as well as religious domination, and at 

 times held considerable territories, but the civil 

 rulers never looked with favor upon this fea- 

 ture of the Church's activities, and long and 

 fierce struggles were waged with the Holy Ro- 

 man emperors for supremacy. Sometimes one 

 party, sometimes another, was in the ascend- 

 ancy, and it was not until the Concordat of 

 Worms (1122) that the spiritual and temporal 

 powers of either claimant were strictly defined. 

 With the establishment of the modern kingdom 

 of Italy in the nineteenth century the Church 

 was shorn of its secular powers (see ITALY, sub- 

 title History; POPE). 



Meantime, however, the Church had endured 

 two severe blows. In the ninth century there 

 began that schism within the body which re- 

 sulted two centuries later in the formal estab- 

 lishment of the Greek Church; and in the six- 

 teenth century the Protestant Reformation was 

 the .cause of another division. These move- 

 ments, however, did not permanently affect the 

 vigor of the Church, which is to-day as great as 

 it ever was. 



Statistics. The Roman Catholic Church has 

 more members throughout the world than any 

 other church. Its total followers are estimated 

 at more than 272300,000, of whom about two- 

 tlunls live in Europe. In 1915 there were in the 

 United States about 16,309,000 Roman Catho- 

 lics, while Canada, according to its 1911 census, 

 had 2333,041. O.W.M. 



Consult Fitzgerald's Fifty Years of Catholic 

 Life and Progress; Carroll's Religious Forces in 

 the United States. 



K.-lntrd Subject*, 

 these volumes which 

 beliefs of the Roman 



low.-- : 



Abbot 

 Absolution 



Antlpope 



Archbishop 



Ave Maria 



Benedictine* 



Bishop 



Breviary 



Bull 



The numerous topics in 

 relate to the forms or the 

 Catholic Church are as fol- 



Canon LAW 



Canonization 



Capuchins 



Cardinal 



Carthusians 



Censer 



Charity. Sisters of 



Conclave 



Concordat 



Counter- Reformation 



Dominicans 



Eucharist 



Franciscans 



Hermits 



Hierarchy 



High Priest 



Holy Water 



Incense 



Index Expurgatorius 



Indulgence 



Innocents, Feast of Holy 



Jesuits 



Litany 



Liturgy 



Magnificat 



Mass 



Mendicant Orders 



Mercy, Sisters of 



Missal 



Monasticism 



Monk 



Nun 



Nunc Dimittis 



Nuncio 



Paulists 



Penance 



Pope 



Priest 



Purgatory 



Rogation Days 



Rosary 



Sacrament 



Sacred College 



Unction 



Ursulines 



Vatican Council 



The list under the article RELIGION contains 

 certain more general topics which will be of in- 

 terest in this connection, and the biographies of 

 the following churchmen, saints and religious 

 leaders may also be consulted : 



Ambrose, Saint 

 Anthony, Saint 

 Aquinas, Saint Thomas 

 Augustine, Saint 

 Augustine, Saint 

 Barbara, Saint 

 Becket, Thomas & 

 Begin, Louis Nazaire 

 Bernard, Saint 

 Boniface, Saint 

 Bridget, Saint 

 Bruchesi, Louis Paul 

 Cecilia, Saint 

 Chrysostom, Saint John 

 Corrigan, Michael 



Augustine 

 Dunstan, Saint 

 Fa Iconic, Diomede 

 Farley, John Murphy 

 Francis of Assisi 

 George, Saint 

 Gibbons, James 

 Ignatius, Saint 

 Ireland, John 

 Jerome, Saint 

 Lanfranc 



Langevin, The Most 



Reverend Louis 

 Loyola, Saint Ignatius of 

 Manning, Henry Edward 

 Mercier, Honore" 

 Merry del Val, Rafael 

 Mundelein, George W. 

 Newman, John Henry 

 Nicholas, Saint 

 O'Connell. William H. 

 Patrick, Saint 

 Ryan, Abram Joseph 

 Ryan, Patrick John 

 Satolli, Francesco 

 Sebastian, Saint 

 Spalding, John 



Lancaster 

 Tertulllan 

 Theresa, Saint 

 Thomas a Kempis 

 Ursula, Saint 

 Valentine, Saint 

 Veronica, Saint 

 Walpurga 

 Xavier, Francisco 

 Xlmenes, Francisco 



ROMANCE, ro mans', a name applied to any 

 story, whether told in verse or in prose, which 

 lays stress upon heroic or marvelous happenings 

 and makes little attempt at presenting realistic 

 pictures of life. Originally the term meant 

 any composition in one of the Romance lan- 

 guages, but since talcs of adventure, in the 

 early periods of the modern era, were the most 

 popular writings in those languages, the name 

 gradually narrowed to its present significance. 

 These languages were by no means the first in 

 which such narratives were written, for the an- 

 cient Greeks delighted in stories of adventure 

 which were clearly the forerunners of the mod- 

 ern romance. Of these the earliest is the Odys- 

 sey. The Iliad, which strove for truth in its 



