ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



The Church of Rome teaches that no addition 

 has ever been ma<le to the deposit of faith left 

 liy i In- apostles to the church, and that no ob- 

 jective increase of revelation is to be expected. 

 She does not deny that divine revelations have 

 liven made t" individuals since tin- days of the 

 apostles, but -he holds tliat such revelations do 

 not increase the deposit of Christian revelation, 

 and do not constitute an article of Catholic faith 

 to be professed by all the faithful. The faithful 

 are not bound to accept revelations made to private 

 persons, even though the church should express 

 approval of these revelations ; for it is understood 

 that the church does not intend by her approval 

 to guarantee their genuineness. The approval 

 of the church amounts to no more than a declara- 

 tion that there is nothing in the supposed revela- 

 tions at variance with sound faith and morality. 

 But though the entire deposit of faith was received 

 by the church from the apostles, it does not follow 

 that all the truths contained in this deposit were 

 revealed explicitly, and have been at all times 

 explicitly taught liy the church. There has, in- 

 deed, never been any difference with respect to 

 the formal object, as it is called, or motive of 

 faith. Whatever truth has been believed has 

 always been accepted on the authority of God 

 who revealed it. But with respect to the material 

 object of faith i.e. the truths of revelation there 

 has been this difference, that, while some have 

 l>een from the first explicitly believed, others were 

 at one time believe*! implicitly only. The distinct 

 proposition and promulgation of these latter doc- 

 trines belongs to the magisterium, or teaching 

 olticc, which the church exercises under the guid- 

 ance of the Holy Spirit. 



The church fulfils this teaching office in many 

 ways : ( 1 ) By indicating in detail the various truths 

 contained in some complex article of explicit faith. 

 Thus, it was always expressly believed by the 

 church that our Sa'viour was a true and perfect 

 man. But if our .Saviour was truly man it follows 

 that lie possessed a human body, a rational soul, 

 a human will, and a human energy. And these 

 various consequences the church distinctly pro- 

 posed for explicit Ijelief, on the emergence of the 

 Gnostic, Apollinarian, Monothelite, and other 

 heresies at variance with these consequences. Or, 

 to take an instance from Human < 'utliolic. theology, 

 the plenitude of the primacy of the liishopof Home 

 has alwavs been a principle of faith explicitly be- 

 lieved. But, as occasion and circumstances re- 

 quired, the church has proposed for explicit faith 

 one or other of the prerogatives involved in this 

 primacy. (2) By enunciating in particular truths 

 already comprehended in some universal proposition 



of explicit faith. Thus, while the church had already 

 taught that grace was necessary for all salutary 

 actions and states, on occasion of the Semipelagian 

 heresy it distinctly decreed that grace was neces- 

 sary lor entrance into the way of sah at ion and for 

 ranee in the .same. (3) By pn>|>osiiig dis- 

 tinctly and articulately what was already lirlieved, 

 though with less distinctness. Thus, according to 

 Roman Catholics, it has always been the belief 

 I tin- church that it was due to the honour of 

 the Son of Cod that His mother should )>e free 

 from the least stain of sin. The proclamation, 

 then, in recent years of the doctrine of tin- Immac- 

 ulate Conception was no more than the distinct 

 and articulate declaration of a truth which had 

 been an object of implicit l>elief from the first. 

 (4) By expressly declaring some truths which had 

 lieen already indicated l>y the practice of the 

 church. Time, the church, by not rebaptising 

 those converted to her fold from heresy, had 

 practically manifested her Ix-lief in tin- validity 

 of baptism conferred by heretics ; but when the 



validity of heretical baptism was impugned she 

 expressly declared that where the proper matter, 

 form, and intention were employed^ such baptism 

 was valid. Thus, then, according to the Roman 

 Catholic teaching, there may lie truths objectively 

 contained in the deposit of revelation, or the re- 

 mote rule of faith, which have not been always 

 clearly proposed and promulgated by the proxi- 

 mate rule of faith i.e. the magisterium of the 

 church. Until they are thus proposed and pro- 

 mulgated they may be called in question with 

 ] out loss of faith ; for the unity of faith i- 

 maintained so long as there is due subjection to 

 the maguterium of the church. In the liistory <>t 

 many doctrines we may distinguish three distim i 

 phases: (1) In the first instance, they are im 

 plicitly contained in revelation indeed, but not 

 yet proposed by the church; and by the faithful 

 they are not explicitly believed, neither are they 

 called in question. (2) Then arises a controversy 

 concerning these doctrines; some are for accepting, 

 others for rejecting them. (3) Finally, the church, 

 either by solemn judgment or by her common teach- 

 ing, declares that these doctrines belong to the 

 deposit of revelation ; and thenceforward they are 

 an object of explicit faith. 



For the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church 

 concerning the Holy See we must refer our readers 

 to the articles POPE, INFALLIBILITY, &c. We 

 may, however, mention here that the very name 

 Roman Catholic is intended as an expression 

 of the belief that there can be no true Cath- 

 olicity without union with Rome. Roman Cath- 

 olics assert that there can be no catholicity 

 without unity ; and they contend that the See of 

 Rome has always been regarded as the source of 

 unity, and that communion with Rome was re- 

 garded by the early church as the ultimate proof 

 of orthodoxy. In support of this contention they 

 quote many striking declarations of the Fathers 

 and of the early councils. The name ' Roman 

 Catholic' is not new. Cardinal Newman, writing 

 of the 5th and 6th centuries, says : ' It is more 

 than remarkable that Catholics of this period were 

 denoted by the additional title of " Romans." Nor 

 was this a-sociation of Catholicism with the See 

 of Rome an introduction of that age' (Essay on 

 Development, chap. v. ). 



The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church 

 consists of the sovereign pontiff, who is assisted 

 by the Sacred College of Cardinals, and by several 

 sacred congregations, or permanent ecclesiastical 

 committees ; of the patriarchs, archbishops, and 

 bishops ; of the apostolic delegates, vicars, and 

 prefects; and of certain abbot* and prelates. The 

 cardinals, who are the advisers and assistants of 

 the sovereign pontiff, constitute the supreme coun- 

 cil or senate of the church; and on the death 

 of the pontiff they elect his successor. The Coll 

 of Cardinals when complete consists of 70 mem- 

 bers: 6 cardinal bishops, whose dioce-es :ne the fi 

 'Suburban Sees' of Ostia and Velletri. I'orlo nnd 

 Santa Rulina, Albano, Fni-cati. I'alestrina. and 

 Sabina, 50 cardinal priests, and 14 cardinal 

 deacons. In IS'.is there were l.'i vacancies, leaving 

 57 cardinals; of whom :tu were Italians; '.I An- 

 Irian, (iermaii. or Polish ; 7 Krcncli ; .'t Iliitish sub- 

 jects; 4 Spanish ; '2 Portuguese; 1 of the I'nitcd 

 States ; and 1 Belgian. The sacred congregations, 

 almut 'Jn in number, consist of cardinals, consult. us, 

 and officials, and carry on the central administra- 

 tion of the Roman Catholic- Church. The follow- 

 ing are the principal congregations. ( 1 ) The Con- 

 gregation of the Council, for the interpretation 

 anil execution of the decrees of the Council of 

 Trent, and for receiving from bishops rebuts on 

 the state of their dioceses. Attached to this there 

 is a special Congregation for the Revision of Pro- 



