PROFESSION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. 1'25 



which tlie liistory of souls always awakens in me, I 

 asked him this same question, " What were you?" '• I 

 (lid not belong to any Protestant communion," he re- 

 plied; "I was baptized in the church of my parents, 

 but I never shared their faith/' '-'Were you a Nation- 

 alist, then?" I said. '' Xo," he smilingly answered; 

 "in the United States we know nothing of that mental 

 malady of the Europeans." I blushed, and was silent a 

 moment, and then begged for an explanation, when he 

 made me this grand reply : '*' I was a natural man, seek- 

 ing the truth with my whole mind and heart." 



Xow, Madam, this is just what you were : a noble 

 womanly nature, seeking the truth in love, and love in 

 the truth ; more than that, you were a Christian — yes, 

 a Catholic. 



There is a fundamental distinction, without which it 

 is not possible to deal justly by the communions sep- 

 arated from the Catholic Church and the members of 

 those communions. Every religious system contains 

 within itself two opposite elements: the negative ele- 

 ment, which makes it a schism, and most commonly a 

 heresy; and the positive element, which preserves for it 

 a greater or less share in the ancient heritage of Chris- 

 tianity. Xot only distinct but hostile, they are very 

 near to each other, even in their conflicts : darkness and 

 light, life and death, mingle without being confounded, 

 and there results from it all what I would call the deep 

 and intricate mystery of the life of error. For my part, 

 I do not render to error the undeserved honor of sui3- 

 posing it able to live of its own life, breathe by its own 

 breath, and nourish with its own substance souls which 

 are not without virtues, and nations not without great- 

 ness ! 



Protestantism, as such, is that negative clement which 



