299. The argument which is drawn from the propagation and conservation of the Christian religion for proving its divinity is illustrious and clear to all. Yet so that we may thoroughly grasp its whole force and efficacy, we must note a few things beforehand. And first, it is by no means hidden from us that most people here construct a twofold argument by examining separately the propagation and the conservation of the Christian religion. Nevertheless we prefer to join them together and to consider them as if with one view. For, following this method, we shall both take counsel for brevity and the argument itself will come forth more efficaciously; besides, the principles by which one argues are the same, whether from the universality or from the perpetuity of the Christian religion.
300. Now both the aforesaid propagation and conservation have a twofold force of proving, namely as miracle and as prophecy. But here there is question of a miracle which is such in the moral order; for just as a work above all physical laws of nature is called and is a miracle in the physical order, so a work which surpasses all moral laws by which human nature is ruled is commonly called a miracle in the moral order. Namely, that which can in no way be obtained by human industry, wisdom, or power, and yet happens in such a way that, contrary to all the laws of human prudence, it has a prosperous outcome, must certainly be said to have happened with God positively and directly willing, and with Him immediately acting. But if we diligently weigh all the circumstances of the matters, we easily discover that no human industry, wisdom, or power could ever have obtained the universality and perpetuity which the Christian religion obtained. Rightly therefore we attribute it to God positively and directly acting and promoting it. But since God cannot directly intend and positively effect what is false and evil, the Christian religion must be called true.
301. Nevertheless it is useful here to observe that the special protection of God, by which the Christian religion has been propagated and preserved, by no means excludes human industry and natural means which can concur toward the same effect. Indeed, the use of means of this sort, according to ordinary providence, is altogether to be admitted, just as the aid of grace for producing a salutary work by no means excludes the cooperation of nature itself elevated by grace. Yet while human industry is put forth and the human means which are at hand are applied, God so works and cooperates toward producing the effect that it is evident that the effect is above every human industry and power, and therefore must be attributed to the special intervention of God.
302. But that the propagation and conservation of the Christian religion, if it has been predicted, has a most efficacious force for proving its truth as prophecy, is easily drawn from what has been said. For if it can be ascribed to no natural cause, but is a true miracle, it must be attributed to God freely acting apart from and above the order of natural causes; but the things which God does in this way can be foreknown and predicted only by divine power. Therefore, if a prediction of this sort exists and has been fulfilled by the event, it is an evident sign of special divine intervention. Certainly unless someone is lord of space and time, he cannot truly promise that which embraces all space and all time, since it is necessary that he have in his power the ability to effect that which he promises. But this is what Christ accomplished through the very ample and indefinite promises of the universality and perpetuity which His religion was going to obtain, and in fact has obtained. Therefore, by that very fact, Christ showed Himself the Lord of all space and time, who would have the power of effecting that which He promised, and therefore true God. Therefore His religion is divine.
303. One thing remains to be noted; and it is this: we can indeed distinguish by mental consideration the religion of Christ from the Church of Christ; but it is impossible to separate them, since Christ instituted His religion in such a way that it would be the Church. Hence it ought not to seem strange if, while we contend to prove the truth of the Christian religion from its propagation and conservation, we seem to demonstrate the truth of the Catholic Church, which is the true Church of Christ. This does not weaken the present demonstration; but only in some way anticipates that which must be asserted more expressly below. Moreover we shall use the very words of the Fathers, who most fully and eloquently set forth this whole argument.
304. Therefore, these things having been laid down for understanding the matter: Section II. The proposed question is solved. PROPOSITION XIV. The most rapid and universal propagation of the Christian religion, and its wonderful perpetual conservation, 1. not once only clearly predicted by Christ, 2. is a fact placed before the eyes of all, 3. which can be explained by no human industry or created power, but demands the special protection of God. Therefore, both as prophecy and as miracle, it renders constant and infallible testimony to the divine origin of that same religion.
305. The first part is proved. 1) Christ promised that His Church would be universal. For He signified this when (Matthew 8.11) He said: “But I say to you that many shall come from east and west, and shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” or in His Church. And again (Matthew 26.13), concerning the pious woman who poured an alabaster vessel of ointment upon His head, He foretold: “Wherever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she has done shall be spoken in memory of her.” And (Luke 24.26 ff.) after His resurrection, Jesus says: “Thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” And in reality He sent His Apostles to preach His Gospel into the whole world with those words (Matthew 28.19): “Going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them,” or enrolling them into the Church; and as it is read in Mark (16.15): “Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature.” Finally, in the Acts of the Apostles (1.8), Luke thus presents Christ addressing the Apostles: “And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.” And to this pertains the oracle (Psalm 2) in which the Father is introduced addressing His Son thus: “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession”; just as Christ Himself (Matthew 28) declared, saying: “All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” 2) In more than one place Christ promised that the Church would endure perpetually. Famous concerning this matter is His oracle in Matthew (16.18): “Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Likewise there is that other promise of the same divine Savior, when, living again, He said to His Apostles: “Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age.” The Angel also foretold that this same kingdom of Christ in these lands would never have any end; for (Luke 1.32) he addressed the Blessed Virgin thus in His annunciation: “The Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end,” alluding to the words of Daniel (2), who, speaking of the kingdom of the Messiah, says: “His power is an eternal power, which shall not be taken away; and His kingdom one which shall not be corrupted.” Likewise: “But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom which shall not be dissipated forever, and His kingdom shall not be given to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it itself shall stand forever.” 3) Indeed Christ both predicted the difficulties, and promised special protection for conquering them, and for that reason foretold a happy outcome notwithstanding the difficulties. The difficulties indeed: thus (Matthew 10) Christ said to His disciples: “They will deliver you up in councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you; and you will be led before governors and kings on account of Me, for a testimony to them and to the nations… and you will be hated by all on account of My name.” Christ predicted that Peter would be crucified, addressing him thus (John 21): “Amen I say to you: when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you have grown old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish”; and the Evangelist adds: “But He said this signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had said this He said to him: follow Me”; that is, sustain the same death as I do. And (Luke 21.12 ff.): “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you into synagogues and prisons, dragging you before kings and governors on account of My name. But it will happen to you for a testimony… And you will be betrayed by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name.” In turn He promised special protection; for (Luke 21.14 ff.) it is said: “Set it therefore in your hearts not to premeditate how you will answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to resist and contradict.” And (Mark 16): “These signs will follow those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will place hands upon the sick and they will be well.” And (John 14): “I,” He says, “will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may remain with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive… But you will know Him, because He will remain with you”; and again: “But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will suggest to you all things whatsoever I shall have said to you”; and finally: “When that Spirit of truth shall come, He will teach you all truth.” Finally (Matthew 28.18 ff.): “Jesus spoke to them, saying: All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth; going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age.” Finally He promises a happy outcome, notwithstanding the difficulties, as is clear from that saying: “And I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Testimonies of this sort could easily be multiplied.
306. The second part is proved. I. It is certain that the Christian religion was propagated among all nations with a speed plainly admirable, and that the same is still preserved; therefore the prediction of Christ has been fulfilled. In order first to place before the eyes, in a few words, the fact of the most rapid propagation, we shall touch upon these things in order: 1) On the very day of Pentecost, after the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), Peter, Prince of the Apostles, preached in Jerusalem, and, as St. Luke, author of Acts, writes (2.41): “There were added on that day about three thousand souls.” He also adds a little after (2.47): “But the Lord increased daily those who were being saved into Him.” But in another discourse, “many,” says the same St. Luke (4.4), “of those who had heard the word believed; and the number of the men was made five thousand.” “To these,” Cornelius a Lapide observes, “if you add women and children, who without doubt were very many mingled with so many men, the number was far greater.” But this number, as the praised St. Luke narrates a little below (5.14), was increased daily: “But the multitude of men and women believing in the Lord was increased more and more.” Therefore in a few days the number of the faithful was brought, as can rightly be judged, to not less than fifteen or twenty thousand. 2) But that number of the faithful, on account of the great persecution, immediately grew very greatly. For the faithful, dispersed through the regions of Judaea and Samaria, were preaching (ibid. 8.4): “Those who had been dispersed went through, evangelizing the word of God.” Hence persecution was the cause of dispersion; but dispersion, by God’s disposition, served for propagating the Christian religion. Thus Philip (8.5-14) converted a city of the Samaritans, then the Ethiopian, the powerful eunuch of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Afterward, as is said (ibid. 8.40), “he was found in Azotus, and passing through he evangelized all the cities until he came to Caesarea.” Peter and John, who had been sent to give the Holy Spirit (8.14) to those who had been baptized in Samaria, “were returning” (ibid. 25) “to Jerusalem, and were evangelizing many regions of the Samaritans.” Therefore, before a year had elapsed from the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, there were already innumerable believers in Christ in Judaea and Samaria. 3) Then with the same speed the religion of Christ continued to be propagated. For before ten years had elapsed from the death of Christ, Peter was sending an epistle from Rome (1 Peter 1) “to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” John the Evangelist (Apocalypse 1.11) was writing under Domitian from the island Patmos “to the seven Churches which are in Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” Paul, traveling through very many cities of Asia and Europe, preached the word of God everywhere, and acquired innumerable disciples for Jesus Christ, so that after about twenty years from His ascension into heaven he could set forth these words in the Epistle to the Romans (1.8): “Your faith is announced in the whole world.” 4) Certainly from these things it is established that, while the Apostles were still living, the number of Christians was enormous; and a little afterward it grew immeasurably. For St. Clement of Rome (in the first epistle to the Corinthians) writes: “To these men” (Peter and Paul) “there was joined a great multitude of the elect, who sustained many martyrdoms and torments, and became splendid examples for us.” St. Ignatius Martyr writes to the Philadelphians: “The Church of Christ has been spread from the end of the earth to the end.” St. Justin Martyr, who flourished around the middle of the second century, testifies that “there is no race of men, whether of barbarians or of Greeks, or even of all others by whatever name they are called, whether those living in wagons or those lacking a house, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not made to the Father and Creator of all through the name of Jesus Christ crucified.” St. Irenaeus, who followed a little later, confirms his testimony; in the catalogue of Churches he enumerates Germany, Gaul, Spain, Egypt, and Libya as illumined by the same light of faith, and with equal agreement of all: just as the whole globe of the earth is illumined by one light of the sun. 5) But before all others Tertullian (died in the year 245) expressed more eloquently this most rapid and universal propagation of Christianity. “We are of yesterday,” he says (Apology, chapter 37), “and we have filled all your places, cities, islands, forts, municipalities, councils, the camps themselves, tribes, decuries, the palace, the senate, the forum; we have left you only the temples.” And (Against the Jews, chapter 7): “For in whom else,” he says, “have all nations believed, except in Christ, who has already come? For in whom have also the other nations believed: Parthians, Medes, Elamites; and those who inhabit Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia; and those dwelling in Pontus, Asia, and Pamphylia; those residing in Egypt and those inhabiting the region of Africa which is beyond Cyrene? Romans and inhabitants; then also in Jerusalem Jews, and the other nations; so that now the varieties of the Gaetulians, and many boundaries of the Moors; all the limits of the Spains, and diverse nations of the Gauls, and places of the Britons inaccessible to Romans, but truly subjected to Christ; and of the Sarmatians, and of the Dacians, and of the Germans, and of the Scythians; and of many hidden nations; and of provinces, and of many islands unknown to us, and which we are less able to enumerate. In all these places the name of Christ, who has already come, reigns; as before Him the gates of all cities have been opened, and for Him none are closed; before Him iron bars have been broken in pieces, and bronze gates have been opened.” 6) To these can be added the testimony of pagan writers. Tacitus (Annals, book 15, chapter 44), speaking of the times of Nero, says: “An enormous multitude of Christians was found.” Seneca, confusing Christians with Jews, says apud St. Augustine (City of God, book 6, chapter 11, n. 36): “Meanwhile the custom of that most criminal people has prevailed to such a degree that it has now been received through all lands: the conquered gave laws to the conquerors.” Pliny the Younger, proconsul of Asia, wrote to Trajan (book 10, Epistle 97): “The matter seemed to me worthy of consultation, especially on account of the number of those in danger. For many of every age, every rank, and even of both sexes are called into danger, and will be called. Nor only cities, but even villages and fields have been traversed by the contagion of Christian superstition… the temples of the gods are now almost desolated, and the solemn rites have long been interrupted.”
307. II. Nor is the matter less evident if we inspect the conservation of the Christian religion: since in the following centuries, even down to our own age, that the Christian religion is universal is a fact so powerful that it needs no demonstration. And indeed this is true not only if, with the Catholic Church, we include all the sects which call themselves Christian, but also if we speak of the Church alone, in which alone there is the true religion of Christ. For even if we stand by the calculation which Hurst exhibits (Outline History of the Church), those who profess the Christian religion in the world rise to the enormous number 407,000,000. Of these, according to the calculation which is read in the periodical Weekly Register (London, August 14, 1875), 200,339,390 belong to the Catholic Church. In the same place can be seen a comparative table of Catholics and non-Catholics; but this also exists in the periodical collection La Civilta Cattolica (June 1865, p. 729 ff.). From it, moreover, is detected the enormous difference which lies between the Catholic Church and all the sects even taken together. But to behold the constant increase of the Catholic Church, it is useful to consult Petri (L’Orbe Cattolico, vol. 3, Rome, 1850), who exhibits the Patriarchates, Archbishoprics, Bishoprics, Apostolic Vicariates, and Apostolic Prefectures of the whole Catholic Church dispersed throughout the world, down to the year 1850. But from that time the Church has received new and not small increases, as is known to all (1). (1) It is pleasing here to report the testimony of a celebrated Protestant. Macaulay (Ranke’s History of the Popes, Edinburgh Review, October 1840) writes: “The history of that Church” (the Roman Church) “joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs… The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the furthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustin; and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisition in the New World has more than compensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendancy extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn… The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult to show that all the other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments, and of all the ecclesiastical establishments, that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall in the midst of a vast solitude take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s. “We often hear it said that the world is constantly becoming more and more enlightened, and that this enlightenment must be favourable to Protestantism and unfavourable to Catholicism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well-founded expectation… Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has been in favour of the Church of Rome. We cannot, therefore, feel confident that the progress of knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system which has, to say the least, stood its ground in spite of the immense progress which knowledge has made since the days of Queen Elizabeth.”
308. Before we pursue the remaining things, it is pleasing here to conclude the argument with the most beautiful words of St. Augustine (On Faith in Things Which Are Not Seen, chapter 4): “Attend to me,” the Church says to you, “attend to me, whom you see even if you are unwilling to see. For those who were faithful in those times in the land of Judaea learned, as present things from His presence, the marvelous birth from a virgin, and the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and all His divine sayings and deeds. You have not seen these things; for that reason you refuse to believe. Therefore look upon these things, attend to these things, consider these things which you discern, which are not narrated to you as past nor foretold as future, but are demonstrated as present. Does it seem to you empty or light, and do you think it to be no divine miracle or only a small one, that in the name of one crucified man the whole human race runs? You have not seen what was predicted and fulfilled concerning the human birth of Christ: ‘Behold, a virgin shall receive in the womb and shall bear a son’; but you see what was predicted and fulfilled in the word of God to Abraham: ‘In your seed all nations shall be blessed.’ You have not seen what was predicted concerning the wonderful works of Christ: ‘Come and see the works of the Lord, what wonders He has placed upon the earth’ (Psalm 45); but you see what was predicted: ‘The Lord said to me: You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession’ (Psalm 2). You have not seen what was predicted and fulfilled concerning the passion of Christ: ‘They dug my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones; but they considered and looked upon me; they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots’; but you see what was predicted in the same psalm, and now appears fulfilled: ‘All the ends of the earth shall remember and be converted to the Lord, and all the fatherlands of the nations shall adore in His sight, because the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He Himself shall rule over the nations’ (Psalm 21). You have not seen what was predicted and fulfilled concerning the resurrection of Christ, when the psalm spoke from His person first concerning His betrayer and His persecutors: ‘They went forth outside and were speaking together as one: all My enemies whispered against Me; against Me they were thinking evils for Me; they arranged an unjust word against Me.’ There, to show that they accomplished nothing by killing Him who was going to rise again, He added and said: ‘Surely he who sleeps will add that he may rise?’ And a little after, when through the same prophecy He had foretold concerning His own betrayer what is also written in the Gospel: ‘He who ate My breads has enlarged his heel over Me,’ that is, has trampled Me, He immediately added: ‘But You, Lord, have mercy on Me, and raise Me up, and I will repay them’ (Psalm 40). This has been fulfilled: Christ slept and awoke, that is, rose again; He who through the same prophecy says in another psalm: ‘I slept and took sleep, and I rose again, because the Lord will receive Me.’ But you have not seen this; yet you see His Church, concerning which it was likewise said and fulfilled: ‘Lord my God, to You the nations will come from the end of the earth and say: truly our fathers worshiped lying images, and there is no usefulness in them.’ This certainly, whether you wish or do not wish, you behold; so that if you still think there is, or has been, some usefulness in images, you certainly have heard innumerable peoples of the nations saying, after such vanities have been left behind, cast away, or broken: ‘Truly our fathers worshiped lying images, and there is no usefulness in them; if a man shall make gods,’ and they themselves are not gods (Jeremiah 16). You have not seen what was predicted and fulfilled concerning the ascension of Christ: ‘Be exalted above the heavens, O God’; but you see what immediately follows: ‘And Your glory above all the earth’ (Psalm 107). All those things already done and past concerning Christ you have not seen; but you do not deny that you see these present things in His Church. We show both to you as predicted; but we cannot demonstrate both to you as fulfilled things to be seen, because we cannot recall past things into sight.” Compare also chapter 8.
309. The third part is proved, 1, from the magnitude of the work. For there is question of a Religion to be propagated throughout the whole world, and of the conversion of all nations. “For when,” says Eusebius of Caesarea (Demonstration of the Gospel, book 3), “He” (Christ) “had thought of that which no one had ever thought of, to disseminate His own laws and new doctrine into all nations, and to teach the whole human race that piety which would venerate one supreme God, and to show Himself as the teacher of this matter, He thought that, above all, the most rustic and most ignoble men should be used by Him as ministers of this plan… But who would not be astonished, who would not rightly judge incredible that miracle which surpasses all belief? Certainly none of those who ever had any brightness among men, not king, not inventor of laws, not philosopher, not Greek, not barbarian, is narrated to have thought anything of this sort, nor even to have dreamed anything which comes near to this. For each such man always had enough and more than enough, provided only that he fulfilled his institution and proposal in his own region, and could sanction and protect, at least in his own nation, those laws which seemed good and useful. But this our Man, having undertaken nothing mortal or human, consider, I ask, whether again He did not utter His voice as truly God, when He said word for word to those His disciples, so ignoble: Going, teach all nations.” And Tertullian, concerning this enormous work already completed (Against the Jews, chapter 7), writes: “For who could have reigned over all except Christ, the Son of God? He was announced as going to reign forever over all nations. For if Solomon reigned, his boundaries of kingdom are marked only within the limits of Judaea, from Beersheba to Dan. But if Darius reigned over the Babylonians and Parthians, he did not have power among all nations. If Pharaoh reigned over the Egyptians, or whoever succeeded him in inheritance, there only did he possess dominion of his kingdom. Thus Nebuchadnezzar with his petty kings had the boundaries of his kingdom from India to Ethiopia. Thus Alexander the Macedonian, after he had conquered Asia and the remaining regions, never held all Asia. Thus Germans still are not allowed to cross their own boundaries. The Britons are enclosed within the circuit of their own Ocean. The nation of the Moors and the barbarism of the Gaetulians are besieged by the Romans, lest they exceed the limits of their regions. What shall I say of the Romans, who fortify their empire by the garrisons of their legions and cannot extend the forces of their kingdom beyond those nations? But the kingdom and name of Christ is extended everywhere, is believed everywhere, is worshiped by all the nations enumerated above, reigns everywhere, is adored everywhere, is distributed equally to all everywhere. There is not greater favor of a king with Him, not lesser joy of some barbarian; not merits distinguished by dignities or births. He is equal to all, King to all, Judge to all, God and Lord to all.”
310. II. From the intrinsic difficulties of the work. For 1) the principal object of the preaching of the Apostles was “Jesus crucified, to the Jews indeed a scandal, but to the Gentiles foolishness.” Everyone knows that the nation of the Jews was despised, and, as is clear from the writings of the ancients, was everywhere exposed and subjected to most frequent mockeries. But no punishment was regarded as more ignominious than the punishment of the cross. For how much horror those who had been subjected to the punishment of the cross caused the Romans can be seen from the fact that Cicero desires this kind of punishment “to be absent from not only the body of Roman citizens, but even from their thought, eyes, and ears,” since not only its occurrence and endurance, but even the condition, expectation, and finally the very mention of it, is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man (For Rabirius, chapter 5). Hence Chrysostom (on the First Epistle to the Corinthians) says: “Let us see whether this doctrine at last was easily persuasive. And yet in this matter unbelievers could have been sufficiently drawn. For what did they profess in their preachings? That the Crucified One was to be adored, that He was to be held as God, who had been born of a Jewish woman. And who would have believed them, unless divine power had gone before? For all certainly knew that He had been crucified and buried. But that He rose again and ascended to heaven, no one had seen except the Apostles, etc.” 2) In its theoretical part the Christian Religion proposes most difficult things to be believed. God must be believed one in essence and three in persons; the Son of God incarnate; original sin must be believed, which infected all men; the resurrection of the flesh must be believed, with several other mysteries which far surpass human grasp and do not seem conformable to proud reason. But who does not know how much the mind of man flees from assenting to those things which it thinks are not only incomprehensible but even opposed to itself? 3) Nor is the difficulty less which the Christian religion contains as to its practical part, which declares war on all desires. Hence St. Augustine (On True Religion, chapters 3 ff.) writes: “Not to speak of past things, which anyone can refuse to believe: if today among nations and peoples it is preached: ‘In the beginning was the Word… and without Him nothing was made, etc.’; if, in order to perceive and enjoy this, so that the soul may be healed and the edge of the mind may grow strong for drinking in so great a light, it is said to the greedy: ‘Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, etc.’; it is said to the luxurious: ‘He who sows in the flesh, from the flesh shall reap corruption; he who sows in the spirit, from the spirit shall reap eternal life’; it is said to the proud: ‘He who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted’; it is said to the angry: ‘You have received a slap; prepare the other cheek’; it is said to the discordant: ‘Love your enemies’; it is said to the superstitious: ‘The kingdom of God is within you’; it is said to the curious: ‘Do not seek the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ Finally it is said to all: ‘Do not love the world, nor the things which are in the world; because everything which is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the age.’ “If these things are now read throughout the whole world to peoples and are most willingly heard with veneration; … if these things are so received that, just as before it was monstrous to dispute such things, so now it is monstrous to dispute against them; … if so many innumerable persons enter upon this way that, with the riches and honors of this world and every kind of men deserted, the islands once deserted and the solitude of many lands are filled with men able to dedicate their whole life to the one supreme God; if finally through cities and towns, villages and even fields, and private villas, aversion from earthly things and conversion to the one true God is persuaded and sought to such an extent that daily throughout the whole world the human race answers almost with one voice that it has hearts lifted up to the Lord: why do we still yawn?… Let them know God and believe God, through whom these things to be believed have already been persuaded to all peoples.”
311. III. From the extrinsic difficulties. For 1) “The inveterate errors of superstition,” says Minucius Felix (Octavius, n. 22), “we learn both from ignorant parents, and, what is more serious, we elaborate them by studies and disciplines themselves, especially by the songs of poets, who harmed truth itself as much as possible by their authority.” But the more an error has grown in, the more tenaciously also do men adhere to it, especially if they have it as an inheritance received from their fathers. Let there be considered the difficulty which we daily experience even in the correction of one corrupt man; and from this let it be gathered how much greater the difficulty had to be in the conversion of so many nations. 2) But to whom was the Christian religion to be preached? First to the Jews, who, knowing the religion of their fathers to have been divinely revealed, and clinging most tenaciously to the external ceremonies prescribed through Moses, could not be driven by human means to give these up. There is added that, from their carnal heart, they had preconceived opinions concerning the Messiah as a most powerful King who would free them from the yoke of the Romans. Therefore they desired and expected this one, and for that reason necessarily recoiled from Christ humble and poor. 3) Then the Christian religion had to be preached to the Gentiles, who especially in Latium and in Greece flourished excellently in arts and sciences; but as regards morals, as the pagan writers themselves narrate, at that time they were very corrupt, given over to delights and pleasures, and therefore wholly unfit to receive the sublime and holy religion of Christ. We exhibited a specimen of both their intellectual and moral corruption when asserting the necessity of revelation. 4) Moreover, the obstacle which the priests of the Gentiles opposed to the propagation of the Christian religion was very great; for since their authority and sustenance depended on the worship of idols, they tried by whatever means they could to turn the people away from receiving the faith of Christ. A very great obstacle also arose from pagan philosophers; for since their mind was offended by the mysteries and other truths of the Christian religion, and their empty systems were rejected, they attacked the religion of Christ with words and writings. Finally, the greatest opposition came from the Roman Emperors, who, judging the ancient idolatry to be joined with the prosperity of the Empire, and desiring to preserve for themselves the right and honor of the Priesthood, left nothing unattempted in order to overturn the religion of Christ. Hence, with cruelty scarcely credible among men, they stirred up the most atrocious persecutions and devised inhuman torments, which, employed in their very wide dominion, would frighten peoples away from receiving the faith of Christ and impel them to fall away from the faith once received. Behold, by way of example, what Tacitus writes (Annals, book 15, section 44): “Therefore, to abolish the rumor, Nero substituted the accused and afflicted with the most sought-out punishments those whom the crowd, hated for crimes, called Christians. The author of that name was Christ, who, while Tiberius was ruling, had been subjected to punishment by the procurator Pontius Pilate. And the deadly superstition, checked for the present, was again breaking out, not only through ## Boundary Completion From PDF Page 255 Judaea, the origin of that evil, but also through the City, to which all atrocious or shameful things flow together from every side and are celebrated. Therefore first those who confessed were seized; then by their information an enormous multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as from hatred of the human race.” (1) Everyone knows that from Christian martyrdom alone a new argument is constructed by the Apologists for proving the divine origin of the Christian religion. And indeed that martyrdom has a twofold force of proving: as a fact which can be explained by no natural cause, and therefore constitutes a miracle in the moral order; and as testimony which cannot exist otherwise than with the truth of the religion which it testifies being supposed. But in order that martyrdom may obtain this twofold force of proving, it must be considered in all its accompanying circumstances. And: 1) The number of martyrs is enormous. Suetonius, Pliny, and Tacitus (in the place cited above) assert that in the persecution of Nero alone “an enormous multitude” perished. Concerning the persecution of Decius, Dionysius of Alexandria writes (apud Eusebius, book 7, chapter 11): “But it is superfluous to recount our” (martyrs) “by name, since they are also very many, etc.” Concerning the persecution of Diocletian, Lactantius writes (On the Death of the Persecutors, chapter 16): “Therefore the whole earth was harassed, and except for Gaul, from East to West three most bitter beasts were raging.” Compare Ruinart (Acts of the Martyrs). 2) The torments were atrocious. Hence the churches of Vienne and Lyons (apud Eusebius, book 5, chapter 1) wrote: “And indeed the very gravity of the hardships, and the fury and rage of the Gentiles against the saints, and what and how great things the blessed martyrs suffered, neither can we express by speaking, nor can anyone accurately comprehend by writing. For with the whole force of his powers the adversary rushed upon us.” But that the same must be said concerning others is established from history (compare, for example, Lactantius, Divine Institutes, book 5, chapter 11). 3) Sometimes the struggle against flesh and blood was more atrocious. “The eyes of their own people weeping,” says St. Augustine (Enarration on Psalm 47, n. 12), “had greater violence than the persecutions of those attacking. For how many did children hold back, lest they suffer? At the knees of how many did wives roll themselves, lest they be left widows?” etc. 4) The martyrs were of every condition. Hence St. Dionysius of Alexandria (apud Eusebius, book 7, chapter 11) says: “It is fitting that you know this one thing in general: that men and women, young men and old men, girls and aged women, soldiers and private persons, finally from every kind and age of men, some by blows of scourges, some by the edge of the sword, others by fires, having overcome in the contest, carried off crowns.” 5) They sustained torments constantly and cheerfully. Hence Lactantius (book 5, chapter 13) says that they endured lacerations “with patience inspired”; and he adds: “Behold, the weak sex and fragile age suffers itself to be torn through the whole body and burned, not by necessity, because they could avoid it if they wished, but by will, because they trust in God.” And Tertullian (Apology, chapter 1, n. 6): “If he is denounced, he glories; if he is dragged, he does not resist; if he is accused, he does not defend himself; when interrogated, he confesses; when condemned, he gives thanks.” Indeed, with many examples of virtues, with great wisdom in their answers, they showed perfect tranquility of soul. 6) Let the fruit of martyrdom be considered. Tertullian, addressing the magistrates of the Roman empire (Apology, chapter 50, n. 176), says: “Crucify us, torture us, condemn us, grind us down; for your injustice is the proof of our innocence… Yet no cruelty of yours, however more refined, profits anything… We become more numerous as often as we are mown down by you: the blood of Christians is seed.” “For,” Lactantius observes (book 5, chapter 13), “when the crowd sees men torn apart, and sees them maintain unconquered patience among the wearied executioners, they judge, as the matter is, that neither the agreement of so many nor the perseverance of the dying is vain, nor that patience itself can overcome such torments without God.” When these things have therefore been weighed, it appears evidently: 1) that no human cause is equal to explaining Christian martyrdom. Hence already in the second century the Church of Smyrna, in the Epistle concerning the martyrdom of its holy Bishop Polycarp, wrote: “Who would not admire their” (the martyrs’) “strength and endurance and charity toward the Lord? They were so lacerated by scourges that the structure of the body could be seen even to the innermost veins and arteries; nevertheless they endured, so that even those who were present pitied and wept. But they themselves had come to such fortitude that none of them either groaned or sighed, showing to all that the martyrs of Christ, at the time when they were being tortured, had been pilgrims from the flesh, or rather that the Lord stood by them and was conversing with them.” 2) That unless because of the truth of religion, the martyrs could not have exhibited such testimony to it. Hence St. Jerome (Epistle 120 to Hedibia, chapter 10) concludes: “When someone has seen martyrs standing and being tortured with such perseverance, and glorying in those who torture them, the silent thought arises that unless the Gospel were true, it would never be defended by blood. For confession is not delicate, eager for riches, and secure; but in prisons, in blows, in persecutions, in hunger, in nakedness and thirst. This is the triumph of God.” Compare, concerning this argument, the splendid dissertation of Fr. Hurter, S.J. (Selected Opuscula of the Holy Fathers, vol. 4). 5) Add to all these things the heretics of all ages, who fought bitterly against the Church of Christ from which they had defected; the schismatics, who, having undertaken to tear apart Christian unity, tried to render it weak and infirm against external enemies; the Mohammedans, for whom it is holy and meritorious to kill Christians; unbelievers and secret societies, which have tried to shake the very foundations of the Christian religion; the very sons, proud, unruly, rebellious, who turned arms against their mother; and see whether by human industry and power the Church could have overcome and conquered all these things.
312. IV. From means naturally weak. For 1) only a few disciples of Christ undertook so great a work; and they were so disposed that they could more easily turn peoples away from themselves than gain them for Christ. For they were rough, unlettered, hateful to all Jews. “Truly the things which are foolish,” the Apostle already wrote (1 Corinthians 1.27-28), “God chose, that He might confound the wise; and God chose the weak things, that He might confound the strong; and the ignoble and contemptible things of the world God chose, and the things which are not, that He might destroy the things which are.” Hence St. Ambrose says (on Luke, book 5, n. 44): “Observe the heavenly counsel: Christ chose not some wise men, not rich men, not noble men, but fishermen and publicans whom He would direct, lest He should seem to have drawn some to His grace by prudence, or to have bought them by riches, or to have drawn them by the authority of power and nobility, so that the reason of truth, not the charm of disputation, might prevail.” And Eusebius of Caesarea (Demonstration of the Gospel, book 3), after reporting the words of Christ to the disciples, “Going, teach all nations,” adds: “What if the disciples, as happens, had answered their teacher and had said: In what way at last will this be able to be done by us? How, for example, shall we publicly teach the Romans? But how shall we address the Egyptians? In what language, we who are accustomed to hear one Syriac tongue, shall we speak among the Greeks? In what among the Persians? Armenians? Chaldaeans? Scythians? Indians? And finally all the barbarous nations whatsoever which we shall encounter? How shall we preach to them that they should abandon their paternal gods, but worship the one God, maker of all things whatsoever? Moreover, relying on what force of speaking shall we undertake so great a deed? But what hope of accomplishing it will be present to men who dare to set up laws contrary to whatever laws all nations have observed concerning their paternal gods from the beginning of the world? By what resources at last, or by what power, will it be permitted to us to survive that boldness? Lest the disciples of Jesus should say these things, as it is credible they would have said, or even think them, the teacher Himself freed them from every difficulty by adding one word, when He said that they would attain their desire in His name. For He did not command them simply or indefinitely to teach all nations, but with a necessary addition: in My name, He says.” 2) And with what arms were the Apostles to fight? “The arms of our warfare,” says Paul, “are spiritual, not carnal.” Hence St. John Chrysostom (homily 23, otherwise 24) writes: “In order that they” (the disciples) “may learn that this is a new law of warring and an unheard-of manner of battle, since He sends them naked, clothed with one tunic, without shoes, without staff, without belt or purse, and commands them to be fed by those receiving them, He does not make an end here of speaking; but showing His ineffable power, He says: Going thus, show the meekness of sheep, even if you are going against wolves, and not only against wolves, but even in the midst of wolves. Nor does He command them only to have the meekness of sheep, but also the simplicity of a dove. Thus especially will I show My strength, when sheep conquer wolves, even if they are in the midst of wolves and are torn by innumerable bites; and not only are not destroyed, but even convert the wolves, which is much more wonderful and greater than if they killed them, namely if they change their will and transform their soul; and these things when they were only twelve, and the whole world was full of wolves.” See also the things which, on this matter, we indicated from St. Augustine in the treatise On the Virtues (n. 771). 3) And while the Apostles required all arduous things, and the very sacrifice of life, they promised only future rewards, which indeed are accustomed to attract little. “This very thing therefore,” says St. John Chrysostom (on the Epistle to the Corinthians), “besides those things which have been said, shows especially that there is no deceit in our dignity. For all difficult things are promised in this life, but useful things after the resurrection. This very thing therefore, for I shall say it again, plainly shows our dogma to be divine. And why did none of the believers say: I will not come near, nor will I suffer; you threaten difficult things in this life, but promise useful things after the resurrection? Whence is it established that the resurrection is going to be? Who after finishing life ever returned? Who after being buried rose again? Which of them said that any reward would be future after the passage from this life? But although they knew nothing of this sort, nevertheless they laid down life for the Crucified One. Therefore this was even of the greatest power: that concerning matters so great, which they had never before heard, all competitively gave faith, and could be persuaded actually to undergo the greatest calamities, while awaiting rewards for the future. For if they had wished to use deceptions, they would rather have done the opposite. Rewards would indeed have been promised here, but those terrible things would have been kept silent. For deceivers and flatterers act in this way, proposing nothing rough, nothing troublesome, nothing grave, but the contrary; but this is deceit.”
313. V. From the outcome itself, which is already clear from the testimonies adduced for proving the second part of this proposition. Yet so that the force of the argument may become more clearly known, let it be noted: 1) that the effect of apostolic preaching, far from being on the surface, rather intimately pervaded the human race, and renewed not only the individual man, but the whole human society; so that the cultivators of this doctrine held as delights those things from which they formerly recoiled, and truly utterly detested those things in which they formerly delighted. Hence St. Augustine (On the Morals of the Church, chapter 33), addressing religion, says: “You exercise and teach boys boyishly, young men strongly, old men quietly, according as each one’s age is, not only of the body but also of the soul. You subject women to their husbands with chaste and faithful obedience, not for fulfilling lust, but for propagating offspring and for the fellowship of family affairs. You place husbands over wives, not for mocking the weaker sex, but by the laws of sincere love. You join children to parents by a certain free servitude; you place parents over children by a pious dominion. You bind brothers to brothers by the bond of religion, stronger than that of blood. You bind every nearness of family and necessity of affinity, with the bonds of nature and will preserved, by mutual charity. You teach slaves to adhere to masters, not so much by necessity of condition as by delight in duty. You make masters placable toward slaves by consideration of the supreme God, the common master, and more inclined to consult for them than to coerce them. You join citizens to citizens, nations to nations, and altogether men to men, by remembrance of the first parents, not only by society, but also by a certain fraternity. You teach kings to look out for peoples; you warn peoples to subject themselves to kings… showing how, both not all things are owed to all, and charity is owed to all, and injury to no one.” And St. Justin (Apology I, n. 14): “We who once rejoiced in debaucheries now embrace chastity alone; we who also used magical arts have consecrated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who had the ways of money and possessions before all things now even bring into common what we have, and communicate with all who are in need; we who fought with mutual hatreds and slaughters, and did not have a common forum with those who were not of our tribe on account of different institutions, now, after Christ appeared, live together and pray for enemies.” Hence also Tertullian (Apology, chapter 44, n. 148) confidently appeals to the judicial records of the Roman empire, saying: “We now call as witnesses your records, you who preside daily over prisons to be judged… your prison always boils with your people; your mines always sigh with your people; your beasts are always fattened with your people; your providers of games always feed their flocks of criminals with your people. No Christian is there, except for this alone,” that is, not on account of any other crime than the Christian profession. And the same Tertullian (To the Nations, book 1, chapter 1) reports the admiration of the Gentiles if at any time they heard that some Christian was fraudulent, harsh, and so forth. But there is no need to multiply the testimonies of the Apologists. Pliny Secundus himself, proconsul of Bithynia, wrote to Trajan (book 10, epistle 97): “But they” [the Christians] “affirmed that this had been the sum of their fault or error: that they had been accustomed on a fixed day before light to assemble, and to say a hymn among themselves by turns to Christ as to God, and to bind themselves by oath not to any crime, but that they would not commit thefts, robberies, or adulteries; that they would not break faith; that, when called upon, they would not deny a deposit.” And Julian the Apostate speaks thus concerning Christians (apud Sozomen, book 5, chapter 26): “What is the cause why we do not rather turn our eyes to those things by which the religion of Christians grew, that is, to kindness toward strangers, to the care placed by them in burying the dead, and to the sanctity which they simulate? It is certainly not shameful, since no one among the Jews begs, and the impious Galileans feed not only their own, but ours also.” 2) But the Apostles persuaded Christian doctrine not only to the uneducated, but to men flourishing in learning, nobility, and wealth. We listed several above; to them we can add Polycarp, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Justin, Clement, Ammonius, Origen, Aristides, Apollinaris, Athenagoras, Quadratus, Apollonius, and so forth, to omit later persons. We add Glabrio, who had held office under Trajan; Flavius Clement, a man of consular rank, cousin of Domitian; and his wife Flavia Domitilla, born from the blood of Augustus; finally those whom Tertullian recounts from the palace, forum, and senate, and those of every order whom Pliny enumerates. Fittingly Jerome (Preface in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers) says: “Let Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, raging dogs against Christ, learn; let their followers learn” (who think that the Church had no philosophers and no eloquent teachers) “how many and what sort of men founded and built her; and let them cease to accuse our faith of only rustic simplicity. Did not there already exist a public school in the city of Alexandria, established from the first centuries of the Church, in which most learned men, Ammonius, Pantaenus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, etc., flourished, and to which even the pagans themselves flowed in crowds?” And he adds the testimony of Eusebius. And St. John Chrysostom objected to himself: “But those believing were slaves, women, nurses, midwives, eunuchs.” But he responds: “Indeed, the Church was not confirmed for us by these alone, and this is plainly established for all. But if you contend that it was confirmed by these, this makes their preaching especially wonderful: that the dogmas which neither Plato nor the Platonists were able openly to understand, fishermen, suddenly, the most unlearned kind of all men, were able to persuade others to receive. For if they had persuaded only the wiser, it would not have been so greatly wonderful. But from the fact that they drew slaves, nurses, eunuchs to so great a philosophy that they made them rivals of angels, it furnished the greatest argument of divine inspiration. For if they had commanded vile and abject things, perhaps not without reason that persuasion could have been referred as an argument for abject preaching. But if they philosophized about great and profound things, things almost exceeding human nature, and things which needed a penetrating mind, then the more foolish you show those who were persuaded, the wiser and fuller of divine grace you show those who persuaded them.” 3) But the fruit of apostolic preaching of this sort is not momentary, but perennial. In order that this observation may unfold its whole force, a comparison must be made between this work of God and any excellent human works. For what did the most outstanding philosophers in all antiquity accomplish, who directed all their powers to the reform of the human race? What did the almost innumerable sects which arose from Christian profession accomplish, many of which were furnished with so great an abundance of human means that they seemed destined to endure perpetually? Weigh the dissolution of the Protestant sects and the sterility of their missions, although they abound in human means, riches, learning, and power. They themselves, such as Bucer (On the Kingdom of Christ, Basel, 1551), both assign human causes of their first propagation and complain concerning the sad fruits of the Reformation. Hence Erasmus (Letter to Vulturius Neocomus) wrote confidently: “Look around at that evangelical people and observe whether less indulgence is given there to luxury, lust, and money than is done by those whom you detest. Show me whom that Gospel has rendered from a reveler sober, from a fierce man gentle, from a grasping man liberal, from a reviler one who blesses, from an unchaste man modest. I will show you many who have been made worse than themselves, etc.” Hence the things which Tertullian writes (On Prescription, chapter 17) fit very well also the present-day missions of the Innovators: “Since this is their business, not to convert pagans, but to overthrow ours, they seek this glory more, if they work ruin for those standing, not if they work elevation for those lying down; because even their work itself does not come from their own proper building, but from the destruction of truth. They undermine ours, in order to build their own.” Compare Perrone (part 2, proposition 10). Therefore St. John Chrysostom rightly exclaims (oration delivered after the capture of Eutropius, n. 1): “Nothing is equal to the Church. Do not mention to me walls and arms; for walls are worn away, but the Church never grows old. Barbarians demolish walls; but not even demons conquer the Church. That these are not boasting words, the facts themselves testify. How many have attacked the Church and themselves perished? But the Church has transcended the heavens. Such is the greatness of the Church: it conquers when attacked; when sought by snares, it overcomes; when affected with insults, it becomes more splendid; it receives wounds, and does not fall by ulcers; it is shaken by waves and is not sunk; attacked by storms, it does not suffer shipwreck; it wrestles and is not thrown down; it contends in boxing and is not conquered.”
314. Wherefore let it be permitted to conclude this argument with the most eloquent words of St. John Chrysostom himself. “If a Gentile says,” he writes (That Christ Is God, chapters 1 and 17), “Whence is it manifest that Christ is God?… We shall not seek the demonstration from heaven, nor from other things of this kind. For if I say to him: He created heaven, and likewise earth or sea, he will not bear this; if I say: He raised the dead, cured the blind, drove away demons, he will not admit this either; if I say: He promised a Kingdom and hidden goods, if I speak of the resurrection, he will not only not receive this, but will even laugh. Whence therefore, especially if he is uneducated, shall we instruct him? Whence, I say, unless from those things which are admitted by me and him, and cannot be called into doubt? What therefore are those things which the Gentile himself confesses that He did and cannot deny? That He Himself founded the race of Christians; for he will not deny this, that He established churches throughout the whole world. From this we shall draw an argument of His power, and we shall show that He is truly God. We shall say that it is not the work of a mere man to pervade the whole world, land and sea, in so brief a time and to call men to things so great, especially when men were accustomed to such absurd morals and entangled in so many evils. And nevertheless He was able to free the human race from all these things, not only Romans, but Persians and every race of barbarians. Moreover He did these things not by using arms, not by expenses, with no armies, with no battles joined, but at the beginning through eleven men, ignoble, lowly, ignorant, uneducated, poor, naked, unarmed, lacking shoes, covered with one tunic. What do I say, He did? He was able to persuade so many nations of men that they should philosophize not only about present things, but also about future things, and that they should tear up their ancestral laws, utterly remove old customs rooted for so long a time, and substitute others which would lead them from accustomed and easy things to the more difficult precepts of Him… Why do you not reckon this with yourself: Unless He were God, and a strong God, how did His worshipers, vexed and agitated, grow so, while those who crucified Him were so cast down that they fell from their whole commonwealth and wander around as vagabonds, strays, fugitives; and although so long a time has passed, neither of these things has been changed?”
315. SCHOLION. I. Wegscheider shows that he does not grasp the force of the aforesaid argument (part 1, chapter 2, section 51, n. 1), where he wrote: “Nor can the favorable propagation and conservation of the Church be referred among the documents of truth and divine origin, because the same happened also to the Islamic religion.” St. Thomas had already discussed the difference between the propagation of Mohammedanism and of Christianity (Against the Gentiles, book 1, chapter 6), saying: “Not by the violence of arms, not by the promise of pleasures, and, what is most wonderful, amid the tyranny of persecutors, an innumerable crowd not only of simple persons but also of the wisest men flew together to the Christian faith; in which things exceeding every human intellect are preached, the pleasures of the flesh are restrained, and all things which are in the world are taught to be held in contempt. For mortal souls to assent to these things is both the greatest miracle and a manifest work of divine inspiration, so that, visible things having been despised, invisible things alone are desired. But that this was not done suddenly or by chance is manifest from the fact that God foretold through many oracles of the prophets long before that He would do this… But this so wonderful conversion of the world to the Christian faith is a most certain indication of the signs that went before, so that it is not necessary for them to be repeated further, since they appear evidently in their effect. But it would be more wonderful than all signs if the world had been led by simple and ignoble men, without wonderful signs, to believe things so arduous, to perform things so difficult, and to hope for things so high; although God does not cease even in our times to work miracles through the saints for the confirmation of faith. But those who introduced erroneous sects proceeded by the contrary way, as is clear in Mohammed, who enticed peoples by promises of carnal pleasures, to the desire for which carnal concupiscence incites. He also handed down precepts conformable to the promises, relaxing the reins to carnal pleasure, in which things it is easy for carnal men to obey. He also did not bring documents of truth except those things which can easily be known by natural ability by anyone moderately wise; indeed rather, the true things which he taught he mixed with many fables and most false doctrines. He also did not employ signs supernaturally done, by which alone testimony suited to divine inspiration is given, when a visible operation which cannot be except divine shows that the teacher of truth is invisibly inspired; but he said that he had been sent in the power of arms, signs which are also not lacking to robbers and tyrants. Nor did any wise men, exercised in divine matters and in divine and human matters, believe him from the beginning, but beastly men dwelling in deserts, utterly ignorant of every divine doctrine, through whose multitude he compelled others by the violence of arms into his law.” These indeed are all the things which it is necessary to observe here; but if anyone wishes to unfold the same things at greater length, compare Hoocke (in the Appendix, chapter 3), and Bergier (article Mahometisme).
316. II. Gibbon (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) opposed several things to the same argument, which, to one rightly weighing the things which we have said, are altogether nothing. Thus, for example, he attributes the most rapid universal propagation of the Christian religion: 1) to the conjunction of so many peoples under the one authority of the Roman empire. But this broad dominion of the Roman empire, which happened by favor of divine providence, did indeed effect that the way lay more easily open for the Apostles to various provinces of one and the same empire; but the difficulty was not therefore less of preaching and persuading a doctrine filled with mysteries and grave precepts, especially since for three centuries the emperors themselves not only adhered tenaciously to the ancient error, but also terribly persecuted the new religion. 2) He attributes the same thing to the community of goods and mutual charity conspicuous among the first Christians, by which provision was made for the necessary support of the poor. But the community of goods and mutual charity was conspicuous after the propagation had been made, or in Christian churches already founded, but could by no means serve the first propagation. And from another side, if that could attract the poor, it naturally ought to have frightened away the rich; but with these absent, how could the poor flatter themselves concerning the necessary support? 3) Likewise, others attribute the conservation of the Catholic Church to the principle of authority. But we say that we by no means deny that the social constitution which the Church had from the Lord Himself, its author, is splendid; but that the conservation of the Catholic Church can in no way be explained from the prevailing principle of authority by itself alone as a natural cause. For: a) in order that the principle of authority, for its part, may be able to concur in conserving the Christian religion, or the Church of Christ, it must already be supposed to have been received and deeply placed in the souls of the faithful. But can it happen that, without a power altogether divine, men in great number, from all conditions, diverse in country, character, and education, adhere with humble faith and constant obedience to that same principle, proposing and commanding the most difficult things? Especially when the attacks of the adversaries are directed against that very authority, without the gates of hell ever being able to prevail? b) The danger of the Church’s ruin, as is clear from history, especially that of the first three centuries, did not consist only in the dissolution of the social bond; but often persecutions were directed toward the complete destruction of the Church. Thus, unless God had come to the aid of His Church in a singular manner, the blood of martyrs would not have become the seed of Christians, but would have utterly extinguished the Church itself. In these and other similar matters the means which divine providence used for helping the propagation and conservation of the Church are confused with the cause which is equal to producing this wonderful effect. Compare, if you wish, Spedalieri (Against Gibbon, section 6, part 1, and especially chapter 3).
317. But after the things which we have heard disputed so splendidly by the Fathers, it is wearisome to report these things. It is more pleasing to recall the judgment of Gamaliel, when the Apostles were being commanded not to preach Jesus and His doctrine. “But one arose” (Acts 5.34-35, 38-39) “in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law honorable to all the people, and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time; and he said to them: Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves concerning these men, what you are about to do… And now therefore I say to you: withdraw from these men, and let them alone, because if this counsel or work is from men, it will be dissolved; but if it is from God, you will not be able to dissolve it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God. And they consented to him.”