an act of cowardice unworthy a Christian. Timidity is the fault of our age, and truth is concealed under pretense of respect for holy things. Such concealment serves neither God nor man. God indeed has conferred upon His Church the prerogative of infalliiblity, but to none of her members has He granted immunity from sin. Peter was a sinner and a renegade, and God has been at pains to have the fact recorded in the Gospel." 1 Dr. Alzog by no means merits the rebuke conveyed in these indignant words, and the Church will be no loser by his honesty. She is the house of the living God, the pillar and groundwork of the truth, the source of all holiness, and in these she is without spot or blemish. Her faithless children may indeed be a reproach to her, as they have been in every age, but once history has shown that in ceasing to be obedient to her teaching and her precepts they have also ceased to be loyal to the highest principles of Christianity, and the noblest instincts of our manhood, her victory will be complete and her triumph glorious. MOUNT ST. MARY'S OF THE WEST, FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, a. d. 1875. THE TRANSLATORS. } 1Lettre du Père Lacordaire à l'abbé Perreyve, 2 avril, 1855. Foisset, Vie du P. L. II. 532. SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH PREDOMINANT AMONG THE GERMANIC AND SLAVIC NATIONS-SHE CONVERTS FIRST EPOCH-From the Migration of the Germanic and Slavic Nations to the Pontificate of Gregory VII., s. D. 1073. Foundation of the Ecclesiasti- 157. Christianity in Germany and the adjacent Countries............. 96 158. Christianity among the Frisians-Reverses of the Christians ? 170. General Character of Science during this Epoch.......... 171. Progress of Science in Italy, Spain, and the British Isles........ 167 172. Labors of Charlemagne for the Diffusion of Knowledge..................... 171 173. First Heresies-Adelbert and Clement-Adoptionism..................... 205. First Controversy on the Eucharist-Paschasius Radbert....... 430 8 207. Eastern Schism—Photius-Eighth Ecumenical Council......... 449 208. Revival of the Schism by Michael Cerularius............. FROM GREGORY VII. (^. D. 1073) TO THE OPENING OF THE WESTERN SCHISM, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIX- Rise and Height of the Papal Power in the Middle Ages, from the Accession of Gregory VII. to the Death of Boniface VIII. (A. D. 1073–1303.) ? 213. Outline-Sources, and Works referring to them......... |