distant lands, and it would be difficult to find any important city of the Roman empire, and particularly along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, whose church does not trace her origin back to apostolic times. The Apostles, by order of Christ, set James, the son of Alpheus, who is unquestionably identical with James the Lesser, surnamed the Just, and called the "brother of our Lord," as bishop over the Church of Jerusalem.

2

Distinguished for his love of justice and the mildness of his disposition, respected even by the Jews, and remarkable withal for firmness of character, he put his own church upon a permanent basis, and exhibited great earnestness and zeal in the epistles which he wrote to the converted Jews living in distant lands, wherein he reminds them of the necessity of uniting faith with good work.

Josephus Flavius, whose statement, however, is not beyond suspicion, informs us that James, having been denounced by the High-priest Annas as an offender against the law, was stoned to death in the year 62 A. D., before the newly apEven the most pointed procurator Albinus had arrived.

zealous of the Jews were indignant at so flagrant a crime, and obtained the deposition of the high-priest by a petition addressed to King Agrippa. Hegesippus, a Jewish convert, who wrote at a later date, says, together with many other things equally open to suspicion, that James, refusing to abjure Christ, was, as early as A. D. 59, taken by the Scribes and Pharisees to the pinnacle of the temple, whence he was cast down, and, after his fall, dispatched with a fuller's club. Simeon and Justus succeeded him as bishops of Jerusalem.

4

St. Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist, preached the Gospel in Arabia Felix (India and Ethiopia) to both Jew and

1Hug, Introduc. to N. T., part II., p. 517 sq. Schleyer in Freib. Journal of Theol., Vol. IV., p. 11-65. Cf. Guericke, Introd. to N. T., p. 483 sq.

2 Acts xv. 13 sq.

3 Cf. Jos. Flav. antiqq. XX. 9, 1. Credner, Introd. to N. T., p. 481. Heges. in Euseb. h. e. II. 23. Cf. Stolberg, part VI., p. 360–365, and †Kössing, dissert. de anno, quo mortem obierit Jacobus, frater Domini. Heidelb. 1857.

*Rufin. hist. eccl. I. 9. Euseb. hist. eccl. III. 24, 39.

3

Gentile, and St. Philip,' who, it is said, like St. John, lived to the close of the first century, spent the last days of his apostolic career at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. St. Thomas, according to ancient tradition, evangelized the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; St. Andrew,' the Scythians of Southern Russia and the people living in the neighborhood of Byzantium; and St. Bartholomew, the Indians of Southern Arabia(?), where, in the year 190 A. D., Pantaenus discovered a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which is supposed to belong to the time of the Apostle; Thaddeus1 converted Abgar, King of Edessa. The country said to have been evangelized by Simon Zelotes and Matthias is known by the general name of the East, but Egypt and Northern Africa are sometimes assigned to the former, and Ethiopia to the latter.

The Church, following her ancient traditions, honors all the Apostles, except St. John, as martyrs, and they are represented in pictorial art with both a palm branch and the Book of the Gospels."

There can be no doubt that Mark, who had been the companion of Paul and Barnabas, and afterward resided with St. Peter at Rome, was, if not the founder, certainly the first bishop of the Church of Alexandria. IIe was succeeded by Annianus, who received the pallium of Mark as a token that he also succeeded to his authority and prerogatives.

It would be entirely out of place to omit all mention of the Blessed Virgin when speaking of the chosen few who were the favored companions of our Lord. Sacred Scripture is almost silent relative to her life after the ascension of Christ, simply stating that she stayed at Jerusalem with the Apostles and disciples, prayerfully awaiting with them the coming of the Holy Ghost." There can

1Euseb. III. 31, VI. 24.

2 Ibid. III. 1.

3 Ibid. V. 10.

4 Ibid. I. 13, II. 1.

5 Aschbach, Eccl. Cyclopedia, Art. Apostles, and portraits of each. Heracleon, a Gnostic writer of the second century, is alone in his assertion that Matthias, Thomas, Philip, and Matthew died natural deaths.

‘Euseb. II. 16, 24. Chronicon Paschale (Alexandr.), p. 230, ed. Dufresne, Paris, 1688.

7 Acts i. 14.

be no doubt that she was tenderly cared for by St. John, to whom her divine Son commended her when dying on the cross.

This much is known, but beyond this almost everything is conjecture, and it seems impossible to ascertain with any degree of certainty what manner of life she led afterward, or the time and circumstances of her death.

St. Epiphanius,1 in view of her singular excellence, and at a loss to account for the silence of Scripture, did not venture to say whether she died a natural death and was buried, or enjoyed an exemption from the common lot of mankind. But the Catholic Church, says Baronius, 2 admits of no doubt as to the death of the Mother of God: she was human, and, as such, under the necessity of paying the penalty of all flesh.

There are two accounts concerning the place of her death, the first of which states that she expired at Jerusalem, A. D. 45 or 47, surrounded by the Apostles; the second, that she accompanied St. John to Ephesus, which, if correct, must have taken place at a much later date than the one just assigned.

When Mary beheld the Kingdom of God established and its permanence secured beyond all manner of doubt-when she heard the name of her divine Son glorified everywhere, and saw the virtue that went out from Him infusing its divine principle of vitality into the hearts of men-she felt at peace and "longed to be dissolved and with Christ." Conscious, as credible traditions tell us, that her end was approaching, and wishing to visit her home once more before her death, she set out upon the long and wearisome journey, most probably in company with St. John. In this supreme hour, consoled by the presence of her divine Son, who awaited her departure that she might be with Him in Heaven, she could cry out with deeper feeling and greater joy of heart than ever before, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior." Her immaculate body, too, shared in the joy and gladness with which her own spirit rejoiced in God her Savior, and its glorification was the crown. of her life. This view has never been contradicted by the Fathers and Doctors of the Greek Church; on the contrary, St. Athanasius, interpreting the pro- · phetic words of the psalm, "The Queen stood on Thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety," says that not only the soul, but also the body of Mary, glorified and in the brightness and splendor of incorruptibility, was raised to the throne of Christ, an honor befitting a Virgin in whom the Second Adam, in the person of the Eternal Word, became incarnate.

3

St. Cyril of Alexandria, commenting on the words of Apocalypse, "A great sign was seen in Heaven," says: "There can be no doubt that the sign here referred to is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was assumed body and soul into Heaven."

4

Modestus, Bp. of Jerusalem, says: "Mary, since she was the mother of Christ our Savior, the Giver of life and immortality, was by Him taken out of the

1Epiphanius, haer. LXXVIII. ? 11.

2 Buronius, ad an. 48, ? 11, 12, et. Annot. in Martyrolog. XV. August. Butler, Lives of the Saints, August 15.

3 Cyril. Alex. Hom. de dormit. B. M. V.

Transl. by Mgr. Michelangelo Giacometti, Rome, 1760.

sepulcher, quickened into life, assumed into Heaven as He knew best, and made forever partaker of His own incorruptibility."

Gregory of Tours,1 who wrote in the sixth century, says plainly that, "by command of the Lord, the body of Mary, raised from the dead, went together with her soul into Paradise;" and this assertion is fully borne out by the testimony of St. Ildephonse of Toledo,2 and by the concurrent voice of all the succeeding Fathers of the Church.

3

The teaching of theologians is also in accord with this opinion. We will quote the testimony of three of them, most conspicuous for their range and depth of thought.

'With as much reason," says the Angelical Doctor, "should we believe that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven as that she was sanctified in her mother's womb."

Suarez approves this opinion, and adds that "it can not be called in doubt by persons religiously minded.”

Finally, the learned Cardinal Gotti goes still further, and asserts that any one who should insinuate that the Church has erred in proposing the Assumption as a feast to be celebrated everywhere, would lay himself open to the charge of heresy, and directly oppose Catholic belief. And, as a matter of fact, the feast of the Assumption is so old and so universal in the Church that some have asserted that it is an apostolic institution. It is, however, more probable, as Thomassini' affirms, that it was first celebrated by the Church after the council of Ephesus.

8

The Sacramentary of Gregory the Great, and martyrologies still more ancient, make mention of it. Benedict XIV.,9 after referring to a host of eminent theologians, sums up as follows: "The bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven is not an article of faith, for the Scripture texts, usually quoted in support of this opinion, may also bear a different interpretation, and tradition is not sufficiently strong in its favor to invest it with such dignity. It is, however, a pious belief, and probably a true one, and it would be as impious and blasphemous, as foolish and unreasonable, to assert the contrary."

Launoy,10 a rather critical Parisian doctor, who lived during the seventeenth

1De gloria Martyrum, c. 4.

2 Serm. 6, de Assumptione B. M. V.

3 See Petrus Canisius, De Maria Virgine libri quinque, Ingolstadii, 1577, in lib. V., cap. 5, where he collected a great many testimonies and arguments in its favor.

4 In Sum. Theol., pt. III., quaest. XXVII., art. I. and pt. III., qu. LXXXV., art. 5.

5 In Theolog., pt. III., quaest. XXXIII., art. 4, disp. 21, sect. 2, dub. 1.

6 Tom. IV. de Verit. Relig. Christ., p. 2, c. 40.

De Festis, lib. II., c. 20.

8 Edited and annotated by the Blessed Cardinal Tommasi, Rome, 1680.

9 See Benedict XIV. in commentariis de D. N. Jesu Christi Matrisque ejus

festis, part II., 2 114, and Trombelli, part I., diss. XXXVI.

10 In his book: De exscribendo Parisiensis ecclesiae martyrologio.

century, was at great pains to search out every document that might throw discredit on the belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; but Gaudin,1 also a doctor of the Sorbonne, amply vindicated, if not its truth, its exceeding probability. Salmon," Van den Baviere, and Van den Driesch1 triumphantly defeated a similar attempt made by their countryman, Marant of Louvain.5

3

OBSERVATION.-Tillemont, Tom. I. and II., has brought together, with much care and labor, everything that is known of the companions of the Apostles, whose names are mentioned in the New Testament. These are Luke, Timothy, Titus, Barnabas, Clemens, Hermas, Linus, Crescens, and the rhetorician philosopher and Jewish convert, Apollos of Alexandria.6

§ 50. The Progress of Christianity.

When we consider the rapidity with which Christianity spread throughout Asia, in Palestine and Syria, in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, at Caesarea and Antioch, Damascus and Edessa, in Europe and particularly in Greece, and in many islands, in Macedonia and Italy (Spain?), in Africa and notably in Egypt, and when we take into account the number of churches that were everywhere set up, and the measures that became necessary for their establishment and proper organization, we shall have some idea of the great successes of the Church even at this early day. It would be a very great error to suppose that these early Christian communities were made up only of the poor and illiterate. The large contributions of the faithful, mentioned in the Acts and Epistles; the conversion of the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, governor of Cyprus, and the distinguished eunuch of Ethiopia; of the centurion Cor

1 Assumptio M. V. vindicata, Paris, 1670, in 18mo

2 Apologeticum tentamen, etc. Gand. 1788.

3 Reflexiones in librum cui titulus: P. J. Marant, Discussio historica, etc. Brugis, in 8vo.

4 * Discussio discussionis historicae: P. J. Marant, etc. Gand. in 18mo.

5 This sketch of the Biography of the B. V. M. was compiled by the translator from Gentilucci's Vita di Maria Santissima, Rome, 1848; the Freiburg Theol. Cyclop.; Wouters' Hist. Eccl. Compend., Louvain, 1871, Vol. I., p. 36-38; E. Veith's Sermon on the Assumption, in Festpredigten, pt. 2, Vienna, 1849.

6 Acts xviii. 24 sq., xix. 1; 1 Cor. i. 12.

Acts xiii.; Philip. iii. 24 sq.

8 Acts xiii.