Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception - Annual Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 47 text:

A N N U A L l 9 3 6 0 ' He, one of the most outstanding of Roman emperors, allowed himself to believe the false charges and slanders that were hurled in the face of Christianity. His persecution began in Smyrna and was under the patronage of both the pagans and the Iews. One of the faithful who witnessed the terrible tortures that the martyrs of this persecution underwent wrote: These holy martyrs were so torn with lashes that the veins, arteries and even the entrails could be seen. In the midst of this cruel torture they remained firm and unshaken, and, whilst even the spectators were moved to tears at the dreadful sight, these generous soldiers of lesus Christ did not utter the least cry nor the faintest groan. The Church was blessed with a breathing spell after the death of Marcus Aurelius and persecutions were not undertaken till the reign of the Emperor Septimus Serveus. ln the beginning of his rule Serveus was rather kind toward the Christians. Then he had several edicts put in force which were so severe that some of the faithful thought the anti-Christ to be at hand. Twenty-four years after the cessation of the fifth persecution Emperor Max- imin, the Thracian, began a rather cautious weeding out of all who taught reli- gion and he forbade the reception of Baptism. Christianity had so grown and escaped the rigors of previous emperors that it now encompassed about one- third of the Empire. This sixth persecution lasted but a scant three years and ended with Serveus' sudden demise at the hands of one of his soldiers. The most exquisite and refined means of torture were employed during the next tseventhi persecution under the direction of the Emperor Decius. The sole duty of the magistrates was to ferret out the Christians, especially priests and bishops. By wiping out the clergy and securing wholesale apostates, Decius saw the ruin of Christianity. This persecution continued under the next emperor Gallus. lt was during his reign that a great pestilence fell upon the Empire. Sacrifices to Apollo were ordered and the Christians of course were the victims. Although the date of the conclusion of this persecution is given as 253, it never really abated. lt was again flamed into violence by the Emperor Valerian, who was aroused against the Christians by one of his ministers. Many ennobled souls were inscribed on the golden pages of martyrdom as the result of the edicts promulgated by Valerian. The force of this persecution was spent in the defeat of Valerian at the hands of the Persians who, after subject- ing him to many indignities, flayed him alive. The ninth persecution merely led up to the last great stand of Roman paganism against Roman Catholicismg and the followers of the Nazarene utterly confounded the cruel, diabolical, the uncontrolled and maddened onslaughts of the passionate, bloodthirsty, and inhuman pagans by their perfect perseverance, undiminished courage, and solid trust in Our Masterl Pages of history are redolent with the narrative of Diocletian's wild foray against the Faithful. This tyrannical outburst was levelled at Christianity from all sides. The whole earth, writes an observer, streamed with blood from the East to the West. The tortures were unique, unheard of, inhuman, cruel to the extreme. Some were hung up with their heads brushing the ground, others bathed with molten lead. A whole regiment was put to the sword for pro- claiming Christl The envenomed assailants resorted to that favorite trick of driving sharp reeds under the nails. Many Christians were pulled apart by 41

Page 46 text:

OOCATHEDRAL COLLEGE Resume of the Church Persecuted Through The Ages ECAUSE you are not ot the world . . . therefore the world hateth you. From the dawn of her creation the Church has felt the sting and the scourge, the bite and the torment of fierce, relentless, and wholly undeserved attacks. Against them all she remained steadfast and unyielding, always en- during the selfish and blind assaults of egotistical dictators and misguided people. Instead of being swept away in the maelstrom of blinded prejudice, the Church has ever arisen victorious, firm, and with greater strength. Perse- cutions form an almost unbroken chain since the days when Our Lord be- stowed His benediction in person. The way of persceutions was paved by the death on the Cross. The Iews, not at all satisfied with the terrible injustice that they had perpetrated, soon began a bitter attack upon all Christians. The notorious Herod Agrippa gave the unlicensed assault official sanction. This action seemed to be a mere fore- runner of the diabolical Roman Persecutions. The ten Roman persecutions as listed by Saint Augustine, which lasted for some three centuries , are the worst that are found in the annals of the world's history. The number of Christians who signed the document of Faith with their blood is appalling. lt has been estimated by some that about eleven million followers of Christ passed the great test gloriously. Of the ten the first, the seventh and the tenth were the rnost savage, the most gory, and the cruelest. The tale of the first persecution which was instigated by the infamous Nero, who is supposed to have satiated his morbid sense of pleasure by placing the brand to one of the worst of all conflagrations, needs no retelling. The Christians were elected to pay for the devilishness of the Emperor. Hunger- rnaddened dogs tasted of human flesh, the thirsty Tiber drank in innocent vic- tirns, and the nights were lighted by a new type of firebrand-human torchesl After the death of Nero there was a respite until the thankfully short reign of Domitian, who dared to designate himself Dominus et Deus. All who had the courage to oppose him paid the penalty of death. The third persecution, although it lacked the violence of the two previous one, was of greater dura- tion and was given impetus by Trajan, who, with the exception of his treat- ment of the Christians, is cited as an excellent and clement ruler. By this time it would seem that the emperors could see the utter useless- ness of sacrificing so many innocent lives. But no, they refused to follow the dictates of justice and continued on in their mad attempts to rid the Empire of Christians. The charges launched against Christians were for the most part groundless. Catholic purity rankled the pagan officials to no end. These were intensely annoyed when they were fearlessly charged with sensuality and bribery by the Faithful. Priests and soothsayers greatly alarmed for the status of their positions with the growth of Christianity, added their prestige to all campaigns against Christians. Calumny and downright falsehoods were re- sorted to without any qualms whatsoever. So it is not altogether surprising that such a sagacious personage as Marcus Aurelius would stoop to persecution. 40

Page 48 text:

OUCATHEDRAL COLLEGE glowing pincers and then scourged with pieces of iron till their souls fled to Heaven. The various modes of racking the Faithful with pain employed during this ravaging of the Church put the weird and excruciating methods of the exotic Orient to shame. The wildest and most turbulent attack came to an end. And six years after the close of the Western scourge, the Eastern flaying ceased with the dreadful death of the hated Galerius. When the turmoil and the havoc, the awesomeness and sheer ferocity of the ten great attacks upon the Church by the emperors and their myrmidons had come to their bar- baric and gory conclusion we have a firmer faith, a greater and more wide- spread Christianity, and a vital proof of Our Lord's encouraging words, And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Not long after amnesty had been gained, lulian the Apostate, rankled at the growth of Christianity, began a devilish campaign in which the tombs of the martyrs were destroyed and the system of education was rearranged so that Catholics were forbidden to teach the classics. He sought to mould pag- anism in the cast of Christianity and failed. His war was but short livedg it was merely a passing cloud. Iulian's dying accents were Thou hast conquered, O Galileanl In the course of the barbaric inroads upon the Empire, Holy Mother Church had to face another severe test. A great part of these savage illiterates were grounded in Arianism and thus had an added incentive for beleaugering the Church. But she withstood the assault, tamed the barbarian, and made Europe a better place in which to live. As the lamp of faith began to glow in the hearts of men in the nations of the North it was being extinguished along the coast of North Africa. The fiery, marauding, sweeping drives of Mohammed practically wiped out all traces of the Church that had been once so flourishing there. Striding through the corridors of time we find numerous instances in which the Church was unjustly plagued. Indeed as the Church increased spiritually, she grew temporally. This latter fact, although it marks the great progress of the Church, was an ever galling thorn in her side. During the ninth and tenth centuries she became closely linked in Italian politics. The roughshod manner in which the Papacy was overpowered makes a very gloomy interlude in her history. In the eleventh century the dreary cloud spread to Germany and We hear of the struggle between Gregory VII and Henry IV. The Hohenstaufens from Frederick Barbarossa, in ll5'Z, to Frederick II, in 1250, continued to quarrel with the Popes. In England the struggle was waged by Henry II, who tried to disregard clerical immunities, and we hear of the martyrdom of St. Thomas ia Becket. A methodical appropriation of Church land was made by Philip the Fair. For his justifiable protestation, Pope Boniface VIII was the victim of a wrathful, avenging king and two years later the so-called Babylonian Cap- tivity of the Popes begins its seventy years existence. The sixteenth century faced the Church with a new problem-Protestan tism. Previous to the Protestant Revolt and leading up to it we have the heresies of Wycliffe and Hus. The teaching of the latter based on Wycliffe brought on a revolt in Bohemia. Here a great many of the aristocrats incited by avaricious desires for Church property and wealth rifled edifices of wor- ship, tortured priests, and murdered multitudes. 42