II. Doctrines. — As the Ifoman Catholic Church agrees with the (ireck and the Protestant cliurches in regard- ing the Holy Scriptures as divinely inspired, and as an authority in matters of faith and morals, she holds many points of Christian belief in common with these large divisions of the Christian Church. Conjointly with them, she believes in the unity of divine essence, the Trinity of tlie divine persons (Father, Son, and Holy (ihost). and the creation of the world by the will of God out of nothing for his glory and tlie ha|)piness of his creatures. Among other |)oints of belief which are common to the Roman Catholic, (ireek, and Evangel- ical Protestant churches are the follr)wing: the original innocence of man ; his fall in Adam, and redemption by Christ ; the incarnation of the Eternal Logos and Second
Person in the Holy Trinity; the divine human consti- tution of the Person Christ. In regard to the proces- sion of the Holy Ghost, the Roman Catholic Church has added to the Nicene Creed the "Filioque" ("and from the Son"), and accordingly believes that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son ; while the Greek Church believes, in strict accordance with the original Nicene Creed, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only. The Roman Catholic Church holds, in common with the Greek, but in opposition to evangelical Protestants, the folk)wiiig doctrines : The authority of ecclesiastical tradition as a joint rule of faith with the Scriptures; the veneration of the Virgin Mary, the saints, their pictures and relics; the infallibility of the Church; justification by faith and works as joiyt conditions ; the seven sacraments or mysteries ; baptismal regeneration, and the necessity of water baptism for salvation ; priestly absolution by divine authority; transubstantiation and the adoration of the consecrated elements; the sacrifice of the mass for the living and the dead; prayers for the departed. The infallibility of the Church was formerly lodged by the Roman Catholic Church in the general councils conjointly with the pope, but since 1870 also in all the doctrinal decisions of the popes; by the Greek Church it is attributed to the seven oecumenical councils, and the patriarchal oligarchy as a whole. The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, which was proclaimed as a dogma by the pope in 1854, is rejected by the Greek Church as blasphemous, although it practices the veneration of the Virgin no less than the Roman Catholic. In regard to the Hoh' Scriptures, the Roman Catholic Church includes in its canon the Apocrypha of the Old Test., which are excluded from the Protes- tant canon. The Latin (Vulgate) translation of the Bible is placed on a par with the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, while Protestantism claims divine authority only for the original Scriptures of the inspired authors. As regards the popular use and circulation of the Bible, the Roman Catholic Church has generally discouraged the reading of unannotated Bibles in the native tongues, and commanded her members to seek on this subject the previous advice of their pastors and spiritual guides.
With regard to the unity of the Church, the Ro- man Catholic Church teaches that Christ founded one, and only one, infallible visible Church which was to represent him on earth as the teacher of religious truth, and to which, therefore, all men ought to submit. The Roman Catholic Church claims to be this communion, and therefore asserts that outside of her there is no salvation ("extra ecclesiam nulla salus"). She does not admit the Protestant distinction between a visible and invisible Church, but demands tliat all should be- long to the visible Church. She admits, however, that there may be cases when insurmountable difficulties prevent persons from joining her communion, and when God will save tliem though they have not been for- mally received into her pale. As there is, in the opinion of the Church, only one Church and one baptism, all persons, children or adult, to whom the ordinance of baptism is administered in due form are thereby re- ceived into the Catholic Church. The children of Protestants and other non-Catholics are therefore re- garded as belonging to the Catholic Cluirch until they cut themselves loose from it b}' their own erroneous belief.
In regard to the future life, the Roman Catholic Church admits a temporary middle place and state (lasting until the final judgment) between heaven and hell, for the purification of imperfect Christians, which may be advanced by |)rayers and masses in their be- half. The centre of Catholic worship is the mass, which the Church holds to be an actual, though un- bloody, repetition of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, by the priests, for the sins of the living and the dead. It is offered, as a rule, daily by every priest. To th(^ laity i the eucharist is now administered in only one kiml, the
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 11 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
bread, the Church believinj^ that Christ is wholly pres- ent in the consecrated bread as well as in the wine, and that therefore the reception of one kind is fully suffi- cient.
An important difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant ethics exists in the doctrine of good works, the Koman Catholic Church believing that works of supererogation, which are not commanded, but recominended (consiliu evaiir/elica), with corresponding extra merits, constitute a treasury at the disposal of the pope for the dispensation of indulgences. These indidgences are transferable to the souls in purgator\%