the five states of Central America, in Brazil, and the nine republics of South America, constituting in each of these sixteen states more tiian 99 ])er cent.
V, Literal II re. — As the l\onian Catholic Church is indissolubly connected with the history of the Chris- tian religion, the manuals of Church history are the principal sources of information on its history. The most important works of this class have been enu- merated in the article Ciiuucii HinroiiV. The Creeds of the Roman Catholic Church may be found in Danz, Libri Sijmbolici Eccksiee Romano- Cut holicie (Weimar, 1835) ; Streitwolf and Klener, Libri ISymbolici Ecclesiie Catholicce, Conjiincti atque Xotis Prolefjomenis Indici- busqite Instrvcti (Giitt. 1838, 2 vols., which contains the Cone. Trill., the Pro/essio Fidei Tridenlina, and the Cate- chismus Romanus) ; Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum. et Dejinitionum qmv. de Rebus Fidei et Morum a Conciliis (Ecunienicis et Summis Pontifidbus Manariint (4th ed. WUrzb.l865,which includes tlie definition of the immacu- late conception of the Virgin Mary [1854], and the Ai- pal Syllabus [1864]); Schaff, Creeds of Christendom (N. Y. 1877; vol. ii includes all the Latin creeds from the Confession of Peter to the Vatican decrees). Bel- larmin's Disputationes, Bossuet's Exposition, Mcihler's Symbolik, and Perrone's Preelectiunes Theoloyicce are re- garded as the ablest Roman Catholic expositions of the Roman Catholic system. Among Protestant exposi- tions of the Roman Catholic doctrines, the most notable are the Symboliks of Marheineke, Kcillner, and Baier, and Hase's f/andbuch der protestantischen Polennk (3d ed. Leips. 1871). A fidl account of the constitution of the Roman Catholic Church is given in the manuals of Church law. Among the best works on this subject are Schulte, Lehrbuch des kathul. Kirchenrechts (3d ed. 1873); and Richter, Lehrbuch des kathol. u. evanf/el. Kirchenrechts (1877, 8th ed. by Dove). The largest work on the statistics of the Roman Catholic Church is Neher, Kirchliche Geof/raphie und Statistik (1864-68, 3 vols.), containing Europe and America. A complete list of the Roman hierarchj' is annually published at Rome under the title La Geretrchia Cattolica. (A. J. S.)
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH in the United States. — I. Oriyin and Progress. — 1. As the discovery of America by Columbus occurred a quarter of a century before the first public appearance of Luther, the Roman Catholic Church was the first to occupy the newly discov- ered world. The attachment of Columbus to his Church was so strong that efforts have recentlj' been made, though without success, to obtain from the pope his canonization. Many of the following explorers were equally fervid in their faith. Ojeda, who in 1510 settled the Isthmus of Darien, is said by Catholic historians to have been as pious as a monk. Balboa, governor of Darien, who in 1513 discovered the Pacific Ocean; Magellan, who first raised the cntss on the most southern cape of America (1521); Cartier, the discoverer of Canada (1534): Cham- plain, the first governor of Canada; La Salle, the pio- neer navigator of the Great Lakes — are all praised for their piety. The Upper Mississippi was discovered by the Jesuit Marquette. For more tlian a hundred years (1492-1607) no permanent settlement was made by Protestants in the New World. The few attempts which had previously been made by French Huguenots in South Carolina and Florida, and by the English on Roanoke Island (1585 and 1587), had failed. The Span- iards, in the meanwhile, not only laid the foundation of Catholic colonial empires throughout Soutli America, Mexico, and Central America, but tliey also formed settlements in territory now belonging to the L'nited States, the oldest of which, St. Augustine, was founded in 1565.
Nearly forty years before, in 1528, the first Catholic missionaries set foot within our present territory, form- ing part of the expedition of Narvaez to Florida. One of their number, John Juarez, had been appointed by tlie pope bishop of Florida. I'isliop Juarez, and one of his companions, John of Palos, perished probably in
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the same year, either of hunger "t at the hand of the Indians. In lo41) a I)()miiiicaii friar, Louis Cancer, was slain by an Indian of Flori<la after he had barely landed. The tirst Catholic (.'liiirch was erected in St. Augus- tine, soon after the foundation of the town by Melen- dez; and from this centre many Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit missionaries began to labor among- the In- dians of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Carolina. The most celebrated religious establishment of these mis- sions was the Franciscan monastery of St. Helena at St. Augustine. The missions began to grow until the ces- sion of Florida by Spain to England in 17G3, which proved a fatal check, and gradually led to the entire de- struction of the mission, which at the beginning of the Revolutionary War had become entirely extinct.
The first Catholic missionaries in New Mexico were two Franciscan monks, father Padilla and brother John of the Cross, who accompanied in 1542 the exploring expedition of Coronado. They began to preach in two Indian towns, but both soon perished. Three other Franciscans, who in 1581 erected a new mission, shared the same fate. The foundation of Santa Fe, in 1582, the second oldest city of the United States, laid the firm foimdation of the Catholic Church at the headwaters of the Rio Grande, where gradually whole tribes em- braced the Catholic religion. Texas was visited as early as 1544 by a Franciscan missionary, father de Olmos, but the real foundation of the Texan missions, which gradually became very extensive, was laid in 1688 by fourteen Franciscan priests and seven lay brothers.