VI. Literature.— The principal works on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States are the following: De Courcy, Catholic Church in the United States (transl. by Shea) ; M'Gee, Catholic Hist, of North A niericu ; Shea, Hist, of the Catholic Missions in the United Stales ; Murray, Popular Hist, of the Cath- olic Church in the United States (5th ed. 1877) , Clarke, Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States (2 vols.)^ "BayX^y, Sketch of the Cath- olic Church on New York Island; Fitton, Hi<<t. of the Church in Neiu England; F'moUi, Biblioffraphia Cath- olica Americana; O'Connell, Catholicity in the Caroli- nas and Georgia (N. Y. 1879) ; Murray, Catholic Educa- tion in the United States (1879); Neher, Kirchliche (Jco- graphie und Statistik von A meriku (Ratisbon, 1868). The latest statistics from official reports of the bishops are annually published in Sadlier's Catholic Directory, Al- vianac, and Ordo (New York). (A. J, S.)
Roman Catholic Emancipation (or Relief) Acts. After the Reformation, both in England and in Scotland, Roman Catholics were subjected to many legal penal regulations and restrictions. As late as 1780, the law of England— which, however, was not always rig-id- ly enforced — made it felony in a foreign Roman Cath- olic priest and high-trea.son in a native to teach the doctrines or perform the rites of his Church, Roman Catholics could not ac(iiiire land by purchase. If edu- cated abroad in the Roman Catholic faith, they were declared incapable of succeeding to real property, which went to the next Protestant heir. A son or other nearest relation being a Protestant was empowered to take possession of the estate of his Roman Catholic father or other kinsman during his life. A Roman Catholic could not be guardian even of Roman Catholic children, he was excluded from the legal profession, and it was a capital offence for a Roman Catholic priest to celebrate a marriage between a Protestant and a Ro- man Catliolic. In 1780 it was proposed to repeal some of the severest disqualifications in the case of those who would submit to the following test. This test included an oath of allegiance to the sovereign, an abjuration of the Pretender, and a declaration of disbelief in the sev- eral doctrines that it is lawful to put heretics to death , that no faith is to be kept with heretics, that princes may be deposed or put to death , and that the pope is entitled to any temporal jurisdiction within the realm. This bill eventually passed into law in England. In 1791 a bill was passed affording further relief to such Roman Catholics as would sign a protest against the temporal power of the pope and his authority to release from civil obligations. In the following year, by the statute 33 Geo. Ill, c. 44, the severest of the penal re- strictions were removed from the Scottish Roman Cath- olics upon taking a prescribed oath and declaration. The agitation in Ireland caused by these restrictions led to the Irish rebellion of 1798, while the union of 1800 was brought about by means of pledges regarding the removal of the disabilities in question. The agitation upon the subject increased , aiul at last the duke of Wel- lington was brought to the conviction that the security of the empire would be imperilled by further resistance of the Roman Catholic claims, and in 1829 a measure was introduced by the duke's ministry for Catholic emancipation. An act having been first passed for the suppression of the Roman Catholic Asssociation — which had already voted its own dissolution — the celebrated Roman Catholic Relief Bill was introduced by Mr. Peel in the House of Commons on March 5, and, passing both houses, received the royal assent April 13. By this act ( 10 Geo. IV, c. 7 ) an oath is substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremac}^, and abjuration, on taking which Roman Catholics may sit or vote in either house of Parliament, and be admitted to most offices from which they were formerly excluded. Restrictions which ex- isted on Roman Catholic bequests were removed by 2 and 3 Will. IV, c. 115, as regards Great Britain, and by 7 and 8 Vict. c. 60, with relation to Ireland. Later acts abolished a few minor disabilities. See Chambers's En- cyclop, s. V.
Roman Empire, the government of the Romans as conductexl by the emperors, of whom Augustus was the first. The history of the Roman Empire, properly so called, extends over a period of rather more than five hundred years, viz. from the battle of Actiiun, IS.C. 31, when Augustus became ruler of the Roman world, to the abdication of Augustulus, A.D. 476. The empire, however, in the sense of the dominion of Rome over a large number of conquered nations, was in full force and had reached wide limits some time before the monarchy of Augustus was established. The notices of Roman his- tory which occur in the Bible are confined to tiie last century and a half of the commonwealth and the first century of the imperial monarchy. But in onler to aj)- preciate these, some particulars of tlie condition of the Roman state is uecessarv. We have not, however, the
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intention of entering into an account of the rise, prog- ress, state, and decline of the Roman power, but merely to set forth a few of the more essential facts, speaking a little less briefly of the relations formed and sustained between the Romans and the Jews. This we chieHy take from the dictionaries of Kitto and Smith. For a description of the capital city, see Rome.