The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

PERPETUITY. 73from her very birth to the present time; this factalone stamps divinity on her brow.The Church has been constantly engaged in adouble warfare, one foreign, the other domestic inforeign war against Paganism and infidelity ; incivil strife against heresy and schism fomented byher own rebellious children.From the day of Pentecost till the victory ofConstantine the Great overMaxentius, embracing aperiod of about two hundred and eighty years, theChurch underwent a series of ten persecutionsunparalleled for atrocity in the annals of history.Every torture that malice could invent was resorted to, that every vestige of Christianity mightbe eradicated. "Christianas ad leones" the Chris-Hans to the lions, was the popular war-cry.They were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, andthus exposed to be devoured by dogs. They werecovered with pitch, and set on fire, to serve as lampposts to the streets of Rome. To justify such atrocities, and to smother all sentiments of compassion,these persecutors accused their innocent victims "ofthe most appalling crimes.For three centuries the Christians were obliged toworship God in the secrecy of their chambers, or inthe Roman catacombs, which are still preserved toattest the undying fortitude of the martyrs, and theenormity of their sufferings.And yet Pagan Rome, before whose standard the7