The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

78 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.Church, because she is the work of God, is always"renewing her strength, like the eagle s."I would now ask this question of all that are hostile to the Catholic Church, and that are plottingher destruction: How can you hope to overturn anInstitution which for more than eighteen centurieshas successfully resisted all the combined assaultsof the world, of men, and of the powers of darkness?What means will you employ to compass her ruin?I. Is it the power of Kings, and Emperors, andPrime Ministers? They have tried in vain to crushher, from the days of the Roman Caesars to those ofthe present Chancellor of Germany.Many persons labor under the erroneous impression that the crowned heads of Europe have beenthe unvarying supporters of the Church, and thatif their protection were withdrawn she would sooncollapse. So far from the Church being shelteredbehind earthly thrones, her worst enemies have been,with some honorable exceptions, so-called ChristianPrinces who were nominal children of the Church.They chafed under her salutary discipline they;wished to be rid of her yoke, because she alone, intimes of oppression, had the power and the courageto stand by the rights of the people, and place heibreast as a wall of brass against the encroachmentof their rulers. With calm confidence we can saywith the Psalmist: "Whyhave the Gentiles raged,and thw people devised vain things? The kings of1Psalm cii. 5.