The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-02-01
DARK AGES.
Continued from Page 1.

| continued from rage I.
ne Arlans became so numerous and powerful tina
tney established kingdom of their own in Africf
also IN northern Italy. The Burgundians. VIII
originally lived the shores of the Baltic sea
mace Their way to Gaul, took possession of Swift
erland and the greater part of Gaul. They were IL
part Arlans, part pagan, with no glimmer OF civ
1hzatlon to enllghten them. The church in Eng
land at tins period, had lost its power of growth
and most of the British subjects became pagan, of
ferlng sacrifices to Wooden and Thor Spain wa
only half Catholic. The Germanc states were al
saturated with pagansm
we nave, then, at the opening of the Dark Ages al
northern and western Europe and on the border.
OF the capital OF Greece, that portion of the wor
when today stands supreme merged in heathensn
and barbarlsm. The only one bright spot where
Christianity fourished in all its Iigor and which
sent missionaries burning with zeal to these once
0hrlstlanlzed but now pagan nations, was Ireland
Ihe blood of her martyred saints flowed freely i'll
all heSe countries for the propagation of the faith
but the church, as alleged by antiCatholic writer's
did not have it all her own way, and was not the
dictator she IS supposed to have been at the COM
mencement of the Dark Ages Her mission, then,
was severer test on her supernatural power than
when she emerged from the catacombs and con-
quered the Caesars.
What was true at the commencement of the
Dark Ages is equally true not only down to the six
teenh century, but to the present. and will continue
I'LL time Is no more, and that is that the church
batted and will have to battle against hostile
world always. 1t in the Dark Ages that No
hammedanlsm born The Mohammedan reIi-
glon began with the year go, when Mohammed was
forced to fly from Mecca His reign was q men
ace to Chrlstendom, and meant anything but peace
Tor the church for eight hundred years In the
eighth century Leo the Isaurian the founder of
Iconocllsm, battled against the church. disturbing
her peace and tranquility throughout his imperial
domain. The Saracens, predatory Arab tribe
Pa a,,J
between the years 634 and 641, and all northern
Africa at the commencement of the eighth century,
soon after invaded Spain, France and Sicily dis
turblng the peace of the church wherever their law
less ambition led them. 1t was during the eighth
NINTH tenth and eleventh centuries that the cruel
and barbarous Norsemen Hooded Europe and made !
ferocious war on the church. All hereses. and
they were innumerable during the Dark Ages
meant war on the church, and would have trumphcd
had she not been divine. One of the most cogent |
proofs of the divinity of the Christian Church is
the continuous denial and contradiction of her au-
thority and doctrines yet always triumphant
What is true of heresy is equally true of the civil
powers during these same Dark Ages From Char |
emagne, who died in S14, to Charles Y, who died iii
1880, we find scarcely ruler who respected the
rights and freedom of the church Down through |
these Dark Ages, she struggling for religious
liberty. In doing so, she stirred up the enmtv Ct
the powers of the world yet succeeded in subjectn
the world to the yoke of the cross. Flesh md
blood, pride and ambition false wisdom and all the
passions of men revolted against her. yet unailed
without support protection, she trunphed by the
arms of grace and truth. No Catholic nation. in |
her long and unbroken history extended to her tna
liberty she enjoys today in the United States |
Hence the delusion that she encountered no oppo-
sition during the Dark Ages, that she should
shoulder all that transpred during these ages. His
tory proves the contrary. F. D. |
Go be continued)